Closing summary
This concludes our live coverage of the second Trump administration for the day, but we will be back on Thursday. Here are the latest developments:
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Donald Trump quietly signed the Epstein Transparency Act into law, which requires the release of justice department investigative files on Jeffrey Epstein, the late sex offender Trump socialized with for over 15 years.
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Zohran Mamdani, the mayor-elect of New York City, confirmed on Wednesday that he will meet with Trump.
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A federal grand jury indicted Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick, a Democratic congressperson from Florida, on charges accusing her of stealing $5m in federal disaster funds and using some of the money to aid her 2021 campaign.
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The House ethics committee opened an investigation into numerous charges of misconduct against Cory Mills, a Republican congressman from Florida.
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All 200 members of the Oregon national guard called into service in September by Trump to combat the imaginary threat from anti-ICE protesters in Portland, have now received a verbal demobilization order.
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Lindsey Halligan, the president’s handpicked choice for interim US attorney for the eastern district of Virginia, and another prosecutor acknowledged that the entire grand jury never saw the final indictment against James Comey.
Key events
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Closing summary
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According to Epstein’s email, Trump asked Maxwell, not him, ‘to stop’ recruiting girls from Mar-a-Lago
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Mamdani confirms that he will meet Trump
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Trump says he signed bill mandating the release of the Epstein files
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Federal prosecutors charge former aide to Republican congressman for staging hoax attack
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Federal grand jury indicts Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick, Democratic congressperson from Florida
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House ethics committee opens investigation into Cory Mills, Republican congressman from Florida
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White House tells reporters Trump’s work is done for the day, with no word on signing Epstein files act
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All 200 Oregon national guard troops demobilized, Oregon’s governor says
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FBI intercepted calls and texts of current and former aides to Newsom – report
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Trump nominates new CFPB director, in move that allows Vought to continue dismantling agency
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New poll shows that majority of voters would back a Democratic congressional candidate in 2026
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Here’s a recap of the day so far
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Prosecutors admit that entire grand jury did not see final indictment against James Comey
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Bureau of Labor Statistics says October jobs report won’t be released until mid-December
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Justice department will release Epstein files within 30 days, Bondi says
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US proposals to end Russia’s war involve Ukraine giving up land and some weapons – reports
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Comey’s lawyers argue that Trump’s public comments prove case is a political attack
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House set to repeal funding bill provision to allow senators to sue government over phone records
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Senate receives and passes bill to release Epstein files, heads to Trump for signing
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Exclusive: State department to cut 38 universities from research program over DEI policies
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Trump administration crafting plan with Russia to end war in Ukraine – report
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Larry Summers steps down from OpenAI board following release of Epstein emails – report
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Former FBI director James Comey to appear in court
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Mike Pence says ‘I did my duty’ in UK talk touching on January 6, tariffs and MBS visit
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Democrats and Republicans celebrate passage of bill to release Epstein files
According to Epstein’s email, Trump asked Maxwell, not him, ‘to stop’ recruiting girls from Mar-a-Lago
Eight months before his death in 2019, Jeffrey Epstein said in an email to the writer Michael Wolff that Donald Trump’s claim to have known nothing about Epstein having sex with underage girls before his conviction for soliciting sex from a minor was a lie.
In the email, which begins with a heavily redacted mention of one of the victims and Trump’s Mar-a-Lago club, Epstein wrote: “Trump said he asked me to resign, never a member ever.”
“Of course he knew about the girls as he asked ghislaine to stop”, Epstein added, in apparent reference to a conversation between Trump and Epstein’s accomplice, Ghislaine Maxwell.
Earlier this year, Trump told reporters that his break with Epstein had been prompted by his displeasure that his friend had been recruiting girls that worked in the spa at Mar-a-Lago.
““He hired help, and I said ‘Don’t ever do that again’. He stole people that worked for me. I said, ‘Don’t ever do that again’. He did it again and I threw him out of the place,” Trump said in July, during a visit to his Scottish golf course.
On the flight back to Washington from Scotland, one reporter asked Trump if “the workers that were taken from you, were some of them young women?” Trump replied: “The answer is yes; they were. People that worked in the spa”.
Another reporter then asked if Trump one of the people he was referring to was Virginia Giuffre, who said in a legal complaint that she was hired away from the Mar-a-Lago spa by Maxwell in 2000, when she was 16, to give Epstein massages. Giuffre, who died this year, alleged in her complaint that she was first abused by Epstein and Maxwell together, and then “lent out to other powerful men”, including then Prince Andrew.
Trump replied: “I think so, I think that was one of the people, yeah. He stole her”.
