Live updates: Bondi won't testify in House Epstein probe; Dems demand Trump's removal

House Democrats will attempt to pass an Iran war powers resolution by unanimous consent during the House’s pro forma session tomorrow, according to a letter from Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y.

“A two-week ceasefire is woefully insufficient. Accordingly, we have demanded that the House come back into session immediately in order to vote on our resolution to permanently end the war in the Middle East,” Jeffries wrote.

Congress is in recess, but Jeffries said that Rep. Glenn Ivey, D-Md., will lead the effort tomorrow.

“All members who are in Washington are invited to join the effort on the House floor,” Jeffries wrote.

The vice president spoke to reporters before departing Hungary today, previewing the talks he'll be attending in Islamabad with Steve Witkoff, Jared Kushner and Iranian leaders.

Vance warned multiple times of "serious consequences" for Iran if the talks don't go well.

“If they break their end of the bargain, they’re going to see some serious consequences,” he said, adding later, “The president of the United States is saying that unless the Iranians do the right thing, he’s going to have some serious consequences for the regime.”

Vance also said that he, Kushner, Witkoff and Trump administration officials in Washington "are going to keep working this as a team as we always have."

The vice president also said that Iran has opened up the Strait of Hormuz, telling reporters, "We have already seen an increase in traffic today and we hopefully will see an increase in traffic tomorrow."

The Justice Department has told the House Oversight Committee that now-former Attorney General Pam Bondi will not appear before the committee next week to answer questions about the department’s handling of the Jeffrey Epstein case.

“The Department of Justice has stated Pam Bondi will not appear on April 14 for a deposition since she is no longer Attorney General and was subpoenaed in her capacity as Attorney General,” a spokeswoman for the House panel said in a statement today. “The Committee will contact Pam Bondi’s personal counsel to discuss next steps regarding scheduling her deposition.”

Read the full story here.

Leavitt was asked at the end of the press briefing if the U.S. is still considering withdrawing from NATO.

"It's something the president has discussed," she said, saying that it'll be something that could come up "in a couple of hours with Secretary General Rutte" at the White House.

She added, "Perhaps you'll hear directly from the president following that meeting later this afternoon."

Without providing details, Leavitt said at the press briefing that Iran has indicated it would turn over its enriched uranium to the U.S.

"This is ... the top of the priority list for the president and his negotiating team as they head into these next round of discussions. And as I said in my opener, that is a red line that the president is not going to back away from, and he's committed to ensuring that takes place," she said.

Asked if Iran has indicated it would turn over the materials, she said, "They have."

Leavitt was asked by a reporter whether the Trump administration believes, like previous administrations, that a nuclear war must never be fought.

"I have no change in our view on that policy," Leavitt said, before moving on to another question.

The question comes in light of the president's threat yesterday that "a whole civilization will die tonight" ahead of the announcement of the temporary ceasefire.

The White House press secretary said that the U.S. government is prepared to handle any security concerns facing Vance, Kushner and Witkoff while they are in Pakistan.

"With respect to the safety of the Vice President, we fully trust the United States Secret Service to do their job to keep the Vice President and the president’s negotiating team safe. They do a tremendous job, and we fully trust them to do that," Leavitt told reporters.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said that Iran put forward a new 10-point plan.

“The Iranians originally put forward a 10-point plan that was fundamentally unserious, unacceptable and completely discarded,” Leavitt said. “It was literally thrown in the garbage by President Trump and his negotiating team.”

She continued, saying that Iran then put forward a new plan.

“They put forward a more reasonable and entirely different and condensed plan to the president and his team,” she said. “President Trump and the team determined the new modified plan was a workable basis on which to negotiate and to align it with our own 15 point proposal.”

She said that Trump’s redlines, like the end of uranium enrichment in Iran, remain the same. Leavitt has not yet detailed what she says in the 10-point plan.

Leavitt: Trump threw Iran's original 10-point plan 'in the garbage'

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Leavitt confirmed that the vice president will join Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff in Islamabad this weekend to participate in peace talks with Iran.

"I can announce that the president is dispatching his negotiating team led by the Vice President of the United States, JD Vance, Special Envoy Witkoff and Mr. Kushner, to Islamabad for talks this weekend. The first round of those talks will take place on Saturday morning, local time, and we know we look forward to those in person meetings," Leavitt told reporters.

Vance has been in Hungary, where he held bilateral meetings with prime minister Viktor Orban.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said at the press briefing that Iran's reported suspension of oil tankers transiting the Strait of Hormuz is "unacceptable" but also said it's "false."

"With respect to the first reporting out of Iranian state media, the president was made aware of those reports before I came to the podium. That is completely unacceptable," she said.

She continued, "We have seen an uptick of traffic in the strait today, and I will reiterate the president’s expectation and demand that the Strait of Hormuz is reopened immediately, quickly and safely. That is his expectation. It has been relayed to him privately that that is what’s taking place, and these reports publicly are false."

