US aircraft carrier strike group joins Trump’s campaign against drug cartels
(WASHINGTON) — The USS Gerald R. Ford carrier strike group has arrived in the U.S. Southern Command area of operations north of the Caribbean Sea as part of the Trump administration’s campaign against drug cartels, the Navy’s Fourth Fleet announced Wednesday.
The carrier’s deployment to assist in operations against Latin American drug cartels was announced on Oct. 24 while it was on a port of call in Croatia. Since then it has made the lengthy transit through the Mediterranean Sea and across the Atlantic Ocean.
Typically the Pentagon’s announcements that a carrier group has entered a regional area of operations occur when they have crossed the furthest limits of that area, which for SOUTHCOM means somewhere in the Atlantic east of Florida and Cuba.
The strike group includes three destroyers that will augment the eight Navy surface ships already in the SOUTHCOM region. The sizable U.S. military presence in the region also includes a submarine, reconnaissance aircraft, 10 F-35 fighters and Reaper drones.
It was disclosed last week through imagery that an AC-130J gunship and two other reconnaissance aircraft have been operating from an El Salvador military base co-located at the country’s international airport, presumably as part of operations against the cartels.
The Ford carries more than 60 aircraft that could be used against the drug cartels.
“These forces will enhance and augment existing capabilities to disrupt narcotics trafficking and degrade and dismantle Transnational Criminal Organizations,” Sean Parnell, the Pentagon’s chief spokesman, said.
The Trump administration says it has killed 76 people in 19 strikes against alleged drug-running boats in the Caribbean and the eastern Pacific Ocean since it began its campaign in September.
The 4,000 sailors and Marines aboard ships in the Ford strike group join the 10,000 troops already deployed to the Caribbean.
The Pentagon has said that the carrier’s deployment is tied to the operations targeting the drug cartels, but critics have asked if it is intended to be a show of force or potential operations targeting Venezuela’s Nicolás Maduro regime.
Experts say that while Maduro is complicit in the drug trade, many of the drugs coming into the U.S. come via Mexico and sea routes in the Pacific, not the Caribbean, which is known more for shipping drugs to Europe.
The administration has flown B-52 bombers near the coast of Venezuela and B-1 bombers over the Caribbean in what appears to be a major show of force by President Donald Trump.
In addition, a special operations aviation unit conducted training exercises in international waters near Venezuela in October, a U.S. official said.
ABC News’ Anne Flaherty contributed to this report.
(WASHINGTON) — The top Democrat on the House Education and Workforce Committee is urging Republicans to hold a hearing on whether the Trump administration committed ethics violations at the beginning of the government shutdown by providing politically charged out-of-office email replies for government employees.
Ranking Member Bobby Scott, D-Va., said multiple federal agencies violated the Hatch Act, which prohibits federal employees from engaging in political activities during their official duties, when they used government messaging that disparaged and blamed Democrats for the shutdown.
“Multiple Executive Departments under the jurisdiction of our Committee have taken political actions in apparent violation of the Hatch Act and other statutes,” Scott wrote in a letter first obtained by ABC News. “I write to ask you to hold hearings on these acts as soon as possible,” Scott said.
The federal agencies under the jurisdiction of the House committee — including at the departments of Health and Human Services and Agriculture — are using public statements on their websites that label the lapse in appropriations a “Democrat-led” shutdown while blaming the “radical left.”
The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) also encouraged federal employees across the government — including at the departments of Labor, Justice and Education — to create out-of-office email messages denouncing “Democrat Senators” for causing the government shutdown, multiple sources confirmed to ABC News.
The approach appears to differ with each agency. Some federal departments did not send out any out-of-office email guidance.
However, multiple furloughed employees at the Department of Education report their out-of-office replies were automatically reset without their permission to say: “Thank you for contacting me. On September 19, 2025, the House of Representatives passed H.R. 5371, a clean continuing resolution. Unfortunately, Democrat Senators are blocking passage of H.R. 5371 in the Senate which has led to a lapse in appropriations. Due to the lapse in appropriations I am currently in furlough status. I will respond to emails once government functions resume.”
One Department of Education staffer told ABC News, “They [the agency] did it after everyone left.” “[I’m] so p—ed,” they said.
The employee added, “We as career government employees need to be neutral when carrying out our jobs. This is such bull—-.”