But Epstein’s email contradicts that account, since he told Wolff that Trump asked Maxwell, not him, “to stop”, presumably a reference to her role in hiring girls away from Mar-a-Lago for the pair to abuse.
That detail could have a bearing on what comes next in the Epstein saga for Trump: a request for clemency from Maxwell, in the form of either a commutation or a pardon.
While Trump has previously claimed to have barely known Maxwell, and known nothing of Epstein’s crimes, if he did ask Maxwell to stop recruiting underage girls away from Mar-a-Lago, that might suggest that he was less oblivious then than he claims now.
Mamdani confirms that he will meet Trump
Zohran Mamdani, the mayor-elect of New York City, confirmed on Wednesday that he will meet with Donald Trump.
Trump said in a social media post in the last hour that “this meeting will take place at the Oval Office on Friday, November 21st”.
“We did reach out to the White House,” Mamdani said at the start of an interview with Chris Hayes, “and my team reached out because of a commitment that I made to New Yorkers that I would be willing to meet with anyone and everyone, so long as it was to the benefit of the 8 and a half million people who call this city home and their struggle to afford the most expensive city in the United States of America.”
Asked by Hayes what his goal for the meeting is, Mamdani said: “I want to just speak plainly to the president about what it means to actually stand up for New Yorkers, and the way in which New Yorkers are struggling to afford this city. And frankly, cost of living is something that I heard time and time again from New Yorkers about why they voted for Donald Trump. And this is something that is only continued in the last few months of this year, where we’re hearing about child care concerns, rent concerns, Con Ed concerns, even just getting on the bus, just $2.90. And just to make it clear to the president that this is what we’re talking about, these are the stakes for New Yorkers and their ability to keep calling this city their home.”
Days after the 2024 election, when he was all but unknown, Mamdani stood on street corners in Queens and the Bronx and spoke to people about why they voted for Trump for a video posted on his social media accounts.
Trump says he signed bill mandating the release of the Epstein files
Donald Trump said in a post on his social media platform that he quietly signed the Epstein Transparency Act on Wednesday, hours after it passed the Senate, which means that the justice department now has 30 days to release files related to the investigation of Jeffrey Epstein, the late sex offender Trump socialized with for at least 15 years.
Trump’s post began with a 100-word preface attacking Democrats, and calling Epstein a Democrat, before adding: “I HAVE JUST SIGNED THE BILL TO RELEASE THE EPSTEIN FILES!”
Trump also tried to cast himself as being in favor of full transparency on Epstein’s crimes, despite his administration having spent the last four months fighting to not release files from the federal investigation into the man he told New York Magazine in 2002 was “a lot of fun to be with” and a “terrific guy”, who “likes beautiful women as much as I do, and many of them are on the younger side”.
Trump also returned to his misleading argument that his predecessor had failed to mak e the files public, writing: “Do not forget – The Biden Administration did not turn over a SINGLE file or page related to Democrat Epstein, nor did they ever even speak about him.”
In fact, as the Miami Herald journalist Julie Brown, whose investigation led to the arrests of Epstein and his co-conspirator Ghislaine Maxwell, pointed out: “The Epstein case was an open and active criminal investigation under the Biden administration. They prosecuted Maxwell under Biden, and she appealed. You don’t open a case file when it’s under active appeal.”
Brown, who has taken on the role of unofficial fact-checker of false claims about Epstein on social media, also noted that “Epstein donated to plenty of Republicans. He was friends with Republicans. Republicans are in his black book and on his plane logs. He played all people, regardless of political affiliation.”
Federal prosecutors charge former aide to Republican congressman for staging hoax attack
A former congressional aide to Jeff Van Drew, a New Jersey Republican, appeared in federal court on Wednesday to face charges she staged a hoax attack on herself in July and falsely claimed to police that her attackers had slashed her with a scalpel and written “Trump whore” and “Jeff Van Drew is racist” on her skin.
Federal prosecutors working for Donald Trump’s former lawyer, Alina Habba, charged Natalie Greene, 26, of staging the incident at a nature preserve to make it look like she had been the victim of an act of political violence.
Greene told the police, who responded to a call for help from a friend prosecutors say took part in the hoax, that three men had attacked them, tied her hands with black zip ties, and cut her face, neck, back and shoulder as well as writing the slogans on her stomach and back.
However, according to the criminal complaint, detectives and FBI joint terrorism taskforce agents discovered that, shortly before the incident, Greene had paid a scarification artist $500 to make the marks on her skin, and her friend’s phone had been used to conduct the internet search for “zip ties near me”. Police officers found more zip ties of the same type inside Greene’s Maserati SUV on the night of the attack.
