BY REBECCA BEITSCH AND BRETT SAMUELS |
As President Trump's first year back in office comes to a close, two officials in particular are under intense scrutiny, raising questions about how long they will remain in their jobs: Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and FBI Director Kash Patel. Trump has publicly expressed support for both officials, but Noem and Patel have each been the subject of speculation about whether they may step down or be pushed out in the new year. Patel has been dogged by criticism over his use of government resources; his handling of high profile investigations, like the manhunt for the alleged killer of Charlie Kirk; and his use of social media. Noem, meanwhile, has been at the forefront of Trump's aggressive deportation efforts, but she has clashed with others in the administration, such as border czar Tom Homan, according to sources familiar with the matter. |
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The Department of Justice (DOJ) said Wednesday that officials in New York had discovered more than 1 million additional documents potentially linked to the case of Jeffrey Epstein and that their release could take "a few more weeks." The announcement came as the department has faced criticism from some lawmakers over its failure to release all the materials related to Epstein by Dec. 19, as stipulated in legislation passed last month. The Justice Department said in a statement that the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York and the FBI had discovered "over a million more documents potentially related to the Jeffrey Epstein case" and turned them over to the DOJ. |
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The Department of Justice (DOJ) released its new cache of documents related to Jeffrey Epstein on Monday, which brought more attention to President Trump's association with the disgraced financier and what else authorities knew about other Epstein associates. The DOJ released some of its documents about Epstein last Friday, the congressionally mandated legal deadline to publicly release all of the files. Batches of photos, files, documents and more have been incrementally released, with a second batch on Saturday and a third batch on Monday. The latest document release included more mentions of the president, who knew Epstein until their relationship ended around 2004. Trump has denied any wrongdoing in connection with Epstein, whom he said he banned from his Florida resort Mar-a-Lago after the convicted sex offender "stole" young women who were Trump employees. |
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A coalition of 19 Democratic-led states and the District of Columbia late Tuesday sued the Trump administration, arguing a declaration from Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. rejecting gender-affirming care for transgender minors was an overreach of his authority. The lawsuit, filed in federal court in Oregon, claims Kennedy and the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) attempted to circumvent the basic notice and comment requirements for policy changes by issuing an arbitrary "declaration" and attempting to make it effective nationwide immediately without consulting doctors, patients or states. The attorneys general argue that the job of regulating the practice of medicine belongs to the states, not the federal government. |
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A federal magistrate judge on Tuesday blocked the Trump administration from withholding disaster preparation grants to states if they don't recalculate their population figures to reflect recent deportations. U.S. Magistrate Judge Amy Potter also found the administration unlawfully shortened the period to spend the funds from it and another terrorism prevention grant program from three years to one. Potter ruled both changes were arbitrary and capricious. |
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The Pentagon on Tuesday said it deployed 350 National Guard troops to New Orleans after the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) conducted an immigration operation in the city earlier this month. The soldiers are expected to remain in the Crescent City through Mardi Gras. Troops are under Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry's (R) command and control, per the Pentagon. |
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The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), the nation's largest professional organization of doctors who treat children, said Wednesday it is suing the Trump administration after the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) abruptly terminated nearly $12 million in federal grants to the group. The organization says seven longstanding grants were cut in retaliation for its outspoken opposition to HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s changes to federal vaccine policy, in violation of the AAP's First Amendment rights. The HHS says the grants were canceled because the programs no longer align with the agency's priorities. |
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Former White House national security adviser Michael Flynn on Tuesday urged President Trump and other top administration officials to ratchet up their response to the case surrounding convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. Flynn, who briefly served as Trump's national security adviser in 2017, called for more accountability in response to the latest release of documents in the Epstein case. |
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Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Tuesday presented a new 20-point peace plan that offers concessions to Russia in an effort to end the conflict in Ukraine. The proposal slims down the 28-point peace plan proposed by the Trump administration and allots for the creation of a "fortress belt" composed of cities in the Donetsk region to protect Ukraine from further invasion from the Kremlin. Russian President Vladimir Putin has pushed to acquire all of the Donetsk region in peace negotiations and has made land cessation a requirement to end the war. |
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OPINION | Although the House is poised to vote on ObamaCare subsidies next year, Republicans are still heavily divided on whether to pursue innovation in the form of a new health plan, abandoning ObamaCare, or to settle on a modified extension. Along either path, Republicans will be held accountable to include the protection of taxpayers in the Hyde Amendment, which bars taxpayer abortion funding through plans in the Affordable Care Act's marketplace. |
OPINION | For many of us critical of U.S. policy on the conflict between Israel and Palestine, Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) has become the conscience of Congress. Few people on Capitol Hill would have expected this role for Maryland's senior senator. Van Hollen, a Senate Foreign Relations Committee member, had always reliably supported Israel. Hamas's Oct. 7, 2023, attack left him angry and outraged. |
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All year, top Democrats have shown a striking awareness of one of their biggest problems. The party, Senator Chris Van Hollen of Maryland told NPR this month, needs to show how it will "shake up the status quo." "Embrace change," Senator Elissa Slotkin of Michigan urged on "The Daily Show" in May. "The Democratic Party should be leading, rather than just saying: 'No, no, no. Status quo, status quo.'" |
WASHINGTON—When the news broke that the Kennedy Center would be renamed to include President Trump, it came as a surprise to the Senate's Republican leader, John Thune of South Dakota—even though Thune is an ex officio member of the Kennedy Center board. "Ah, I just heard about it," Thune said in an interview on Fox News Channel. An act of Congress in 1964 had named the performing arts center to memorialize the slain John F. Kennedy. Thune concluded that Congress would "take a look at it for sure and…see where that goes." |
NEW YORK (AP) — Days after Ghislaine Maxwell asked a judge to immediately free her from a 20-year prison sentence, the public release of grand jury transcripts from her sex trafficking case returned the spotlight to victims whose allegations helped land her behind bars. The disclosure of the transcripts as part of the Justice Department's ongoing release of its investigative files on Maxwell and the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein exposed how an FBI agent told grand jurors about Maxwell's critical role in Epstein's decades-long sexual abuse of girls and young women. |
On Dec. 22 — three days past the congressionally mandated deadline for the Justice Department to release the entire trove of Epstein files — a top prosecutor in Florida sent an emergency request to employees in the Miami U.S. attorneys office. The Justice Department immediately needed prosecutors over Christmas week to volunteer to review and redact information on documents from the sex-trafficking investigation of Jeffrey Epstein so the materials could be released to the public. |
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