Trump Administration Live Updates: Epstein’s Longtime Companion Refuses to Answer Lawmakers’ Questions
"Ghislaine Maxwell, serving a 20-year sentence for sex trafficking, invoked her Fifth Amendment rights during a House Oversight Committee deposition. The committee is investigating her pursuit of clemency from President Trump. Meanwhile, Congress remains divided over funding the Department of Homeland Security, with Democrats pushing for restrictions on immigration enforcement operations, a proposal rejected by Republicans.
What We’re Covering Today
Epstein Files: Ghislaine Maxwell, the longtime companion of Jeffrey Epstein who is serving a federal sex-trafficking sentence, invoked her Fifth Amendment right in response to every question asked during a deposition before the House Oversight Committee on Monday, according to the committee’s chairman, Representative James R. Comer of Kentucky. Separately, several members of Congress were set to view unredacted versions of the Justice Department’s files on Mr. Epstein. Representative Thomas Massie, the Kentucky Republican who helped write the law requiring their release, will be among them. Read more ›
Immigration Crackdown: With five days until stopgap funding for the Homeland Security Department runs out, Congress appears no closer to keeping the department running past Friday. Democrats have demanded new restrictions on immigration enforcement operations as a condition for supporting a new spending bill, and Republicans have rejected those proposals as an unrealistic wish list. Senator John Fetterman, Democrat of Pennsylvania, told Fox News on Sunday that he did not expect an agreement. Read more ›
Representative Suhas Subramanyam of Virginia, one of the Democrats on the Oversight Committee, condemned Ghislaine Maxwell’s pursuit of clemency during her deposition, but also faulted President Trump for not shutting down the idea. “She is campaigning over and over again to get that pardon from President Trump, and this president has not ruled it out,” he said. “And so that is why she is continuing to not cooperate with our investigation.”
Ghislaine Maxwell, the longtime companion of Jeffrey Epstein who is currently serving a federal prison sentence on sex-trafficking charges, invoked her Fifth Amendment right in response to every question asked during a deposition before the House Oversight Committee on Monday, according to Representative James R. Comer of Kentucky, the committee’s chairman. Comer said a lawyer for Maxwell, who appeared virtually from a prison in Texas, told lawmakers in his opening statement that Maxwell “would answer questions if she were granted clemency.”
The House Oversight Committee will this morning depose Ghislaine Maxwell, the longtime companion of Jeffrey Epstein who is in prison on federal sex-trafficking charges.
Maxwell, who is serving a 20-year prison sentence, is expected to invoke her her Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination and decline to answer questions, according to Democratic members of the committee.
Several members of Congress will view unredacted versions of the Justice Department’s files on Jeffrey Epstein today. Representative Thomas Massie, Republican of Kentucky and one of the authors of the law that required the release of the files, announced his plans in a social media post. Representative Jamie Raskin of Maryland, the top Democrat on the Judiciary Committee, also plans to view the files today, according to the committee’s staff.
As a Friday deadline to fund the Department of Homeland Security approaches, Democrats and Republicans appeared no closer on Sunday to a deal to keep the department running.
“If I had to say now, I probably would expect there is a shutdown,” said Senator John Fetterman, Democrat of Pennsylvania, on Fox News’s “Sunday Morning Futures with Maria Bartiromo.”
President Trump denounced Bad Bunny over his Super Bowl halftime show on Sunday, complaining that “nobody understands a word this guy is saying” after the largely Spanish-language performance.
Benito Antonio MartÃnez Ocasio, the Puerto Rican superstar musician better known as Bad Bunny, has been an outspoken critic of the Trump administration. Just days ago at the Grammy Awards, he declared “ICE out” — referring to the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents who have been the face of Mr. Trump’s aggressive immigration crackdown — while accepting an award.
The 232 Americans competing at the Winter Games have trained for years, traveled thousands of miles and are ready to give their best on the ice and snow in northern Italy. But politics, perhaps inevitably, is intruding on their Olympic moment.
The competition has opened after a year in which the Trump administration denigrated Europe, threatened allies and began an immigration crackdown at home that incited outrage, including in Italy. That opposition has followed the U.S. team as its members compete on the Olympic stage, forcing athletes, coaches and American fans to respond to — or sidestep — the backlash."
Trump Live Updates: Epstein Files, DHS Funding and More - The New York Times
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