Hillary Clinton says she is confident her husband knew nothing about Jeffrey Epstein's crimes
Speaking to reporters after her deposition by the House oversight committee, Hillary Clinton just said that she is confident that her husband, the former president Bill Clinton, knew nothing about the crimes of Jeffrey Epstein.
Asked by a reporter how she was preparing for her husband’s testimony, and if she was “a hundred percent confident” that Bill Clinton was unaware of Epstein’s crimes when he spent time with him before the late sex offender’s first arrest, Clinton responded:
“I am, and I think the chronology of the connection that he had with Epsty- Epstein ended years, several years before anything about Epstein’s criminal activities came to light, and that he was charged and, sadly, given a sweetheart deal”, Clinton said, catching herself as she initially started to mispronounce Epstein’s name.
Clinton went on to criticize the deal offered to Epstein in 2007 by federal prosecutors in Florida, which enabled him to plead guilty to state charges of soliciting prostitution from a minor in 2008 and serve a short sentence in exchange for dropping more serious federal charges.
“Had that not happened, perhaps his predatory behavior could have been stopped earlier,” she added. “But I think it is fair to say that the vast majority of people who had contact with him before his criminal plea in ‘08 were like most people, they did not know what he was doing. And I think that is exactly what my husband will testify to tomorrow.
Bill Clinton, who gives testimony on Friday, has previously denied having any knowledge of Epstein’s crimes and said that he had no contact with the late sex offender after his first arrest in 2006.
'I want to see the truth come out,' Hillary Clinton says after testimony to House committee on Epstein
In a televised statement to reporters after her testimony behind closed doors to the House oversight committee, Hillary Clinton, the former first lady, US senator and secretary of state, said: “I answered every one of their questions.”
She went on to reiterate what she said in her opening statement to the panel: “I never met Jeffrey Epstein, never had any connection or communication with him. I knew Ghislaine Maxwell casually, as an acquaintance.”
“It was disappointing that they refused to hold a public hearing,” Clinton added.
She also pointed to what she said was the partisan nature of the questions from the Republicans on the panel.
“I can only say that the best exchange that I had came at the very end, when contrary to every other deposition they have taken, no Republican member asked any question about Jeffrey Epstein or Ghislaine Maxwell to anyone else they have deposed,” Clinton said.
“And in fact, the Republican members didn’t even show up for the deposition of Les Wexner,” she continued. “And when I said that, I had to point out that the only questions that any Republican member asked, of any of the people they deposed, was or former attorney general Bill Barr, when chairman Comer asked him about the allegations, in his view, about Russia’s involvement in my election in 2016,” she said, referring to a conspiracy theory that Clinton, not Donald Trump, was aided by Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election she lost.
“So at the very end of this hearing, after I made that point, I want to commend chairman Comer for raising a series of significant questions that I responded to about the nature of the investigation, in the areas that I thought should be explored,” she said.
“So I appreciated that, I want to see the truth come out,” Clinton said.
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House Republicans reportedly ask Hillary Clinton about UFOs and debunked Pizzagate conspiracy theory
After Hillary Clinton told House Republicans in a deposition about Jeffrey Epstein that she never met Jeffrey Epstein, and knew nothing about his crimes or those of Ghislaine Maxwell they reportedly asked her about two very different subjects, UFOs and the debunked Pizzagate conspiracy theory.
Annie Karni, a New York Times congressional correspondent, reported the questions about Pizzagate, a 2016 conspiracy theory based on the false claim that members of Clinton’s campaign team were communicating in coded emails about child sex slaves held in the basement of Comet Ping Pong, a Washington DC pizza restaurant that has no basement. The conspiracy theory was promoted by far-right influencers, including Jack Posobiec, until late 2016 when a man with an assault rifle who believed that it was true stormed into the pizzeria to “self-investigate” and fired a shot from an assault rifle.
A source confirmed the questions about UFOs to Matt Berg, Crooked Media’s Washington correspondent. “They are not serious people,” Berg’s unnamed source said.
Melanie Stansbury, a Democratic congresswoman from New Mexico, expressed surprise about the UFO questions on social media. “If these guys were serious about addressing the Epstein crimes, why are they not asking the AG and FBI to answer for the cover-up of files and why cases have been left unprosecuted for decades?” she asked.
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Zohran Mamdani’s spokesperson, Joe Calvello, just provided the Guardian with details on the mayor’s meeting with Donald Trump.