Several federal workers, including the Education Department staffer, expressed concern to ABC News that adding the messages to their email accounts would violate the Hatch Act. The Education employee, furious about the message, stressed that federal workers are supposed to “serve all people of this country.”
The employee continued, “That [automatic reply] message is what anyone seeking assistance from a government worker is going to see.”
In his letter to Education Committee Chairman Tim Walberg, R-Mich., Scott condemned the out-of-office reply practice.
“The act of altering the messages of non-partisan employees to literally put political speech in their mouths is incredibly egregious, and may be a violation of additional federal criminal statutes,” he wrote.
The letter comes as negotiations to fund the government are at a standstill as the shutdown stretches past a week.
Meanwhile, the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) — a union representing federal government employees whose automatic reply messages were replaced last week — sued the Department of Education for allegedly replacing the emails with messaging that parroted the Trump administration’s talking points.
“Forcing civil servants to speak on behalf of the political leadership’s partisan agenda is a blatant violation of federal employees’ First Amendment rights,” the AFGE said in its suit.
AFGE represents approximately 800,000 federal workers across the government, including most of the remaining staff at the Department of Education.
In a statement to ABC News, Madi Biedermann, the Department of Education deputy assistant secretary for communications, said, “The email reminds those who reach out to Department of Education employees that we cannot respond because Senate Democrats are refusing to vote for a clean CR and fund the government.”
“Where’s the lie?” Biedermann added.
Democracy Forward, the public education advocacy nonprofit representing the plaintiffs in the case, accused the Trump administration of engaging in partisan political rhetoric.
In a statement to ABC News, Democracy Forward President and CEO Skye Perryman said: “This is beyond outrageous.”
The United States Capitol building is seen in Washington D.C., United States, on September 24, 2025. Yasin Ozturk/Anadolu via Getty Images
(WASHINGTON) — Federal courts may be forced to quickly curtail operations — potentially delaying trials and other hearings — if congressional funding is not extended beyond Sept. 30, a spokesperson for the Administrative Office of U.S. Courts told ABC News.
While in previous government shutdowns the courts have found ways to use court fees and other financial tools to sustain full functionality and schedules — at least for several weeks — years of tighter budgets and rising costs have created a much more difficult situation in today’s landscape.
A government shutdown could begin at 12:01 a.m. Wednesday, Oct. 1, if there is a lapse is federal government funding.
“Judiciary operations would continue using court fees and other available balances through Friday, October 3,” the spokesperson, Jaculine Koszczuk, said in a statement.
After that, while the judiciary will not formally shut down, some operations may begin being put on hold.
“We will continue to assess available fees and balances after FY 2025 closes to determine if operations can be sustained beyond that date,” Koszczuk said. “Should fees and balances be exhausted before Congress enacts a continuing resolution or full-year funding, the Judiciary would then operate under the terms of the Anti-Deficiency Act. Federal courts would continue operating, but would be limited to activities needed to support the exercise of the Judiciary’s constitutional functions and to address emergency circumstances.”
Reuters was first to report that Judge Robert Conrad, director of the Administrative Office, issued a warning this week to judges and other court officials about the looming financial crisis — calling this year’s situation a “very sharp change” from the past.
The U.S. Supreme Court — which was established by the Constitution, not Congress — would be largely unaffected.
“In the event of a lapse of appropriations, the Court will continue to conduct its normal operations,” Supreme Court spokeswoman Patricia McCabe told ABC. “The Court will rely on permanent funds not subject to annual approval, as it has in the past, to maintain operations through the duration of short-term lapses of annual appropriations.”
Justices and federal judges would continue to be paid during a shutdown because federal law prohibits cuts to their pay once appointed for life. Many of the 33,000 other employees of the federal judiciary could face furloughs without pay.
The last time the judiciary experienced staff furloughs during a shutdown was 1995, when appropriations lapsed for three weeks until Congress reached a deal to end the standoff.
Speaker of the House Mike Johnson speaks during a press conference on Capitol Hill on November 18, 2025 in Washington, DC. Roberto Schmidt/Getty Images
(WASHINGTON) — After months of anticipation, the House is finally set to vote Tuesday on a bill ordering the release of the Justice Department’s files on sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, whose purported ties to both Democrats and Republicans have fueled speculation across the country and prompted investigations on Capitol Hill seeking to uncover details about the billionaire’s network of political and financial connections.
After President Donald Trump reversed course over the weekend and urged House Republicans to “vote to release the Epstein files,” the bill appears headed for the Senate despite a monthslong campaign by Speaker Mike Johnson to block its release.
