Senate agrees to automatically pass House bill requiring release of the Epstein files
The Senate just agreed to a unanimous consent request from the Democratic minority leader, Chuck Schumer, to pass the Epstein Files Transparency Act as soon as the legislation arrives from the House.
Chris Murphy, a Democratic senator, explains on X that “the Senate just ‘deemed as passed’ the Epstein resolution”, which means that “as soon as it arrives from the House, it automatically passes the Senate (with no amendments) and heads to the President’s desk. Wow.”
Key events
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Closing summary
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Elon Musk, David Ellison and Cristiano Ronaldo attend White House dinner in honor of Saudi leader who ordered murder of journalist
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If Texas redistricting is blocked by courts, California’s new map could result in net gain for Democrats
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Annie Farmer, Epstein survivor, calls for federal government to be held accountable for permitting his abuse to go on
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House delays walking Epstein files bill to Senate – report
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White House official says Trump will sign bill requiring release of Epstein files – report
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Trump claims not to care about Senate passing Epstein Transparency Act
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Senate agrees to automatically pass House bill requiring release of the Epstein files
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‘MBS is getting the blood-red carpet treatment’, Khashoggi’s editor writes
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Former Washington Post editor calls Trump’s comments on murder of Jamal Khashoggi ‘a disgrace’
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Here’s a recap of the day so far
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Education department shifts functions to other agencies as part of administration’s wider dismantling plan
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Senate majority leader says Epstein vote will happen ‘fairly quickly’ in upper chamber
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US House approves bill to force release of Epstein files in near-unanimous vote
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House begins vote on releasing the Epstein files
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Federal judges rule that Texas can’t use new congressional maps
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Trump claims bin Salman ‘knew nothing about’ murder of Khashoggi, despite US intelligence finding he approved it
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Senate minority leader says he will try and force vote on Epstein files once House passes the bill
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House begins debate on release of Epstein files
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Meeting with Saudi crown prince underway in Oval Office
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Top Democrat on oversight committee says Trump ‘has the power’ to release the Epstein files
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Saudi crown prince arrives at White House, greeted by Trump
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Johnson announces he will back vote to release Epstein files, but says it does not adequately protect victims
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Move to release Epstein files is ‘political show vote’, says speaker Johnson
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Trump to welcome Saudi Arabia’s Mohammed bin Salman to White House shortly
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‘American people won’t tolerate any other bullshit,’ says Marjorie Taylor Greene
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House speaker Johnson to back bill to release Epstein files – report
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‘These survivors are not political tools for you to use,’ says Virginia Giuffre’s brother
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Epstein survivors to speak on Capitol Hill as House prepares to vote on complete release of justice department files
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ICE operation expanding across North Carolina
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Trump hosting Saudi prince for first time since Khashoggi killing
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House set to vote on release of Epstein documents after Trump U-turn
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What to know about the US House vote on releasing the Epstein files
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Trump and Epstein’s history
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Trump’s sudden Epstein files reversal
Closing summary
This brings our live coverage of the second Trump administration to a close for the day, but we will be back on Wednesday. Here are the latest developments:
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The US House overwhelmingly approved a bill that would require the attorney general to release all files related to the investigation into the late sex offender, Jeffrey Epstein, who socialized with Donald Trump for over a decade.
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The Senate quickly agreed to a call from the Democratic minority leader, Chuck Schumer, to automatically pass the House bill without amendment or a vote when it arrives. The House did not walk the bill to the Senate on Tuesday, but is expected to so so on Wednesday, which would send it to the president’s desk to either sign into law or veto.
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Donald Trump welcomed Saudi Arabia’s de facto leader, Mohammed bin Salman to the White House and brushed off questions from a reporter about a US intelligence assessment that the ordered the 2018 murder of Jamal Khashoggi, a US green-card holder and Washington Post columnist. Saying “things happen”, the president added that bin Salman “knew nothing about it, and we can leave it at that”.
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Marty Baron, the former executive editor of the Washington Post, called Trump’s remarks “a disgrace”. “‘Things happen,’ he said. Actually, someone made them happen. And that was the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia. He had Jamal Khashoggi assassinated, and then he and his government lied about what happened.”
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A panel of federal judges ruled that Texas cannot use a Republican gerrymandered 2025 congressional map for the 2026 midterms and must use the 2021 boundaries.
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Because California’s new map, favoring Democrats, has already passed into law, the outcome of the Trump-initiated redistricting war could be a net gain for Democrats.
