House passes bill to reopen government as new Epstein revelations roil US politics – as it happened
Closing summary
The longest government shutdown in US history is done, and so are we. Our live coverage of Donald Trump’s second presidency, and his efforts to tamp down questions about his long association with the convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, will resume on Thursday. Here are the latest developments:
Donald Trump signed legislation to reopen the federal government, at least until the end of January, after reading lengthy prepared remarks in which he repeated many false claims about Democrats and lied about the cost of Thanksgiving in 2025 being "25% lower than in 2024 according to an imaginary “study” by Walmart.
The Republican-led House passed a measure to fund the government until the end of January with the support of just six Democrats as the bulk of the opposition party remained angry that Republicans refused to extend tax credits for millions of Americans who do not get health insurance through their employers.
The Republican House speaker, Mike Johnson, said that he was surprised and angry that the Republican Senate had inserted a provision into the bill to allow Republican senators to sue the federal government because their phone records were subpoenaed in 2023 by the special counsel investigating Donald Trump’s effort to stay in power after losing the 2020 election. Johnson pledged to repeal the provision next week.
After Adelita Grijalva was sworn in as the newest member of the House, the Arizona Democrat signed a petition to force a vote in the House to compel the full release of files from the federal investigation of Jeffrey Epstein, the late sex offender who socialized with Donald Trump for more than a decade. The House speaker said that he would schedule the vote for next week, and Republicans who had not supported the petition said that they would vote for the bill.
Trump repeats false claims about Democrats before signing bill to reopen government
Reading prepared remarks from a binder on his desk in the Oval Office before signing the bill to reopen the government into law, Donald Trump launched into a partisan attack on Democrats and repeated false claims about the opposition party wanting to give money to undocumented immigrants.
He then called on the public to punish Democrats in the 2026 midterm elections and called on Republicans to “terminate the filibuster.”
As government workers remained unpaid, Trump boasted about the stock market before signing the legisaltion.
“Also I want to thank Walmart, because they came up with a fantastic study. It was the cost of Thanksgiving, coming up, and the cost of Thanksgiving from a year ago, under sleepy Joe Biden, and we’re 25% lower,” Trump said, incorrectly referring to the cost of a Walmart Thanksgiving basket that is cheaper but also considerably smaller in 2025 than it was in 2024.
He went on to attack the Affordable Care Act, christened Obamacare by Republicans, as a “crazy idea” and “this Obamacare scandal,” before suggesting that he would work to repeal and replace the law with some sort of savings accounts that people could use to but health insurance, and, improbably, negotiate their own rates.
He then signed the bill into law to applause from his assembled audience of cabinet members and Republican lawmakers who all stood around his desk as he, alone, sat.
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Massie praises Boebert, Mace and Greene for resisting pressure to withdraw support for vote on Epstein files
Speaking to CNN on Wednesday night, Thomas Massie, the Republican congressman who introduced a bipartisan discharge petition to force a vote on legislation to compel the release of the Epstein files, praised three Republican congresswomen who resisted pressure to take their names off the petition.
If any one of them had relented to pressure from the Trump White House, the measure would not have succeeded.
“I got to give credit to Lauren Boebert, to walk into the White House,” Massie said, “and to sustain that, and to come back out and be solid. And also to Nancy Mace and Marjorie Taylor Greene. There was all this speculation that they might take their names off, and they never did.”
The need for public scrutiny of the unreleased investigative files on Jeffrey Epstein, the late sex offender who socialized with Donald Trump for more than a decade, Massie said, is “not a hoax.”
“It is a very serious thing; there are a thousand victims,” he added.
“There are survivors”, he said, “and that’s what we’re fighting for: justice for them.”
Mace, who has falsely claimed that Epstein’s victims have “exonerated” Trump, said earlier on Wednesday that she had refused to remove her name from the petition to force a vote because, as a victim of sexual assault, the “Epstein petition is deeply personal” for her.
Speaker 'surprised' and 'very angry' about January 6 records provision
The Republican House speaker, Mike Johnson, just told reporters in the Capitol that he had no idea that the Republican Senate leader, John Thune, had added a provision to the spending bill to let Republican senators sue the federal government for obtaining their phone records as part of the special counsel investigation into Donald Trump’s failed effort to stay in power after losing the 2020 election.
Thune, Johnson said, “is a trustworthy, honest broker, and that’s why I was so surprised when we found out about that provision that was put in our clean CR at the last moment.
“I was very angry about it. And a lot of my members called me and said: ‘Did you know about it?’ We had no idea. That was dropped in at the last minute, and I did not appreciate that, nor did most of the House members. Many of them were very, are very angry about it.”
“I think that was way out of line,” Johnson said. “I don’t think that was the right thing to do, and the House is going to reverse, we’re going to repeal that, and I’m going to expect our colleagues in the Senate to do the same thing.”
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House passes bill to reopen government, Trump plans to sign measure after dinner with Wall Street bankers
The House voted 222-209 to approve legislation to fund the government through the end of January, meaning the longest government shutdown in US history will end on Wednesday night, once Donald Trump finishes his dinner with Wall Street bankers and signs the measure into law.
Six Democrats voted for the measure and two Republicans voted against it.
The Democrats who supported the bill were: Jared Golden of Maine, Adam Gray of California, Marie Gluesenkamp Perez of Washington, Don Davis of North Carolina, Henry Cuellar of Texas and Tom Suozzi of New York.
