Gearing Up for a Shutdown Showdown

Today’s notice: The DOJ’s Epstein files review is “over,” but almost no one is happy. Government funding faces a bumpy ride in the House. Who paid to see “Melania” over the weekend? Plus: What we found after poring over FEC reports.

THE LATEST

Epstein files latest in two quotes. “This review is over,” Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche told ABC News yesterday, saying that beyond a “small number of documents” requiring a judge’s ruling to release, the DOJ has fulfilled its Epstein files obligations under the law Congress passed in 2025. On Friday, the department released its final tranche of files, revealing new allegations against Donald Trump, Epstein’s psychological evaluations from the months leading up to his death and draft indictments.

But millions of documents still haven’t been released, and Democrats are angry: “It will not be over until there is full and complete transparency as demanded by the survivors,” Hakeem Jeffries said in a separate interview on “Meet the Press.”

Partial shutdown. What kind of 24 hours are we in for? It’s up to the House to pass the appropriations deal passed by the Senate on Friday in order to end the partial shutdown. NOTUS’ Riley Rogerson previews a potentially bumpy ride for the plan Senate negotiators say funds the government and creates a two-week time frame to drum up enough votes to pass a DHS funding bill.

What to watch for: In order to move this forward, which Trump wants, Mike Johnson will need near unanimity and very high attendance from his caucus tomorrow.

Some Democrats will probably help, but that’s also tenuous. Riley noted that the House Progressive Caucus and centrist New Democrat Coalition put out a rare (to say the least) joint statement demanding changes to immigration enforcement before approving new money for DHS. Progressive Caucus chair Greg Casar has said that means a no vote from him on the Senate deal.

Open tabs: Kennedy Center to Close for Two Years Starting July 4, Trump Says (NOTUS); ‘Spy Sheikh’ Bought Secret Stake in Trump Company (WSJ); Democratic Upset in Deep Red Texas District Rattles Republicans (NYT); Two CBP Agents Identified in Alex Pretti Shooting (ProPublica)

From the FEC reports

What NOTUS reporters dug up from a weekend of poring over the latest filings with the Federal Election Commission:

Well, this is awkward. The American Fintech Council, which represents online banking firms, such as SoFi, Affirm and Rocket Loans, reported it was scammed out of nearly $2,500 by an “unknown individual” who accessed the PAC’s checkbook, NOTUS’ Samuel Larreal reports.

In more traditional FEC news, the sometime member of former Sen. Kyrsten Sinema’s security detail — whose estranged wife used an archaic law in North Carolina to sue Sinema for ruining the couple’s marriage — was paid nearly $9,000 in October by her campaign committee, Dave Levinthal reports. Sinema also finally terminated the committee after it spent thousands on things like flights, dinners and that security detail after she left office.

Speaking of post-retirement spending, Taylor Giorno breaks down how lawmakers stepping away from their current gigs after this election are spending their campaign cash. Some — including Rep. Chip Roy — are transferring large sums of it to their next campaigns. In Roy’s case, the Republican primary for Texas attorney general.

Others are sending it to their colleagues: Rep. Nancy Pelosi gave $35,000 to Rep. Dan Goldman’s reelection bid. She’s got a lot more where that came from. The reports show Pelosi has more than $9 million in reserve across three political committees, Manuela Silva reports.

From the Culture Wars

The self-titled film that First Lady Melania Trump insists is “not a documentary” — it’s a “creative experience” — beat projected expectations to gross about $7 million at the box office during its opening weekend. The number served as a rebuke to naysayers who doubted whether an unpopular president and a massive marketing budget could overcome an avalanche of negative reviews.

“A surprise to who?” CJ Pearson, a Gen-Z MAGA influencer who attended the black carpet premiere last week in D.C., told Jasmine (NOTUS’ self-anointed cinephile) and tweeted similar sentiments. “Never bet against a Trump.”

