Politics

(WASHINGTON) — Tuesday marked the first time Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has set foot in the U.S. since 2018, following what U.S. intelligence has said was his approval of an operation that led to the murder of Saudi critic Jamal Khashoggi by Saudi agents in Istanbul, causing global outrage. 

As they met in the Oval Office, President Donald Trump responded to questions about 9/11 families angered over the visit, saying, “things happen, but he knew nothing about it, and we can leave it at that.”

Shortly before, Trump welcomed him to the White House with a lavish arrival ceremony, complete with Saudi flags next to American flags, a red carpet, horses and a color guard.

Cannons were fired in the background and a military flyover, featuring three F-35 and three F-16s fighters, took place overhead.

Trump and MBS shook hands and smiled for the cameras before entering their bilateral meeting.

“It’s an honor to be your friend and it’s an honor that you’re here,” Trump told later MBS inside the Oval Office.

The crown prince has previously denied ordering the murder of Khashoggi but ultimately acknowledged responsibility as the kingdom’s de facto ruler.

Trump denies conflict of interest, defends MBS over Khashoggi death

ABC News Chief White House Correspondent Mary Bruce asked Trump about whether there was a conflict of interest with his family doing business in Saudi Arabia while he was president, as The Trump Organization has multiple active projects in the kingdom.

Last month, the Trump Organization also announced plans for a Trump Plaza to be built in Saudi Arabia, complete with “a vibrant green spine inspired by Central Park that brings Manhattan-style vibrancy to the heart of Jeddah.”

Trump insisted he has nothing to do with his family business.

“What my family does is fine. They do business all over. They’ve done very little with Saudi Arabia, actually. They could. I’m sure they could do a lot. And anything they’ve done has been very good,” he said.

Bruce also brought up Khashoggi’s murder and the anger 9/11 families have expressed over MBS’s visit to the Oval Office. The kingdom has long been under fire over its alleged role in the attacks.

Trump defended MBS over the Khashoggi death and told Bruce, “You don’t have to embarrass our guest asking a question like this.”

“As far as this gentleman is concerned, he’s done a phenomenal job,” the president said of the prince. “You’re mentioning somebody that was extremely controversial,” he said referring to Khashoggi. “A lot of people didn’t like that gentleman that you’re talking about, whether you like him or didn’t like him, things happen, but he knew nothing about it, and we can leave it at that.”

MBS addressed both issues.

“I feel painful about families of 9-11 in America, but we have to focus on reality,” he said.

The prince alleged that Osama bin Laden used Saudis to destroy the relationship between the kingdom and the United States.

“We’ve been working to prove [bin Laden] wrong and continuing developing our nation. It is critical for the safety of the world,” he said.

MBS said of “the journalist” that “it’s really painful to hear, anyone losing their life for no real purpose.”

“It’s been painful for us in Saudi Arabia,” he said. “We’ve did all the right steps of, investigation, etc., in Saudi Arabia, and we’ve improved our system to be sure that nothing happened like that. And it’s painful, and it’s a huge mistake. And we are doing our best that this doesn’t happen again.”

Trump will host a dinner for the Saudi leader on Tuesday night with a who’s who of guests.

Billionaire Elon Musk was slated to attend, marking his first time back in the White House after he left the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), a source with knowledge of the plans told ABC News.

Soccer star Cristiano Ronaldo, who plays in the Saudi Pro League, will also be at the White House Tuesday, a White House official confirmed to ABC News.

Ahead of the Tuesday meeting, the crown prince had apparently scored a highly coveted weapons deal that includes advanced F-35 fighter jets from the U.S. 

Trump confirmed on Monday during an event in the Oval Office that he plans to sell F-35s to Saudi Arabia as part of a weapons deal, which experts say would mark the first time those jets have been sold to an Arab military.

A focus on defense and business

Trump and MBS spoke with reporters in the Oval Office, where the president said he was “very proud” of the job the crown prince had done.

The president touted the business deals and economic cooperation.

“We’ve been really good friends for a long period of time. We’ve always been on the same side of every issue,” Trump told MBS as he smiled on.

Now more than seven years later, the Saudi leader has business on his mind as he seeks to deepen ties with the U.S. through cooperation on oil and security, while also expanding the regime’s global outreach in finance, artificial intelligence and technology. Saudi Arabia notably boasts the world’s largest economy and maintains its lead as the world’s top oil producer. 

The prince’s trip to the U.S. is being billed as an “official working visit,” and is designed to follow up and advance on Trump’s May appearance in Riyadh — the first official visit of Trump’s second term in office. 

