The Latest: House committee issues subpoenas for Epstein files, depositions with Clintons and others
The Latest: House committee issues subpoenas for Epstein files, depositions with Clintons and others
The House Oversight Committee subpoenaed the Department of Justice on Tuesday for files in the sex trafficking investigation into Jeffrey Epstein, part of a congressional probe that lawmakers believe may show links to President Donald Trump and other former top officials.
The Republican-controlled committee also issued subpoenas for depositions with former President Bill Clinton, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and eight former top law enforcement officials.
The committee’s actions showed how even with lawmakers away from Washington on a monthlong break, interest in the Epstein files is still running high. Trump has repeatedly tried to move past the Justice Department’s decision not to release a full accounting of the investigation, but lawmakers from both parties, as well as many in the president’s political base, have refused to let it go.
Here’s the latest:
Trump uses White House auditorium his administration derided as Biden ‘fake Oval Office’
By WILL WEISSERT
President Donald Trump is using a White House auditorium that his administration poked fun at his predecessor, Joe Biden, for using.
Trump is set to sign an executive order creating an Olympics task force ahead of the 2028 Games in the South Court Auditorium instead of the Oval Office, where he typically signs such directives.
The Biden administration frequently held events with Biden in the auditorium — drawing criticism from Trump officials.
Alina Habba, a former Trump attorney who was his choice as the top federal prosecutor in New Jersey, posted on X from the auditorium in March, declaring, “We’re in Biden’s FAKE Oval Office.”
The following month, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt called the same room “Joe Biden’s former office that he pretended to be his office.”
JUST IN: US judge blocks Trump administration from reallocating $4 billion meant to help communities protect against disasters
By The Associated Press
Trump sends US delegation to Polish president inauguration
A U.S. delegation led by Kelly Loeffler, the administrator of the Small Business Administration, is headed to Warsaw for the inauguration of incoming Polish president Karol Nawrocki.
Nawrocki, who will be sworn in Wednesday, is a conservative historian and staunch nationalist whose beliefs are considered in line with that of Trump.
Administration officials encouraged Polish voters ahead of the election to support Nawrocki.
Others in the delegation to Warsaw include Vince Haley, Trump’s domestic policy chief, and speechwriter Ross Worthington.
Michigan Gov. Whitmer meets with Trump to discuss tariffs and Medicaid cuts
Once political adversaries, Michigan’s Democratic governor met with Trump at the White House on Tuesday — the latest in a string of meetings between the two during Trump’s second term.
“I’ve always said that I’ll work with anyone to get things done for Michigan,” Whitmer said in a statement. “That’s why I’ve continued to go to Washington, D.C. to make sure that Michiganders are front and center.”
Whitmer said she traveled to the White House to discuss the impact tariffs are having “on Michigan’s economy, especially our auto industry.” According to Whitmer, they also discussed “the harm Michigan will face due to changes in the Medicaid program,” due to the tax and spending bill signed into law by Trump.
The White House did not offer comment or confirm that the meeting occurred.
Trump’s push for drilling and mining sharpens debate for Alaska Natives
By PETER SMITH
The once-abundant salmon populations of the Kuskokwim River in southwestern Alaska have declined so sharply in recent years that authorities have severely restricted subsistence fishing on the waterway. They’ve imposed even tighter restrictions on the Yukon River to the north.
Various factors are blamed for the salmon collapse, from climate change to commercial fishing practices. The impact is not just on food, but on long-standing rituals, including at fish camps where elders transmit skills and stories to younger generations.
So when Alaska Natives debate proposals to drill, mine or otherwise develop the landscape of the nation’s largest state, it involves more than an environmental or economic debate. It’s also a spiritual and cultural one.
“We have a special spiritual, religious relationship to our river and our land,” said Gloria Simeon, a Yup’ik resident of Bethel, Alaska.
US-Brazil relations hit low as Trump backs Bolsonaro with sanctions
By GABRIELA SÁ PESSOA, NICHOLAS RICCARDI
Analysts say the White House embraced a narrative accusing Brazil of undermining the rule of law and committing human rights abuses.
Trump described Bolsonaro’s prosecution by Brazil’s Supreme Court as a “witch hunt,” a phrase he also has used to describe the previous probes into his own actions. Bolsonaro faces charges of attempting a coup after losing the 2022 election.
The White House has appeared to embrace a narrative pushed by Bolsonaro allies in the U.S. that the former Brazilian president’s prosecution for attempting to overturn his 2022 election loss is part of a “deliberate breakdown in the rule of law,” with the government engaging in “politically motivated intimidation” and committing “human rights abuses,” according to Trump’s statement announcing the tariffs.