The two Republicans to oppose it were Thomas Massie of Kentucky and Greg Steube of Florida.
The debate over the measure was heated, as many Democrats voiced fury that the Senate-brokered compromise failed to extend expiring healthcare subsidies.
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US House begins voting on bill to end government shutdown
After debate closed with a long speech decrying the legislation from Democratic minority leader Hakeem Jeffries, and a short speech blaming Democrats from the Republican House speaker, Mike Johnson, the House is now voting on a temporary spending bill that would reopen the government, ending the 42-day shutdown.
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Trump plans to sign bill to reopen government at 9.45pm ET on live TV
The White House just told reporters that the plan is for Donald Trump to sign the legislation to reopen the federal government at 9.45pm ET, on live television.
Perhaps not coincidentally, that would put the president in the spotlight during his ally Sean Hannity’s primetime show on Fox.
In the meantime, we are watching for the House to end debate and vote on the Senate bill, as Trump hosts a private White House dinner for Wall Street executives, reportedly including Jamie Dimon of JP Morgan, Larry Fink of BlackRock, Ted Pick of Morgan Stanley, David Solomon of Goldman Sachs, Stephen Schwarzman of Blackstone and Henry Kravis of KKR.
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House to vote next week on measure to compel full release of the Epstein files
The Republican House speaker Mike Johnson plans to put a bill compelling the release of government files related to late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein on the House floor next week.
The speaker opposes the bill, as does Donald Trump. But all Democrats, along with four Republicans, put the required 218 signatures on to a discharge petition requiring it be brought up for a vote in the House of Representatives.
According to the chamber’s rules, Johnson likely would not have been required to hold a vote on it until early December, but he told reporters he will move forward with it next week.
“We are gonna put that on the floor for [a] full vote next week, soon as we get back,” the speaker told reporters, as the chamber gathered to debate legislation to reopen the government.
Epstein died in 2019, while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges, in what the government declared was a suicide. Though Trump has long flirted with conspiracy theories alleging that he was at the center of a larger plot to procure minors for global elites, the justice department earlier this year announced that it would release no further details about the case, prompting an uproar for files related to the investigation into his activities be made public.
Even if the bill passes the House, it still needs to get through the Senate and be signed by Trump. Senate leaders have shown no indication they will bring it up for a vote, and Trump has decried the effort as a “Democrat hoax”.
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House Republicans vow to repeal provision allowing Senate Republicans to sue federal government over January 6 investigation
A number of House Republicans have balked at a provision of the spending bill they plan to vote on tonight that would allow Senate Republicans to sue the federal government over their phone records being subpoenaed as part of the federal investigation into Donald Trump’s effort to remain in office despite losing the 2020 presidential election.
That provision was inserted in the Senate at the instruction of the Republican Senate majority leader, John Thune, to placate senators whose records were gathered by the special counsel who indicted Trump, Jack Smith.
“It is unconscionable that what we are debating right now is legislation that will give eight members of the United States Senate over $1m apiece, and we are robbing people of their food assistance and of their healthcare to pay for it,” Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the New York Democratic representative, said in a floor speech drawing attention to the provision. “How is this even on the floor? How can we as members of Congress, Republican or Democrat, vote to enrich ourselves by stealing from the American people?”
Rather than remove the provision from the bill, which would delay reopening the government by returning the legislation to the Senate, the House speaker, Mike Johnson, said he plans to introduce “standalone legislation to repeal this provision that was included by the Senate in the government funding bill. We are putting this legislation on the fast track suspension calendar in the House for next week.”
John Rose, a Republican congressman from Tennessee, shared the text of that bill on social media, with the comment: “I just introduced a bill to repeal the Senate’s last minute provision allowing Senators to sue American taxpayers over Biden DoJ investigations, past or future. Two wrongs don’t make a right.”
Lindsey Graham, one of the Republican senators whose records were obtained by Smith’s investigators, told reporters in South Carolina that he intends to take advantage of the provision by filing a lawsuit. “Oh definitely,” Graham said. “And if you think I’m going to settle this thing for a million dollars? No. I want to make it so painful, no one ever does this again.”
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The Senate-passed government funding bill just cleared a pair of procedural votes in the House of Representatives on party lines, with no signs yet of significant GOP defections, or Democratic support for the measure.
It’s a good sign for Republican House speaker Mike Johnson’s hopes of getting the bill through the chamber this evening.
That said, some members may vote differently when the measure comes up for passage, and there appear to be four lawmakers who are absent, though they may still show up.
Republican leadership has said to expect the final vote to take place around 8pm ET.
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Epstein survivors call for House vote to require 'full release of the Epstein files'
Survivor of sexual abuse by Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell voiced their support on Wednesday for the Epstein Files Transparency Act, a proposed law that would require the full release of files from the federal investigation into the sex-trafficking of girls by two of Donald Trump’s former associates.
Annie Farmer, one of the survivors, released the following statement on Wednesday, after the release of emails from 2011 in which Epstein and Maxwell suggested Trump was aware of the abuse:
“The more information that comes out about Jeffrey Epstein, the more questions we’re left with. Survivors deserve more than a trickle of information – it’s time to pass the Epstein Files Transparency Act, and for a full release of the Epstein files. The estimated one thousand women and girls who were harmed by Epstein and his associates deserve full transparency, as do the American people.”
