Latest news with #HouseOfRepresentatives
BreakingNews.ie
3 hours ago
- Politics
- BreakingNews.ie
Congressional committee votes to issue subpoena for Jeffrey Epstein files
A subcommittee in the US House of Representatives has voted to subpoena the Department of Justice for files in the sex-trafficking investigation into Jeffrey Epstein. Three Republicans on the House Committee on Oversight voted with Democrats for the measure, sending it through on an 8-2 vote. Republican subcommittee chairman Clay Higgins said work to draft the subpoena was beginning. Advertisement Earlier on Wednesday, a judge had rejected the Justice Department's request to unseal transcripts from grand jury investigations into Epstein years ago in Florida, saying the request did not meet any of the extraordinary exceptions under federal law that could make them public. A similar records request is still pending in New York. President Donald Trump (Julia Demaree Nikhinson/AP) News reports on Wednesday said the department told Donald Trump in May that his name was among high-profile people mentioned in government files about Epstein, though the mention does not imply wrongdoing. Files already released by the government included a 2016 deposition in which an accuser recounted spending several hours with Epstein at Mr Trump's Atlantic City casino, but did not say if she met Mr Trump and did not accuse him of any wrongdoing. The president has also said he once thought Epstein was a 'terrific guy' but that they later had a falling out. Advertisement White House spokesperson Steven Cheung on Wednesday said the reports were 'nothing more than a continuation of the fake news stories concocted by the Democrats and the liberal media'. The subcommittee vote came hours before the House was scheduled to end its July work session and leave Washington for a month-long break. House Speaker Mike Johnson has adjourned major business in the House ahead of Congress's August recess to avoid contentious votes on Epstein-related matters as Mr Trump's administration faces intense public pressure to release more information about the sexual predator.
Yahoo
4 hours ago
- Politics
- Yahoo
Congressional committee votes to issue subpoena for Jeffrey Epstein files
A subcommittee in the US House of Representatives has voted to subpoena the Department of Justice for files in the sex-trafficking investigation into Jeffrey Epstein. Three Republicans on the House Committee on Oversight voted with Democrats for the measure, sending it through on an 8-2 vote. Republican subcommittee chairman Clay Higgins said work to draft the subpoena was beginning. Earlier on Wednesday, a judge had rejected the Justice Department's request to unseal transcripts from grand jury investigations into Epstein years ago in Florida, saying the request did not meet any of the extraordinary exceptions under federal law that could make them public. A similar records request is still pending in New York. News reports on Wednesday said the department told Donald Trump in May that his name was among high-profile people mentioned in government files about Epstein, though the mention does not imply wrongdoing. Files already released by the government included a 2016 deposition in which an accuser recounted spending several hours with Epstein at Mr Trump's Atlantic City casino, but did not say if she met Mr Trump and did not accuse him of any wrongdoing. The president has also said he once thought Epstein was a 'terrific guy' but that they later had a falling out. White House spokesperson Steven Cheung on Wednesday said the reports were 'nothing more than a continuation of the fake news stories concocted by the Democrats and the liberal media'. The subcommittee vote came hours before the House was scheduled to end its July work session and leave Washington for a month-long break. House Speaker Mike Johnson has adjourned major business in the House ahead of Congress's August recess to avoid contentious votes on Epstein-related matters as Mr Trump's administration faces intense public pressure to release more information about the sexual predator.
