Highlights from Dec. 12, 2025
- EPSTEIN PHOTOS: House Democrats released a second batch of images from late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein's estate. The release includes photos of Epstein with high-profile figures, including President Donald Trump, former President Bill Clinton and former Clinton Treasury Secretary Larry Summers. The photos do not appear to show illegal activity by the individuals.
- WISCONSIN REDISTRICTING: A pair of judicial panels in Wisconsin held hearings today over challenges to the state's congressional map — the first time such panels are being used in the battleground state in a process that could determine how the map is drawn ahead of next year's midterm elections.
- INDIANA MAP: In a stunning rebuke of Trump's push to have Indiana lawmakers redraw their congressional map, the state Senate voted against a new GOP redistricting plan yesterday aimed at boosting the party in the midterms.
- ABREGO GARCIA CASE: A federal judge blocked the Trump administration from re-detaining Kilmar Abrego Garcia at an Immigration and Customs Enforcement check-in this morning after the judge ruled yesterday that the administration could not legally hold him at an immigration detention center. Abrego was detained during a similar scheduled check-in in August.
House Oversight Chairman threatens contempt of Congress proceedings against the Clintons over Epstein depositions
House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer, R-Ky., today threatened that former President Bill Clinton and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton could face contempt of Congress proceedings if they refuse to sit for depositions tied to its probe of convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
“It has been more than four months since Bill and Hillary Clinton were subpoenaed to sit for depositions related to our investigation into Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell’s horrific crimes," Comer said in a statement, referring to subpoenas issued to the Clintons and others in August.
"Throughout that time, the former President and former Secretary of State have delayed, obstructed, and largely ignored the Committee staff’s efforts to schedule their testimony. If the Clintons fail to appear for their depositions next week or schedule a date for early January, the Oversight Committee will begin contempt of Congress proceedings to hold them accountable," he added.
NBC News has reached out to Bill Clinton's office for comment.
A spokesperson for former President Clinton said in a 2019 statement that Bill Clinton “knows nothing about the terrible crimes” Epstein was charged with in Florida and New York and that the former president had never been to Epstein's private island known as Little St. James Island, his ranch in New Mexico or his Florida property.
Comer's statement threatening contempt comes after Democrats on the panel released additional images earlier today from Epstein’s estate.
U.S. releases mostly redacted document on oil tanker seizure
The U.S. on Friday unsealed a federal court order authorizing the seizure of oil tanker M/T Skipper this week — but the affidavit section which argues for the move is completely blacked out.
The oil tanker was boarded and seized by the U.S. Coast Guard on Wednesday as the vessel was in international waters after leaving Venezuela, officials have said.
The U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia Jeanine Pirro and FBI Director Kash Patel on Friday evening announced that prosecutors received an order to unseal the seizure warrant.
The seizure warrant was issued by a magistrate judge on Nov. 26, the documents show.
The Trump administration has said that the tanker is used to transport sanctioned oil from Venezuela and Iran, and to support Hezbollah and Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.
The Trump administration had previously released those details, and the warrant unsealed and released Friday appeared to contain little new information.
The entirety of an affidavit to support the application for the seizure of the tanker is blacked out.
Venezuelan Foreign Minister Yván Gil Pinto has described the seizure as a “blatant theft.”
Trump honors 'Miracle on Ice' hockey team from 1980 Olympics
Trump invited members of the press into the Oval Office this afternoon to honor the legendary 1980 Olympic men’s ice hockey team whose ‘Miracle on Ice’ resulted in a historic and symbolic victory against the Soviet Union.
Each of the players — along with some family members of players who had passed — introduced themselves and thanked the president for hosting them, before Trump took the opportunity to praise the group for a “remarkable” performance on the ice so many years ago.
Many of the team members are from Minnesota. One of the players noted the president wasn’t too happy with his state, which prompted the president to talk about Somalians, Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., and fraud in the state.