During that May visit, Trump announced a $142 billion arms package with the Saudis, which according to a White House fact sheet was the “the largest defense cooperation agreement” Washington has ever done.

“A lot of the financial and economic and artificial intelligence deals that they announced that were very ambiguous six months ago, I think we might start to see some teeth from them this time around and hopefully get a little bit more clarity on what those deals actually are,” said Elizabeth Dent, a senior fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy and former director for the Gulf and Arabian Peninsula in the office of the Secretary of Defense at the Pentagon.

The agreement covers deals with more than a dozen U.S. defense companies in areas including air and missile defense, air force and space advancement, maritime security and communications, the fact sheet said.

Features from the deals included, a multi-billion dollar investment in America’s AI infrastructure, enhanced cooperation on civil nuclear energy, defense sales to enhance defense cooperation between both countries and fulfillments of the Saudis’ $600 billion investment pledge via dozens of targeted investments.

The kingdom in turn announced a $600 billion investment in the U.S. spanning multiple sectors, including energy security, defense, technology, global infrastructure and critical minerals. 

“We believe, in the future openness of America. We believe in what you’re doing, Mr. President, really creating a lot of good things on good foundation to create more economic growth, more business in America,” the crown prince said.

Some of the other notable deals announced under the $600 billion pledge included investments in: U.S.-based artificial intelligence data centers and energy infrastructure; advanced technologies; Saudi infrastructure projects; U.S. energy equipment and commercial aircraft; the U.S. health care supply chain; and U.S. sports industries.

The potential sale of advanced F-35 fighter jets to the Saudi kingdom is likely to cause consternation from Israel. 

U.S. law requires that any weapons sale package to countries in the Middle East does not risk Israel’s security, and it’s unclear if Trump has cleared that hurdle in permitting the sale of fighter jets to Saudi Arabia. 

“There’s a whole host of issues that encompass this. Part of it is that Israel has to be able to maintain their congressionally-mandated qualitative military edge, which Congress does determine that,” Dent said. “And so, if the deal goes forward, I think we just have to see how they’re going to figure out the best way to ensure Israel can maintain that, as the only country in the Middle East that currently has F-35s.”

“I think the Israelis are probably pretty uncomfortable with these rumors swirling around without normalization in sight,” Dent added.

Saudis insist on ‘credible pathway’ to Palestinian statehood

The Saudi leader is seeking security guarantees from the U.S. amid turbulence in the Middle East. The security agreement with the U.S. has been in a development stage and has not yet been formalized, but the kingdom is seeking to deepen military and security ties between the two countries. 

The security guarantees are viewed by some as part of a larger regional “megadeal” involving normalization with Israel, something Trump will surely push for, even as the Saudi kingdom has refused to do so under the current Israeli leadership.

Trump told reporters on Air Force One on Friday that he would discuss the issue with the crown prince.

“I hope that Saudi Arabia will be going into the Abraham Accords fairly shortly,” he said.

Earlier this year, Trump signed an unprecedented defense pact with Qatar via executive order that recognizes the “enduring alliance” between the U.S. and Qatar and provides Qatar an explicit security guarantee in the event of “external attack.” 

Many analysts have said they believe the Saudis are looking for a similar defense pact with the U.S. 

“I think it’ll be kind of similar to Qatar’s, where it basically just says it will consider any sort of threat or attack on Saudi Arabia to be an attack on the United States, and then the United States will respond appropriately, which could range from political to military options. So, I think that the administration will make sure to give themselves that decision space,” Dent said. “There’s a lot to work through here. Obviously, I think a lot of it will be about expectation management.”

The kingdom is notably invested in implementing the president’s 20-point Gaza peace plan. The kingdom has previously stated it wants to see the emergence of a credible path toward an independent and a free Palestine as a condition for supporting the demilitarization of Hamas and reconstruction of Gaza. 

But Israel has put up a roadblock to Palestinian statehood, which will undoubtedly cause angst among Arab regional partners who are pushing for sustained peace in Gaza.

“Our opposition to a Palestinian state in any territory has not changed,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Sunday during his weekly cabinet meeting. “Gaza will be demilitarized and Hamas will be disarmed, the easy way or the hard way.”

Netanyahu has long opposed a Palestinian state, saying in recent months that its creation would only reward Hamas and endanger Israel’s security.

ABC News’ Christopher Boccia, Will Steakin and Hannah Demissie contributed to this report. 

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(WASHINGTON) — The son of Saad Almadi who is held in Saudi Arabia on an exit ban for allegations of “cyber crimes” by the kingdom, said that President Donald Trump has failed to make his father’s release a priority as Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman comes to Washington for a state visit Tuesday. 

