The Latest: House committee issues subpoenas for Epstein files, depositions with Clintons and others
By The Associated Press
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’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
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.
US Rep. Mike Flood got an earful during a public meeting
The second-term Nebraska Republican, who represents the GOP-leaning district that includes the University of Nebraska, braved the ire of a college town audience Monday to discuss his support of President Trump’s “Big Beautiful Bill.”
For their part, most in the crowd joined in a 90-minute barrage of jeers and chants, in a scenario House Republican leaders have specifically advised GOP members to avoid.
A favorite? “Tax the rich! Tax the rich!”
Flood called the bill less than perfect, but stood specifically firm on its Medicaid changes.
“More than anything, I truly believe this bill protects Medicaid for the future,” Flood said, setting off a shower of boos from the audience of roughly 700 in the University of Nebraska’s Kimball Recital Hall. “We protected Medicaid.”
House Democrats initiated the subpoena
Although the House Oversight Committee is controlled by Republicans, it was Democrats who sparked the move to subpoena the Justice Department for its files on Epstein. They were joined by some Republicans to successfully initiate the subpoena through a subcommittee of the House Oversight Committee.
“Democrats are focused on transparency and are pushing back against the corruption of Donald Trump,” Rep. Robert Garcia, who’s the top Democrat on the House Oversight Committee, told reporters last month. “What is Donald Trump hiding that he won’t release the Epstein files?”
All the officials subpoenaed by House Oversight regarding the Epstein files
Former President Bill Clinton
Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton
Former Attorney General Merrick Garland
Former Attorney General William Barr
Former Attorney General Jeff Sessions
Former Attorney General Loretta Lynch
Former Attorney General Eric Holder
Former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales
Former FBI director James Comey
Former FBI director Robert Mueller
House committee issues subpoenas for Epstein files, depositions with Clintons and other officials
The House Oversight Committee has subpoenaed the Department of Justice for files in the sex trafficking investigation into Jeffrey Epstein.
It’s part of a congressional probe that lawmakers believe may show links to President 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.
▶ Read more about Congress and the Epstein files
Abortion rights group aim to probe Trump administration on medication abortion
Major reproductive rights groups announced Tuesday that they’d filed requests to probe the Trump administration’s communications about medication abortion and emergency abortion care.
Democracy Forward and Reproductive Freedom For All filed a host of Freedom of Information Act requests for records from the FDA and U.S. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services about key political appointees, including FDA Commissioner Marty Makary and CMS Administrator Mehmet Oz.
Makary has expressed openness to re-examining access to the major abortion pill mifepristone, most recently telling PBS “we can’t promise we’re not going to act on that data that we have not yet seen.” This is despite decades of evidence showing the drug is both safe and effective.
The move by abortion rights groups also comes after the Trump administration in June announced it would revoke a guidance directing hospitals to provide emergency abortions for women when they’re necessary to stabilize their medical condition.
“The public has a right to know how and why the Trump-Vance administration is targeting vital health care and reproductive access,” Skye Perryman, president and CEO of Democracy Forward, said in a statement.
In rejecting jobs report, Trump follows his own playbook of discrediting unfavorable data
When the coronavirus surged during Trump’s first term, he called for a simple fix: Limit the amount of testing so the deadly outbreak looked less severe. When he lost the 2020 election, he had a ready-made reason: The vote count was fraudulent.
And on Friday, when the July jobs report revisions showed a distressed economy, Trump had an answer: He fired the official in charge of the data and called the report of a sharp slowdown in hiring “phony.”
Trump has a go-to playbook if the numbers reveal uncomfortable realities, and that’s to discredit or conceal the figures and to attack the messenger — all of which can hurt the president’s efforts to convince the world that America is getting stronger.
“Our democratic system and the strength of our private economy depend on the honest flow of information about our economy, our government and our society,” said Douglas Elmendorf, a Harvard University professor who was formerly director of the Congressional Budget Office. “The Trump administration is trying to suppress honest analysis.”
▶ Read more about Trump’s response to unfavorable data
Defending Texas GOP’s mid-decade redistricting, Trump says ‘We are entitled to five more seats’
President Trump defended Texas Republicans’ decision to redraw the state’s congressional map mid-decade, pointing to Democratic-led states where he says Republicans are underrepresented.
“They did it to us,” Trump said in a TV interview Tuesday.
But in many of the states Trump referenced — including California — partisan lawmakers are not in charge of drawing district lines.
During the same interview, Trump also lashed out at Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker, who welcomed Texas Democrats to his state after they left to block a vote on the new map. Trump called Pritzker “probably the dumbest of all governors.”
Trump says ‘I’d like to run’ for president again
Touting his 2024 win and “the best poll numbers,” Trump told CNBC that “I’d like to run again.”
But asked by the hosts if he will, Trump replied, “Probably not.”
The back-and-forth came as Trump heralded his 2024 win in Texas, a record he said “they say won’t be beaten unless I run again.”
And Trump threatens to raise tariffs on India within 24 hours
Trump said on CNBC that higher tariffs could be coming for India.
Last week, Trump said the U.S. said it would impose a 25% tariff on goods from India, plus an additional import tax because of India’s purchasing of Russian oil.
“I think I’m going to raise that very substantially over the next 24 hours because they’re buying Russian oil, they’re fueling the war machine,” Trump said Tuesday. “And if they’re going to do that, then I’m not going to be happy.”
The 25% tariffs were part of a flurry of trade activity that included a series of executive actions regarding Brazil, copper and shipments of goods worth less than $800, as well as a reduced 15% tax on imports from South Korea, including its autos.
Trump threatens eventual 200% tariffs on pharma
The U.S. president said imported pharmaceutical drugs could eventually face tariffs as high as 200%.
“We want pharmaceuticals made in our country,” Trump said in the CNBC interview.
Trump said tariffs on pharmaceuticals will be “initially small,” but that he would hike it to 150% or 200% over the subsequent year and a half.
The president also said he would announce tariffs on semiconductors and computer chips.
Trump says EU will pay 35% tariffs if $600B investments don’t come through
Trump told CNBC hosts that 35% tariffs will kick in with the European Union if they don’t make good on promised investments in U.S. goods.
The president was asked what “teeth” were in deals to force European officials to make good on their pledges.
Trump initially said the EU was paying $650 billion but then rounded the figure down to $600 billion.
“We’re a rich country again,” Trump said, adding that the $600 billion investment can go in “anything I want.”
Trump floats ‘Kevin and Kevin’ for Fed chair
The president said he was considering four people for Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell’s replacement.
Among the top on his list are his current economics director, Kevin Hassett, and former Fed governor Kevin Warsh.
“I think Kevin and Kevin, both Kevins are very good,” Trump said during an interview on CNBC Tuesday morning.
He said two other people were in consideration. Not one of them: current Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, who has indicated to Trump that he wants to stay where he is.
“It’ll be one of four people,” he said. “We’re going to make a decision soon.”