Van Drew’s congressional office they were “deeply saddened by today’s news”, in a statement to a New Jersey politics site run by David Wildstein, a former political operative who was sentenced to three years’ probation in 2017 for orchestrating Bridgegate, the blocking of lanes near the George Washington Bridge to punish a New Jersey mayor for not supporting then governor Chris Christie.
“While Natalie is no longer associated with the congressman’s government office, our thoughts and prayers are with her and hope she’s getting the care she needs,” the Van Drew office statement added.
Federal grand jury indicts Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick, Democratic congressperson from Florida
A federal grand jury has indicted Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick, a Democratic congressperson from Florida, on charges accusing her of stealing $5m in federal disaster funds and using some of the money to aid her 2021 campaign, the justice department announced on Wednesday.
The Democrat is accused of stealing Federal Emergency Management Agency (Fema) overpayments that her family healthcare company had received through a federally funded Covid-19 vaccination staffing contract, prosecutors said. A portion of the money was then funneled to support her campaign through candidate contributions, prosecutors allege.
“Using disaster relief funds for self-enrichment is a particularly selfish, cynical crime,” the attorney general, Pam Bondi, said in a statement. “No one is above the law, least of all powerful people who rob taxpayers for personal gain. We will follow the facts in this case and deliver justice.”
Cherfilus-McCormick has made no statement about the charges on her social media accounts or congressional website, and her office did not immediately respond to a request from comment from the Associated Press.
Sam Levine
In a highly unusual opinion, a US federal judge berated his fellow judge with a series of personal attacks, and suggested that the billionaire George Soros had a role in an opinion striking down Texas’s congressional districts.
The 104-page dissent from US district judge Jerry Smith, a Reagan appointee, was issued a day after two of his colleagues on a three-judge panel said the new congressional map Texas adopted earlier this year was likely unlawful because it discriminated against non-white voters.
But much of Smith’s dissent attacked US district judge Jeffrey Brown, a Trump appointee and the opinion’s author, accusing him of deliberately issuing an opinion before Smith had had a chance to write his dissent.
“In my 37 years on the federal bench, this is the most outrageous conduct by a judge that I have ever encountered in a case in which I have been involved,” Smith wrote, going on to provide a play-by-play of his exchanges with Brown as he authored the majority opinion.
“If, however, there were a Nobel prize for fiction, Judge Brown’s opinion would be a prime candidate.”
In a staggering turn, Smith turned his attention to George Soros, Soros’s son Alex and the California governor, Gavin Newsom, none of whom were parties in the case. The name Soros appears 17 times in the opinion.
“The main winners from Judge Brown’s opinion are George Soros and Gavin Newsom. The obvious losers are the people of Texas and the rule of law,” Smith wrote.
Read the rest of Sam’s piece here:
House ethics committee opens investigation into Cory Mills, Republican congressman from Florida
The House ethics committee announced on Wednesday it has opened an investigation into numerous charges of misconduct against Cory Mills, a Republican congressman from Florida.
According to the ethics panel, it will be looking at allegations that he may have:
(1) failed to properly disclose required information on statements required to be filed with the House; (2) violated campaign finance laws and regulations in connection with his 2022 and 2024 election campaigns; (3) improperly solicited and/or received gifts, including in connection with privately sponsored officially-connected travel; (4) received special favors by virtue of his position; (5) engaged in misconduct with respect to allegations of sexual misconduct and/or dating violence; and/or (6) misused congressional resources or status.
Mills, now serving his second term, was ordered last month by a Florida judge to have no contact with his ex-girlfriend and to not go within 500 ft of her residence or where she works. Mills also is banned from even referring to her on social media. The judge in the case said he had concluded that the woman was either a victim of dating violence or in danger of becoming one.
Earlier on Wednesday, Nancy Mace, a South Carolina Republican, introduced a censure resolution against Mills to remove him from the House armed services and foreign affairs committees.
In May, the news site NOTUS reported that four years after Mills was awarded a Bronze Star for supposedly saving the lives of two soldiers during his service in Iraq in 2003, “five people who served with him – including two of the men the document says Mills saved in different incidents – say they have no recollection of Mills being at the incidents listed on the form”.
Writing on social media, Mace called the ethics committee’s announcement a “naked attempt to kill my resolution to censure” Mills.
“Common sense tells us we don’t need an investigative subcommittee to decide if Cory Mills, who a court found to be an immediate and present danger of committing dating violence against a woman, should serve on committees related to national security. Or the testimony of soldiers and the stolen valor,” Mace wrote.
