Bondi faces lawmaker grilling over Epstein files, targeting of Trump foes
U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi delivers remarks on an arrest connected to the 2012 U.S. Embassy attack in Benghazi, at the Department of Justice on February 6, 2026 in Washington, DC. (Photo by Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images)
(WASHINGTON) — Attorney General Pam Bondi is facing a grilling Wednesday as she testifies before the House Judiciary Committee amid multiple controversies.
She will likely be questioned about her handling of the Epstein files, the Justice Department’s targeting of President Donald Trump’s political foes, and the FBI raid seizing 2020 ballots in Georgia amid the president’s baseless claims of election fraud.
Both Democratic and Republican lawmakers have been sharply critical of the Department’s incomplete release of the Epstein files and extensive DOJ redactions after some viewed unredacted files at the agency beginning Monday.
Tensions are expected to be strong as a group of Epstein survivors are seated behind Bondi. The group spoke out about the federal investigation into the convicted sex offender earlier Wednesday.
She could also be grilled about her efforts to revive cases against former FBI Director James Comey and New York’s Democratic Attorney General Tish James after indictments against them were tossed.
Bondi is also set to face questions about the raid to capture Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro — something administration officials have said was a law enforcement operation. Given that, questions have been raised about why the attorney general was not present to discuss the matter at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago news conference announcing the raid.
The attorney general has testified on Capitol Hill only a handful of times.
In her most recent testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee, she appeared to use prepared lines of attack against Democratic lawmakers who demanded she answer their tough questions.
U.S. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) (R) and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) hold a press conference on Department of Homeland Security (DHS) funding at the U.S. Capitol on February 04, 2026 in Washington, DC. Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images
(WASHINGTON) — With just a few days until a Friday deadline to fund the Department of Homeland Security, Republican and Democratic lawmakers still appear to be at an impasse on how to move forward with Democrats’ demands for new restrictions on President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said Democrats delivered proposed legislative text that reflects their 10-item list of demands to Republican leadership over the weekend. The GOP presented a counterproposal, which Schumer and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries said they rejected Monday night.
Details of the GOP counteroffer have not been made public, but according to Democrats, it didn’t include “details” or “legislative text.”
“The initial GOP response is both incomplete and insufficient in terms of addressing the concerns Americans have about ICE’s lawless conduct. Democrats await additional detail and text,” Schumer and Jeffries said in the statement.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune would not provide details on the GOP offer when asked by reporters on Tuesday.
“I think both sides are right now trying — other than it sounds like the Democrats up here are talking about it — are trying to keep the conversations moving forward and not litigating that in public,” Thune said.
The negotiations are coming as another partial government shutdown looms. If a DHS funding solution is not reached and passed in both chambers by the end of the day Friday, DHS would then shut down.
The TSA, Coast Guard, Customs and Border Protection, U.S. Secret Service, CISA and FEMA would be impacted even though lawmakers’ focus is on Immigration and Customs Enforcement reform. ICE operations would not be impacted after it received $75 billion in separate funding from the already-passed “Big Beautiful Bill.”
In a letter last week to Republican leaders, Jeffries and Schumer laid out 10 key demands from Democrats on DHS funding, including calling for judicial warrants before agents can enter private property, a ban on ICE agents wearing face masks, requiring the use of body cameras and new laws for use-of-force standards.
Schumer has called Democrats’ demands “exceedingly reasonable.”
“We are asking ICE to do nothing more than follow the standards that the vast majority of law enforcement agencies already follow. Why should ICE be different, especially when they have such a record of brutality?” Schumer said.
The funding fight over DHS erupted in the aftermath of the death of Alex Pretti, an ICU nurse, who was killed in a shooting involving federal law enforcement in Minneapolis on Jan. 24. Renee Good, a mother of three, was fatally shot by ICE agents in Minneapolis on Jan. 7.
Earlier Monday, Thune said on the Senate floor that Democrats engaged in “meaningful talks” with the White House on a path forward for funding DHS over the weekend.
“Democrats have made their demands known in detail. Some of them are positive starting points for further discussions; others are non-staters and unnecessarily tie the hands of law enforcement,” Thune said on the Senate floor.
But Thune said Republicans, in conjunction with the White House, will seek demands of their own.
“I expect that the Trump administration, with the full backing of congressional Republicans, will continue to resist any effort to make it harder for law enforcement to detain and deport dangerous illegal aliens, which is what many of the Democrats demands would do, and I expect that the administration — again with the backing of Republicans here in Congress — will insist on reforms of its own,” Thune said.
As negotiations continue behind the scenes, Thune said on Monday that lawmakers will likely need more time to complete their work. He urged Democrats to support a stopgap funding proposal to keep the lights on at DHS while they continue discussions on ICE reform.
“We are just a few days away from the deadline that Democrats chose,” Thune said. “And it’s very possible we won’t have our work finished by then. If Democrats are serious about finding a solution there, they may need to find more time to bring these efforts to a productive conclusion.”
Greenlandic Prime Minister Jens-Frederik Nielsen speaks to the media the day after U.S. President Donald Trump walked back on his most aggressive threats over acquiring Greenland on January 22, 2026, in Nuuk, Greenland. (Photo by Sean Gallup/Getty Images)
(GREENLAND) — Greenland’s prime minister has rejected President Donald Trump’s offer to send a U.S. military hospital ship to Greenland, dismissing the proposal as uninvited and rooted in a fundamental misunderstanding of how Nordic societies function.