Justice Department says much of what’s in Epstein grand jury transcripts has already been made public
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Much of the information “was made publicly available at trial or has otherwise been publicly reported through the public statements of victims and witnesses,” prosecutors wrote in court papers Monday. They noted that the disclosures excluded some victims’ and witnesses’ names.
The filing aimed to support the DOJ’s request to release the usually secret grand jury records amid a public clamor for more transparency about the investigation into Epstein, six years after the financier died in prison.
Prosecutors also said last week that some of what the grand jurors heard, the public eventually did too, referring to Maxwell’s 2021 trial and various victims’ lawsuits. There were only two grand jury witnesses, both of them law enforcement officials, prosecutors said.
DOJ attorneys made clear Monday that they’re seeking to unseal only the transcripts of grand jury witnesses’ testimony, not the exhibits that accompanied it.
Trump setting up a 2028 Olympic Games task force
The White House says Trump later Tuesday is signing an executive order establishing a task force for the Los Angeles games in three years.
Trump has said the Los Angeles Olympics are among the events he’s most looking forward to in his second term.
The 2028 Games will be the first Olympics to be hosted by the U.S. since the 2002 Winter Games in Salt Lake City, Utah.
Trump administration wants to end abortion coverage through Veterans Affairs
The administration is calling to remove abortion coverage from the list of medical benefits for veterans and their families, saying it’s not needed.
The Department of Veterans Affairs posted the proposed rule change Monday and opened a public comment period on it that runs through Sept. 3. The department said in its proposal that it wants to ensure it “provides only needed medical services to our nation’s heroes and their families.”
The department says it would still provide abortion in life-threatening circumstances — something state laws allow, even in places where bans are in place. But critics of the change note abortion wouldn’t be provided when pregnancies are the result of rape or incest.
Amy Friedrich-Karnik, director of federal policy at the Guttmacher Institute, said in a statement that the change would cut off millions of veterans and their families from services.
▶ Read more about abortion coverage at the Department of Veterans Affairs
Democrats are rallying to make the Texas redistricting fight go national
National Democrats are closing ranks behind Texas state lawmakers who’ve left the state to prevent, at least for now, Republicans from satisfying President Trump’s wishes for a gerrymandered congressional map that would help Republicans in the 2026 midterms.
Standing with Texas legislators gathered in Illinois, Democratic National Committee Chairman Ken Martin promised Tuesday that the party is “bringing a knife to a knife fight” rather than stand by. He warned that the GOP plan in Texas is “a test case for the rest of the country” and a “model for other red states to lie, cheat and steal away to victory.”
California officials are considering their own effort to further tilt their U.S. House delegation to Democrats to counter Texas.
Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker said Tuesday that Trump’s push in Texas is “not democracy — that’s not America.” He mocked Texas leaders for doing Trump’s bidding. “When Donald Trump calls, they say, ‘Yes, sir, right away,’” Pritzker said of Texas Gov. Greg Abbott and Attorney General Ken Paxton, who’s running for the Senate in 2026.
Trump says he’s checking out the new White House ballroom space
After making observations from the White House roof, Trump walked over to an area above the briefing room, briefly interacting with reporters gathered below.
Asked why he was on the roof, Trump said he was “taking a little walk” and mentioned the “ballroom on the other side.”
Last month, the White House announced that construction on a massive, new $200 million ballroom — the first structural change to the Executive Mansion itself since the addition of the Truman balcony in 1948 — would begin in September. One of the five men with him appeared to be James McCrery, architect for the project.
“Just another way to spend my money for this country,” Trump said. “Anything I do is financed by me.”
Trump pops out on the roof of the West Wing
He appeared to be taking stock of several areas including the roof of the press briefing room and the Rose Garden.
Wearing a suit with a red tie, Trump walked the area Tuesday with several other people, as someone with them took photographs.
Trump may have been surveying ongoing renovation and construction work at the White House. He returned to the presidency with grand ideas for remaking the building, like paving over the Rose Garden and building a massive ballroom.
Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy says he spoke to Trump by phone Tuesday
It comes days before the U.S. deadline for Russia to stop the killing in its 3-year-old invasion of Ukraine.
Zelenskyy said the two leaders discussed the possible severe sanctions on Russia that Trump has threatened to announce Friday.
Such a move “can change a lot” in the war, Zelenskyy said on social media.
Ukraine and the U.S. are also working on an agreement for bilateral drone production, he said, adding his thanks for Trump’s efforts to end the war.
The White House did not immediately return a message seeking information on the call.
By The Associated Press