The Independent
11 hours ago
- Politics
- The Independent
Senate even more afraid of Trump-Epstein fallout than Mike Johnson's House is: ‘We've got enough to do'
The House of Representatives broke for August recess a day earlier than expected on Wednesday after Speaker Mike Johnson shut the doors to block moves from Democrats seeking to disclose government files on sex-trafficking financier Jeffrey Epstein. Johnson had a very specific reason to dismiss the House early — a bipartisan discharge petition, which would allow them to force a vote on the release. 'I think it is to sort of try to let the air out of the balloon on the Epstein issue,' Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY), who teamed up with California Democratic Rep. Ro Khanna on the effort, told The Independent. But if Johnson and House GOP leadership feared the end result of that discharge petition, the Senate does not want to deal with it at all. 'I hope we don't waste our time on that,' said Sen. John Cornyn. 'We've got enough to do,' the Texas Republican told The Independent Wednesday. Cornyn is not entirely wrong. Over the weekend, President Donald Trump said that he wanted the Senate to cancel its August recess to confirm his nominees. The Senate also needs to begin to tee-up the spending bills to avoid a government shutdown in September. The Senate typically sees the House as childish and full of petty grievances. But there's another reason Cornyn, who sits on the Senate Judiciary Committee, specifically would not want to be in the Trump-Epstein blast radius: he faces a potentially bruising primary challenge against Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, a hardline — albeit scandal-ridden — MAGA candidate. Any harsh questioning or a vote for the files would likely imperil Cornyn's reelection bid. But he's not the only Republican senator dodging the issue. Sen. Chuck Grassley, the chairman of the Judiciary Committee, noted that the Judiciary Committee brings the U.S. attorney general to testify annually. 'Now that, maybe that's not going to happen before September, so we're going to have these Epstein files,' he told The Independent. Grassley said he didn't know the next steps the courts would take, but the disclosures might lead to questions from the committee. On Wednesday, judges in Florida and New York rejected Department of Justice requests at the urging of Trump to unseal grand jury transcripts tied to Epstein, who was found dead by hanging in his New York City jail cell in 2019, in what has been ruled a suicide. This came after Trump had requested AG Pam Bondi unseal them after a Wall Street Journal report that he allegedly sent a bawdy hand-drawn message to Epstein for his 50th birthday party, a report Trump has denied and over which he filed a $10 billon lawsuit against the WSJ, parent company News Corp and founder Rupert Murdoch. Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO), another member of the Judiciary Committee, expressed some openness to having convicted Epstein accomplice, Ghislaine Maxwell — who is serving a 20-year federal prison sentence for grooming girls and young women to be trafficked by her on-and-off boyfriend — testify before Congress. 'Whatever the bottom line is, I'm in favor of releasing it. So I think that, you know, DOJ ought to release everything that they possibly can, and I'm all for having Maxwell testify,' Hawley said. Hawley, a Yale-educated lawyer and archconservative, also suggested a joint committee made up of House members and senators. One of the few senators who has kept an eye on Epstein is Sen. Tim Kaine (D-VA). In 2017, Kaine grilled Alex Acosta, Trump's then-nominee to be labor secretary, about the time he was the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Florida and gave Epstein a lenient plea deal in 2008. Under the 2008 non-prosecution agreement, Epstein pleaded guilty to state charges in Florida of soliciting and procuring a minor for prostitution. That allowed him to avert a possible life sentence, instead serving 13 months in a work-release program. 'Why was the sweetheart deal cut? I never understood that, and I never understood why President Trump nominated the guy who cut the sweetheart deal to be his cabinet secretary,' Kaine told The Independent. Kaine, who was Hillary Clinton's running mate against Trump in 2016, also expressed openness to Hawley's idea of a joint committee. 'I think a white House can shorten circuit, all that by just doing what they've said they're going to do, and releasing the files,' he said. Unsurprisingly, Republican Trump antagonist Sen. Thom Tillis of North carolina, who announced he would not seek re-election and told The Independent last week that the administration should 'release the damn files' said he wanted to see more. 'There was much made about it,' he told The Independent. 'So one of two things are true, not so much should be made of it. Or there things that we should probably know, as long as it doesn't harm the privacy of victims, people that are not actually involved in the investigation.' For now, the Senate will not have to worry about that, given the House is out. But it will be a looming question when the House returns.
Bloomberg
11 hours ago
- Business
- Bloomberg
JPMorgan, BofA Leaders Subpoenaed by US Lawmakers Over CATL IPO
JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Bank of America Corp. were subpoenaed by US lawmakers over their role in the initial public offering of Chinese battery maker Contemporary Amperex Technology Co. Ltd. The House of Representatives' Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party sent demands for documents to the banks' chief executive officers, the panel wrote Wednesday on X. The Wall Street Journal reported the request earlier in the day.
Bloomberg
12 hours ago
- Politics
- Bloomberg
Rep. Lawler: Trump Preferred I Stay in House
Rep. Mike Lawler (R-NY) discusses his decision to run for re-election and not run for Governor of New York, and states that while ultimately it was his own decision President Trump also preferred he stay in the House of Representatives. Lawler also talks about whether his House colleague Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-NY) should jump into the NY governor's race, how he keeps his district, and what priorities will be discussed for the potential second reconciliation package. Rep. Mike Lawler speaks with Joe Mathieu and Tyler Kendall on the late edition of Bloomberg's "Balance of Power." (Source: Bloomberg)