In his introduction of Rep. Elise Stefanik, R-N.Y., who was in the room alongside Rep. Tom Emmer, R-Minn., and FBI Director Kash Patel, Trump said she has a “hell of a shot” at the New York governorship.
Stefanik announced in November that she would run for New York governor.
Trump administration is considering demolition of four federal buildings, former GSA official says
The White House, without input from the General Services Administration, is considering the demolition of four federal buildings across Washington, D.C., according to a sworn declaration submitted by Mydelle Wright, who retired in 2024 after 18 years leading a team at the GSA responsible for the stewardship, restoration and management of the Eisenhower Executive Office Building.
“The White House, acting on its own and not through GSA, has solicited bids and/or is finalizing a bid package (the last step prior to solicitation) to analyze and recommend for demolition four historic federal buildings in DC, which include buildings eligible for and listed on the National Register of Historic Places and a National Historic Landmark,” Wright writes.
Wright says the buildings include the Robert C. Weaver Federal Building (where Department of Housing and Urban Development is headquartered), the Wilbur J. Cohen Federal Building (where several departments have offices), the GSA Regional Office Building, and the Liberty Loan Building (which was already planned by GSA for disposal).
This filing was made in the lawsuit brought by historic preservation groups, against the Trump administration, over the potential renovation of the Eisenhower Executive Office Building’s facade.
GSA has sole authority over this process, according to Wright, and would exercise that authority, including ensuring National Historic Preservation Act and National Environmental Policy Act compliance, “long before the stage of soliciting bids related to potential demolition, and yet, upon information and belief, key GSA personnel have only just learned of the White House’s activities.”
"For the first time of which I am aware, a President is personally involved in facilitating end-runs around the agency’s obligations to the buildings that are our national heritage," Wright writes. "Who in the agency is going to tell him 'no?'"
“The claims are pure fake news and utterly detached from the facts,” Marianne Copenhaver, GSA Associate Administrator for Strategic Communications, wrote in a statement to NBC News.
"It’s a manufactured narrative built on speculation. This person left GSA over 20 months ago in April 2024 and is now living 1,600 miles away in Colorado. GSA is proud to right-size the federal real estate portfolio by properly disposing of these four unneeded assets in a way that best serves Americans and in accordance with applicable laws and regulations. But we will not allow baseless rumors to overshadow that reality.”
Rising tensions and finger-pointing at DHS amid pressure to ramp up deportations
White House pressure to ramp up deportations has sparked rising tension and finger-pointing inside the Department of Homeland Security, with the agency’s secretary, Kristi Noem, and her top adviser blaming subordinates for not hitting arrest quotas and undermining their relationships inside the West Wing, according to two DHS officials with direct knowledge of the matter.
Noem and her close adviser Corey Lewandowski have sought to deflect blame from themselves for any White House frustration with the pace and scope of deportations, pinning it instead on the leaders of the agencies in charge of immigration enforcement — acting ICE Director Todd Lyons and Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Rodney Scott, the DHS officials said.
Underscoring the turmoil, Scott recently expressed concern to colleagues that Lewandowski is able to monitor his emails, the two officials and another DHS official said, sparking concern among other top staffers that their messages were being reviewed.
States announce lawsuit over Trump's new $100,000 H1-B visa fee
A group of states have announced they're suing the Trump administration over a fee increase for foreign workers to obtain H-1B visas.
California Attorney General Rob Bonta and Andrea Joy Campbell of Massachusetts led Democratic attorneys general from 18 other states in a federal lawsuit. The suit alleges that a proclamation Trump signed in September, requiring companies to pay a $100,000 fee to obtain H-1B worker visas, violates the Administrative Procedure Act and the U.S. Constitution. The proclamation renders the program inaccessible for government and nonprofit employers who lean on H-1B visa holders to provide key services, Bonta's office said in a news release today.