Jennifer Freeman, a lawyer who represents a number of survivors, including Farmer’s sister Maria, also urged Congress to pass the legislation requiring the release of the files. “For decades, survivors of Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell have been left in the dark, the government ignored or cast aside survivor reports of Epstein and Maxwell’s crimes, and the vast majority of people who were implicated have yet to be held responsible,” Freeman said in a statement. “There’s no time to waste – we urge lawmakers to do their part and vote on releasing the Epstein files once and for all.”
Maria Farmer is suing the federal government alleging that it failed to protect her and other victims of Epstein and Maxwell.
Farmer first reported Epstein and Maxwell to federal authorities in the 1990s. Because her report of the abuse was not acted on for years, many more girls and young women were abused.
“The release of the Epstein files would mark a long-awaited step towards justice for Farmer and all those terrorized by Epstein and Maxwell,” a public relations firm representing the victims said.
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Stepping up to the podium at the Congressional Hispanic caucus’s press conference, newly minted Democratic congresswoman Adelita Grijalva criticized the House speaker, Mike Johnson, for making her wait so long to start the job, and said she’d propose legislation to make sure no one else has to wait so long.
“Let’s understand very clearly that if I were a Republican, I would not have waited this long. If I were a man, I would not have waited this long. We all know that the rules are always different for women of color and people of color, and we have to fight against that. There is no way that this can ever happen again to anyone at all,” she said.
Grijalva hit out at Johnson, saying he “purposefully obstructed” her swearing-in by cancelling votes in the House, and “would placate and make misogynistic comments about what I should and should not be doing” while she waited for him to end the lengthy recess. Johnson insisted on keeping the House out of session until Senate Democrats agreed to reopen the government, which a splinter group of them did earlier this week.
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Members of the Congressional Hispanic caucus are hammering the Republican speaker, Mike Johnson, for delaying Democrat Adelita Grijalva’s swearing in.
“Today, nearly 1 million Arizonans finally, finally regain their voice that has been illegally denied to them for far too long. Two months of delay was not just unprecedented, it was unacceptable. I think it was illegal,” the caucus’s chair, Adriano Espaillat, said at a press conference convened to welcome her to the group.
Pete Aguilar, who as caucus chair is the third-highest-ranking Democrat in the House, noted that Grijalva swiftly signed the discharge petition to force a vote on a bill to release files related to disgraced financier and one-time Donald Trump friend Jeffrey Epstein.
“We all know the real reason Donald Trump and Republican leadership are hellbent on keeping the Epstein files hidden from the American people … They’re running a pedophile protection program,” he said.
“Now, with representative Grijalva in Congress, we will have the votes necessary to force transparency and accountability, and importantly, Arizonans will finally have a member who is able to carry out their work, to represent their interests and to be their voice in Congress.”
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The Republican House speaker, Mike Johnson, waited an unprecedented 50 days to swear in Democrat Adelita Grijalva, but both he and the new congresswoman kept it civil when he administered her ceremonial oath off the chamber’s floor.
“I really like this lady. She’s going to be an excellent member of Congress. She’s a great person,” Johnson said. Referring to her late father, Raúl Grijalva, whose southern Arizona district she will now represent, he said: “I just told her, on the way in, that she fills her father’s shoes, or she’s going to try – no one can, no one can. He was a giant around here.”
“She has a proud family legacy, and we’re delighted to have her here,” he continued, before turning to the uncomfortable question of the lengthy delay she faced in actually being able to start the job she was elected to do.
“She may not agree with me, but we followed the custom of the House on the timetable, and we’ve had a little, as we say, in the deep south, some intense fellowship about that, OK. But she’s here now, and I promised that we would have the oath administered before we began legislative business, so she hasn’t missed a vote.”
Democrats may quibble with that last part, considering that in recent months, Johnson promptly sworn in two newly elected Florida Republicans, even when the House was out of session.
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Petition to trigger House vote on release of Epstein files reaches required total
Shortly after Adelita Grijalva was sworn in as the newest member of the House of Representatives on Wednesday, the Arizona Democrat signed a petition which should force a vote in the House on legislation to require the full release of files from the federal investigation of Jeffrey Epstein, the late sex offender who socialized with Donald Trump for more than a decade.
With Grijalva’s signature, 218 members of Congress now back what is known as a discharge petition, which triggers a vote on legislation without needing the approval of the House speaker.
Ro Khanna, the California Democrat who introduced the petition with his Republican colleague Thomas Massie of Kentucky, released a statement on the success of the petition to force a vote on their bipartisan bill, the Epstein Files Transparency Act.
“This was made possible by the courageous survivors who have been speaking up for years,” Khanna said. “As Representative Massie and my bill heads to the floor for a vote, every member of Congress should ask themselves: are we going to stand with the survivors or the wealthy and powerful who are being protected? We must stand for transparency and justice for the survivors. We need to rebuild trust in government.”
In her speech after finally being sworn in, seven weeks after she was elected, Grijalva thanked two survivors of Epstein’s abuse who were present, and said: “Justice cannot wait another day.”
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Arizona Democrat Adelita Grijalva was sworn in by Mike Johnson, the US House speaker, on Wednesday, ending a seven-week standoff that prevented the incoming congresswoman from taking her seat and clearing the path for a vote to release the Jeffrey Epstein files.
House Democrats burst into applause on the House floor when Grijalva took the oath of office during a ceremonial swearing-in, shortly before the chamber was poised to take up legislation that would end the longest federal government shutdown in US history. The ceremony comes 49 days after Grijalva won a late September special election to succeed her father, the longtime congressman Raúl Grijalva, who died in March.
Grijalva’s arrival does more than narrow the already razor-thin Republican majority. She has vowed to become the 218th and final signature on a discharge petition that would automatically trigger a House floor vote on legislation demanding the justice department release additional files on deceased sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
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Here's a recap of the day so far
A new batch of emails released by House Democrats on the oversight committee seemed to suggest that Donald Trump was aware of Jeffrey Epstein’s conduct. In the three emails released, Epstein apparently told his accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell that Trump “spent hours” at his house with one of Epstein’s victims. In two other emails to author Michael Wolff, Epstein wrote that “of course he knew about the girls”, referring to the Trump. According to the exchanges, Epstein also solicited Wolff’s advice about how he should handle Trump discussing their friendship in an interview with CNN. “I think you should let him hang himself,” Wolff writes. “If he says he hasn’t been on the plane or to the house, then that gives you a valuable PR and political currency.”
Later, the committee’s Republican majority countered by releasing its own tranche of 23,000 documents, accusing Democrats of “cherrypicking” the memos “to generate clickbait”. The GOP members also insisted the redacted victim that the late sex-offender refers to in his emails was actually one of his most prominent accusers – Virginia Giuffre.
At the White House today, the press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, said that the new correspondence released today “proves absolutely nothing other than the fact that President Trump did nothing wrong”. She repeated Republicans’ claims that Giuffre was the unnamed victim. “She maintained that there was nothing inappropriate she ever witnessed, that President Trump was always extremely professional and friendly to her,” Leavitt added.
For his part, Trump labelled the move by Democrats as “deflection” for their performance during the record-breaking government shutdown. In a post on Truth Social, the president wrote: “There should be no deflections to Epstein or anything else, and any Republicans involved should be focused only on opening up our Country, and fixing the massive damage caused by the Democrats!”
The Epstein investigation is likely to receive revived interest as the House prepares to return from recess and vote on a bill to reopen the federal government, as Mike Johnson is set to swear in representative-elect Adelita Grijalva after seven weeks of waiting. The soon-to-be Democratic lawmaker is set to be the 218th signature needed on a discharge petition, a procedural tool that would force a vote on the House floor to release the full tranche of Epstein investigation records.
While the news of the Epstein email drop dominated the day, the House is set to vote on a funding bill to finally reopen the federal government today. Republican leaders, as well as Trump, expect the bill to pass. The extension would extend government funding at current levels through January 2026, along with three year-long provisions that will fund programs at the Department of Veterans Affairs, the USDA and the FDA, and legislative branch operations. It would also reinstate all fired workers that were let go during the shutdown and guarantee back pay for those furloughed.
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At 4pm ET, we can expect the House to reconvene after more than 50 days of recess, and for the Republican speaker, Mike Johnson, to swear in representative-elect Adelita Grijalva.
Johnson has staved off the ceremony for the soon-to-be Arizona Democrat for weeks while the government shutdown continued. She’s expected to be the final, and 218th, signature needed to force a vote on the House floor for the full release of the Epstein files.
White House appears to confirm meeting with Republican congresswoman over Epstein files
Earlier, CNN reported that top Trump administration officials were planning to meet today to discuss the discharge petition that would force a vote on the House floor to release the complete Epstein files.
According to CNN’s source, the planned meeting would include the US attorney general, Pam Bondi; the deputy attorney general, Todd Blanche; Kash Patel, the FBI director; and Lauren Boebert, a Republican Colorado congresswoman and a Trump loyalist who has signed on to the effort for the records to be released.
In the White House briefing room, the press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, appeared to confirm the meeting, branding it as the latest example of the administration’s commitment to “transparency”.
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My colleague Adam Gabbatt has put together a helpful timeline of some of the most significant developments in the Epstein saga that continues to dog the administration. Starting in 2019, when Epstein was charged with federal sex-trafficking crimes, and taking us up to the batch of Epstein’s emails released today that suggest Trump knew about the late financier’s conduct.
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Trump says Democrats released Epstein emails to 'deflect' from performance during government shutdown
In a post on Truth Social, the president has addressed the batch of emails released by House Democrats on the oversight committee.
“The Democrats are trying to bring up the Jeffrey Epstein Hoax again because they’ll do anything at all to deflect on how badly they’ve done on the Shutdown,” Trump wrote. “There should be no deflections to Epstein or anything else, and any Republicans involved should be focused only on opening up our Country, and fixing the massive damage caused by the Democrats!”
Republicans 'own the mess' in the United States, says top House Democrat
Ahead of the House preparing to vote on a Senate-passed bill to reopen the government, Democrats in the lower chamber held a press conference on the steps of the Capitol.
“Republicans control the House, the Senate and the presidency,” said the House minority leader, Hakeem Jeffries. “They own the mess that has been created in the United States of America.”
Today’s legislation includes none of the healthcare provisions that Democrats made a centerpiece of their fight with the GOP when the government shut down. After some senators in the Democratic caucus broke ranks and voted to pass the bill, much of the party slammed their decision.
Today, Jeffries offered more fighting words:
We work for the American people as we stand on the Capitol steps, ready to continue this battle on the House floor, a battle that we waged week after week after week, and that will continue regardless of the outcome … We’ll continue to fight to stand up for the Affordable Care Act and an extension of the tax credits. We’ll continue to fight for your hospitals. We’ll continue to fight for your nursing homes.