He noted that Mamdani presented the president about a possible project in New York City that would “deliver one of the biggest federal investments in housing in 50 years”.
Calvello added that “the mayor proposed a project with an estimated 12,000 units, and our team did mock up front pages of newspapers, and the mayor presented those to the president in the meeting”. Calvello added that Trump appeared “enthusiastic” about the idea.
In addition to housing, Mamdani’s spokesperson said the mayor also brought up the detainment of the Columbia student, Ellie Aghayeva, who was detained this morning. Mamdani “asked the president directly that she be released” according to Calvello. “He handed a list of four additional students who had been detained in New York City to the chief of staff and to the president, asking them to also consider dismissing their cases,” Calvello added. “Shortly after the meeting, president Trump then called the mayor to let him know the Columbia student detained this morning will be released from detention.”
As our colleagues Alice Speri and Sara Braun report, Aghayeva has now been released.
Democratic leaders in the US Senate said they will also force a vote “in the coming days” on a war powers resolution to make sure any US participation in military action against Iran requires congressional authorization.
The resolution “would not prevent the U.S. from defending itself or Israel from an Iranian attack,” the Democratic officials said.
A similar resolution received a vote in the senate last June, which gained bipartisan support but not enough votes to advance in the legislative process.
Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer said in a statement:
“Donald Trump must make the case to Congress and the American people on what the objectives or strategy would be for any potential military campaign against Iran. The American people deserve to know the why and the how of any planned action against Iran before we risk the lives of our sons and daughters. Iran’s ongoing campaign of terrorism, regional destruction and oppression of the Iranian people must be met with a coherent strategy built on strength and clarity. This resolution ensures this administration cannot sleepwalk this country into an endless and costly war. It is vital that Congress stand up for its constitutional duty.”
Mamdani spokesperson confirms oddly filtered image of him with Trump is real
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.
Another Mamdani spokesperson, Joe Calvello, told reporters that the mayor’s office brought Trump the two newspaper front pages seen in the photo: 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, when then president Gerald Ford refused to bail out the city; the second, a mock-up of an imaginary Daily News cover that read: “Trump To City: Let’s Build”.
Calvello also said that the meeting on Thursday stemmed from the first one between the two men, when they agreed that the mayor would return when he identified a building project they could collaborate on.
Mamdani proposed a project that would create an estimated 12,000 units of new housing with federal support, Calvello said, a figure which was referenced in the mocked-up newspaper cover.
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Thursday so far...
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.
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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, when then president Gerald Ford refused to bail out the city; the second, a mock-up of an imaginary Daily News cover reads: “Trump To City: Let’s Build”.
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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.
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Democrats on oversight committee call for Trump to be deposed 'immediately'
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.”
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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.”
Clinton testimony resumes, reports say
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.
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Senate Democrats to review millions of unredacted Epstein files amid accusations of DoJ coverup
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.”
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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.
Rightwing commentator posts photo of Hillary Clinton testifying, briefly pausing proceedings
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.
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James Comer also told reporters ahead of Hillary Clinton’s deposition that he plans to release the video and transcript of what he expects will be a “long” interview with the former secretary of state.
“This is going to be a long video and a long deposition,” the House oversight committee chair said in Chappaqua, New York, adding that the questioning of former president Bill Clinton tomorrow will be “even longer”.
We’re going to release the transcripts, release the video as soon as everyone approves it.
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Top Democrat on House committee calls for Trump to testify in same investigation as Clintons
Per the Associated Press, Robert Garcia of California, the top Democrat on the House oversight panel, also called on Donald Trump to testify in the investigation. He argued that Bill Clinton’s appearance tomorrow sets a precedent that should apply to Trump as well.
Let’s get President Trump in front of our committee to answer the questions that are being asked across this country from survivors.
Chair James Comer previously said that the committee can’t depose Trump because he is a sitting president.
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Before Hillary Clinton’s testimony began, House oversight committee chair James Comer repeatedly said that the probe was not partisan in nature.
When asked whether the committee would bring in commerce secretary Howard Lutnick for questioning, Comer said it was “very possible” and that there was a “good possibility” that Lutnick’s name would arise during questioning today. Lutnick has been tied to Epstein and has admitted he had lunch with Epstein on his private island.
Comer noted that Republicans tied to the Trump administration have already been brought in for questioning, including former labor secretary Alex Acosta and former attorney general Bill Barr.
