Trump administration live updates: DHS officials testify to Congress on the impact of the shutdown
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Democrat Emily Gregory flipped a Florida state House district that includes President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort in a special election yesterday.
What to know today ...
- DHS HEARING: The official running the Transportation Security Administration and other senior Department of Homeland Security officials are testifying to House lawmakers about the negative impact of the department's partial shutdown on their operations.
- DEMOCRAT FLIPS SEAT: Democrat Emily Gregory won a special election yesterday for the Florida state House district that includes President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort, flipping the seat from Republican control, The Associated Press projects.
- EPSTEIN FILES: An accountant and an attorney for Jeffrey Epstein told the House Oversight Committee that federal investigators never interviewed them about the late sex offender, videos of their depositions show, raising questions about the depth of the Justice Department’s review of Epstein.
- BRENNAN PROBE: The Justice Department has requested House Intelligence Committee records related to former CIA Director John Brennan, a frequent target of Trump, two sources familiar with the request said. The move suggests the department is moving ahead with a potential criminal case against Brennan after it launched an investigation in July.
Coast Guard official says work is halting in shipyards, fears future harm
Coast Guard Vice Commandant Thomas Allan told lawmakers that "our defense industrial base is suffering right now."
Work is being stopped on ships in shipyards because the Coast Guard cannot pay bills.
"We are seeing crucial readiness that needs to be done in the repair of these ships," he said. "And the shipyard officers are not doing what our Coast Guard people are doing, working without a paycheck. They're asking us to leave those shipyards because we cannot pay the bills."
Allan said he feared the shutdown's impact could go beyond the short term.
"What we worry about is that's not only a near-term impact, but as we bid for these contracts with these companies in the future, they're not going to come to the Coast Guard, they'll go to the Navy, they'll go to the Marines, they'll go to the others receiving a budget."
TSA official details the duties ICE agents are performing at airports
Rep. LaMonica McIver, D-N.J., pressed McNeill about what ICE agents are doing at airports to alleviate the long lines at TSA given that officers have to be trained to perform their key functions.
"They’re helping us on several different functions, including queue management, helping us with exit lane staffing, divesting, giving passengers instructions on how to load up their bins and all of that, and then helping operate the travel document checker as well," McNeill said.
She said that they began training ICE agents to do some of this when they were sent to airports earlier this week.
"It’s gone extremely well, and our feedback from the passengers and our field leadership has been very positive," she said.
McIver responded, "I wish I could say the same thing for Newark Liberty Airport. That’s not the case there. Folks are really annoyed, you know, just seeing them standing around."
Democrats and Republicans blame each other throughout hearing
Much of the Homeland Security Committee hearing has consisted of Democrats and Republicans blaming each other for the DHS shutdown.
Republicans are pointing to the refusal of Democrats to back a funding bill to reopen the full department until immigration enforcement activities are reformed, and Democrats are pointing to Republicans rejecting attempts to fund individual DHS agencies like TSA.
Rep. Eli Crane, R-Ariz., said at one point, "A lot of the American people seem to be following this massive gaslighting campaign that this is a Republican shutdown."
Minutes earlier, Rep. Tim Kennedy, D-N.Y., said Democrats want the witnesses' agencies funded, casting blame on Trump and Senate Republicans "who are doing his bidding."
Meanwhile, federal workers at agencies like TSA and FEMA are not being paid, and federal employee call-outs at airports are leading to hourslong wait times at security checkpoints.
Activist who pushed 2020 election fraud claims convicted of election fraud
A jury convicted a Wisconsin man of election fraud and identity theft for requesting the ballots of Republican state Assembly Speaker Robin Vos and Democratic Racine Mayor Cory Mason without their consent.
Jurors in Racine County found Harry Wait guilty of two misdemeanor election fraud charges and one felony identity theft charge yesterday following a two-day trial. He was acquitted of a second count of identity theft.
Wait leads a group that makes false election claims, including that Wisconsin’s elections are riddled with fraud and that Trump won the 2020 election. Trump lost Wisconsin in 2020 by about 21,000 votes.
Wait admitted in 2022 that he requested Vos’ and Mason’s ballots to try to prove that the state’s voter registration system is vulnerable to fraud. Wait told The Associated Press at the time that he wasn’t surprised he was charged.
House Oversight Committee interview with Epstein guard postponed
The House Oversight Committee has postponed its planned interview with Tova Noel, one of the prison guards on duty the night Jeffrey Epstein died.