Johnson told House Republicans during a closed-door conference meeting on Tuesday morning that he will support the resolution, according to multiple sources. In the meeting, he told members to “vote your conscience.”
Johnson later confirmed during a press conference, “I’m gonna vote to move this forward” despite calling the bill “recklessly flawed.”
“I think it could be close to a unanimous vote because everybody here, all the Republicans, want to go on record to show for maximum transparency. But they also want to know that we’re demanding that this stuff get corrected before it has ever moved through the process and is complete,” he said.
Johnson said he spoke to Senate Majority Leader John Thune and said he hopes the Senate will amend the Epstein files bill.
The speaker accused Democrats of “forcing a political show vote on the Epstein files.”
Johnson has tried to avoid holding a vote in the lower chamber on the Epstein matter. In late July, Johnson sent the House home a day early for August recess because the House was paralyzed in a stalemate over the Epstein issue.
The speaker also sent the House home for more than 50 days during the longest government shutdown in U.S. history — delaying the swearing in of Democrat Adelita Grijalva. After the shutdown ended last week, the Arizona Democrat became the 218th signature on the Epstein discharge petition, compelling the speaker to bring a bill co-sponsored by Kentucky Republican Rep. Thomas Massie and California Democratic Rep. Ro Khanna to the floor for a vote this week.
Johnson on Monday continued to raise concerns about the legislation and said he has spoken to Trump “quite a bit” about it.
“[Trump’s] statements speak for themselves,” Johnson said leaving the House floor on Monday. “He has nothing, he has never had anything to hide. He and I had the same concern, that we wanted to ensure that victims of these heinous crimes were completely protected from disclosure. Those who don’t want their names to be out there, and I am not sure the discharge petition does that and that’s part of the problem.”
“We’ll give them everything. Sure. I would let them, let the Senate look at it. Let anybody look at it,” Trump said of the full Epstein files. “But don’t talk about it too much, because honestly, I don’t want to take it away from us.”
Trump does not need to wait for Congress to act — he could order the release immediately.
The measure — called “The Epstein Files Transparency Act” — would compel Attorney General Pam Bondi to make available all “unclassified records, documents, communications and investigative materials” in the Department of Justice’s possession related to Epstein.
The DOJ and FBI released a joint statement in July that stated a review uncovered no evidence of any client list kept by Epstein or other evidence that would predicate a criminal investigation of any uncharged parties.
The legislation seeks federal records on Epstein and his convicted accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell, as well as other individuals, including government officials, named or referenced in connection with Epstein’s “criminal activities, civil settlements, immunity, plea agreements or investigatory proceedings.” Victims’ names and other identifying information would be excluded from disclosure, as would any items that may depict or contain child sex abuse material, according to the text of the proposed bill.
Trump, in a post on social media on Sunday, stressed that the Justice Department has “already turned over tens of thousands of pages to the public” on Epstein.
“The House Oversight Committee can have whatever they are legally entitled to. I DON’T CARE!” Trump added.
The bill is expected to pass in the House with dozens of Republicans potentially voting in favor — shifting the political pressure to Thune to follow suit with a vote in the upper chamber. If it passes in the Senate, it will go to Trump’s desk for him to sign it into law.
For months, Johnson has pointed at the House Oversight Committee’s inquiry — claiming that the panel’s probe is more far-reaching than the Khanna-Massie bill. House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer has sought additional documents from the Epstein estate and testimony from Epstein’s associates, including former President Bill Clinton.
Proponents of the bill argue that “the record of this vote will last longer than Donald Trump’s presidency.”
“I would remind my Republican colleagues who are deciding how to vote, Donald Trump can protect you in red districts right now by giving you an endorsement. But in 2030, he’s not going to be the president, and you will have voted to protect pedophiles if you don’t vote to release these files,” Massie told ABC News’ “This Week” co-anchor Jonathan Karl. “And the president can’t protect you then.”
Even if the measure passes through the House and Senate and is ultimately signed into law by Trump, it’s unlikely the Justice Department would release the entire Epstein file, according to sources. Any materials related to ongoing investigations or White House claims of executive privilege will likely remain out of public view.
Epstein died by suicide in 2019 while awaiting trial on charges of trafficking young girls and women.
Maxwell is currently serving a 20-year prison sentence. She was convicted on five counts of aiding Epstein in his abuse of underage girls in December 2021.