Anyone who has knowledge of Epstein and the investigation is of interest to the committee, he said.
I think we all agree the government failed. The government failed the victims, and what our role is, we can’t prosecute anymore, but what we have been doing is getting transparency to the American people. We’re seeing accountability, but we have a desire to see a lot more accountability. We want to get the answers, and hopefully the next two days will be a step in the right direction.
Comer said that it’s clear from all the Epstein documents that Ghislaine Maxwell was his main co-conspirator. The Clintons’ relationship with Maxwell, and Epstein’s financial giving to Clinton-related initiatives, will be part of the questioning, he said, including the fact that Maxwell attended Chelsea Clinton’s wedding.
“Again, that’s not saying anything illegal, but there are a lot of questions pertaining to Secretary Clinton,” he said.
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Clinton implores committee to investigate without partisan lens
Throughout her opening statement, Hillary Clinton detailed the work she has done to protect women and girls and against human trafficking over decades of her career, in multiple public roles.
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.
From her statement:
A committee endeavoring to stopping human trafficking would seek to understand what specific steps are needed to fix a system that allowed Epstein to get away with his crimes in 2008.
A committee run by elected officials with a commitment to transparency would ensure the full release of all the files.
It would ensure that the lawful redactions of those files protected the victims and survivors, not powerful men and political allies.
It would get to the bottom of reports that DOJ withheld FBI interviews in which a survivor accuses President Trump of heinous crimes.
It would subpoena anyone who asked on which night there would be the ‘wildest party’ on Epstein’s island.
It would demand testimony from prosecutors in Florida and New York about why they gave Epstein a sweetheart deal and chose not to pursue others who may have been implicated.
It would demand that Secretary Rubio and Attorney General Bondi testify about why this administration is abandoning survivors and playing into the hands of traffickers.
It would seek out officers on the front lines of this fight and ask them what support they need.
It would put forth legislation to provide more resources and force this administration to act.
But that’s not happening.
Instead, you have compelled me to testify, fully aware that I have no knowledge that would assist your investigation, in order to distract attention from President Trump’s actions and to cover them up despite legitimate calls for answers.
If this Committee is serious about learning the truth about Epstein’s trafficking crimes, it would not rely on press gaggles to get answers from our current president on his involvement; it would ask him directly under oath about the tens of thousands of times he shows up in the Epstein files.
If the majority was serious, it would not waste time on fishing expeditions. There is too much that needs to be done.
What is being held back? Who is being protected? And why the cover-up?
My challenge to you, Mr. Chairman, Members of the Committee, is the same challenge I put to myself throughout my long service to this nation. How to be worthy of the trust the American people have given you. They expect statesmanship, not gamesmanship. Leading, not grandstanding. They expect you to use your power to get to the truth and to do more to help survivors of Epstein’s crimes as well as the millions more who are victims of sex trafficking.
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Clinton's opening statement: 'I never flew on his plane or visited his island, homes or offices'
Hillary Clinton released her opening statement.
She said she submitted a sworn statement to the committee on 13 January that she had no idea of Jeffrey Epstein or Ghislaine Maxwell’s criminal activities or the investigations into them.
“The Committee justified its subpoena to me based on its assumption that I have information regarding the investigations into the criminal activities of Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell. Let me be as clear as I can. I do not,” she said. “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.”
She said she, “like every decent person,” has been horrified to learn of their crimes. She said the committee’s investigation was supposed to be assessing the government’s handling of the investigations, but pointed out that eight law enforcement officials were subpoenaed, and most were allowed to submit statements that they had no information to provide. The proceedings lack transparency and are partisan, she said.
“This institutional failure is designed to protect one political party and one public official, rather than to seek truth and justice for the victims and survivors, as well as the public who also want to get to the bottom of this matter. My heart breaks for the survivors. And I am furious on their behalf,” she said.
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The justice department said it will look into whether any documents from the Epstein files were improperly withheld.
Several news organizations, including NPR and the New York Times, reported that records were withheld that include FBI interviews and notes regarding a woman who accused Trump of sexual abuse when she was a minor, decades ago.
Democrats on the House oversight committee said they would launch an investigation into these allegations to determine whether the justice department intentionally withheld the documents.
Hillary Clinton begins testifying, saying she has no information on Epstein's criminal activities
Here’s what to expect from Hillary Clinton as she begins answering questions from the House oversight committee.