The panel had earlier this month asked Noel, who's said she believes she's the last person to have seen Epstein alive, to come in tomorrow for a transcribed interview.
A spokesperson for the committee said the interview is not taking place this week, and the panel is in communication with her attorney about a future date.
The committee asked to speak to Noel after documents released by the Justice Department suggested she was googling him shortly before he was found dead in his cell back in 2019.
Noel and her partner that night, Michael Thomas, were supposed to be checking on Epstein, who was awaiting trial on sex-trafficking charges and had previously attempted suicide, every 30 minutes.
Both admitted to not making those checks.
Rep. Lou Correa calls for Congress to not get paid until the shutdown ends
Rep. Lou Correa, D-Calif., said that members of Congress should not be paid until federal workers are paid. He said he has told the Congressional Management Office to withhold his paycheck.
"Do we really want to end this shutdown or not?" Correa asked.
"We could start out by doing what I just did a few weeks ago, which is I wrote to the Congressional Management Office and said, 'Withhold my paycheck,'" he continued. "Don’t pay me until TSA workers are paid. Mr. Chairman, let’s start at the beginning. No pay for federal workers, no pay for us. Think so? Yes, no? Let’s do it."
TSA workers are not being paid as the shutdown continues. DHS has said that hundreds of workers have quit since the partial department shutdown began.
TSA official says agency won't have enough new officers trained in time for World Cup due to the shutdown
McNeill noted in her opening statement that the shutdown is causing problems in training transportation security officers in time for the FIFA World Cup this year.
Asked about that by Garbarino, McNeill said it takes these officers four to six months to be fully certified to operate a checkpoint.
"At this point, if we bring on any TSOs, you know, those will not be deployed in time by FIFA," McNeill said. "And so we are watching our attrition rates very closely to make sure that, you know, if we see any spikes, we'll have to pivot and assess how we are going to staff the FIFA locations adequately," McNeill said.
TSA senior official says DHS shutdown has led to 'highest wait times' at airports in agency history
The senior official performing the duties of the TSA administrator, Ha Nguyen McNeill, said in her opening statement that the DHS shutdown has led to the "highest wait times" at airports in the agency's history.
“We are being forced to consolidate lanes and may have to close smaller airports if we do not have enough officers,” she said. “It’s a fluid, challenging and unpredictable situation. We understand this is frustrating and disruptive.”
McNeill noted that this is the third shutdown at the department in the current fiscal year.
"Many in our workforce have missed bill payments, received eviction notices, had their cars repossessed and utilities shut off, lost their child care, defaulted on loans, damaged their credit line and drained their retirement savings," she said.
"Some are sleeping in their cars, selling their blood and plasma and taking on job second jobs to make ends meet, all while being expected to perform at high level when in uniform to protect the traveling public," she added.
GOP and Democratic committee leaders blame each other for DHS shutdown at hearing
Homeland Security Committee Chair Andrew Garbarino, R-N.Y., called Democratic lawmakers' actions regarding the Department of Homeland Security shutdown "reckless, dangerous and unacceptable" in his opening statement at a hearing with senior DHS officials.
Garbarino accused Democrats of choosing to shut down the department "and weaken our national security posture for their own political gain."
Democrats had rejected bids to fund the entire department, insisting on reforms to Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Meanwhile, Republicans have rejected Democrats' efforts to fund the Transportation Security Administration.
NBC News reported yesterday that Senate Republicans are hopeful about a potential path forward to reopen the department, which would involve funding most of DHS, except for certain ICE operations, which they would try to pass through a special budgetary process without needing Democratic support.
"Recent developments in the Senate are showing some potential momentum towards hopefully ending this harmful shutdown soon," Garbarino said. "If a deal is proposed, we look forward to reviewing it quickly. But the fact is that DHS is still shut down today, and we should never have been in the position in the first place."
Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., cast blame on Republicans for the shutdown, also arguing that "they are complicit in causing irreparable damage over the 15 months to DHS, its mission and its workforce."
Thompson, the top Democrat on the committee, emphasized that lawmakers in his party "want to fund TSA, FEMA, CISA and the Coast Guard, and have repeatedly offered bill to do just that," which Republicans rejected. FEMA is the Federal Emergency Management Agency, and CISA is the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency.
"Republicans control every part of government and could have funded these agencies with Democratic support, but chose not to," he said. "Republicans could pay TSA agents today, but choose not to."