“President Trump’s illegal $100,000 H-1B visa fee creates unnecessary — and illegal — financial burdens on California public employers and other providers of vital services, exacerbating labor shortages in key sectors,” Bonta said in a statement.
White House spokesperson Taylor Rogers defended the new fee.
“President Trump promised to put American workers first, and his commonsense action on H-1B visas does just that by discouraging companies from spamming the system and driving down American wages, while providing certainty to employers who need to bring the best talent from overseas," Rogers said in a statement.
"The administration’s actions are lawful and are a necessary, initial, incremental step towards necessary reforms to the H-1B program," she added.
House Republican leaders eyeing health care vote 'next week'
Speaker Mike Johnson is eyeing a vote on the House floor “next week” on a package of health care policies, according to House Republican leadership aides, as their alternative to Affordable Care Act enhanced subsidies that are slated to expire.
The core bill will include a series of ideas popular among conservatives, including:
— Codifying Association Health Plans (AHPs) and “choice arrangements” that allow several employers to join forces and buy coverage at preferential group rates.
— Appropriating money for cost-sharing reduction payments (CSRs) to end the insurance practice of “silver-loading” plans on the exchanges.
— PBM transparency that it “would require pharmacy benefit managers to be more transparent with employers” and employer small businesses in negotiations.
There are no specifics on timing beyond “next week.” The House is expected to go on recess for the holidays after finishing up next week.
The GOP leadership aides said they are working on an "amendment" that that will include some sort of an extension of ACA subsidies. It’s unclear how long an extension it would be, and what policies would be attached to it. But it’d come up as an amendment to the underlying bill.
"I can’t give you the details on their amendment, but I expect it will be some approach to ACA enhanced PTC [premium tax credit] extension," one of the Republican aides told NBC News when pressed for details.
Trump and India's Modi hold third call after tariff hike
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and President Trump held a phone call yesterday, their third such call since Trump doubled tariffs on the South Asian nation in part to pressure New Delhi to cut purchases of Russian oil.
“We reviewed the progress in our bilateral relations and discussed regional and international developments,” Modi said in a post on X, without giving details.
Modi described his conversation as "very warm and engaging," which came as his government seeks relief from the levies, which are as high as 50% on some products and are affecting several industries, including textiles and chemicals.
Deputy U.S. Trade Representative Rick Switzer met with Indian officials this week in New Delhi, as Trump pushes India to cut back on Russian oil as a way of punishing Moscow for its war on Ukraine.
New Jersey governor says Trump's AI executive order 'violates states' rights'
New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy, a Democrat, criticized an executive order Trump signed yesterday aimed at blocking states from regulating artificial intelligence, He said in a statement today that the directive breached states' rights.
“As generative artificial intelligence has advanced, I have been proud to adopt AI-powered tools to improve government services and attract new investment and jobs to our state. However, President Trump’s Executive Order attempting to interfere with state-based regulation on AI will hamper our efforts and violates states’ rights," Murphy said.
"I remain committed to cementing New Jersey’s responsible leadership in the realm of AI and to working with my fellow governors on both sides of the aisle to mitigate the impacts of this order," he added.
Trump's order directed Attorney General Pam Bondi to establish a task force focused on challenging state-level AI laws that are viewed as conflicting with Trump's agenda for limiting restrictions on the industry.
Vice President JD Vance to deliver remarks on the economy in Pennsylvania next week
Vice President JD Vance will visit Allentown, Pennsylvania, on Dec. 16 to discuss the economy and lowering prices amid nationwide concerns about the cost of living.
The visit comes after President Donald Trump delivered remarks in Mount Pocono, Pennsylvania, located in a midterm battleground district, earlier this week to tout his economic record.
The series of events focused on the economy comes as congressional Republicans have publicly and privately raised concerns about the party's strategy to address Americans' cost-of-living concerns. An October poll by NBC News found that nearly two-thirds of voters say Trump hasn't lived up to expectations on cost of living and the economy.
