Attorney General Pam Bondi is sparring with members of the Senate Judiciary Committee Tuesday as federal agents surge into American cities. Senators are questioning her about political influence over a Justice Department that has already criminally charged one of President Donald Trump’s longtime foes and is facing intense White House pressure to prosecute others.
It’s now Day 7 of the shutdown, with Democrats and Republicans at an impasse. Democrats are
conditioning their support for a short-term funding patch on extending the subsidies that millions of Americans count on to make health care affordable. Trump says he’ll talk about a health care deal only after the government reopens and the Democrats lose their leverage.
Peace talks continue in Egypt on the two-year anniversary of Hamas’ surprise attack on Israel that triggered the bloody conflict that has seen tens of thousands of Palestinians killed in Gaza. The negotiations center on Trump’s proposed plan to end the war in Gaza.
And Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney will meet with Trump in the Oval Office again. One of the world’s most durable and amicable alliances has been fractured by Trump’s trade war and annexation threats, and the free trade agreement critical to Canada’s economy is up for review next year.
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According to the memo from the White House’s Office of Management and Budget, the 2019 bill Trump signed into law that guaranteed backpay to federal workers is not self-executing.
Instead, the memo says, repaying the federal workers would have to be included in any legislation to reopen the government.
The memo refers to the Government Employee Fair Treatment Act of 2019 as part of the legislation to reopen the government after what, at that time, was a 35 day shutdown — the longest in history.
It’s widely seen as a negotiating tactic to force lawmakers to the table as the shutdown drags on. In the past, federal workers who often went without paychecks were most always reimbursed for back pay during shutdowns.
Durbin asked Bondi whether the DOJ reviewed the investigative records into the late financier Jeffrey Epstein for any mention of Trump. Bondi says she is not going into that.
“I’m not going to discuss anything with you about that, senator,” Bondi said.
The Village of Broadview, the site of intense protests in recent weeks outside a Chicago-area ICE processing facility, is suing the federal government, demanding the removal of large fence that’s been constructed around the building.
The lawsuit also calls ICE’s presence in the Southwest suburb a “reign of terror” and claims ICE has “needlessly deployed tear gas, pepper spray, mace, and rubber bullets at individuals and reporters located on the north side of the fence,” injuring residents, police and firefighters and damaging village property.
The lawsuit getting its first hearing in federal court Tuesday accuses ICE and DHS of erecting the 8-foot-tall fence illegally, blocking the public street and hindering access by emergency services. It says Broadview leaders have been repeatedly ignored by DHS and ICE.
The attorney general is emphatically refusing to discuss whether she provided a legal rationale to the White House for the deployment of National Guard troops to Chicago.
Sen. Durbin of Illinois asked her several times whether she had provided Trump with a legal analysis of the deployment, but she refused to discuss “internal conversations.”
With a raised voice, she shot back at Durbin, accusing him of voting to shut down the government and not caring about violent crime in Chicago.
“Madam attorney general, it’s my job to grill you,” Durbin said.
Bondi listed off the Department of Justice’s work to address violent crime and drug trafficking as she began her Senate Judiciary testimony.
Her voice raised, Bondi emphasized that her top priorities have been ending the “weaponization of justice” and “fighting violent crime.” Democrats have criticized her for bringing a new level of political loyalty to the Justice Department, but Bondi insisted that the institution that she inherited had been politicized.
She pointed to revelations this week that the FBI had analyzed phone records of several Republican lawmakers as part of an investigation into Trump’s efforts to undo the results of his election loss in 2020.
“My attorneys have done incredible work advancing President Trump’s agenda and protecting the executive branch from judicial overreach,” Bondi said.
Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois has told Bondi that she holds responsibility for a purge of hundreds of career officials with a combined thousands of years of law enforcement experience.
He says it’s part of a worrisome trend in which enemies of the president are pursued and allies of the administration get favorable treatment.
Durbin says that what’s happened to the rule of law during Trump’s second term would make even President Richard Nixon “recoil,” leaving “an enormous stain” that will take decades to erase.
Democrats believe health care is an issue that will resonate with a majority of Americans as they demand an extension of subsidies in exchange for their votes to reopen the shuttered U.S. government.
But it is also one of the most intractable issues in Congress, and a real compromise to end the shutdown will not likely be easy.
There are some Republicans in Congress who want to extend the higher subsidies, which were first put in place in 2021 during the COVID-19 pandemic. But many GOP lawmakers are firmly opposed to any extension.
▶ Read more on why health care policymaking is so difficult
It’s unclear how that would work, since Trump signed legislation into law in 2019 that ensures backpay for federal workers during any government funding lapse.
But a White House memo with the rationale for no backpay is under consideration, according to a person familiar with the situation and granted anonymity because they were unauthorized to discuss it. It was first reported by Axios.
Most federal employees and service members have missed paychecks during past shutdowns, but are reimbursed once government reopens.
Sen. Chuck Grassley is praising Attorney General Pam Bondi for “getting tough on criminals” and reversing Biden administration priorities that he says “politicized” law enforcement.
The Republican senator from Iowa and chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee is delivering opening remarks at the Justice Department oversight hearing.
He decried what he says was weaponization of the Justice Department during the Biden administration, including new revelations that the FBI analyzed phone records of several Republican lawmakers as part of an investigation into Trump’s efforts to undo the results of the 2020 presidential election.
The Supreme Court is about to hear arguments over the constitutionality of bans on “conversion therapy” for kids who identify as LGBTQ+.
Nearly half of U.S. states have passed laws against the practice, which has been scientifically discredited.
But a Christian counselor challenging Colorado’s law says it chills her freedom of speech by barring her from offering voluntary, faith-based therapy.
The state says the measure simply regulates licensed therapists by barring a practice that’s been linked to serious harm.
The arguments come after the court’s conservative majority found states can ban transition-related health care for transgender youths.
The U.N. high commissioner for refugees, Filippo Grandi, lamented the administration’s deportation practices, part of a wider backlash against migrants and refugees around the world.
But he praised the Trump administration-led peace efforts for providing “a glimmer of hope” in the eastern Congo, where millions have been displaced by conflict between Rwanda-backed forces and Congo’s armed forces. And he cited how more than 1 million refugees from Syria have now returned home.
“Thanks to peace efforts spearheaded by the United States, instead of speaking only of more bloodshed, or more refugees, we can start to think – cautiously, but a little bit more optimistically — of stability and returns,” Grandi said in a speech Monday.
State Department spokesman Tommy Pigott defended U.S. immigration and migration policies and said Trump’s speech at the United Nations was “a call to action against the destructive policies promoting mass and illegal migration that globalist bureaucrats have pushed for years.”
Shares of Trilogy Metals more than tripled overnight after the White House announced late Monday that it’s taking a 10% equity stake in the Canadian company while allowing the Ambler Road mining project in Alaska to go forward.
Trump late Monday ordered the approval of a proposed 211-mile road through an Alaska wilderness to allow mining of copper, cobalt, gold and other minerals used in production of cars, electronics and other technologies.
Trilogy is seeking to develop the Ambler site along with an Australian partner.
The president is scheduled to meet Tuesday afternoon at the White House with Edan Alexander, who was taken hostage by Hamas in the attack two years ago that led to the Israel-Hamas war.
Trump met in July with Alexander, who was the last living American hostage in Gaza and was released from captivity in May. The meeting, which is scheduled to occur behind closed doors, comes as indirect peace talks are being held in Egypt over Trump’s plan to end the fighting.