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Largest union representing federal workers urges House to pass funding bill to reopen government
As the House prepares to vote on a funding bill that would end the longest government shutdown on record, the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) has sent a letter to lawmakers in the lower chamber urging them to pass the legislation.
“Passing this bill will reopen the government and allow federal employees to return to the work of serving the American people. It will ensure safety and security for our vital transportation systems,” wrote Daniel Horowitz, legislative director of the largest union representing federal workers.
The AFGE argues that Senate-passed resolution includes several provisions beneficial for civil servants affected by the shutdown. This includes ensuring back pay to furloughed workers, reinstating those terminated from their positions by wide-scale reductions in force when the government shuttered, and preventing further layoffs while the continuing resolution keeps agencies open through January.
Leavitt said that she hadn’t spoken to the president about whether he believes that Andrew Mountbatten Windsor, the former prince, should sit for an interview with congressional lawmakers on the House oversight committee, after they requested his cooperation in their ongoing investigation into Jeffrey Epstein.
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'These emails prove absolutely nothing,' White House press secretary says of new batch of Epstein emails
Responding to question about the validity of the emails released by House oversight Democrats, Leavitt responded plainly. “These emails prove absolutely nothing other than the fact that President Trump did nothing wrong,” the press secretary said. “Jeffrey Epstein was a member at Mar-a-Lago until President Trump kicked him out because Jeffrey Epstein was a pedophile and he was a creep.”
Leavitt repeated Republicans’ statements identifying the redacted name in the batch of emails as Virginia Giuffre. “She maintained that there was nothing inappropriate she ever witnessed, that president Trump was always extremely professional and friendly to her,” Leavitt reiterated, of the outspoken victim of Epstein’s abuse, who died by suicide earlier this year.
Leavitt is spending most of her opening remarks blaming Democrats for the longest shutdown on record, as the House prepares to vote on a bill to reopen the government.
“The Democrats’ weakness and their unwillingness to buck the fringe members of their party dragged this harmful shutdown on for seven weeks and inflicted massive pain on to the American public,” she said.
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White House briefing begins, as emails from Jeffrey Epstein allege that Trump 'spent hours' at late sex-offender's home
The White House briefing has begun, and we’ll bring you the latest from Karoline Leavitt as she’ll face questions from reporters.
Dominating the news of the day: a small batch of emails released by House Democrats on the oversight committee in which the disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein said that Donald Trump “spent hours” at his home in an email to Ghislaine Maxwell – the late sex offender’s accomplice.
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Andrew told Epstein and Maxwell 'I can't take any more of this', email chain reveals
In one of the email chains in the larger tranche released by the House oversight committee, Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor (formerly known as Prince Andrew) appeared to tell Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell, “I can’t take any more of this,” in March 2011 after a newspaper said they would be running a story about the trio.
In the email chain, Maxwell was initially forwarded the press inquiry from the Mail on Sunday from somebody named Mark Cohen, who told her: “FYI, following up on my email of this morning. Again, I have no intention of responding unless you direct otherwise.”
After the email was forwarded from Maxwell to Epstein, and then from Epstein to somebody listed as “The Duke” on 4 March 2011, Andrew appears to respond: “What? I don’t know any of this. How are you responding?”
Epstein responds: “Just got it two minutes ago. I’ve asked g [sic] lawyers to send a letter. Not sure … it’s so salcisous [sic] and ridiculous, im [sic] not sure how to respond, the only person she didn’t have sex with was Elvis.”
Andrew then appears to reply to Epstein, saying:
Please make sure that every statement or legal letter states clearly that I am NOT involved and that I knew and know NOTHING about any of these allegations. I can’t take any more of this my end.
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In the earlier batch of emails released by the House oversight committee is an email from Jeffrey Epstein to Ghislaine Maxwell from April 2011 in which he describes Donald Trump as “the dog that hasn’t barked” and says that a victim – whose name is redacted – “spent hours at my house with him”.
Epstein’s email reads:
I want you to realise that the dog that hasn’t barked is Trump. [Redacted victim’s name] spent hours at my house with him. He has never once been mentioned. police chief. etc. i’m 75% there.
The White House has said in a statement that the unnamed victim was Virginia Giuffre and that she repeatedly said Trump was not involved in any wrongdoing.
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Peter Mandelson urged Jeffrey Epstein not to agree to BBC interview, emails suggest
As we continue to trawl through the 20,000 pages of documents released by the House oversight committee, which contains a mixture of emails, articles and documents, the BBC highlights an email chain from 2011 that shows Peter Mandelson urging Epstein not to do a BBC interview.
Mandelson was until recently the UK’s ambassador to the US, but was sacked over his friendship with the convicted paedophile.
One email dates from March 2011, and is a request from BBC Radio 4’s Today programme to Epstein’s attorney Jack Goldberger for an interview with Epstein about “stories which are circulating, however inaccurately, about both him and Prince Andrew, the Duke of York”.
Goldberger forwards the email on to Epstein, who forwards it on to Mandelson. “No!!” replies Mandelson.
Mandelson was sacked as ambassador in September after emails were published by the Sun newspaper in which Mandelson suggested to Epstein that his 2008 conviction for soliciting a child for prostitution was wrongful and should be challenged.