She testified that she doesn’t have any information on Epstein and does not recall ever meeting him, according to the opening statement she released on X.
And she also told the committee members they should ask Trump under oath about the Epstein files.
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James Comer, the chair of the oversight committee, said the committee worked for six months to get the Clintons to come in and answer questions, and when they didn’t show up, they moved to hold the Clintons in contempt.
“I think one thing that surprised the Clintons: they assumed the Democrats on the committee would vote in a partisan manner and not vote to hold the Clintons in contempt, and what they learned was a majority of the Democrats on the committee either voted to hold the Clintons in contempt or voted present,” he said. “And I think that’s a statement that this investigation is serious. It is a bipartisan investigation.”
He said the Clintons “haven’t answered very many, if any, questions about their knowledge or involvement with Epstein and Maxwell”.
He stressed that no one is accusing the Clintons of wrongdoing and that they would have due process, but that all members of the committee would be asking them questions to try to understand more about Epstein, including how he accumulated his wealth and whether he was an asset for any government.
“The Democrats have just as many questions for the Clintons as the Republicans,” Comer said. “So this isn’t a partisan witch hunt. This was a motion, a bipartisan motion, supported by the Democrats, to bring the Clintons in. So I don’t think it’s any type of being unfair in any way to the Clintons.”
Hillary Clinton’s testimony is expected to last much of the day.
James Comer, the Republican who chairs the House oversight committee, said Hillary Clinton’s testimony would be a “long deposition” and that Bill Clinton’s, set for tomorrow, would likely be “even longer”.
The committee will release video and transcripts of the depositions after they are reviewed for any errors, he said.
Members of the oversight committee will be updating the public throughout the day, he said.
Hillary Clinton is expected to testify to the House Oversight Committee about Jeffrey Epstein soon this morning, but there will be no livestream of the proceedings.
They will happen behind closed doors but will be recorded.
We’re watching for any insights into what the hearing includes as it plays out.
The Clintons pushed for their testimony to be held publicly.
“I will not sit idly as they use me as a prop in a closed-door kangaroo court by a Republican Party running scared,” Bill Clinton said earlier this month. “If they want answers, let’s stop the games & do this the right way: in a public hearing, where the American people can see for themselves what this is really about.”
Cindy McCain to step down from role as executive director of UN World Food Programme
Cindy McCain announced today that she will step down from her role as executive director of the United Nations World Food Programme to focus on her health.
McCain, the widow of the late US senator John McCain, suffered a mild stroke last October and had returned to Italy to resume her work after that, but the demands of the job were affecting her recovery, the organization said. She started the role in April 2023. She will step down in three months.
McCain said in a statement that was stepping down with a “heavy heart”.
“I’ve seen firsthand WFP’s ability to save lives in the most dangerous, destitute, and remote locations of the world, where people need us the most,” she said. “Time and time again, I have seen the WFP team show up where no one else can, no matter the odds. I had truly hoped I could finish out my term, but my health has not recovered to a level that allows me to fully serve the enormous demands of this job. This is one of the most difficult decisions I have ever had to make.”
She said she would “remain WFP’s biggest champion and continue to be an unwavering voice for those struggling with hunger everywhere”.
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The scene in Chappaqua ahead of Hillary Clinton’s testimony:
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The FBI raid of the Los Angeles unified school district and its superintendent’s home yesterday appears to be part of a probe of a company that developed an AI chatbot for the district, the LA Times is reporting.
The federal agency and school district didn’t provide further details on the raid, but the LA Times cites sources that show it involved AllHere, “a failed AI company whose founder was charged with fraud in 2024”.
Another site raided on Wednesday morning was a Florida address linked to a person who worked with the AI company, the LA Times said.
The school district said in a statement yesterday that it was “informed of law enforcement activity” at its headquarters and at superintendent Alberto Carvalho’s home.
“The district is cooperating with the investigation and we do not have further information at this time,” the district said then.
Supercharged by billions in dollars from Congress, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has hired thousands of new officers to carry out Donald Trump’s mass deportation campaign in an effort it has likened to “wartime recruitment”. In several states, Democratic lawmakers want applicants to think twice about taking part.
Bills introduced in recent weeks in the legislatures of at least four Democratic-led states would impose long-term consequences on new ICE employees by rendering them ineligible for jobs in law enforcement, public education, and, in their most expansive form, the entire state civil service.