House hearing on the DHS shutdown begins
The House Homeland Security Committee hearing on the DHS shutdown has started. The witnesses are:
- Thomas Allan, vice commandant, U.S. Coast Guard
- Ha Nguyen McNeill, senior official performing the duties of the administrator, TSA
- Nicholas Andersen, acting director and deputy director, Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency
- Gregg Phillips, associate administrator, Office of Response and Recovery, FEMA
Cambodian man deported by the U.S. to Eswatini is being repatriated, his lawyer says
A Cambodian man deported by the U.S. to the African kingdom of Eswatini under the Trump administration’s third-country program was released today to be repatriated after spending five months at a maximum-security prison with other deportees, his lawyer said.
Pheap Rom was deported to the southern African nation in October and held at the Matsapha Correctional Center. He was due to take a commercial flight to Johannesburg, South Africa, to start his journey to Cambodia, his U.S.-based lawyer, Tin Thanh Nguyen, told The Associated Press.
The U.S. has sent 19 migrants from other countries to Eswatini in three batches since July. Rom is the second to be repatriated after a Jamaican man was flown home in September.
Trump has taken a hard-line stance on immigration and the U.S. has deported around 300 migrants to countries they have no ties with under the third-country program, which lawyers have criticized as unlawful.
Family of American released in Afghanistan says they're mindful of those still detained
The family of Dennis Coyle thanked the Trump administration and members of Congress for their efforts to secure his release after being detained for more than a year in Afghanistan.
Coyle a 64-year-old academic, was detained in January 2025 on suspicion of violating laws, although Afghan officials never shared specific allegations publicly. He was released in Kabul yesterday on the occasion of Eid al-Fitr, the Muslim holiday that marks the end of the Islamic holy month of Ramadan, with the Taliban-run Foreign Ministry saying Afghanistan’s Supreme Court “considered his previous imprisonment sufficient.”
“While we begin the healing process with Dennis back with us, we remain mindful of the many families who are still waiting for their loved ones to return, including the families of Mahmoud Habibi and Paul Overby,” the family said in a statement. “It was our hope that Dennis, Mahmoud Habibi, and Paul Overby would be returned together to their families, and we cannot imagine the pain that our good fortune will bring them.”
“We recognize the immense privilege of our family’s reunion today, and pledge to keep praying and fighting for all Americans held to be swiftly released,” they added.
Earlier this month, the Trump administration officially designated Afghanistan as a state sponsor of wrongful detention under an executive order Trump signed in September, naming Coyle among the Americans unjustly detained. It was the second country to receive the designation after Iran.
According to the James W. Foley Legacy Foundation, there are 40 Americans currently being wrongfully detained or held hostage around the world, mostly by state actors.
‘Oh, golly’: Britain’s embattled Starmer navigates Trump’s Iran war ire
A shrug, perhaps even a flash of dismay. But despite the public insults emanating from the White House, those close to British Prime Minister Keir Starmer say there is little chance he will hit back at Trump over the Iran war.
The embattled prime minister is still pursuing close coordination with Trump, even after the latest indignity hurled by the president toward London as the conflict threatens havoc on the already stale British economy.
This weekend, Trump reposted a sketch, portraying the British leader as a weakling terrified of his fearsome American counterpart, that aired on the inaugural episode of the new “Saturday Night Live UK”
The president shared the skit after weeks of insults and accusations leveled at Starmer for not joining the Iran war.
Unanswered questions about Epstein’s final hours: A ‘flash of orange,’ a Google search, a makeshift noose
Around 6:30 a.m. Aug. 10, 2019, two guards were making the breakfast rounds in a locked and isolated unit of the federal jail in lower Manhattan when one of them knocked on the metal door of Jeffrey Epstein’s cell.
Epstein did not stir. When Thomas entered the cell, which was unusually cluttered with extra blankets and linens, he discovered Epstein alone and unresponsive, hanging by a strip of orange cloth tied to the top of a bunk bed. Thomas yelled to the other guard, Tova Noel, to call for help, and tried to resuscitate Epstein, according to transcripts of their interviews with federal investigators.
“He kept saying, ‘Breathe, Epstein, breathe,’” Noel, who was the last person to see the convicted sex offender alive the night before, told investigators. Thomas “was like, ‘We’re going to be in so much trouble.’”