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The earlier batch of emails that House Democrats released, from Jeffrey Epstein to writer Michael Wolff, seem to refute the president’s claim that he kicked Epstein out of his Florida club, Mar-a-Lago.
“Trump said he asked me to resign, never a member ever,” Epstein wrote. “Of course he knew about the girls as he asked Ghislaine to stop.”
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House oversight committee releases 20,000 pages of documents from Epstein estate
The House oversight committee has released another tranche of records from the Epstein estate – around 20,000 pages of documents.
We’ll bring you more as we parse through them. But on first glance they include several emails, financial disclosures, and even scans from James Patterson’s book on Epstein, Filthy Rich.
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White House says new batch of Epstein emails is part of 'fake narrative' in an attempt to 'smear' Donald Trump
In response to the latest batch of emails released by House Democrats on the oversight committee, the White House said this was an attempt to “to create a fake narrative to smear President Trump”.
In a statement, press secretary Karoline Leavitt claimed “the ‘unnamed victim’ referenced in these emails is the late Virginia Giuffre, who repeatedly said President Trump was not involved in any wrongdoing whatsoever. However, the emails redacted the name of the victim when they were released, and Leavitt didn’t expand on her reasoning.
“The fact remains that President Trump kicked Jeffrey Epstein out of his club decades ago for being a creep to his female employees, including Giuffre. These stories are nothing more than bad-faith efforts to distract from President Trump’s historic accomplishments,” she added. “Any American with common sense sees right through this hoax and clear distraction from the government opening back up again.”
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Donald Trump has repeated a request to Israel’s president, Isaac Herzog, for a pardon for Benjamin Netanyahu, who is on trial in three separate corruption cases.
The Israeli prime minister has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing in the ongoing court cases. No rulings have been delivered, and his supporters have dismissed the trials as politically motivated.
In a letter released by Herzog’s office on Wednesday, Trump says he is writing to the president at a “historic time, as we have, together, just secured peace that has been sought for at least 3,000 years”.
“I hereby call on you to fully pardon Benjamin Netanyahu, who has been a formidable and decisive War Time Prime Minister … While I absolutely respect the independence of the Israeli Justice System … I believe that this ’case’ against Bibi … is political, unjustified prosecution,” he writes.
Trump has already suggested a presidential pardon for Netanyahu in a series of social media posts and a speech to the Israeli parliament last month. Despite the largely ceremonial role of the Israeli presidency, Herzog has the authority to pardon convicted criminals under unusual circumstances.
Netanyahu’s trials, which began in 2020, have not yet concluded, and he has pleaded not guilty to all charges.
For his part, Donald Trump has routinely denied having any involvement with Epstein’s conduct. He has said that he was once friendly with the disgraced financier, who died by suicide in federal prison in 2019. But the pair had a falling out, after Epstein tried to hire people away from Trump’s Mar-a-Lago club in Florida.
The president has also called the push for further transparency around the Epstein case as a “hoax”.
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In response to the latest batch of emails from released by House Democrats, congressman Ro Khanna told the Guardian that this is “exactly why” he’s working with Republican representative Thomas Massie to force a House floor vote on the full release of the Epstein files. “The public deserves transparency and the survivors deserve justice,” he said.
Khanna also serves on the oversight committee, who published the Epstein’s emails today.
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In the midst of all of this, a whistleblower also revealed that Ghislaine Maxwell – Epstein’s long time companion and co-conspirator – is seeking a commutation from Donald Trump, according to Democrats on the House judiciary committee.
Maxwell is currently serving a 20-year sentence for sex-trafficking crimes, and was recently transferred to a minimum security prison in Texas.
“You should not grant any form of clemency to this convicted and unrepentant sex offender,” said the committee’s ranking member, congressman Jamie Raskin, in a letter to the president. A reminder that last month, the supreme court rejected Maxwell’s appeal to overturn her criminal conviction.
Per my last post, it’s important to note that speaker Johnson’s decision to delay Grijalva’s swearing-in has only fueled Democrats to suggest that the top House Republican is avoiding the bipartisan push to release the Epstein records.
“Republicans are running a pedophile protection program, they are intentionally hiding the Jeffrey Epstein files,” said Hakeem Jeffries, the House minority leader, on Tuesday. He added to the chorus of accusations that the only reason Grijalva has yet to become an official member of Congress, is because GOP lawmakers are afraid that her signature would set the discharge petition in motion.
A reminder, that this was co-sponsored by Thomas Massie, a Republican representative from Kentucky, and Ro Khanna, a California Democrat. It’s even seen support from Maga firebrands like congresswomen Marjorie Taylor Greene, Lauren Boebert and Nancy Mace. All of whom committed their signatures to the measure.
Epstein files: House Democrats release emails that allege Trump 'knew about the girls'
In a new batch of emails released by Democrats on the House oversight committee, Jeffrey Epstein wrote that Donald Trump knew about the late financier and sex-offender’s conduct. In the three emails released, Epstein apparently told his accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell that Trump “spent hours” at his house with one of Epstein’s victims.
In two other emails to author Michael Wolff, Epstein wrote that “of course he knew about the girls”, referring to the now-president. According to the exchanges, Epstein also solicited Wolff’s advice about how he should handle Trump discussing their friendship in an interview with CNN. “I think you should let him hang himself,” Wolff writes. “If he says he hasn’t been on the plane or to the house, then that gives you a valuable PR and political currency. You can hang him in a way that potentially generates a positive benefit for you, or, if it really looks like he could win, you could save him, generating a debt.”