Ibrahim Almadi, whose 75-year old father was detained in Saudi Arabia on a family visit in 2021, says his father has been “harassed” by authorities there and seeks a return to the United States, which has been his home for decades. Almadi is a dual American-Saudi citizen who emigrated to the U.S. in 1976.

When he was arrested in 2021, Saudi authorities accused Saad Almadi of terrorism for 14 tweets he wrote that were critical of the royal family. Two years later, the charges were reduced to so-called “cyber crimes,” and he was sentenced to an exit ban that bars him from leaving the kingdom until 2054.

One of the tweets, which were published while Saad Almadi was in the U.S., advocated for the renaming of a Washington, D.C., street for Jamal Khashoggi, a Washington Post journalist who was killed at a Saudi consulate in Istanbul. 

Trump, asked about the Almadi case, told reporters in May he would “take a look” at it.

In an interview with ABC News, Ibrahim Almadi said U.S. diplomacy achieved his father’s release from detention and even “saved his life” in 2023. But he argued that bin Salman, the de-facto Saudi leader who will be greeted by Trump at the White House before a state dinner, is still “getting away with jailing Americans” by banning his father’s travel.

That Saudi Arabia, an American ally, has not released the elder Almadi is “insulting,” Ibrahim Almadi told ABC. He contended that Trump, who has enjoyed warm relations with Saudi Arabia, could make “one call” to free Almadi. 

Trump has made the release of Americans detained abroad a priority, often dealing with adversaries to bring U.S. citizens home — like in the case of Venezuela, with which Washington has no formal diplomatic ties.

Asked for comment about Saad Almadi, an official at the National Security Council declined to discuss details. The official emphasized that “bringing our citizens home is a Number One top priority for President Trump,” pointing to “more than 75 Americans he has liberated in the last 10 months.”

ABC News has reached out to the Saudi embassy in Washington for comment on the Almadi case.

Ibrahim Almadi said U.S. officials have repeatedly told him in the four years since the arrest that they were in “final talks” and “advanced communication” to win his father’s release from the country. 

“What my feeling is now — and my father[‘s] feeling — it’s a dismissal of the case,” he said. “They are dismissing the case.”

It leaves the Almadi son pessimistic ahead of the state visit, convinced that the crown prince “is using him as a card,” he said.

There are three Americans who are wrongfully held on exit bans in Saudi Arabia, according to the Foley Foundation, which advocates for American hostages and wrongful detainees held abroad.

Copyright © 2025, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

(WASHINGTON) — Tuesday marked the first time His Royal Highness Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the crown prince and prime minister of Saudi Arabia, set foot in the U.S. since 2018, following the death of Saudi critic Jamal Khashoggi by Saudi agents in Istanbul, which caused global outrage. 

And President Donald Trump welcomed MBS with a lavish entrance, complete with Saudi flags next to American flags, an orange carpet, black horses and a color guard band.

Cannons went off in the background and a military flyover took place as Trump walked the carpet to wait for the prince’s arrival. They shook hands and smiled for the cameras before going in for their bilateral meeting.

The crown prince denied ordering the operation against Khashoggi but ultimately acknowledged responsibility as the kingdom’s de facto ruler.

Now more than seven years later, the Saudi leader has business on his mind as he seeks to deepen ties with the U.S. through cooperation on oil and security, while also expanding the regime’s global outreach in finance, artificial intelligence and technology. Saudi Arabia notably boasts the world’s largest economy and maintains its lead as the world’s top oil producer. 

Trump will host a dinner for the Saudi leader on Tuesday night with a who’s who of guests.

Billionaire Elon Musk was slated to attend, marking his first time back in the White House after he left the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), a source with knowledge of the plans told ABC News.

Soccer star Cristiano Ronaldo, who plays in the Saudi Pro League, will also be at the White House Tuesday, a White House official confirmed to ABC News.

Ahead of the Tuesday meeting, the crown prince had apparently scored a highly coveted weapons deal that includes advanced F-35 fighter jets from the U.S. 

Trump confirmed on Monday during an event in the Oval Office that he plans to sell F-35s to Saudi Arabia as part of a weapons deal, which experts say would mark the first time those jets have been sold to an Arab military.

A focus on defense and business

The prince’s trip to the U.S. is being billed as an “official working visit,” and is designed to follow up and advance on Trump’s May appearance in Riyadh — the first official visit of Trump’s second term in office. 

“A lot of the financial and economic and artificial intelligence deals that they announced that were very ambiguous six months ago, I think we might start to see some teeth from them this time around and hopefully get a little bit more clarity on what those deals actually are,” said Elizabeth Dent, a senior fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy and former director for the Gulf and Arabian Peninsula in the office of the Secretary of Defense at the Pentagon.