None of the proposals has been signed into law, and potential legislation may face legal challenges. The bills nonetheless underscore Democratic state lawmaker’s determination to undermine Trump’s hardline immigration policy, even as a similar effort in Congress that has resulted in the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) shutting down faces uncertain prospects.
“If you’re an ICE agent, you’re signing up to engage in unlawful conduct. You’re signing up to engage in racially profiling Latino communities. You’re signing up to engage in illegal detentions and deportations of people who have legal rights in this country, you’re signing up for the separation of families and children,” Democratic New Jersey assemblyman Ravi Bhalla told the Guardian.
Earlier in February, he introduced legislation that would effectively bar from state and local government employment anyone who joined ICE between September 2025 and the expected final day of Trump’s term in 2029.
Most Americans share president Donald Trump’s view that immigrants living illegally in the US should be deported, but generally disapprove of his hard-line tactics, including masked agents in tactical gear who have clashed with US citizens, a new Reuters/Ipsos poll found.
The six-day poll, concluded on Monday, illustrates both the broad appeal of Trump’s focus on immigration enforcement and the widespread disapproval of his tactics that could weigh on his Republican party in 3 November congressional midterm elections.
Some 61% of respondents - including 92% of Republicans and 35% of Democrats - said they “support deporting unauthorized immigrants”.
Trump’s stand on the issue helped him win the 2024 presidential election as he accused Democratic politicians of favoring “open borders”.
Sixty-three percent of Democrats said they do not support deporting unauthorized immigrants, compared with 7% of Republicans.
JD Vance announced on Wednesday that the Trump administration would “temporarily halt” more than a quarter-billion dollars in Medicaid reimbursements to the state of Minnesota, escalating Donald Trump’s newly announced “war on fraud”.
Vance said the action was to ensure Minnesota was “a good steward of the American people’s tax money”, part of its crackdown on the state following a fraud scandal linked to residents of the Somali community in Minneapolis, which prompted the administration to send thousands of federal immigration agents into Minneapolis and that resulted in the deaths of two US citizens and widespread protests.
“What we’re doing is we are stopping the federal payments that will go to the state government until the state government takes its obligations seriously to stop the fraud that’s being perpetrated against the American taxpayer,” the vice-president said at a press conference in Washington, where he was joined by Mehmet Oz, administrator of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid.
Oz said it was the first time the government had taken such an action against a state. “It’s unponderable that you would take advantage of these precious programs,” he said, adding that while Minnesota was first, other states would be next.
Oz also announced that the administration was imposing a six-month national moratorium on federal funding for people who need durable medical equipment, including prostheses and orthotics. New enrollments for federal funds for such devices would be halted due to concerns about benefit fraud, he said.
Medicaid, the nation’s healthcare safety net for low-income Americans, serves more than 70 million people, including children, pregnant women, older adults and people with disabilities. Minnesota’s Medicaid and MinnesotaCare programs provide healthcare coverage for nearly 1.3 million people in the state, or roughly one in four Minnesotans.
Kash Patel fires FBI officials linked to Trump documents case, reports say
At least 10 FBI employees connected to an investigation of Donald Trump have reportedly been dismissed following revelations that the agency subpoenaed personal records of current FBI director Kash Patel and White House chief of staff Susie Wiles in the years before Trump returned to office.
The ousters, reported by CBS News and CNN, were linked to the federal investigation led by former justice department special counsel Jack Smith into Trump’s alleged mishandling of classified documents that were found at his Florida Mar-a-Lago resort after his first term.
During the course of that investigation, Reuters reported on Wednesday, the FBI subpoenaed records of phone calls made by Patel and Wiles, who were both close to Trump but private citizens at the time.
The FBI has not yet responded to requests for comment from the Guardian. But in a statement to Reuters, Patel rebuked the agency he now heads and repeated claims that the actions are evidence of government overreach perpetuated by the Biden administration.
US and Iranian negotiators meet for crunch nuclear talks
Iran and US negotiators will be meeting in the Swiss city of Geneva today for a third round of indirect nuclear talks. The Oman-mediated discussions will take place amid a massive buildup of US warships and aircraft in the Middle East to pressure Iran into a deal.
This is the third meeting between the US and Iran since June last year, when Israel launched attacks on Iran that sparked a war marked by tit-for-tat airstrikes.
