Democrats on the House oversight committee called for Donald Trump to be deposed before the committee “immediately,” making this demand as Hillary Clinton appeared before the committee for closed-door testimony and said she had never met Jeffrey Epstein.
“We should depose the person that is mentioned in the Epstein files almost more than any other person, next to Ghislaine Maxwell, and that’s Donald Trump,” Robert Garcia, the ranking Democrat on the committee, said at a press conference Thursday afternoon.
Other Democrats on the committee said commerce secretary Howard Lutnick, who has ties to Epstein, and FBI director Kash Patel, who could shed light on the agency’s interviews with a woman who accused Trump of assault, should both come before the committee for testimony.
“America is watching,” said Yassamin Ansari, a Democrat representative from Arizona. “Young people in this country are watching to see if powerful people will continue to protect other powerful people, and whether or not Congress will actually hold these perpetrators accountable.”
Garcia also demanded that a full, unedited transcript of Hillary Clinton’s deposition be released to the public within 24 hours, and said he is hopeful that the press could be allowed access to tomorrow’s deposition of former president Bill Clinton.
“She herself requested that the press and the public be allowed into the deposition,” he said. “That was denied, and so at a very minimum, they need to immediately release the full transcript.”
Amid widespread speculation that something seemed a bit off about the oddly filtered image of New York’s mayor, Zohran Mamdani, meeting a former Queens resident, Donald Trump, in the Oval Office on Thursday, the mayor’s communications director has confirmed that the image is real.
Mamdani’s spokesperson, Anna Bahr, a former aide to Bernie Sanders aide who traveled to Washington DC with the mayor, responded to social media commentary attributing the heavy use of the Instagram-style filter to her millennial boss by saying that it was, in fact, a “White House photo”.
The mayor’s office also confirmed directly to the Guardian that the photo was genuine.
Here’s what we’ve been watching today:
Hillary Clinton, a former secretary of state, senator and first lady, testified before the House oversight committee, saying she never, to her knowledge, met Jeffrey Epstein, and did not know of Epstein or Ghislaine Maxwell’s crimes. “I do not recall ever encountering Mr. Epstein. I never flew on his plane or visited his island, homes or offices. I have nothing to add to that.”
Among Clinton’s comments: Jeffrey Epstein was a “heinous individual” but he was “far from alone”. She then implored the committee to actually investigate without a partisan lens – including bringing in Donald Trump for questioning.
Hillary Clinton’s closed-door testimony was briefly paused after rightwing podcaster Benny Johnson posted a photograph of the proceedings on social media. He said the photo was provided by representative Lauren Boebert.
James Comer, the chair of the oversight committee, defended bringing the Clintons in for questioning, saying Democrats also had questions for them, and that the investigation isn’t partisan.
The justice department said it will look into whether any documents from the Epstein files were improperly withheld after several news organizations reported that records were withheld pertaining to a woman who accused Trump of sexual abuse when she was a minor, decades ago, including FBI interviews.
Democrats on the House oversight committee called for Donald Trump to be deposed before the committee “immediately”. They also called on the committee to question commerce secretary Howard Lutnick over his ties to Epstein and FBI director Kash Patel about the agency’s interviews with a woman who accused Trump of assault.
Democratic members of the committee also demanded that a full, unedited transcript of Hillary Clinton’s deposition be released to the public within 24 hours, and asked for the press to be allowed access to tomorrow’s deposition of former president Bill Clinton.
Senate Democrats announced their own effort to review millions of pages of unredacted files related to Jeffrey Epstein to find information that they believe the Justice Department is trying to cover up.
New York City mayor Zohran Mamdani met with Donald Trump at the White House on Thursday, the second time the two met in person, calling the meeting “productive”. Mamdani said after the meeting that he then spoke with Trump by phone, who assured him a Columbia university student arrested by federal immigration agents would be released.
Democratic leadership in the House and Senate announced today that they will force a vote on an Iran war powers resolution in the coming days that would require congressional approval before using military force in the country.