In a statement, the committee’s ranking member, congressman Robert Garcia said: “The more Donald Trump tries to cover up the Epstein files, the more we uncover. These latest emails and correspondence raise glaring questions about what else the White House is hiding and the nature of the relationship between Epstein and the President.”
The Epstein investigation is likely to receive revived interest as the House prepares to return from recess, vote on a bill to reopen the federal government, and Mike Johnson is set to swear in representative-elect Adelita Grijalva. The newly minted lawmaker is set to be the 218th signature needed on a discharge petition, a procedural tool that would force a vote on the House floor to release the full tranche of Epstein investigation records.
Updated
A last-minute provision in the federal spending bill heavily restricting hemp-derived products such as CBD and THC drinks could lead some Republicans to vote against the spending bill which, if passed, could end the government shutdown as early as today.
Kentucky is one of the largest producers of hemp in the country, and Republicans in the state have shown strong support for the hemp industry. Jonathan Miller, an advocate for the hemp industry and former Kentucky state treasurer, said that “Kentucky is really ground zero for the rebirth of hemp” – a niche industry until the 2018 farm bill allowed a much wider variety of legal products.
On Monday night, Kentucky senator Rand Paul broke with the Republican party and voted against the bill because of the hemp provision, which was revealed at the 11th hour and which Paul tried unsuccessfully to have removed.
The House is set vote on the bill later today, and needs 218 votes to pass. There are 219 Republican House members, but Kentucky representatives James Comer, Thomas Massie and Andy Barr have all spoken out against the ban.
Massie said, according to Louisville Public Media: “I detest the tactics that are being used to try to get the ban enacted into law.”
The alcohol industry has been divided in its lobbying for the provision. Alcohol distributors, who also distribute THC beverages, wrote a letter calling for regulation rather than an outright ban, while the American Distilled Spirits Alliance supported the ban.
Donald Trump is in Washington today. While has no public events on his official schedule, as we noted earlier, he’s set to host a private dinner for financial executives this evening. The press pool will be there.
Also today, press secretary Karoline Leavitt will host a White House briefing at 1pm ET. We’ll make sure to bring you the latest lines as it gets under way.
The deal has split Democrats, with many senior figures saying they should have held out for the extension of health insurance subsidies at the heart of the shutdown battle, reports Agence France-Presse (AFP).
“Pathetic,” California governor Gavin Newsom, widely seen as a 2028 Democratic presidential frontrunner, posted on X.
Despite opposing the bill vocally and voting against it, Democratic Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer has faced calls from some lawmakers in his party to step down for failing to corral his senators.
For Democrats, the wavering was especially galling as it came just days after election wins that put Donald Trump on the back foot for the first time since his White House return.
Democratic wins in New York City, New Jersey and Virginia in particular highlighted the issue of affordability, a weak spot for billionaire Trump and the Republicans ahead of the 2026 midterm elections.
But Senate Republicans have promised Democrats a vote on health insurance, with millions of Americans set to see their “Obamacare” costs double without an extension of the subsidies.
The health care issue has itself threatened to cause a rift in Trump’s “Make America Great Again” coalition.
Trump said on Monday one-time ally Marjorie Taylor Greene had “lost her way” after the congresswoman made critical comments, including that she was “disgusted” that premiums could double for her own grown children.
Top Democrats have vowed to oppose the government funding bill, in large part because it does not directly address the extension of health insurance subsidies that are to expire at the end of this year. But it is likely to pass the House because it only needs a simple majority, which Republicans narrowly have, reports Agence France-Presse (AFP).
From the start, Donald Trump had piled pressure on Democrats by letting the shutdown be as punishing as possible and refusing to negotiate on their demands on health insurance.
A million federal workers went unpaid, food benefits for low-income Americans came under threat and air travelers faced thousands of cancelations and delays ahead of the Thanksgiving holiday.
Transportation secretary Sean Duffy warned on Tuesday that the chaos could get worse by the weekend if the shutdown persists, with air traffic controllers unable to be paid and authorities ordering further slowdowns in flight traffic.
“You’re going to have airlines that make serious calculations about whether they continue to fly, full stop,” Duffy told reporters at Chicago’s O’Hare international airport.
Polls have shown that voters increasingly blamed Trump’s party as the shutdown dragged on past its 40th day, reports AFP.
But it was the Democrats who caved and gave Republicans the extra votes they needed on Monday under Senate rules, without securing the key concessions they wanted.
“Health care of people all across this country is on the brink of becoming unaffordable,” top House Democrat Hakeem Jeffries told reporters on Tuesday as he vowed to maintain the fight for lower costs.
Israeli president Isaac Herzog said he received a letter from US president Donald Trump on Wednesday asking him to pardon prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who is on trial in three separate corruption cases, reports Agence France-Presse (AFP).
Netanyahu has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing in the ongoing court cases, with no ruling yet delivered, and his supporters have dismissed the trials as politically motivated.
In a speech to the Israeli parliament in October, Trump suggested to Herzog that he pardon Netanyahu.
According to AFP, Herzog’s office said in a statement:
This morning, President Isaac Herzog received the attached letter from US President Donald Trump, calling on him to consider granting a pardon to prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
In the letter, Trump says he is writing to Herzog at a “historic time, as we have, together, just secured peace that has been sought for at least 3,000 years”. It adds:
I hereby call on you to fully pardon Benjamin Netanyahu, who has been a formidable and decisive war time prime minister.