White House tells reporters Trump’s work is done for the day, with no word on signing Epstein files act
Reporters waiting to find out if Donald Trump signed the Epstein Transparency Act, which passed the Senate on Wednesday and compels the justice department to release all of its files on Jeffrey Epstein, the late sex offender whom Trump socialized with for over a decade, were just informed that the White House “called a lid” for the day at 6.17pm ET, meaning that that president has no more scheduled events on Wednesday.
It remains to be seen if Trump has signed the bill in private, not signed it or decided to veto it.
All 200 Oregon national guard troops demobilized, Oregon’s governor says
All 200 members of the Oregon national guard called into service in September by Donald Trump, to combat the imaginary threat from anti-ICE protesters in Portland, have now received a verbal demobilization order from the Pentagon’s US Northern Command, Oregon’s governor, Tina Kotek, said in a statement on Wednesday.
The deployment was blocked by a Trump-appointed federal judge, Karin Immergut, who described Trump’s wild claim that Portland was “war ravaged” as “simply untethered to the facts.” It cost the state’s taxpayers $16m, according to the Oregon military department.
“I am relieved that all 200 Oregon citizen-soldiers are finally heading home. They spent nearly 50 days away from their families, friends and civilian jobs on an unnecessary mission that cost taxpayers millions of dollars,” Kotek said.
FBI intercepted calls and texts of current and former aides to Newsom – report
The FBI intercepted phone calls, texts and other electronic communications of people who work or have worked for the governor of California, Gavin Newsom, as part of a federal corruption investigation of his former chief of staff and two Democratic operatives, according to letters to the targets reviewed by the Los Angeles Times.
Dana Williamson, a former aide to Newson, was arrested last week on federal charges that she allegedly stole $225,000 from a dormant state campaign account of Xavier Becerra, the state’s former attorney general.
According to the 23-count indictment, Williamson conspired with Becerra’s former chief deputy in the California attorney general’s office and ex-chief of staff Sean McCluskie, along with lobbyist Greg Campbell, to bill Becerra’s dormant campaign account for bogus consulting services.
Williamson has pleaded not guilty to the charges.
Prosecutors said the investigation began three years ago, during the Biden administration.
The legal notifications from the FBI, mandated by the 1968 Federal Wiretap Act, are sent out to people whose private communications have been captured on federal wiretaps after investigations.
A spokesperson for Newsom’s office said the governor did not receive a letter and the governor is not involved in the case against Williamson. Newsom was not mentioned in the indictments against the three aides.
As of 3.52pm ET, on a grey afternoon in Washington, we’ve yet to hear from the White House about whether the press will watch Donald Trump sign the bill directing the justice department to release unclassified documents related to Jeffrey Epstein.
We’ll make sure to update you if that changes.
Trump nominates new CFPB director, in move that allows Vought to continue dismantling agency
The president has nominated a new director of the Consumer Finance Protection Bureau (CFPB), in a move that allows the current acting director, Russell Vought, who also serves as the director of the office of management and budget, to remain in his position and continue dismantling the agency.
Trump’s decision to nominate Stuart Levenbach, an official in the budget office, as the permanent director provides a crucial loophole that allows Vought to stay put, three weeks before he would otherwise have to step aside. Federal law says that an acting official can only serve for 210 days, unless the president nominates another person for the position.
Vought took over the CFPB earlier this year, and has consistently pushed for the watchdog’s elimination, including trying to fire most of its staff.
Today, Elizabeth Warren – the top Democrat on the Senate banking committee – said that Levenbach’s nomination was “nothing more than a front for Russ Vought to stay on as acting director indefinitely as he tries to illegally close down the agency”.
Dani Anguiano
Tom Steyer, the billionaire environmental activist who unsuccessfully sought the Democratic nomination for president in 2020, will run for California governor, he announced on Wednesday.
The 68-year-old joins a crowded field of candidates seeking to replace Gavin Newsom, and in a statement released this week pledged to focus on the state’s intractable affordability crisis.
“Californians deserve a life they can afford. But the Californians who make this state run are being run over by the cost of living. We need to get back to basics. And that means making corporations pay their fair share again,” Steyer said.
With Newsom termed out from running again, several prominent Democrats have entered the race, including former congresswoman Katie Porter; Xavier Becerra, a former US cabinet member; Antonio Villaraigosa, a former state lawmaker who served as the LA mayor; and Betty Yee, who was the state controller from 2015 to 2023. Congressman Eric Swalwell is expected to announce plans to run.
Porter was considered the frontrunner until October when video emerged of her appearing frustrated with a journalist during an interview with a local news outlet and threatening to walk out. In the aftermath of the incident, Republican Chad Bianco, the Riverside county sheriff who is running for governor, took the lead in polling. Steve Hilton, a former David Cameron adviser and Fox News host, is also running as a Republican.