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The guest list for Trump’s formal White House dinner in honor of bin Salman included: Elon Musk, whose efforts to stop US funding for health and nutrition projects in developing countries has already led to the deaths of an estimated six hundred thousand people, two-thirds of them children; David Ellison, the new chairman of Paramount who put a Trump-friendly blogger in charge of CBS News and Cristiano Ronaldo, the second-best soccer star of his era who was named in honor of Ronald Reagan by his Portuguese parents and now plays in Saudi Arabia.
Elon Musk, David Ellison and Cristiano Ronaldo attend White House dinner in honor of Saudi leader who ordered murder of journalist
In his remarks before the White House dinner for Saudi Arabia’s crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman, on Tuesday, Donald Trump boasted about the rich and powerful guests who accepted his invitation to salute the Saudi leader who, according to US intelligence, ordered the 2018 murder and dismemberment of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi.
The guest list included: Elon Musk, whose efforts to stop US funding for health and nutrition projects in developing countries has already led to the deaths of an estimated six hundred thousand people, two-thirds of them children; David Ellison, the new chairman of Paramount who put a Trump-friendly blogger in charge of CBS News; Cristiano Ronaldo, the second-best soccer star of his era who now plays in Saudi Arabia; Gianni Infantino, the president of world soccer’s governing body, Fifa; Tim Cook, the Apple chief executive Trump once referred to as “Tim Apple”; Stephen Schwarzman, the Blackstone chief executive and Donald Trump Jr, the president’s son.
As the dinner guests arrived, Elizabeth Warren, the Democratic senator who has called for higher taxes on billionaires, wrote on social media: “Hope everyone enjoys their nice dinner honoring a man who the CIA says ordered the murder of a journalist.”
Before the new Republican congressional maps for Texas were struck down on Tuesday by a federal court, Lloyd Doggett, a 79-year-old Texas Democrat from Austin had announced that he would retire next year rather than run against Greg Casar, a fellow Austin Democrat less than half his age, in a newly redrawn district that only one of them could represent.
After the court ruled the new map was illegal, and the old maps should be used for the 2026 midterms, Doggett called off his retirement in a statement posted on social media.
“To borrow from Mark Twain, I can happily say that the reports of my death, politically, are greatly exaggerated,” Doggett said. The new court order, he added: “means I have a renewed opportunity to continue serving the only town I’ve ever called home. While this decision, led by a Trump-appointed judge, will be appealed, I am hopeful of the outcome.”
If Texas redistricting is blocked by courts, California’s new map could result in net gain for Democrats
Lauren Gambino
California’s retaliatory gerrymander began as a threat to scare off Texas from moving forward with new Trump-sought maps. But as Texas moved forward, and California’s proposal became a serious legislative proposal, supporters of the plan, known as Prop 50, said it would include trigger language, asking voters to approve new House districts that would only take effect if Texas proceeded.
That language was ultimately stripped from the bill as it sped through the California state legislature in August. At the time, Democratic lawmakers argued that Texas had already moved ahead with its map, drawn to help Republicans flip five Democratic-held House seats and preserve their fragile House majority for the final two years of Trump’s term.The fact that the Texas legislature was on track to approving the redistrtcing bill, California Democrats argued, effectively rendered the “trigger” language unnecessary.
Now a federal judge has blocked Texas from using its newly redrawn maps, finding that there was “substantial evidence” of racial gerrymandering.
Yet California’s map, which favors Democrats and was decisively approved by voters earlier this month, is still expected to take effect for the next three election cycles.
Paul Mitchell, who drew the maps for Prop 50, told the LA Times that they would : “Our legislature eliminated the trigger because Texas had already triggered it.”
The Texas governor, Greg Abbott has said he plans to appeal the ruling to the Supreme Court. But if the Texas map is struck down, California’s gerrymander designed to “neutralize” the Texas map would instead give Democrats a decisive edge in the 2026 midterms, likely to be decided by razor thin margins.
In a post on X, the California governor, Gavin Newsom, called the ruling a “win for Texas, and for every American who fights for free and fair elections”.
“Donald Trump and Greg Abbott played with fire, got burned — and democracy won,” he wrote.
The Justice Department is suing California over its map, accusing Democrats of using race as a factor to favor Hispanic voters. Democrats have expressed confidence that it would withstand legal scrutiny.
Annie Farmer, Epstein survivor, calls for federal government to be held accountable for permitting his abuse to go on
Annie Farmer, a survivor of sexual abuse by Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell, welcomed the passage of the Epstein Files Transparency Act by the House on Tuesday.
The legislation, which requires the justice department to release files from the federal investigation into Epstein’s crimes, will automatically pass the Senate when it arrives there from the House, likely on Wednesday.