While I absolutely respect the independence of the Israeli justice system … I believe that this ’case’ against Bibi … is political, unjustified prosecution.
Netanyahu and his wife, Sara, are accused in one case of accepting more than $260,000 worth of luxury goods such as cigars, jewellery and champagne from billionaires in exchange for political favours.
He is also accused of attempting to negotiate more favourable coverage from two Israeli media outlets in two other cases.
The statement from Herzog’s office said the Israeli president holds Trump “in the highest regard and continues to express his deep appreciations for President Trump’s unwavering support for Israel”. It added:
Alongside and not withstanding this … anyone seeking a presidential pardon must submit a formal request in accordance with the established procedures.
John F Kennedy’s grandson Jack Schlossberg announces run for US House seat
John F Kennedy’s grandson Jack Schlossberg has said he will run for the US House next year, announcing Tuesday that he was seeking a key New York seat set to be vacated by longtime Democrat Jerry Nadler.
“This district should have a representative who can harness the creativity, energy and drive of this district and translate that into political power in Washington,” Schlossberg said in a campaign video posted on social media late Tuesday.
In an email to supporters, Schlossberg, a Democrat, said that his campaign will officially launch on Wednesday.
Schlossberg has drummed up a large following on social media with frequent posts weighing in on national issues, including taking aim at his mother’s cousin, health secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr.
Last month, he posted on Instagram an image of a Halloween costume for “MAHA Man,” in reference to Kennedy’s Make America Healthy Again message and described it as including such things as measles.
Nadler, who is serving his 17th term in Congress, announced in September that he will not run for reelection next year, suggesting to the New York Times that a younger Democratic lawmaker in his seat “can maybe do better, can maybe help us more.”
The 12th District includes Manhattan’s Upper West Side, Upper East Side and midtown.
A political commentator and writer whose work has been published in such news outlets as The Washington Post, Politico and Time magazine, Schlossberg joins a crowded field of contenders already vying for the 12th congressional district seat.
Venezuelans sent by Trump to El Salvador endured systematic torture, report finds
More than 252 Venezuelans expelled to El Salvador under Donald Trump’s mass deportation policy suffered systematic and prolonged torture and abuse, including sexual assault, during their detention, according to a report published on Wednesday.
The report, compiled jointly by Human Rights Watch (HRW) and Cristosal – a group investigating violations in Central America – says conditions at El Salvador’s sprawling “terrorist continent center” (Cecot) breached the UN’s standard minimal rules for the treatment of prisoners. It cites “inhumane prison conditions, including prolonged incommunicado detention, inadequate food” and other shortcomings.
The groups accuse the Trump administration of willful complicity in the suffering deportees endured after being flown to El Salvador in March and April, insisting that it ordered the men’s deportation while fully aware that they would be mistreated or even face threats to their lives.
They are calling an “independent investigation” by the US justice department, although they admit the prospect is unlikely. They are also demanding the Trump administration stop deporting third-country nationals to El Salvador.
US connivance in what is depicted as a systematic pattern of torture and human rights abuses evokes comparison with the scandal at Bahghdad’s Abu Ghraib facility during the “war on terror”, they say.
Juanita Goebertus, HRW’s Americas director, said:
We reached the conclusion that the Trump administration is complicit in systematic torture and enforced disappearances of the Venezuelans sent to El Salvador.
Trump to host business leaders at White House dinner
Donald Trump is expected to host a private dinner at the White House tonight with several top business executives, including the chief executives of Nasdaq and JPMorgan Chase, an administration official told Reuters.
The gathering underscores Trump‘s effort to deepen ties with corporate leaders as his administration rolls out new initiatives aimed at strengthening US capital markets and rebuilding critical domestic supply chains seen as vital to national security. JPMorgan, the nation’s largest bank, has announced a decade-long, $1.5trn investment program aimed at industries central to US national security and economic resilience, including supply chain and manufacturing, defense and aerospace, energy independence, and frontier technologies.
A White House official confirmed that Trump was meeting with financial leaders, but did not confirm a guest list.
Jamie Dimon, the head of the bank, has previously defended the independence of the Federal Reserve amid Trump attacks and had warned that swingeing tariffs made a recession more likely.
House set to vote on deal to end record shutdown
Good morning and welcome to our coverage of US politics with the US House of Representatives expected to vote today to end the longest government shutdown in the nation’s history. It comes as anger flares among Democrats over the Senate compromise that drops an extension of key healthcare subsidies.
After keeping the chamber idle for more than 50 days, the Republican House speaker, Mike Johnson, has recalled lawmakers to Washington to consider the short-term funding bill, which would keep the government open through January. The measure, advanced by a coalition of Senate Republicans and a handful of Democrats, would avert further chaos but leaves millions facing potential increases in healthcare premiums.
The deal has exposed sharp divisions among Democrats. Progressive groups have accused Senate leaders of betrayal and even called for Chuck Schumer to step down despite not backing the deal himself. House minority leader Hakeem Jeffries warned that Democrats are unlikely to back the bill, calling it “a Republican refusal to address the cost-of-living crisis”.
Johnson can only afford to lose two votes in order to pass the bill, and the Kentucky representative Thomas Massie is likely to vote no. But Republican leaders have expressed optimism that the legislation will pass, and be sent to Trump for his signature.
Stay with us to see what happens.