Justice Department Pardon Attorney Ed Martin is seeking to move his disciplinary case to federal court, with his attorney writing that he needs “an Article III forum in which to raise the serious federal constitutional and statutory defenses.”

Martin’s team claims that the disciplinary charges against him “are part of a pattern and practice of political viewpoint discrimination against licensed professionals in violation of the First Amendment.” 

Martin, an advocate for Jan. 6 defendants who previously worked as the acting top federal prosecutor in D.C. and as head of the Trump administration’s “weaponization working group,” was formally accused last month of conduct that “violated the First and Fifth Amendments to the Constitution of the United States,” when he threatened Georgetown Law over its diversity policies, as well as attempted to get Disciplinary Counsel Hamilton P. Fox III fired by contacting a federal judge.

Martin’s attorney writes that Martin “is entitled to official immunity or qualified immunity,” and that the disciplinary charges “infringe on federal supremacy because they are a frontal attack on the discretionary power of a U.S. Attorney to investigate suspected violations of law.” 

A pre-hearing conference had been set for April 20 before a Board of Professional Responsibility hearing committee. 

A group of Democratic lawmakers called on the internal watchdogs of the Department of Homeland Security and the State Department yesterday to investigate the “unlawful and costly” policy of sending people to third countries to which they have no previous connections, according to a letter obtained exclusively by NBC News.

“The Trump Administration has, with little or no notice, secretly deported individuals to countries they are not from, have no connection to, and sometimes have never heard of, leaving many feeling like victims of a human ‘smuggling operation,’” said the letter sent by Sens. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., and Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., and Reps. Delia Ramirez, D-Ill., and Troy Carter, D-La., and signed by 26 other lawmakers.

Read the full story here.

The Justice Department has told the House Oversight Committee that former Attorney General Pam Bondi will not appear before the committee next week to answer questions about the department's handling of the Jeffrey Epstein case.

“The Department of Justice has stated Pam Bondi will not appear on April 14 for a deposition since she is no longer Attorney General and was subpoenaed in her capacity as Attorney General," a spokeswoman for the House panel said in a statement. "The Committee will contact Pam Bondi’s personal counsel to discuss next steps regarding scheduling her deposition,”

The Justice Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Asked at news conference yesterday if he would seek to block or delay Bondi's deposition, acting Attorney General Todd Blanche said, "I will leave it to Chairman Comer to work out with others. I just don’t have an answer for you." 

The president announced Bondi's removal last week, and she said in a post on X that she would be staying at the DOJ for a month to help with Blanche's transition.

Hegseth said in remarks to reporters this morning that the military was going to be staying in the Iran region as the ceasefire is underway.

“We’ll be hanging around, we’re not going anywhere,” he said.

One of Iran’s demands in order to end the war is the removal of all U.S. military forces from “all bases and positions in the region.” That demand would almost certainly be a non-starter for the U.S.

Voters in Waukesha, Wisconsin, the seat of a reliably Republican county in the Milwaukee suburbs, elected a Democratic mayor last night, The Associated Press projected.

Alicia Halvensleben, the Democratic president of Waukesha’s Common Council, defeated Republican candidate Scott Allen, a member of the state Assembly, in the technically nonpartisan race.

The two were running to succeed Mayor Shawn Reilly, who left the Republican Party and endorsed then-Vice President Kamala Harris in the 2024 presidential race. 

Democrats have made inroads in recent years in Waukesha County. In last night's Wisconsin Supreme Court race, conservative Maria Lazar carried the county by 8 points. In 2024, Trump won the county by nearly 20 points in the presidential contest.

Trump, in a phone interview with ABC News, said that the U.S. is “thinking of” controlling the Strait of Hormuz “as a joint venture” with Iran.

“It’s a way of securing it — also securing it from lots of other people,” Trump said, according to the ABC News report. “It’s a beautiful thing,” he added.

Controlling the freedom of navigation would undermine international sea law, many experts believe. However the U.N.’s Law of the Sea treaty has never been ratified by the U.S. or Iran.

In recent weeks, Iran has been believed to be charging a toll to shipowners in order to pass through. Ships from countries such as China, Greece, Pakistan, India and France have reportedly paid the toll, according to reports in The Wall Street Journal and Bloomberg News.

New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani joked this morning that he doesn't plan to run for president in 2028 in remarks at the opening of the National Action Network’s 2026 convention.

"It is such a pleasure to be here, and I joked with the reverend that I'm proud to announce that that I am not running for president in 2028, which I know that some people may be considering when they come to this conference," he said, referring to the Rev. Al Sharpton, the founder of the civil rights organization.

Vice President JD Vance, speaking in Hungary, responded to allegations that he was interfering in its upcoming election by voicing his support for Prime Minister Viktor Orbán.