Farmer said in a statement sent to reporters on Tuesday:
My sister, Maria Farmer, first reported Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell to federal authorities nearly three decades ago. Since then, survivors – myself included – have been left in the dark about how our reports were investigated, who was involved in our abuse and trafficking, and why Epstein and Maxwell were able to get away with inflicting pain on so many women and girls for years. We are thankful that Reps. Massie and Khanna have pushed this measure forward and have continued to advocate for the release of the Epstein files once and for all. But today’s actions are only part of the solution — Maria’s lawsuit, which aims to hold the federal government accountable for their mismanagement of her reported abuse, is still ongoing. We hope her suit finally brings much deserved transparency and accountability for all those implicated.
House delays walking Epstein files bill to Senate – report
Jamie Dupree, a veteran congressional correspondent, reported on social media on Tuesday evening that “the House may not walk the Epstein Files bill over to the Senate until Wednesday.”
A short time later, Dupree noted that the Senate had adjourned until Wednesday morning. “That means no final action tonight on the Epstein Files bill,” he wrote. “The bill papers are still on the House side of the Capitol.”
While it is not, as even the QAnon Shaman can attest, a long walk from one side of the Capitol to the other, the House leadership might have delayed transmitting the Epstein Transparency Act to the Senate immediately to keep Donald Trump from having to sign it during the visit of the Saudi crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman.
Trump and the first lady, Melania Trump, just welcomed the Saudi crown prince back to the White House for a formal dinner on Tuesday night. The first lady wore a green gown, perhaps in honor of the Saudi flag.
White House official says Trump will sign bill requiring release of Epstein files – report
An unnamed senior administration official told NBC News on Tuesday that Donald Trump will sign the legislation requiring the justice department to release files on Jeffrey Epstein, the late sex offender Trump socialized with for more than 15 years.
“The bill will be signed whenever it gets to the White House” the official said, according to Garrett Haake, NBC’s senior White House correspondent.
Trump claims not to care about Senate passing Epstein Transparency Act
Writing on his social media platform, Donald Trump claimed on Tuesday to be unconcerned about the legislation making its way to his desk, which would compel the justice department to release investigative files on Jeffrey Epstein, the late sex offender Trump socialized with for more than 15 years.
“I don’t care when the Senate passes the House Bill, whether tonight, or at some other time in the near future, I just don’t want Republicans to take their eyes off all of the Victories that we’ve had”, Trump wrote, before going on to list what he called his great achievements in office.
The president did not indicate whether he would sign the legislation into law, or veto it.
Even if he does sign the bill, the justice department could argue that some of the documents gathered by federal investigators before Epstein’s death in jail in 2019 need to be kept private if they relate to the new investigations into prominent Democrats Trump ordered last week.
Senate agrees to automatically pass House bill requiring release of the Epstein files
The Senate just agreed to a unanimous consent request from the Democratic minority leader, Chuck Schumer, to pass the Epstein Files Transparency Act as soon as the legislation arrives from the House.
Chris Murphy, a Democratic senator, explains on X that “the Senate just ‘deemed as passed’ the Epstein resolution”, which means that “as soon as it arrives from the House, it automatically passes the Senate (with no amendments) and heads to the President’s desk. Wow.”
‘MBS is getting the blood-red carpet treatment’, Khashoggi’s editor writes
Karen Attiah was Jamal Khashoggi’s editor at the Washington Post when the columnist was murdered, according to US intelligence, on the orders of Donald’s Trump’s guest in the Oval Office on Tuesday, Mohammed bin Salman, known as MBS.
Attiah reacted to the spectacle of the Saudi leader being welcomed to the White House with anger and dismay, writing on Bluesky: “MBS is getting the blood-red carpet treatment to the White House. Vile and disgusting. Absolute thugs rule us.”
“I will never forget having to edit Jamal’s final, posthumous piece for the Washington Post, after he was murdered,” she also wrote, sharing a link to the 2018 column. “He was calling for free expression in the Arab world.”
In an an opinion piece for the Guardian on Tuesday, Attiah wrote:
In September 2017, while I was the editor of the Washington Post’s global opinion section, I asked Jamal to write for us. He published “Saudi Arabia was not always this repressive, but now it’s unbearable”, breaking his year-long silence. I hired him to continue to write for the Washington Post.
A year later, Saudi Arabia had Jamal killed. In the aftermath of Jamal’s murder, Trump administration officials worked overtime to launder Saudi Arabia’s blood-stained image. Jared Kushner was advising Prince Mohammed on how to “weather the storm”. Last year, Kushner’s equity firm received $2bn from Saudi Arabia’s private equity firm.
Read the full column here:
