Khanna names six men appearing in unredacted Epstein files
On the House floor today, congressman Ro Khanna named the six high-profile men that are included in the unredacted version of the documents relating to Jeffrey Epstein.
Khanna named, US businessman Leslie Wexner of Victoria’s Secret, Abercrombie & Fitch and Bath & Body Works fame; Emirati businessman Sultan Ahmed bin Sulayem; and Salvatore Nuara, Zurab Mikeladze, Leonic Leonov, and Nicola Caputo.
“If we found six men that they were hiding in two hours, imagine how many men they are covering up for in those 3m files,” Khanna said. “Why are they protecting these rich and powerful men? People I call part of the ‘Epstein class’. Why are we in a country where there is no elite accountability for people who do the most heinous things?”
A reminder that this week, the California Democrat went to the Department of Justice with Thomas Massie, a Republican congressman who co-led the Epstein Files Transparency Act effort, to view the unredacted files. The justice department made their most recent release of documents available for members of Congress to view in-person. On Monday, Khanna and Massie the pair had to do “some digging” before finding the new names, they told reporters.
Key events
Dharna Noor
The Trump administration on Thursday will roll back the mechanism allowing the government to regulate planet-warming pollution, the White House press secretary has told reporters.
“President Trump will be joined by EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin to formalize the recession of the 2009 Obama-era endangerment finding,” spokesperson Karoline Leavitt said at a press conference on Tuesday. “This will be the largest deregulatory action in American history.”
The finding determined that CO2 other greenhouse gases endanger public health and welfare, establishing a legal basis to regulate them under the Clean Air Act and forming the underpinning of virtually all federal climate regulations. Its reversal is certain to be challenged in court.
Climate experts are outraged at the planned decision.
“The Trump EPA is cynically pretending climate change isn’t a risk to Americans’ health and welfare,” said Meredith Hankins, federal climate legal director at the environmental advocacy nonprofit National Resources Defense Council. “This is the biggest attack ever on federal authority to tackle the climate crisis, and a devastating blow to millions of Americans facing growing risks of unnatural disasters.”
Zeldin submitted the repeal of the legal determination for White House review last month. After he announced the plan to repeal the finding in July, the agency received half a million comments on the proposal.
Among those comments was one filed by science group Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS) on behalf of its half a million supporters and network of more than 22,000 scientists, opposing the rollback.
“The American public deserves a government that will face the challenge of the climate crisis head on with proven policy solutions,” said Dr. Gretchen Goldman, UCS president who previously served in the Department of Transportation and the White House,”not actively serve as agents of destruction by worsening it to boost fossil fuel profits.”
Johnson says it would be ‘absurd’ for commerce secretary to resign amid Epstein controversy
Republican House speaker Mike Johnson said it would be “absurd” for commerce secretary Howard Lutnick to resign over his ties to Jeffrey Epstein.
Earlier today, Lutnick said that he did visit the disgraced financier on his private island in 2012 – four years after Epstein was convicted on state prostitution charges.
Johnson told reporters today that Lutnick has “done an extraordinary job for the country” and argued that Thomas Massie, the Republican congressman who has pushed for the commerce secretary to step down, “should stop playing political games”.
In response to the latest images and video, shared by the FBI, of a masked suspect at Nancy Guthrie’s door the morning of her disappearance, her daughter – Today show anchor Savannah Guthrie – shared the recovered footage to social media.
“Someone out there recognizes this person,” Guthrie wrote. “We believe she is still out there. Bring her home.”
Chris Stein
Susan Collins, the Maine Republican senator who is a top target of Democrats in this year’s midterm elections, on Tuesday launched her campaign for a sixth term in office.
She is expected to face one of the toughest re-election battles of the year, as victory in Maine is seen as essential to Democrats’ hopes of winning back control of the Senate, and putting a halt to Donald Trump’s legislative agenda.
First elected in 1996, Collins is among the few Republican senators who occasionally defy the president, and is the only one representing a state that the president did not carry in his successful re-election bid two years ago.
“True leaders bring both sides together to seek common ground, not shout the loudest or seek the most social media clicks. I have a proven record of working for you, and I’m running for reelection because my experience, seniority and independence matter,” Collins wrote in an op-ed published in the Bangor Daily News of Bangor, Maine.
Collins has had a rocky relationship with Trump since beginning his second term. While she voted to confirm much of his cabinet, she opposed several of his most controversial nominees, including the defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, and FBI director, Kash Patel.
The president has recently lashed out at her, saying Collins and other senators who voted in support of a war powers resolution to block further attacks on Venezuela “should never be elected to office again”.
Maine’s governor, Janet Mills, is among the Democrats who are seeking to unseat Collins, along with Graham Platner, an oyster farmer and marine veteran. They will face off for the Democratic nomination in the 9 June primary.
White House continues to support commerce secretary after he admits to Epstein island visit
Speaking to reporters today, Karoline Leavitt said commerce secretary Howard Lutnick “remains a very important member” of Donald Trump’s team. This comes after Lutnick admitted to visiting Jeffrey Epstein’s island in 2012 – four years after Epstein was sentenced to 13 months in jail for procuring a minor for prostitution.
At a Senate subcommittee hearing today, the commerce secretary said he and his family “had lunch” with Epstein on the disgraced financier’s private island. This, despite Lutnick’s previous protestations that he made little to no contact with Epstein after 2005.
Leavitt added that Trump “fully supports” the commerce secretary, when asked about the revelation.
Karoline Leavitt batted off a question about whether Donald Trump spoke to a former Palm Beach police chief about Jeffrey Epstein in 2006.
“Everyone has known he’s been doing this,” Trump told Michael Reiter about the late sex-trafficker, according to an account of a conversation contained within the justice department’s release of 3m Epstein files. Reiter, who retired in 2009, later confirmed the conversation to the Miami Herald.
“I don’t know the answer to that question,” Leavitt said. “What I’m telling you is that what President Trump has always said … that he kicked Jeffrey Epstein out of his Mar-a-Lago club because Jeffrey Epstein was a creep. And that remains true. And this call, if it did happen, corroborates exactly what President Trump has said from the beginning.”
This dramatically contrasts with the president’s public statements, where he has previously said that he was unaware of Epstein’s crimes before the pair allegedly fell out in the early 2000s.
“I’m sure many of you, when you read that, that alleged FBI report probably thought to yourself: ‘Wow, this really cracks our narrative that we’ve been trying to push about this president for many years.’ So we’re moving on from that,” Leavitt said.
Leavitt addresses reporters at White House, notes White House meeting with Netanyahu
Back in Washington, Karoline Leavitt is speaking to reporters at the White House.
She kicked things off by noting the new images and video released by the FBI in the case of Nancy Guthrie’s disappearance, and urged those with any information to contact federal law enforcement.
Leavitt also noted that Trump will host Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the White House on Wednesday.
Walz says federal immigration surge in Minnesota could end in ‘days’
Speaking to reporters today, Minnesota governor Tim Walz said that he spoke recently to border czar Tom Homan and Susie Wiles, the president’s chief of staff, and expects the immigration crackdown in the state to end in a matter of days.
“We’re very much in a trust but verify mode,” Walz said. “We are talking days, not weeks and months of this occupation.”
Walz added he was wary of speaking candidly for fear of retaliation. “I’m very careful with dealing with this administration,” he said. “I’ll let them make the announcements. We have been absolutely clear that they need to reduce these [federal immigration enforcement] numbers back to the pre surge level.”
FBI releases new images of masked suspect outside Nancy Guthrie’s home
The FBI released new images from security camera footage outside Nancy Guthrie’s home on the morning of 1 February, the day the 84-year-old went missing.
The images and video show a figure wearing a ski mask, gloves and a backpack. Strapped to the person’s waist is what appears to be a gun.
The latest imagery was recovered after the FBI, Pima county sheriff’s department and “private sector partners” continued their search for pictures or footage that may have been “lost, corrupted, or inaccessible due to a variety of factors – including the removal of recording devices”, according to FBI director Kash Patel. “The video was recovered from residual data located in backend systems,” he added.
Embattled commerce secretary says he did visit Epstein’s private island
Sara Braun
The US commerce secretary, Howard Lutnick, had lunch with the convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein on the disgraced financier’s private island, he said on Tuesday, as he faces mounting calls to resign from lawmakers on both sides of the aisle.
“I did have lunch with him, as I was on a boat going across on a family vacation” in 2012, Lutnick said in testimony on Tuesday before the Senate appropriations subcommittee.
“My wife was with me, as were my four children and nannies,” said Lutnick. “I had another couple with – they were there as well, with their children.”
“And we had lunch on the island, that is true, for an hour,” he added.
Lutnick had previously claimed that he distanced himself from Epstein in 2005. But the latest tranche of files shows the commerce secretary discussing visiting the sex offender’s island in 2012 – four years after Epstein was sentenced to 13 months in jail for procuring a minor for prostitution.
Richard Luscombe
Today, Chuck Schumer held a press conference with a small group of Jeffrey Epstein’s victims to announce a law that seeks to eliminate the statute of limitations for certain sexual offenses.
“The bill exists because people refuse to accept silence as the end of the story. It’s that simple,” Schumer, the Democratic Senate minority leader, said.
Schumer said the bill was named in honor of Virginia Giuffre, one of the most vocal Epstein survivors who died by suicide in April 2025.
“Justice should not expire, because for survivors healing does not run on a government clock,” he said. “For years, survivors of Epstein’s abuse were ignored … Even when the world finally listened, too many survivors were still told by the law, ‘It’s too late, your justice has expired.’
“Virginia’s law changes that.”
Several of Giuffre’s relatives were emotional as they spoke at the event in the US Capitol. Her brother, Sky Roberts, was asked about Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, the disgraced former British royal photographed with Giuffre and Epstein’s fixer, Ghislaine Maxwell, in a now infamous image.
“He should show up in front of our Congress and answer questions,” Roberts said. Mountbatten-Windsor has been accused of “hiding” from a congressional request for testimony.
Khanna names six men appearing in unredacted Epstein files
On the House floor today, congressman Ro Khanna named the six high-profile men that are included in the unredacted version of the documents relating to Jeffrey Epstein.
Khanna named, US businessman Leslie Wexner of Victoria’s Secret, Abercrombie & Fitch and Bath & Body Works fame; Emirati businessman Sultan Ahmed bin Sulayem; and Salvatore Nuara, Zurab Mikeladze, Leonic Leonov, and Nicola Caputo.
“If we found six men that they were hiding in two hours, imagine how many men they are covering up for in those 3m files,” Khanna said. “Why are they protecting these rich and powerful men? People I call part of the ‘Epstein class’. Why are we in a country where there is no elite accountability for people who do the most heinous things?”
A reminder that this week, the California Democrat went to the Department of Justice with Thomas Massie, a Republican congressman who co-led the Epstein Files Transparency Act effort, to view the unredacted files. The justice department made their most recent release of documents available for members of Congress to view in-person. On Monday, Khanna and Massie the pair had to do “some digging” before finding the new names, they told reporters.
Democratic congresswoman questions acting ICE director: ‘Do you think you’re going to hell?’
In a particularly heated exchange between LaMonica McIver and Todd Lyons. The Democratic congresswoman asked the acting ICE director if he was a “particularly religious man”. After Lyons said he was, McIver went further.
“How do you think judgment day will work for you with so much blood on your hands?” she asked Lyons, who refused to “entertain” the question.
She then said: “Do you think you’re going to hell, Mr Lyons?”
The committee’s Republican chair Andrew Garbarino quickly interjected and asked McIver to suspend her line of questioning. “While oversight is important, aggressively attacking those witnesses personally is inappropriate,” he said.
New York Democrat Dan Goldman asks what guidance ICE agents have been given about asking people on American streets to show proof of citizenship.
Todd Lyons says ICE “conducts targeted, intelligence-driven operations. We don’t walk around the streets asking people about their American citizenship.”
Goldman asks if that means all the American citizens who have been randomly asked are lying.