Ahead of today’s talks, the Iranian president, Masoud Pezeshkian, said Iran’s supreme leader, Ali Khamenei, has banned weapons of mass destruction, which “clearly means Tehran won’t develop nuclear weapons”. Khamenaei, who has the final say on all state matters in Iran, is thought to have issued a fatwa – or religious edict – banning the Iranian use of weapons of mass destruction, including nuclear weapons, some time before or in 2005.
In his State of the Union speech on Tuesday, US president Donald Trump accused Iran of seeking to rebuild its nuclear weapons programme, but gave no clear indication of his intentions regarding a possible military strike against Tehran. He did, however, say he wanted to resolve tensions diplomatically.
Iran has maintained that it will continue to enrich uranium, a component of a nuclear weapon, for peaceful purposes and has long argued that uranium enrichment is a sovereign right. It has threatened to retaliate in kind if the US were to launch a strike, and said that it would also attack Israel.
You can follow our live blog on the talks here:
Rubio says US will 'respond accordingly' after Cuba kills four in speedboat shooting
US Secretary of state Marco Rubio has refused to speculate on what happened after Cuba said its soldiers killed four people and wounded six others aboard a Florida-registered speed boat that had entered Cuban waters and opened fire.
He said that it could be a “wide range of things,” and that the US will not solely rely on what the Cuban authorities have provided thus far.
“Suffice it to say, it is highly unusual to see shootouts in open sea like that. It’s not something that happens every day. It’s something, frankly, that hasn’t happened with Cuba in a very long time,” Rubio said.
Cuba’s government said that the 10 passengers on a boat that opened fire on its soldiers were armed Cubans living in the US who were trying to infiltrate the island and unleash terrorism.
“The majority of the facts being publicly reported are those by the information provided by the Cubans. We will verify that independently as we gather more information, and we’ll be prepared to respond accordingly,” Rubio said. “We’re going to have our own information on this. We’re going to figure out exactly what happened.”
He said it was not a US government operation and that he wasn’t “going to speculate about whose boat it was, what they were doing, why they were there, what actually happened.”
Hillary Clinton to testify in US House panel's Epstein probe
Hello and welcome to the US politics live blog.
Former US secretary of state Hillary Clinton is to testify behind closed doors later today before a congressional committee investigating the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein and his accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell.
Former president Bill Clinton is scheduled to answer questions tomorrow from the Republican-led House Oversight Committee about his relations with Epstein, who died in a New York jail cell in 2019 while awaiting trial.
The Clintons had initially rejected subpoenas ordering them to testify in the panel’s probe, but the Democratic power couple eventually agreed to do so after House Republicans threatened to hold them in contempt of Congress, AFP reported.
The proceedings will take place behind closed doors but will be recorded, with footage expected to be released later – an arrangement reminiscent of what happened with Clinton’s 1998 grand jury testimony, which was made public the following month.
Bill Clinton has denied any wrongdoing but is under scrutiny over admissions that he flew on Epstein’s private plane several times. Photos in the recently released files show the ex-president in potentially compromising poses – particularly one with him in a hot tub with Epstein and a woman whose identity is redacted. Hillary, for her part, denies ever having met Epstein but acknowledges meeting Ghislaine Maxwell, his partner and convicted co-conspirator.
For Republicans, putting a searchlight on the Clintons has the advantage of deflecting attention from Donald Trump’s relationship with Epstein.
The Clintons called for their depositions to be public but the committee insisted on questioning them behind closed doors, a move Bill Clinton denounced as “pure politics” and akin to a “kangaroo court.”
He wrote on X:
If they want answers, let’s stop the games + do this the right way: in a public hearing, where the American people can see for themselves what this is really about.
In other developments:
The FBI fired at least 10 people this week who worked on the special counsel’s investigation of Donald Trump for illegally taking classified documents after he lost the presidency and left office in 2021.
A federal judge in Boston ruled on Wednesday that the Trump administration’s third-country removal policy, deporting immigrants to countries to which they have no ties, is unlawful.
Dr Jerome Adams, who served as the US surgeon general during Donald Trump’s first term, denounced the president’s nomination of Dr Casey Means, a wellness influencer without a medical license
Minnesota’s governor, Tim Walz, said to the Trump administration’s decision to withhold $259m in federal Medicaid funds from his state “has nothing to do with fraud”, but is instead about Trump “weaponizing the entirety of the federal government to punish blue states”.