“I find it darkly ironic that people are accusing me of engaging in some kind of foreign influence, all that we’re saying is that Viktor Orban, he does a good job,” Vance said.

He said that the U.S. "thought there was so much garbage happening against Viktor."

In a speech yesterday, Vance called on Hungarians to "go to the polls" and "stand with Viktor Orbán, because he stands for you." At the same time, he insisted yesterday that he was not in Hungary to tell Hungarians how to vote.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth declared victory in the war with Iran at a Pentagon news conference this morning.

“Operation Epic Fury was a historic and overwhelming victory on the battlefield, a capital 'V' military victory,” he said in his opening remarks.

Hegseth said the operation rendered Iran’s military “combat ineffective for years to come.”

Hegseth is the first senior administration official to face reporters directly since the ceasefire was announced last night.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth speaks at the Pentagon today. Andrew Harnik / Getty Images

The president said this morning that the U.S. will work with Iran to “dig up and remove” what he referred to as “nuclear dust,” likely a reference to the country’s enriched uranium that was buried in U.S.-Israeli strikes last year.

Tehran has not immediately commented on the president’s claims, made in a Truth Social post.

Trump also said that “there will be no enrichment of uranium” by Iran, though Iran has publicly insisted it will retain the right to enrich uranium in any peace deal.

Here’s what Trump said: “The United States will work closely with Iran, which we have determined has gone through what will be a very productive Regime Change! There will be no enrichment of Uranium, and the United States will, working with Iran, dig up and remove all of the deeply buried (B-2 Bombers) Nuclear “Dust.” It is now, and has been, under very exacting Satellite Surveillance (Space Force!). Nothing has been touched from the date of attack.”

He added that “We are, and will be, talking Tariff and Sanctions relief with Iran. Many of the 15 points have already been been agreed to.”

Vice President JD Vance called the ceasefire with Iran a “fragile truce” while speaking in Budapest this morning.

The vice president said talks had taught him a lot about the Iranian system, and warned Tehran would discover Trump was “not one to mess around” if there is a lack of progress in peace talks.

Vance said the response from Iran had varied depending on the group. He said the foreign minister had responded favorably to the agreement, but that others had been “lying” about the country’s military achievements.

“This is why I say this is a fragile truce,” he said. “You have people who clearly want to come to the negotiating table and work with us to find a good deal and then you have people who are lying about even the fragile truths that we’ve already struck.”

“If the Iranians are willing in good faith to work with us, I think we can make an agreement,” Vance said. “If they’re going to lie, if they’re going to cheat, if they’re trying to going to try to prevent even the fragile truce that we’ve set up from taking place, that they’re not going to be happy,” Vance added.

“What the President has also shown is that we still have clear military, diplomatic and, maybe most importantly, we have extraordinary economic leverage,” Vance said. “So the President has told us not to use those tools. He’s told us to come to negotiating table. But if the Iranians don’t do the exact same thing, they’re going to find out that the President of the United States is not one to mess around. He’s impatient. He’s impatient to make progress.” 

Sen. Elissa Slotkin, D-Mich., pitched herself here last night as an advocate for Midwest pragmatism that she believes can help her party — and the country — navigate past the stormy politics of Trump.

Using her keynote address at a Polk County Democratic Party dinner to underline Iowa’s political influence as a potential early contest in the 2028 presidential race, Slotkin urged her audience to vet White House hopefuls carefully.

Read the full story here.

Chris Taylor has won a seat on the Wisconsin Supreme Court, NBC News projects, expanding liberals’ majority in the key battleground state.

Taylor, a state appeals court judge and former Democratic state legislator, secured a 10-year term on the court over conservative Maria Lazar, an appeals court judge who worked in Republican former Gov. Scott Walker’s administration.

Taylor’s victory in the race for retiring Justice Rebecca Bradley’s seat means liberals will have a 5-2 edge on the swing state’s highest court, putting the majority out of reach for conservatives until at least 2030.

Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice-elect Chris Taylor speaks to supporters at an election night party. Jovanny Hernandez / Milwaukee Journal / USA Today Network

Read the full story here.

Republicans padded their slim House majority with a special election win in Georgia on last night. But the race also marked the biggest swing against the GOP compared with the 2024 presidential results out of seven House special elections in Trump’s second term.

It’s the latest sign of an encouraging political environment for Democrats, though the results in lower-turnout special elections never translate exactly to November. Democrats hope to mobilize voter frustration with Trump and his party to break the Republicans’ unified control of Washington this year.

Read the full story here.

Dozens of congressional Democrats called for Trump to be removed from office Tuesday after he used extreme rhetoric against Iran that included threatening to wipe out “a whole civilization.”

More than 70 lawmakers, including a handful of senators, said in separate social media posts that Trump’s Cabinet needs to invoke the 25th Amendment to the Constitution and declare him unfit to serve, Congress should impeach and convict him, or both.

Read the full story here.