Trump calls for DOJ probe into other Epstein ties, including Clinton
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(WASHINGTON) — President Donald Trump, in a social media post on Friday, said he will “be asking A.G. Pam Bondi, and the Department of Justice, together with our great patriots at the FBI, to investigate Jeffrey Epstein’s involvement and relationship with Bill Clinton, Larry Summers, Reid Hoffman, J.P. Morgan, Chase, and many other people and institutions, to determine what was going on with them, and him.”
“Stay tuned!!!” Trump wrote.
Clinton has denied any knowledge of Epstein’s crimes and has denied ever visiting Epstein’s private island.
The post comes after House Democrats released emails from Epstein that mentioned Trump by name, including a post that referred to Trump as the “dog that hasn’t barked” and told his accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell that an alleged victim had “spent hours at my house” with Trump.
Bipartisan pressure is ramping up on the administration to release the rest of the Epstein files. This week, Democratic Rep. Adelita Grijalva became the 218th signature needed on a discharge petition to compel the DOJ to make those records public.
Trump, who was friendly with Epstein for years, said after Epstein’s arrest in 2019 that they hadn’t spoken in more than a decade after having a falling out. White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt dismissed the new emails in a press briefing earlier this week, saying they “prove absolutely nothing other than the fact that President Trump did nothing wrong.”
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
U.S. Speaker of the House Mike Johnson (R-LA) speaks during a news conference on the government shutdown at the U.S. Capitol on October 09, 2025 in Washington, DC. Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images
(WASHINGTON) — As the government shutdown plows forward with no end in sight, many civilian federal workers are feeling the impact as they receive only a partial paycheck on Friday, the 10th day of the impasse.
For many federal workers, the partial paycheck is the last payment they will receive until the shutdown ends.
“You’ve got millions of American families who will now have to figure out how to make their mortgage, how to cover their rent, pay the car note and keep food on the table — because Democrats, Chuck Schumer, his colleagues in the Senate are here playing games,” House Speaker Mike Johnson said during a Friday morning press conference.
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries fired back in his own Friday morning press conference saying Republicans are “not serious about reopening the government” and that Democrats are open to having meetings to discuss off-ramps. He urged Republicans to work with Democrats to “pay our federal employees and at the same time address the Republican health care crisis.”
On Thursday night, the Senate again failed to pass the clean seven-week funding bill. Following the seventh failed vote, senators left town for the weekend — ensuring the shutdown lasts for at least two weeks with the next chance to vote to fund the government on Oct. 14.
House Republican leaders on Friday canceled votes for all of next week.
The latest failed Senate vote guarantees that some 2 million military service members will miss their paycheck on Wednesday, Oct. 15 and won’t be paid until the government reopens.
The last time service members went without pay was in 2018 when the Coast Guard went without money in a shutdown under President Donald Trump’s administration. Other troops haven’t gone without pay in decades, although private financial institutions are offering zero percent loans.
Johnson said that Trump is “working on ways” to ensure the military troops get paid during the shutdown but did not provide specifics.
“The executive branch, the president is working on ways that he may have as well to ensure that troops are paid,” Johnson said Friday morning. “The Republican party stands for paying the troops; the Democrats are the ones that are demonstrating over and over and over – now eight times – that they don’t want troops to be paid. This could not be any simpler than it is – look at the record.”
Pressed by ABC News on the worsening effects of the government shutdown and the millions of federal employees and soldiers going without pay, Jeffries was firm, saying Democrats will not buckle without health care concessions from Republicans.
“Republicans have the House, the Senate, and the presidency. They decided to shut the government down. Republicans in the House have decided to remain on vacation,” Jeffries said.
The shutdown already appears to be impacting many military families, with some lined up at food pantries around the country.
On Thursday, a military mom called into Johnson’s appearance on CSPAN and begged him to bring the House back to session to pass a standalone bill to provide military troops pay during the shutdown, saying her “kids could die” if her family experiences a lapse in pay on Oct. 15.
The National Military Family Association estimates that one in five military and veteran families are experiencing some level of food insecurity. Also, 25% of military families report having less than $500 in savings, the association found in its most recent report.
The next vote on clean House-passed funding bill in the Senate will be Tuesday at 5:30 p.m. ET — which will be Day 14 of the shutdown.
David Richardson, acting administrator of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), during a House Transportation and Infrastructure Subcommittee hearing in Washington, DC, US, on Wednesday, July 23, 2025. (Photographer: Graeme Sloan/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
(WASHINGTON) — Acting FEMA Administrator David Richardson resigned on Monday, according to multiple sources familiar with the situation.
Richardson, who was temporarily installed in May after former Acting Administrator Cam Hamilton was essentially fired by Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem.
Richardson was also in charge of the department’s countering Weapons of Mass Destruction office. It is unclear if he will still stay on in that role.
It is unclear who will lead the disaster management agency.
Richardson told staff in an all-hands meeting in June that he was unaware hurricane season had started, according to sources familiar with the meeting.
It was unclear if Richardson was joking, but a Department of Homeland Security spokesperson argued he was.
When asked by reporters during a White House press briefing whether President Donald Trump was “still comfortable” with Richardson after his remarks, press secretary Karoline Leavitt dismissed concerns and said FEMA is taking hurricane season “seriously, contrary to some of the reporting we have seen based on jokes that were made and leaks from meetings.”
Richardson’s comments followed an internal review indicating FEMA was “not ready” for the 2025 hurricane season in mid-May.