The events that unfolded at the now-shuttered Metropolitan Correctional Center, and the cascade of staff failures that precipitated Epstein’s suicide, are documented in interview transcripts and other investigatory files, videos and photos that the Justice Department recently made public under the Epstein Files Transparency Act. Epstein, a wealthy New York financier who cultivated influence with politicians, royalty, academics and other powerful elites, was awaiting trial on federal sex trafficking charges related to the sexual abuse of girls as young as 14.
Senior DHS officials to testify on the impact of the shutdown
Senior Department of Homeland Security officials will testify before the House Homeland Security Committee this morning about the effect the lapse in funding for the department has had on its operations.
Ha Nguyen McNeill, a senior official performing as Transportation and Security Administration head; Nicholas Andersen, the acting director of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency; Gregg Phillips, an associate administrator of the Federal Emergency Management Agency; and Adm. Thomas Allan, the vice commandant of the Coast Guard, are scheduled to testify.
Airports around the nation have been gnarled in long lines, with travelers waiting hours to board flights, as the partial DHS shutdown has dragged on for more than a month. Trump has sent Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents to airports to help manage the crowds and said he would consider sending the National Guard to assist as well.
Senate Republicans this week expressed optimism about a plan to fund all of the department except ICE, which they said they think will garner enough Democratic support to advance. They would then use a separate process to fund ICE and advance elements of the Save America Act, an election overhaul bill that Trump supports.
Senate fails to advance Iran war powers resolution for a third time
The Senate declined by a vote of 47-53 to bring a war powers resolution to the floor.
The resolution was “to direct the removal of United States Armed Forces from hostilities within or against the Islamic Republic of Iran that have not been authorized by Congress.”
The vote last night was largely along party lines, with Sen. John Fetterman of Pennsylvania the only Democrat to vote against it. On the other side of the aisle, Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky was the only Republican to vote yes.
This is the third time the Senate has failed to advance a resolution to rein in Trump’s military action against Iran, which critics say needs congressional approval. Democrats have said they will continue bringing war powers resolutions to the floor until Republicans agree to hold public hearings on Iran.
“Whatever you think about this war, it should be unacceptable to all of us that we have not had a single public hearing,” Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., who pushed the resolution, said on the Senate floor before the vote.
He said Americans deserve to hear “the justification and the end game for this war.”
Justice Department steps up probe into Trump target John Brennan
The Justice Department has requested House Intelligence Committee records related to former CIA Director John Brennan, a frequent target of Trump, according to two sources familiar with the request.
The Intelligence Committee voted last night to send to the Justice Department several classified hearing transcripts related to Brennan, according to a source familiar with the panel’s actions. The vote came at the request of the Justice Department, the two sources said.
A spokesperson for Republicans on the committee said in a statement that the panel “voted to report out classified hearing transcripts at the request of the U.S. Department of Justice for an ongoing investigation related to the 2017” report by GOP members of the committee, “which was declassified and released last year, and other topics related to the Trump-Russia collusion hoax.”
Epstein’s accountant and lawyer told House panel government investigators never interviewed them
An accountant and an attorney for Jeffrey Epstein told the House Oversight Committee that government investigators never interviewed them about the late sex offender and the work they did for him, according to videos of their depositions released yesterday.
The panel questioned Richard Kahn, Epstein’s accountant, and Darren Indyke, Epstein’s lawyer, behind closed doors this month as part of its investigation into Epstein. Both maintained they did not witness any wrongdoing, and authorities have accused neither of misdeeds.
Kahn’s and Indyke’s testimony that federal investigators never interviewed them raises questions about the depth of the Justice Department’s review of Epstein, which the Justice Department and the FBI called “exhaustive” in an unsigned joint memo in July announcing that the government would not disclose additional materials on the disgraced financier.
Democrat flips Republican-held Florida state House district that includes Trump’s Mar-a-Lago
Democrat Emily Gregory yesterday won a special election for the Florida state House district that includes Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort, flipping the seat from Republican control, The Associated Press projects.
Gregory beat Republican Jon Maples, whom Trump endorsed, in the race for a seat that has been vacant since August, when Mike Caruso resigned from the Legislature and was appointed Palm Beach County clerk.
Democrats have performed well in special elections during Trump’s second term, with the party pointing to those results as a sign of strength ahead of the 2026 midterm elections. Florida’s 87th District is the 10th GOP-held state legislative seat Democrats have flipped around the country since Trump took office again last year. Republicans have not flipped any Democratic state legislative seats during that time.
Trump carried this Florida legislative district by about 11 percentage points in 2024, according to The Downballot, a left-leaning political site that tracks special elections.
