Today’s notice: Settling in with the Epstein narratives we’ll be hearing for the next couple months. Republicans try to turn the page in the Senate. The Virginia 2025 player you haven’t heard much about.
The Latest
Living with it The president knows he can’t shut the Jeffrey Epstein story down.
“Even if the Court gave its full and unwavering approval, nothing will be good enough for the troublemakers and radical left lunatics making the request,” Donald Trump posted to Truth Social Saturday morning after Attorney General Pam Bondi requested the unsealing of federal grand jury testimony last week at his urging. “It will always be more, more, more.”
But can the White House turn this down to a slow simmer on a backburner somewhere? That’s the question for the next few days.
The calendar could help. The House is scheduled to leave D.C. for about a month starting at the end of this week, making swift congressional action on Epstein stuff unlikely.
The challenges to pulling this off are steep. Or rather are traditionally understood as steep. “Everyone’s aligned and knows the way forward,” a senior White House official told Jasmine Friday afternoon with a grin. (Smiles were not the response to Epstein questions before that WSJ story turned a lot of the chatter in MAGA world away from the White House and back to the perennial villain, The Media.)
Former Epstein lawyer Alan Dershowitz (another guy the WSJ alleged to have sent Epstein a doodle) went on Fox News Sunday and said it’s unlikely that what Bondi has asked to be unsealed will amount to much for those looking for new revelations. He re-upped a call for Congress to offer Ghislaine Maxwell immunity for hearing testimony, calling her “the Rosetta Stone.”
Democrats also kept up their trolling pressure campaign against the White House on this, with Sen. Amy Klobuchar on CNN comparing Trump’s complaints that Democrats didn’t release the records to the Astronomer CEO blaming Chris Martin for his tough week.
Trump doesn’t need to convince Democrats, though, to make this problem mostly go away. He simply needs MAGA types to stop talking about it so much.
In a couple of Sunday TV appearances, Rep. Tim Burchett, a Republican skeptic pushing Trump for more information on Epstein, delivered versions of the same talking point. “I applaud the president and Attorney General Bondi for wanting to release the grand jury files,” he told ABC’s This Week. “I believe that will pretty much cover everything.”
Will that sate the anger in the rest of Trump’s base through recess? We’ll know pretty soon.
Open Tabs: Volunteers flock to immigration courts to support migrants arrested in the hallways (AP); Trump Aides Discussed Ending Some SpaceX Contracts, but Found Most Were Vital (WSJ); Trump administration ends 988 Lifeline’s special service for LGBTQ+ young people (NPR); Democrats’ 2024 Autopsy Is Described as Avoiding the Likeliest Cause of Death (NYT)
From the Hill
Guess what? Congress needs to vote on a spending package by Sept. 30 or a government shutdown is likely. Guess what else? The White House has said it might do some more rescissions packages before then.
Remember, White House budget chief Russell Vought told NOTUS’ Violet Jira at the Monitor Breakfast last week that he’s good with more partisanship in the appropriations process.
And yet, Senate Majority Leader John Thune is urging Democrats to help pass spending bills. “That runs contrary to what, you know, the math tells us around here,” Thune told reporters when asked about Vought’s comments.
Trust is slipping fast. “We’ll see if he’ll stand up to Mr. Vought,” Sen. Gary Peters told NOTUS’ Helen Huiskes and Ursula Perano. “If they haven’t done that yet, they’re probably not going to do it.”
The Big One
What are the political limits of mass deportation? About a month ago, the president acknowledged the political dangers in his mass deportation program, promising nervous business owners that longtime workers weren’t at risk. That promise was swiftly revoked under intense online MAGA pressure, and images of ICE agents raiding farms and Home Depot parking lots remain a viral reminder of how serious the administration is about this.
That controversy pushed this conversation behind the scenes but did not end it. NOTUS’ Haley Byrd Wilt and Emily Kennard report on multiple Republican members of Congress attempting to use their offices to shield specific migrants from deportation.
The administration has been responsive to these efforts, Rep. Chip Roy – one of the more conservative members of Congress – told Haley and Emily. Roy said he’s “going to bat for” one immigrant he knows because he deemed him “a good guy.” The NOTUS reporters detail several stories like this.
In a statement, DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said the department “will continue to fight for the arrest, detention and removal of aliens who have no right to be in this country.”
The context here is very important as the next election cycle begins: Republicans in districts with large immigrant populations have warned over and over that a heavy hand could have electoral consequences. Rep. Carlos Gimenez told Haley and Emily the rapid rise in immigration casework suggests the GOP should take a look at this policy. “Since we have control of the border, maybe we need to start looking as a country at how we can moderate what’s going on,” he said.
New on NOTUS
The 2025 Virginia story you haven’t heard: State Sen. Ghazala Hashmi is the Democratic nominee for lieutenant governor, which means in November she might become the first Muslim woman ever elected to statewide office. NOTUS’ Alex Roarty reports she doesn’t shy away from talking about her faith or how it shapes her worldview. Her faith has a “foundational basis for how I read legislation,” she said in a wide-ranging interview.
Are you there, Marco? After the State Department ordered U.S. diplomats to stop talking about the state of democracy in other nations, Democratic senators who voted unanimously to confirm the secretary of state had pangs of regret. “This is a person I worked with for 13 years, but don’t feel like I know him,” Sen. Tim Kaine said.
George Santos owes someone: “Yes he does still owe me the money,” a former campaign aide tells NOTUS’ Violet Jira in a story about the messy finances Santos will leave behind when he checks into prison for a 7-year sentence next week. His failed reelection campaign has yet to file the required FEC report due July 15, but the April report (the most recent available) showed the campaign in more than $800,000 of debt, much of it in the form of loans from Santos himself. But it also owes tens of thousands to consultants, lawyers and vendors.
More: Democrats Are Hitting the Road to Rail Against the Reconciliation Bill; Senate Democrats Say They Can’t Trust Republicans on Appropriations
NOT US
- Inside the powerful task force spearheading Trump’s assault on colleges, DEI by Laura Meckler, Dan Rosenzweig-Ziff, Susan Svrluga, Perry Stein and Emily Davies for The Washington Post
- A Kennedy Aide’s Start-Up Can Get You a Tax Break on a $9,000 Sauna by Ron Lieber and Benjamin Mueller for The New York Times
- Madison clerk was on a cookie-baking staycation as missing-ballot mess unfolded by Alexander Shur for VoteBeat Wisconsin
Week Ahead
- Today: Federal judges in New Jersey will reportedly meet to consider choosing a U.S. Attorney to replace the interim holder of the job, Alina Habba.
- Tuesday: Senate Foreign Relations Committee is scheduled to hold a hearing on the nomination of Jason Evans to be the undersecretary of State for Management.
- Thursday: The House is scheduled to leave town until September.
- Friday: POTUS is scheduled to leave town for a trip to Scotland. He’ll be back next week.
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