After a meeting with president Donald Trump this afternoon, New York City mayor Zohran Mamdani said he had a “productive meeting” with the president, posting a photo of the two of them.
“I’m looking forward to building more housing in New York City,” he posted on Bluesky.
In the photo, Trump is holding up two newspaper front pages: one with the headline with “Ford To City: Drop Dead”, which is a print-out of a real 1975 cover of New York’s Daily News; the second, a mock-up of an imaginary Daily News cover reads: “Trump To City: Let’s Build”.
New York’s mayor, Zohran Mamdani, said on social media he spoke with Donald Trump this afternoon about a Columbia University student who was detained by ICE, and that the president has told him “she will be released imminently”.
Elaina Aghayeva was arrested Thursday by federal immigration agents, who reportedly misrepresented themselves by posing as New York police officers looking for a missing child in order to gain entry to a residential building and detain her.
In his post, Mamdani said he met with Trump earlier in the day and shared his concerns about Aghayeva, then again spoke with Trump by phone about the matter.
Democrats on the House oversight committee called for Donald Trump to be deposed before the committee “immediately,” making this demand as Hillary Clinton appeared before the committee for closed-door testimony and said she had never met Jeffrey Epstein.
“We should depose the person that is mentioned in the Epstein files almost more than any other person, next to Ghislaine Maxwell, and that’s Donald Trump,” Robert Garcia, the ranking Democrat on the committee, said at a press conference Thursday afternoon.
Other Democrats on the committee said commerce secretary Howard Lutnick, who has ties to Epstein, and FBI director Kash Patel, who could shed light on the agency’s interviews with a woman who accused Trump of assault, should both come before the committee for testimony.
“America is watching,” said Yassamin Ansari, a Democrat representative from Arizona. “Young people in this country are watching to see if powerful people will continue to protect other powerful people, and whether or not Congress will actually hold these perpetrators accountable.”
Garcia also demanded that a full, unedited transcript of Hillary Clinton’s deposition be released to the public within 24 hours, and said he is hopeful that the press could be allowed access to tomorrow’s deposition of former president Bill Clinton.
“She herself requested that the press and the public be allowed into the deposition,” he said. “That was denied, and so at a very minimum, they need to immediately release the full transcript.”
Minnesota governor Tim Walz called the latest attack on the state from the Trump administration, which halts a quarter-billion dollars in Medicaid funds, a “ransom note”.
Vice president JD Vance announced Wednesday that the administration would “temporarily” stop $259m in Medicaid payments “until the state government takes its obligations seriously to stop the fraud that’s being perpetrated against the American taxpayer”.
Walz told the media on Thursday that the move was “targeted retribution against a state that the president doesn’t like,” according to the Minnesota Star Tribune.
“No state has experienced this before,” Walz said. “How does taking and punishing children and [the] elderly have anything to do with fighting fraud? It does nothing.”
New York City mayor Zohran Mamdani is meeting with Donald Trump at the White House on Thursday, during an unannounced trip to Washington, an official in the mayor’s office confirmed to the Guardian.
Neither the mayor nor the president’s public schedules listed the meeting. However, Trump does have a “private meeting” listed for 3pm ET. The White House has yet to reply to the Guardian’s request for comment.
The New York Post was first to report the news of the meeting, and the New York Times noted that the mayor and president were set to speak at 1pm ET, according to unnamed sources familiar with the plans. It’s unclear what the scope of the meeting will include, but it comes just days after Trump said that he speaks with Mamdani regularly, during his record-breaking State of the Union address on Tuesday.
“The new communist mayor of New York City, I think he’s a nice guy, actually,” Trump said of the democratic socialist.“I speak to him a lot. Bad policy, but nice guy.”
This would be the second in-person meeting for the two New Yorkers, following an unexpectedly cordial summit in November, after Mamdani won the mayoral election in a landslide victory. Throughout the mayor’s campaign, Trump had denigrated Mamdani’s platform and character, referring to him as a “communist lunatic” and “total nut job” on social media. He even pushed New Yorkers to vote for the former Democratic governor of New York, Andrew Cuomo, who ran for mayor as an independent.