The DHS spokesperson denied FEMA is unprepared, saying “Despite meanspirited attempts to falsely frame a joke as policy, there is no uncertainty about what FEMA will be doing this Hurricane Season.”
“FEMA is laser-focused on disaster response and protecting the American people,” the spokesperson added.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., slammed Richardson, posting on X that he is “unaware of why he hasn’t been fired yet.”
“Trump’s FEMA chief is incompetent,” Sen. Ed Markey, D-Mass., added. “People will die.”
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
(WASHINGTON) — House Oversight Republicans released a blistering report Tuesday morning that details their findings into former President Joe Biden’s mental acuity and his use of the autopen — calling on Attorney General Pam Bondi to examine all executive actions taken during the prior administration, as well as scrutinize the actions of three senior officials who refused to comply with the panel’s closed-door interviews for fear of criminal prosecution.
Democrats quickly dismissed the report as a “sham” — with Biden’s post-presidency office calling it “baseless.”
The 100-page report includes links to transcripts and video of their closed-door depositions conducted with 14 top Biden administration officials, including three senior officials — Anthony Bernal, Annie Tomasini and Dr. Kevin O’Connor — who invoked their Fifth Amendment right not to incriminate themselves rather than answer the committee’s questions.
The committee previously released videos of those three officials declining to testify following their respective depositions. Other aides repeatedly defended Biden’s mental fitness, maintaining that he was mentally engaged in the decision-making process in the White House.
“The Biden Autopen Presidency will go down as one of the biggest political scandals in U.S. history,” Oversight Chairman James Comer said in a statement.
Comer claimed Biden’s inner circle “sought to deceive the public” and conceal “his decline.” He said the report reveals how several of Biden’s aides “colluded to mislead the public and the extraordinary measures they took to sustain the appearance of presidential authority as Biden’s capacity to function independently diminished.”
A Biden spokesperson criticized the report, claiming there was no wrongdoing at the Biden White House.
“This investigation into baseless claims has confirmed what has been clear from the start: President Biden made the decisions of his presidency. There was no conspiracy, no cover-up, and no wrongdoing,” the Biden spokesperson said. “Congressional Republicans should stop focusing on political retribution and instead work to end the government shutdown.”
Biden has previously defended the use of autopen.
“The autopen is, you know, is legal. As you know, other presidents used it, including Trump. But the point is that, you know, we’re talking about a whole lot of people,” Biden said.
Comer said that executive actions performed by Biden White House staff and signed by autopen should be “null and void.”
“We have provided Americans with transparency about the Biden Autopen Presidency, and now there must be accountability,” Comer stated.
Comer’s comments echo some of President Donald Trump’s remarks about Biden’s use of autopen — including saying that the pardons Biden approved should be voided because they were signed using an autopen. Trump has said he has used an autopen for some trivial matters, but criticized its use for pardons.
The House committee claimed it found “substantial evidence” that Biden “experienced significant mental and physical decline during his presidency,” while senior White House officials “actively sought to conceal his deterioration from the public.”
Bondi said in a Tuesday post on X that her staff has “already initiated a review of the Biden administration’s reported use of autopen for pardons” and called the report “extremely helpful.”
Speaker Mike Johnson commented on the report Tuesday morning, repeating Comer’s calls to void “every executive action signed by the autopen without written authorization from President Biden.”
“This is an unprecedented situation in American politics and government,” Johnson said Tuesday when asked whether documents signed by the autopen on Biden’s behalf should be “null and void,” as the report concluded. “There is no legal precedent because no previous president … had the audacity to have people signing things on their behalf when they didn’t even know what was in it.”
Oversight Democrats have dismissed the investigation throughout the monthslong probe — complaining about the GOP’s “obsession” with the former president.
“Despite this sham investigation, every White House official testified President Biden fully executed his duties as President of the United States. The testimonies also make it clear the former President authorized every executive order, pardon, and use of the autopen,” House Oversight Ranking Member Robert Garcia said in a statement to ABC News.
House Oversight Democrats released a short 14-page counter report on Tuesday — arguing that the Republicans have “failed to produce any evidence to support their allegations against President Biden.”
Trump has continued to criticize and troll Biden’s use of the autopen — even hanging a picture of an autopen signing Biden’s signature alongside portraits of past presidents in the new Presidential Walk of Fame on the White House West Colonnade.
The committee also sent a letter to Dr. Andrea Anderson, chair of the District of Columbia Board of Medicine, calling on her to investigate whether the actions of O’Connor, Biden’s White House physician, should disqualify him from future practice in the nation’s capital.
“Based on the nature and extent of Dr. O’Connor’s actions, the Committee recommends that the Board of Medicine impose discipline, sanction, or revocation of his medical license,” the letter states. “If Dr. O’Connor failed to meet his minimum standard of care to the president, intentionally misled the American public, or authored false health reports on President Biden, then the Committee believes Dr. O’Connor should be barred from the practice of medicine in the District of Columbia.”
ABC News has reached out to O’Connor’s lawyer for comment.
When O’Connor spoke before the committee, his lawyer, David Schertler, said in a statement that the doctor “asserted the physician-patient privilege, as well as his right under the Fifth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, in declining to answer questions from the staff of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform regarding his service as Physician to the President during the Biden Administration.”
Oversight Republicans also knocked Democrats for passive participation in the investigation — clocking the total time of their questioning to “only about 3 hours and 30 minutes’ worth of questions” over nearly 47 hours of depositions and transcribed interviews.
