TV News LIES

Manhattan’s top federal prosecutor said Friday that a judge lacks the authority to appoint a neutral expert to oversee the public release of documents in the sex trafficking probe of financier Jeffrey Epstein and British socialite Ghislaine Maxwell.

Judge Paul A. Engelmayer was told in a letter signed by U.S. Attorney Jay Clayton that he must reject a request this week by the congressional cosponsors of the Epstein Files Transparency Act to appoint a neutral expert.

U.S. Rep. Ro Khanna, a California Democrat, and Rep. Thomas Massie, a Kentucky Republican, say they have “urgent and grave concerns” about the slow release of only a small number of millions of documents that began last month.

In a filing to the judge they said they believed “criminal violations have taken place” in the release process.

Clayton, though, said Khanna and Massie do not have standing with the court that would allow them to seek the “extraordinary” relief of the appointment of a special master and independent monitor.

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The Department of Homeland Security blocked federal lawmakers from visiting an immigration detention facility in Minneapolis this weekend under a new visitation policy from the head of the department.

Under federal law, members of Congress have the right to make unannounced visits to Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention facilities. A D.C. federal court ruling affirmed this last month, saying it applies to facilities that are funded by regular congressional appropriations.

But in a Jan. 8 memo from Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem obtained by NPR, Noem instructs her staff that visits should be requested at least seven days in advance. She said the detention facilities are run with money from the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, a different bucket of federal funds, and therefore the policy on unannounced visits doesn't apply to them.

The new policy seemed to have been cited on Saturday to block the visit of three Minnesota congresswomen to an ICE detention facility in Minneapolis.

The One Big Beautiful Bill Act, a reconciliation measure that Congress passed last summer with only Republican support, allocated some $45 billion for immigration detention centers as many were operating over their capacity. It also provided about $30 billion to hire more ICE personnel, for transportation costs, and to maintain ICE facilities, among other spending.

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Three Democratic members of Congress from Minnesota, including House representative Ilhan Omar, were blocked from entering an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention center located near Minneapolis on Saturday morning.

The incident took place near the Whipple federal building in the Twin Cities as clashes and demonstrations continued after the shooting death of 37-year-old Renee Good by an ICE agent in south Minneapolis earlier in the week.

During a press briefing, Omar explained that they were initially allowed inside the facility but were soon told to leave. “Shortly after we were let in, two officials came in and said that they received the message that we were no longer allowed to be in the building and that they were rescinding our invitation to come in and declining any further access to the building,” she said.

She then criticized the move as unlawful. “What happened today is a blatant attempt to obstruct members of Congress from doing their oversight duties,” she added.

Last month, a federal judge said that the Trump administration cannot bar members of Congress from making visits to immigrant detention facilities, even if they are unannounced. US district judge Jia Cobb said that homeland security policies deeming ICE field offices “off-limits for congressional oversight” and requiring seven days’ notice for visits violated federal law.

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The House passed legislation Thursday to revive and extend expired ObamaCare tax credits in a bipartisan vote that is boosting hopes of centrist Republicans for a bipartisan deal to revive the tax credits.

The tally, 230 to 196, highlighted the tenuous grip Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) has over his restive GOP conference. Seventeen centrist Republicans crossed the aisle to join every voting Democrat in support of the measure.

The measure, which would provide a three-year extension to the enhanced Affordable Care Act (ACA) subsidies that originally passed in response to COVID-19, now heads to the Senate, which defeated the same proposal last month in a largely partisan vote. Indeed, Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) has suggested he’ll ignore the House bill altogether.

Still, lawmakers think it could light a fire and pressure the bipartisan Senate group working to reach a bipartisan deal.

Negotiators from both parties in the Senate, who revived compromise talks in response to centrist Republicans forcing the vote in the House, have said they are close to a deal to bring back the tax credits, which expired at the end of 2025, and extend the open enrollment period.

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The Senate will vote next week on a bipartisan war powers resolution to block President Trump from continuing military action against Venezuela — a vote that takes on heightened importance after U.S. forces attacked the South American nation and arrested President Nicolás Maduro early Saturday.

The resolution to block the administration from engaging in further hostilities against Venezuela is privileged, which means Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) cannot stop it from coming to the floor.

The measure is sponsored by Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (N.Y.), Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.), Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) and Sen. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.).

It needs only a simple majority to pass the Senate.

“It is long past time for Congress to reassert its critical constitutional role in matters of war, peace, diplomacy and trade,” Kaine said in a statement. “My bipartisan resolution stipulating that we should not be at war with Venezuela absent a clear congressional authorization will come up for a vote next week.

“We’ve entered the 250th year of American democracy and cannot allow it to devolve into the tyranny that our founders fought to escape,” the senator added.

Schiff warned that Trump’s action against Maduro risks plunging the region into “chaos.”

“Acting without Congressional approval or the buy-in of the public, Trump risks plunging a hemisphere into chaos and has broken his promise to end wars instead of starting them,” the California Democrat said in a statement.

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Outgoing Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) on Friday slammed President Trump’s threat to intervene in Iran as it cracks down on anti-government protests. 

Greene said on the social platform X that Trump’s pledge, along with Israeli billionaire Shlomo Kramer telling CNBC that the federal government should “limit the First Amendment” by cracking down on speech on social media, is “everything we voted against” in 2024.

“The focus should be on tax dollars here at home and defending our God given freedoms and rights,” added Greene, who is departing Congress on Monday after a falling out with Trump.

The president vowed on Truth Social earlier Friday that the U.S. will “rescue” protesters if the Iranian regime takes violent action against them. He also said the U.S. is “locked and loaded and ready to go” if the Islamic Republic’s government kills more demonstrators. 

Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, the speaker of the Iranian parliament, argued on X that the president’s remarks make U.S. troops in the region “legitimate targets” for the Iranian military.

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