“It’s a no thank you from here,” Greenlandic Prime Minister Jens-Frederik Nielsen said in a statement Sunday. “President Trump’s idea of sending an American hospital ship here to Greenland has been noted. But we have a public healthcare system where treatment is free for citizens. That is a deliberate choice — and a fundamental part of our society. That is not how it works in the USA, where it costs money to see a doctor.”
Trump made the announcement Saturday evening on his social media platform, posting alongside an illustration of the U.S. naval hospital ship USNS Mercy, saying, “We are going to send a great hospital boat to Greenland to take care of the many people who are sick, and not being taken care of there. It’s on the way!!!”
On Saturday, a U.S. Navy sailor was medically evacuated from an American nuclear-powered submarine by Danish military forces, according to a U.S. and Danish official.
But what prompted Trump to float sending a hospital ship to Greenland isn’t clear, particularly given the Danish territory’s universal health system serving roughly 60,000 citizens. The White House did not return a request for comment.
Trump has long pushed the idea of the U.S. buying Greenland from Denmark, citing national security needs and tapping its natural resources, and has not ruled out taking it by military force over the heated objections of Greenlanders and the Danes. He said in January he had a framework of a deal with Denmark, Greenland and NATO, but revealed few details.
About 80% of Greenlanders have at least annual contact with a primary care doctor, according to data from Queen Ingrid Health Care Centre, the country’s main hospital hub. The figures are even higher for women: roughly 90% report regular contact, compared to 76% of men.
The U.S. Navy has two hospital ships, both currently in Mobile, Alabama, one of which is likely months away from being able to deploy. The White House did not respond to a request for comment.
The Mercy, whose homeport is San Diego, is a 1,000-bed hospital ship commissioned in 1986 and is deployed for disaster relief and other large-scale medical crises, including in 2020 when it deployed to Los Angeles, where the ship served as a floating relief valve for the city’s overburdened medical system during the first chaotic stretch of the COVID-19 pandemic. It’s unclear whether it’s actually preparing to deploy to Greenland. The Navy did not immediately respond to a request for information on why it is in Mobile.
The Navy’s other hospital ship, the USNS Comfort is undergoing extensive maintenance in Mobile expected to last through April 26, according to the repair contract reviewed by ABC News.
Trump said he was working on the matter with Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry, whom he appointed as a special envoy to Greenland last year. While Landry served in the National Guard for 11 years, he has no significant foreign policy or health care experience.
“We are always open to dialogue and cooperation — also with the USA,” Nielsen said. “But please talk to us instead of just making more or less random statements on social media. Dialogue and cooperation require respect for the fact that decisions about our country are made here at home.”
Exterior view of the U.S. Capitol on October 23, 2025 in Washington, DC. Eric Lee/Getty Images
(WASHINGTON) — A group of moderate House Republicans broke ranks with GOP leadership on Wednesday to force a vote on a clean, three-year extension of the Affordable Care Act insurance subsidies set to expire at the end of the year.
Four Republicans signed onto House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries’ discharge petition, giving it the 218 signatures needed to force a vote.
The decision by moderate Republican Reps. Brian Fitzpatrick, Mike Lawler, Rob Bresnahan and Ryan Mackenzie to join Democrats comes after the Republican-controlled House Rules Committee on Tuesday night blocked amendments to extend the ACA subsidies from advancing.
House Speaker Mike Johnson has also resisted from allowing an up or down amendment vote on extending the expiring subsidies, which were Democrats’ focal point of the record 43-day government shutdown this fall.
Moderate Republicans who signed onto the petition took aim at House leadership.
Lawler, of New York, said he doesn’t endorse the Democrats’ bill as written,
“…When leadership blocks action entirely, Congress has a responsibility to act. My priority is ensuring Hudson Valley families aren’t caught in the gridlock,” Lawler wrote on X.
“Our only request was a Floor vote on this compromise, so that the American People’s voice could be heard on this issue. That request was rejected,” Pennsylvania’s Fitzpatrick said in a statement. “Then, at the request of House leadership, me and my colleagues filed multiple amendments, and testified at length to those amendments. House leadership then decided to reject every single one of these amendments. As I’ve stated many times before, the only policy that is worse than a clean three-year extension without any reforms, is a policy of complete expiration without any bridge. Unfortunately, it is House leadership themselves that have forced this outcome.”
What happens next?
The Republican-controlled House will hold vote on a clean three-year extension of the ACA subsidies; however, the vote is not expected to occur until January 2026 at the earliest given the rules for when a discharge petition can hit the floor.
The big question now is how the Senate will respond. The Senate already rejected a clean three-year extension of the subsidies in a pair of dueling health care votes last week, though several Republican senators crossed the aisle to join all Democrats in supporting it.
On Wednesday night, the House will hold a vote at approximately 5:30 p.m. on a narrow Republican health care package that does not address the expiring ACA tax credits.
Johnson needs a simple majority for the bill to pass and can only afford to lose three Republican votes. Democratic leaders are whipping their members against the bill. The vote will be tight for Johnson, who continues to navigate a slim majority.
The House GOP proposal would expand the availability of association health plans and what are known as “CHOICE arrangements;” impose new transparency requirements on pharmacy benefit managers to lower drug costs; and appropriate money for cost-sharing reductions to reduce premiums in the individual market.