New poll shows that majority of voters would back a Democratic congressional candidate in 2026
A majority of nationally registered voters said they would back a Democratic congressional candidate if the 2026 midterms were held today, according to a new poll by NPR/PBS News/Marist University.
While 55% of respondents said they would support a Democrat, 41% would support the Republican, and 3% would back another candidate.
Notably, 39% of the Americans surveyed said that they blame Democrats for the record-breaking government shutdown. Trump received 34% of the responsibility, while 26% blame congressional Republicans.
Here’s a recap of the day so far
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The US justice department will release files from its investigation into Jeffrey Epstein within 30 days, Pam Bondi, the attorney general, has said, after Congress voted nearly unanimously to force Donald Trump’s administration to make them public. At a news conference today, Bondi confirmed that the justice department will release its Epstein-related material within 30 days, as required by legislation that passed the Republican-controlled House of Representatives and Senate yesterday. “We will continue to follow the law and encourage maximum transparency,” she said.
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However, the department may have to hold back material that could affect Trump-ordered investigations of Democratic figures who associated with Epstein. They could argue that releasing certain documents would be prejudicial.
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The US Bureau of Labor Statistics has said it will not release a full US jobs report for the month of October, following the country’s longest ever federal government shutdown. Instead, the available figures will be published with November’s data in mid-December, the BLS said. The October data is expected to show negative job growth after about 100,000 federal workers participated in the deferred-resignation program and formally left payrolls in late September during the shutdown.
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In federal court today, Lindsey Halligan, the president’s handpicked choice for interim US attorney for the eastern district of Virginia, and another prosecutor acknowledged that the entire grand jury never saw the final indictment against James Comey. Halligan charged the former FBI director with lying to Congress in September. But when the prosecution was questioned by Judge Michael Nachmanoff today, they admitted that the a new version of the indictment was not presented to the full panel after it rejected one of the charges.
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The US has signalled to Volodymyr Zelenskyy that Ukraine must accept a US-drafted framework to end Russia’s war that proposes Kyiv giving up territory and some weapons, two people familiar with the matter have told Reuters. The sources, who asked not to be identified because of the sensitivity of the matter, said the proposals included cutting the size of Ukraine’s armed forces, among other things. Washington wants Kyiv to accept the main points, the sources said.
Prosecutors admit that entire grand jury did not see final indictment against James Comey
In federal court today, Lindsey Halligan (the president’s handpicked choice for interim US attorney for the eastern district of Virginia) and another prosecutor acknowledged that the entire grand jury never saw the final indictment against James Comey.
Halligan charged the former FBI director with lying to Congress in September. But when the prosecution was probed by Judge Michael Nachmanoff today, they admitted that the a new version of the indictment was not presented to the full panel, after they rejected one of the charges. Instead, Halligan gave the grand jury’s foreperson an updated version to sign. “The foreperson and another grand juror was also present,” she confirmed to Nachmanoff.
“There is no indictment,” said Comey’s attorney Michael Dreeben, arguing that this error is grounds for dismissal.
Joseph Gedeon
A Republican attempt to censure Stacey Plaskett, a Democratic delegate, over her real-time texts with pedophile Jeffrey Epstein collapsed on the House floor on Tuesday night, prompting a confrontation on the chamber floor and accusations that party leaders had struck a deal to protect members on both sides facing ethics controversies.
The measure, which would have formally reprimanded Plaskett and removed her from the House intelligence committee over her text message exchanges with Epstein during a hearing, failed by a vote of 209 to 214.
Republicans Don Bacon of Nebraska, Lance Gooden of Texas and Dave Joyce of Ohio voted with all Democrats against the resolution, while three other Republicans voted present.
When newly released materials exposed Plaskett, a Democrat from the US Virgin Islands, for exchanging real-time messages with Epstein during a 2019 congressional hearing, all Democrats voted against her censure.
Then, immediately after the vote, Democrats withdrew a planned censure resolution against Cory Mills, a Florida Republican representative facing allegations of stolen valor, financial misconduct and domestic abuse. Mills has denied the accusations.
The sequence prompted Lauren Boebert, a representative of Colorado, to shout at fellow Republicans on the House floor, wagging her finger and at one point directly confronting Mills.
Anna Paulina Luna, a Republican representative from Florida, attempted to raise a parliamentary inquiry asking Mike Johnson, the House speaker, to “explain why leadership on both sides, both Democrat and Republican, are cutting back-end deals to cover up public corruption in the House of Representatives”.
“Get it, girl,” Boebert shouted in response.
