What to know today
- EPSTEIN CASE: The Justice Department filed a motion to release grand jury testimony in the criminal cases of the late financier and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein and his co-conspirator Ghislaine Maxwell.
- LIBEL LAWSUIT: President Donald Trump sued The Wall Street Journal's publisher, as well as Rupert Murdoch and two reporters, over an article published yesterday about Trump and Epstein.
- CRYPTOCURRENCY REGULATION: Trump signed legislation this afternoon to establish a framework for cryptocurrency regulation. The House passed the landmark bill, dubbed the GENIUS Act, last night.
‘Let me see the videotapes’: Mark Epstein wants Steve Bannon’s 15 hours of unseen footage of his brother
In 2021, the New York Post ran an online trailer of an upcoming documentary about Jeffrey Epstein that was produced by former Trump adviser Steve Bannon. In the video, Bannon is on camera questioning Epstein about “all of the depravity you’ve done against young women,” among other things.
But that documentary never came out. Now, Jeffrey Epstein’s brother, Mark, is asking for Bannon to show him the unseen footage.
“Let me see the videotapes,” he told NBC News today. “He’s my brother.”
FBI personnel were told to flag Epstein files mentioning Trump, Senate Democrat says
Senate Democratic Whip Dick Durbin, D-Ill., pressed Justice Department leadership about their handling of files related to the federal investigation into the late Jeffrey Epstein, including reports that FBI personnel were instructed to “flag” any records that mentioned Trump.
In a series of oversight letters written to Attorney General Pam Bondi, FBI Director Kash Patel and FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino, Durbin questioned Bondi about “contradictions” in her public statements on the case, Patel about reports that he was “pressured” by Bondi to place 1,000 personnel on 24-hour shifts to mine roughly 100,000 Epstein-related records and Bongino about reported disputes among Trump officials about “the lack of transparency” in their handling of the high-profile case.
In the letters sent today, Durbin, the top Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee, asked each of the Trump administration officials to respond to information received by his office that suggested FBI personnel were specifically instructed to “flag” any records mentioning Trump.
“My office was told that these personnel were instructed to ‘flag’ any records in which President Trump was mentioned. ... Why were personnel told to flag records in which President Trump was mentioned,” Durbin asked Bondi, Patel and Bongino in separate letters. “What happened to the records mentioning President Trump once they were flagged?”
Trump frustrated at having to take the heat for Pam Bondi’s handling of the Epstein files
Trump has grown weary of defending Attorney General Pam Bondi’s handling of the Justice Department’s Jeffery Epstein files and wants her to take responsibility for cleaning up the mess, according to four people familiar with White House deliberations.
“One thing that’s been clear is his feelings about it,” one White House official told NBC News. “This now resides within the DOJ.”
Another senior White House official said they believed that the situation had “stabilized” when asked about the White House’s view of Bondi’s performance.
The administration’s refusal to disclose the full contents of the government’s investigation into Epstein, who killed himself in jail while awaiting trial on charges of sex-trafficking minors in 2019, has caused a deep rift between Trump and significant elements of his MAGA base.
Republicans keep voting for bills they say they don’t like
Two weeks after he cast a decisive vote to pass a sweeping domestic policy bill that cuts Medicaid by about $1 trillion, Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., introduced a bill to repeal some of those cuts.
“Now is the time to prevent any future cuts to Medicaid from going into effect,” Hawley said in a statement.
The move represents a trend in Congress during Trump’s second term. Republican lawmakers across the ideological spectrum keep casting votes in favor of bills even while warning that they’re deeply flawed, and may require fixing down the road. In some cases, lawmakers explicitly threaten to vote “no” on bills before eventually folding and voting “yes.”
Trump takes victory lap with GOP senators at White House dinner
Trump praised Republican senators at the White House this evening for recently passed legislation like the “One Big Beautiful Bill” and a spending cuts package.
In lighthearted remarks, Trump joked that the crypto measure he signed into law today, called the GENIUS Act, had been named after him, while urging the Republican lawmakers to stay healthy so that they don’t lose any votes in the chamber.
“We said, 'We’re a heart attack away from losing the Senate.' We were just hoping everybody’s going to stay good and healthy,” Trump told the gathering of senators, their spouses and administration officials.
He also struck an optimistic tone when talking about the 2026 midterms, predicting that the GOP majority in Congress "is going to be stronger in both the House and the Senate."
Trump sues Wall Street Journal’s publisher and 2 reporters over Epstein article
Trump took legal action today less than 24 hours after The Wall Street Journal published an article saying he sent a letter to Jeffrey Epstein in 2003 that included a drawing of a naked woman.
The lawsuit named the Journal’s parent company, News Corp; its publisher, Dow Jones; two reporters for the newspaper; and News Corp owner Rupert Murdoch as the defendants.
The suit, filed in the Southern District of Florida, comes after Trump denied The Wall Street Journal’s reporting that he had written a birthday message to Epstein more than two decades ago that featured a hand-drawn outline of a naked woman and a signature of his first name.
DOJ files motion to unseal grand jury testimony related to Epstein
Attorney General Pam Bondi and Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche filed a motion to unseal grand jury transcripts related to Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell’s criminal case in Manhattan federal court.
“At the direction of the Attorney General, the Department of Justice hereby moves the Court to release grand jury transcripts associated with the above-referenced indictment,” the document reads.
The motion details that the Justice Department would work alongside the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York to redact "all victim-identifying information" before its public release.
The move comes after Trump directed Bondi to release "pertinent" information related to the grand jury testimony in Epstein's case.
Men Trump administration had sent to El Salvador’s CECOT prison exchanged in prisoner swap
More than 200 Venezuelan immigrants whom the Trump administration had sent to a notorious mega-prison in El Salvador have been flown to Venezuela.
The move, El Salvador President Nayib Bukele said in a post on X, was part of a prisoner swap in which the Venezuelan government agreed to release “a considerable number of Venezuelan political prisoners ... as well as all the American citizens it was holding as hostages” in exchange for the Venezuelan nationals who had been detained in El Salvador’s Terrorism Confinement Center, known as CECOT.
In a post of his own, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said, “Thanks to @POTUS’s leadership, ten Americans who were detained in Venezuela are on their way to freedom.
“I want to thank my team at the @StateDept & especially President @nayibbukele for helping secure an agreement for the release of all of our American detainees, plus the release of Venezuelan political prisoners.”
Trump signs GENIUS Act to regulate cryptocurrency
Trump today signed the GENIUS Act during a ceremonial event at the White House that was attended by dozens of Senate and House lawmakers.
The bill, which the House passed earlier this week, is the first piece of federal legislation regulating stablecoins, a form of cryptocurrency. The bill passed both chambers of Congress with bipartisan support.
"The entire crypto community, for years, you were mocked and dismissed and counted out," Trump said at the signing ceremony.
"This signing is a massive validation of your hard work and your pioneering spirit," he added, noting his admiration for crypto stocks.
House passes spending package cutting foreign aid and funds for NPR and PBS
NBC News’ Julie Tsirkin reports on the House of Representatives passing a bill cutting $9 billion in spending that had already been approved, including cuts to foreign aid and funds for services like NPR and PBS.