To be fair, the movie is not yet profitable, which is the typical measure of success for Hollywood (we still haven’t forgotten that Sinners tweet). Multiple outlets have reported that Jeff Bezos’ Amazon bought the Brett Ratner-directed film for $40 million and spent an additional $35 million to market it. Still, the $7 million price tag does make it the most profitable non-music documentary in a decade.

Analyzing where it made its money is almost like reading a poll of the country. Deadline reports that of the close to 1,800 theaters the film ran in and 600,000 tickets sold, 53% of those were from theaters in red counties. The highest sales were in Texas and Florida, and it underperformed in many Democratic strongholds (Los Angeles, New York, etc.).

If that wasn’t enough to stroke a partisan frenzy, just look at the reviews. Many trade publications panned it as probably the worst thing a movie can be: boring. Its IMDb rating is 1.1 stars (out of 10), Letterboxd scores it at 1.3 stars (out of five) and Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer (which compiles critic ratings) is a mere 10%. In contrast, the audience score (Popcornmeter) is a resounding 99%, making it the best user-rated movie to open in 2026.

NOTUS INVESTIGATION

What we no longer know about America. The federal government is no longer a reliable source of widespread data collection, NOTUS’ Shifra Dayak and Anna Kramer report. NOTUS identified dozens of datasets that the government has terminated, disrupted or removed from public access — and that is only a small sample of data impacted, researchers said.

The cuts: Researchers estimate that well over 3,000 data sets have been removed from public access.

It’s a staggering array of data relied on by state and local officials, public policy researchers and stakeholders around big topics, such as law enforcement misconduct, homeland security, maternal mortality, hunger, drug use, education, disaster preparation and the economy’s health.

“It’s chaos right now,” Harvard epidemiologist Rita Hamad told NOTUS of the past nine months following an HHS order that placed all of the agency staff managing the Pregnancy Risk Assessment Monitoring System on administrative leave.

Admin response: “HHS is committed to optimizing maternal and infant health outcomes and will share PRAMS data at a later time.”

From your favorite podcast app

Republican Rep. Mike Lawler joins NOTUS’ Reese Gorman for a conversation about how he makes deals in Congress, his Trump impression and why he signed on to Democrats’ Affordable Care Act subsidy discharge petition. He also talked about the pressure of representing a swing district and what it takes — and costs — to try and keep his seat.

Subscribe on Spotify, Apple Podcasts and YouTube.

NEW ON NOTUS

Who says there’s no consistency in Congress? “We do take actions, we do engage. We just do it in a private way, so it’s not a political football,” Sen. James Lankford, chair of the Senate Select Committee on Ethics, said after the panel did not formally punish anyone during 2025, Dave and NOTUS’ Torrie Herrington report. It’s a streak the Ethics Committee has kept up for the better part of two decades.

More: Dem Wins Special House Election in Texas, Further Shrinking Slim GOP Majority, by Amelia Benavides-Colón

NOT US

• Trump’s Profiteering Hits $4 Billion, by David D. Kirkpatrick for The New Yorker
• With New Memoir, Newsom Wants Americans to Know He Struggled Growing Up, by Laurel Rosenhall for The New York Times
• RFK Jr. is now a wellness guru for Republicans in Washington, by Amanda Chu for Politico

WEEK AHEAD

Today: The finalized Contempt of Congress recommendations against Bill and Hillary Clinton are scheduled to be considered by the House Rules Committee.

Tuesday: Marimar Martinez of Chicago, Aliya Rahman of Minneapolis and Antonio Romanucci, attorney for the family of Renee Good, are among the witnesses set to appear at a Democratic forum on the “Violent Use of Force By DHS Agents” on the Hill. Event chairs are Sen. Richard Blumenthal and Rep. Robert Garcia.

The Warner Bros.-Netflix deal is scheduled to be examined at a hearing of the Senate Judiciary Committee’s antitrust subcommittee, chaired by Sen. Mike Lee. Witnesses expected to appear include Netflix CEO Ted Sarandos and Warner Bros. head of strategy Bruce Campbell.

Wednesday: The House vote on Clinton contempt finding reportedly expected.

BE SOCIAL

Well, that’s one pitch for redistricting.

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