Since taking office, Mamandi – who once promised to be “Donald’s Trump’s worst nightmare” – has done little to antagonize the president. He has also commented sparingly on administration policies that could impact New York City, particularly Trump’s routine threats to withhold federal funding from so-called sanctuary cities. On Wednesday, when asked about how frequently he communicates with the president, Mamdani said they “have conversations that are always focused on how to keep the city moving forward”.
Trump, for his part, was surprisingly effusive while speaking to reporters after his sit-down with the mayor late last year, and complimented his sweeping election victory. The president extolled how the Mamdani “came out of nowhere” and praised his campaign and staff.
“We agree on a lot more than I would have thought,” Trump said at the time. “I want him to do a great job, and we’ll help them do a great job.”
Hillary Clinton has resumed her testimony to the House oversight committee, CNN is reporting.
The testimony was paused after a photo from inside the hearing was sent to a conservative media member, who posted it on social media. While the Clintons have pushed for the hearing to be open to the public, it is closed to press, with a transcript and video to be released later.
Senate Democrats just announced their own effort to review millions of pages of unredacted files related to Jeffrey Epstein to find information that they believe the Justice Department is trying to cover up.
“We’re here today to put a shot across the bow with the Department of Justice and the Trump administration that we are going to reveal this massive cover up,” Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer told a press conference.
Members of Senate Democrats’ Epstein Files Working Group, he announced “will go review the unredacted files in the coming days.”
“Pam Bondi should listen carefully. The truth will come out. The whole ugly, ugly truth about what she’s doing to protect people in the files will come out,” Schumer said, referring to the attorney general.
The Justice Department earlier this month allowed members of Congress to read unredacted versions of documents related to Epstein, a financier who died of what investigators determined was a suicide while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges in 2019.
While the department has made public millions of redacted files related to Epstein in response to an act of Congress, some lawmakers have complained that the redactions obscure abusers and reveal the names of potential victims, and demanded access to the unredacted files to clear up these discrepancies.
Democratic senators said they were willing to put in their own time to review the files to get a better understanding of how the government handled the prosecution of Epstein, who was known to socialize with elites worldwide, including Donald Trump.
“I unfortunately am going to have to go read those redacted files next week. It’s one of those things that you don’t want to do. The disgusting nature of what I’m going to find on there is going to probably make me very ill,” said Arizona senator Ruben Gallego. “But because we have an administration that’s actively covering up pedophiles, we have to take this step, and we have to take the step to keep them accountable and to expose all these pedophiles that are still in power right now all over this country.”
Democratic leadership in the House announced today that they will force a vote on an Iran war powers resolution when Congress reconvenes next week.
The resolution is bipartisan, coming from Representatives Ro Khanna, a California Democrat, and Thomas Massie, a Kentucky Republican, and affirms the role of Congress in declaring military actions.
Democratic leaders said the legislation would require the president to come to Congress to make a case for using military force against Iran.
“The Iranian regime is brutal and destabilizing, seen most recently in the killing of thousands of protestors,” the leaders said. “However, undertaking a war of choice in the Middle East, without a full understanding of all the attendant risks to our servicemembers and to escalation, is reckless.”
Taking any such action would be “unconstitutional without consultation with and authorization from Congress,” they said.
The forced vote on the resolution will put every member’s position on this on record.
Hillary Clinton’s closed-door testimony has been briefly paused after right-wing political commentator Benny Johnson posted a photograph of the proceedings on social media. He said the photo was provided by representative Lauren Boebert.
Cinton adviser Nick Merrill told reporters outside the Chappaqua Performing Arts Center that the testimony has gone off the record over the potential breach of House rules.
It’s against chamber rules that were read at the top of the meeting. So the hearing has been paused briefly while they figure out where the photo came from and why, possibly, members of Congress are violating House rules.
The Guardian
About the Author
