CLINTONS SET FOR DEPOSITION: Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is set to testify today before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee in its investigation into Jeffrey Epstein, capping off a back-and-forth saga in which congressional Republicans threatened to hold her in contempt.
The former first lady and former President Clinton, who is scheduled to speak with the panel Friday, will testify behind closed doors far from the halls of the Capitol, with committee members traveling to Chappaqua, N.Y., where the Clintons have a home, for the depositions. They will be the most high-profile figures to appear before the committee in its investigation so far.
How much the committee will learn from their testimonies is unclear. Neither Clinton has been accused of any wrongdoing in relation to their ties to Epstein.
The couple resisted the idea of appearing before the House panel, arguing they didn't have any relevant information to share. They pointed to others who received subpoenas from the committee but were excused from testifying through the same argument.
Oversight Chair James Comer (R-Ky.) rejected that argument and moved to hold the couple in contempt. As the full House seemed likely to pass the contempt resolutions with support even from some Democrats, the Clintons reversed course and agreed to testify. The contempt effort was pulled thereafter.
The Clintons called for their testimonies to take place in public, but Comer said the private depositions would go forward.
Their appearances are taking place as others with ties to the disgraced financier face intensifying public scrutiny.
Former Treasury Secretary Larry Summers announced Wednesday he would resign from his positions at Harvard University and retire from his professorship at the end of the year. That came after disclosures from the Epstein files revealed Summers asked Epstein for romantic advice and made sexist remarks toward women to him.
Summers stepped back from various public roles in the aftermath of the revelations but remained a tenured professor.
Bill Gates is also addressing criticism over his associations with Epstein, apologizing for their relationship at a town hall with staffers at the Gates Foundation on Tuesday. He said he never did nor saw anything "illicit" and did not spend any time with Epstein's victims or the women around him.
Advocates for the release of the Epstein files are continuing their push for greater disclosure despite the Department of Justice (DOJ) declaring last month that it had released the last batch of files required to be made public under the law.
Multiple outlets have reported that dozens of FBI records are seemingly missing from the files, including interviews with a woman who made allegations against Trump.
▪ The Hill: Clintons to appear for high-profile depositions.
▪ CNBC: Nobel winner steps back from Columbia University over Epstein friendship.
FBI PURGE: Roughly 10 FBI employees have been fired as part of the agency's ongoing purge of staff who were involved in the investigations into the president.
Multiple outlets reported that those dismissed had worked on the probe into Trump's retention of classified and sensitive documents at Mar-a-Lago. The news came after Reuters reported that the FBI had subpoenaed the phone records of now-FBI Director Kash Patel and now-White House chief of staff Susie Wiles when they were both private citizens in 2022 and 2023.
The New York Times reported people with knowledge of the move said the 10 ousted FBI officials, some of whom are veteran agents, aren't expected to be the last ones dismissed. The outlet noted it remains unclear if the employees have been accused of any wrongdoing.
Current and former officials told the Times the firings are likely to heighten growing resentment against Patel for removing rank-and-file employees without evidence of wrongdoing.
WHAT'S NEXT: The president heaped significant pressure onto congressional Republicans in his address Tuesday with his calls for action on legislation while the GOP still has unified control of the federal government.
One of the key pieces of legislation Trump declared his support for was the SAVE America Act, which has been a centerpiece of conservative activism in recent weeks. The legislation would require individuals to provide documentation such as a birth certificate or passport to register to vote and a photo ID to cast a ballot nationwide.
The bill has already passed in the House but is currently stalled in the Senate, where current rules require it to receive at least 60 votes to advance past a filibuster. With Democrats overwhelmingly opposed to it, the chances of that are slim.
Some conservatives have pushed for Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) to get around that by changing Senate rules to return to a "talking filibuster," under which Democrats would be required to speak continuously on the floor to delay a vote. Thune has brushed off that idea, saying that he doesn't support it and there aren't enough votes from Republicans to change it.
But The Hill's Al Weaver reports Thune is under renewed pressure after Trump spoke extensively about his claims of voter fraud during his speech and specifically called on the Senate GOP leader to take action.
Thune said he plans to bring the legislation up for a vote soon but couldn't promise the result.
Meanwhile, House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) is also in a tough spot in the lower chamber with the new legislative proposals Trump made during the speech, including one to offer Americans who don't have a retirement savings plan through their employer access to the same one that federal workers have.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said the proposal can advance through the budget reconciliation process, which only requires a simple majority in the Senate rather than 60 votes.
But Johnson may only have a narrow window to advance much of Trump's legislative agenda with the midterms coming up and history suggesting the majority party is likely to lose seats in Congress in November, The Hill's Mike Lillis and Sudiksha Kochi report.
The chances of quickly bringing an end to the shutdown of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) may also have narrowed after Trump urged Republicans to hold their ground in negotiations with Democrats. He called for a quick reopening of DHS as he's showed no signs of being willing to yield to Democrats' extensive demands for immigration enforcement reforms.
▪ The Hill: House Dem leader says Trump speech 'riddled with dirty rotten lies.'
▪ The Hill: Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) says her guest was arrested during the address.
MEANS TESTING: The president's nominee for U.S. surgeon general faced intense grilling on Capitol Hill on Wednesday over her qualifications to be the country's top public health spokesperson.
Casey Means appeared before the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee about four months after her initial hearing was rescheduled because she went into labor hours before it was due to start. The sister of Calley Means, who is one of the top advisers to Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the Stanford School of Medicine graduate would be an unprecedented choice as surgeon general if she is confirmed.
Casey Means didn't complete her medical residency and doesn't have an active medical license. She is a prominent social media influencer popular among those in the "Make America Healthy Again" movement.
The hearing was contentious on several occasions, including when Means refused to say if she would encourage mothers to vaccinate their children against measles. Democrats also accused her of a conflict of interest through products she has endorsed online.
Former surgeons general have spoken out against Means's nomination, including the president's own former surgeon general from his first term, Jerome Adams.
The hearing also became heated during a confrontation between Sens. Markwayne Mullin (R-Okla.) and Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) over the health care system and the Affordable Care Act.
▪ The Hill: Takeaways from the hearing.
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