Lyons concedes that if ICE are conducting an investigation they’ll ask someone their nationality (which … isn’t the same thing).
Goldman makes the point that that, by definition, isn’t “targeted”, because “they’re asking all sorts of American citizens, including off-duty law enforcement officers.”
Seth Magaziner then makes a broader point, which I think is worth posting in full.
There has been no accountability in your agency under the Trump administration – none.
Your agency has repeatedly been caught on tape using unnecessary violence against civilians and you can’t even tell me if any of these agents have been investigated and disciplined.
You’re supposed to be making people safer and instead your agents are being unnecessarily violent, and that is why the Trump administration has lost the trust of the American people on immigration.
Understand, it’s not just the actions of the agents in the field; it’s the lack of accountability from the top that has caused public trust to erode, and there need to be major reforms before we vote to give any of you any funding.
Your agencies need to act like other law enforcement agencies. Take off the masks, wear badge numbers, enforce discipline with real standards of conduct – but accountability starts at the top.
Kristi Noem is completely unfit and should be removed from office. And all of the operations we have just seen were overseen by commander Gregory Bovino who himself engaged in excessive use of force.
He even admitted that he lied to a federal judge when he claimed he had been hit by a rock when he threw a teargas canister at a crowd of civilians, but after the footage came out and that turned out to not be true, he admitted that he lied about it.
He asks what disciplinary action they are going to take against Bovino, to which Rodney Scott says he can’t comment.
Asked if there was an investigation, Scott gives a vague answer about every allegation regarding use of force being investigated and reviewed.
Magaziner now highlights an incident in which a federal agent sprayed pepper spray directly into the face of an individual who had already been pinned to the ground by three other agents (here’s the clip, via CNN).
Is this proper procedure for the use of pepper spray, he asks.
Scott says he can’t comment on that because “you’re only showing one piece and that subject is clearly not compliant – ”.
Magaziner interrupts to reiterate that this is not the intended use of pepper spray. Scott says the intended use is to de-escalate.
Magaziner says being pinned to the ground by three other agents would suggest the individual had been de-escalated.
He then asks if there has been any investigation into the agent that did this, to which Scott says there are many open investigations and he’ll get back to him.
Magaziner turns to an incident from last year in which an Illinois man and his US citizen family – including his one-year-old daughter – were pepper-sprayed in their car by federal immigration agents during a shopping trip in a Chicago suburb.
Is it proper procedure to aim pepper spray into the window of a moving vehicle, he asks.
At first, Rodney Scott, commissioner of CBP, says he’s not familiar with all the details on this and it’s an ongoing investigation, before conceding, “we try to avoid that – no, it’s not proper procedure.”
Scott begins to talk about intentional vs unintentional, before Magaziner says that “from the video, this was clearly intentional”.
Asked if any of the agents involved were ever investigated and disciplined, Scott says the investigation is ongoing.
Todd Lyons is asked by Rhode Island Democrat Seth Magaziner whether ICE has hired anyone who was charged with a crime related to the January 6, 2021 riot at the Capitol.
After a brief pause, Lyons says he doesn’t have that information, “but I would say no.”
Magaziner asks if him to find out and please report back, to which Lyons agrees.
Asked if he would hire someone who had attacked police officers on January 6, even if they were “unfortunately” pardoned by the president, Lyons replies:
Sir, we take assault on law enforcement very serious and we have a good, strenuous vetting program.
In response to a line of questioning by California Democrat Lou Correa, Todd Lyons said that an American citizen “shouldn’t feel the need” to carry a passport to prove their legal status in the country. This comes amid several instances of US citizens being profiled, searched and detained by federal immigration officers during the crackdown in Minnesota and across the country.
“The number of cases of Americans being detained, being taken in, some being held for five days …What do we do with those people in that situation? What do we tell them?” Correa said.
Lyons was resolute that he was unaware of any examples of Americans detained by ICE.
Correa pushed Lyons on whether immigration enforcement is surveilling citizens, particularly protesters. “I can assure you, there is no database that’s tracking United States citizens,” Lyons replied.