During that May visit, Trump announced a $142 billion arms package with the Saudis, which according to a White House fact sheet was the “the largest defense cooperation agreement” Washington has ever done.

The agreement covers deals with more than a dozen U.S. defense companies in areas including air and missile defense, air force and space advancement, maritime security and communications, the fact sheet said.

The kingdom in turn announced a $600 billion investment in the U.S. spanning multiple sectors, including energy security, defense, technology, global infrastructure and critical minerals. 

Some of the other notable deals announced under the $600 billion pledge included investments in: U.S.-based artificial intelligence data centers and energy infrastructure; advanced technologies; Saudi infrastructure projects; U.S. energy equipment and commercial aircraft; the U.S. health care supply chain; and U.S. sports industries.

The potential sale of advanced F-35 fighter jets to the Saudi kingdom is likely to cause consternation from Israel. 

U.S. law requires that any weapons sale package to countries in the Middle East does not risk Israel’s security, and it’s unclear if Trump has cleared that hurdle in permitting the sale of fighter jets to Saudi Arabia. 

“There’s a whole host of issues that encompass this. Part of it is that Israel has to be able to maintain their congressionally-mandated qualitative military edge, which Congress does determine that,” Dent said. “And so, if the deal goes forward, I think we just have to see how they’re going to figure out the best way to ensure Israel can maintain that, as the only country in the Middle East that currently has F-35s.”

“I think the Israelis are probably pretty uncomfortable with these rumors swirling around without normalization in sight,” Dent added.

Saudis insist on ‘credible pathway’ to Palestinian statehood

The Saudi leader is seeking security guarantees from the U.S. amid turbulence in the Middle East. The security agreement with the U.S. has been in a development stage and has not yet been formalized, but the kingdom is seeking to deepen military and security ties between the two countries. 

The security guarantees are viewed by some as part of a larger regional “megadeal” involving normalization with Israel, something Trump will surely push for, even as the Saudi kingdom has refused to do so under the current Israeli leadership.

Trump told reporters on Air Force One on Friday that he would discuss the issue with the crown prince.

“I hope that Saudi Arabia will be going into the Abraham Accords fairly shortly,” he said.

Earlier this year, Trump signed an unprecedented defense pact with Qatar via executive order that recognizes the “enduring alliance” between the U.S. and Qatar and provides Qatar an explicit security guarantee in the event of “external attack.” 

Many analysts have said they believe the Saudis are looking for a similar defense pact with the U.S. 

“I think it’ll be kind of similar to Qatar’s, where it basically just says it will consider any sort of threat or attack on Saudi Arabia to be an attack on the United States, and then the United States will respond appropriately, which could range from political to military options. So, I think that the administration will make sure to give themselves that decision space,” Dent said. “There’s a lot to work through here. Obviously, I think a lot of it will be about expectation management.”

The kingdom is notably invested in implementing the president’s 20-point Gaza peace plan. The kingdom has previously stated it wants to see the emergence of a credible path toward an independent and a free Palestine as a condition for supporting the demilitarization of Hamas and reconstruction of Gaza. 

But Israel has put up a roadblock to Palestinian statehood, which will undoubtedly cause angst among Arab regional partners who are pushing for sustained peace in Gaza.

“Our opposition to a Palestinian state in any territory has not changed,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Sunday during his weekly cabinet meeting. “Gaza will be demilitarized and Hamas will be disarmed, the easy way or the hard way.”

Netanyahu has long opposed a Palestinian state, saying in recent months that its creation would only reward Hamas and endanger Israel’s security.

ABC News’ Christopher Boccia, Will Steakin and Hannah Demissie contributed to this report. 

Copyright © 2025, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

(WASHINGTON) — After months of anticipation, the House is finally set to vote Tuesday on a bill ordering the release of the Justice Department’s files on sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, whose purported ties to both Democrats and Republicans have fueled speculation across the country and prompted investigations on Capitol Hill seeking to uncover details about the billionaire’s network of political and financial connections.

After President Donald Trump reversed course over the weekend and urged House Republicans to “vote to release the Epstein files,” the bill appears headed for the Senate despite a monthslong campaign by Speaker Mike Johnson to block its release. 

Johnson told House Republicans during a closed-door conference meeting on Tuesday morning that he will support the resolution, according to multiple sources. In the meeting, he told members to “vote your conscience.”

Johnson later confirmed during a press conference, “I’m gonna vote to move this forward” despite calling the bill “recklessly flawed.”

“I think it could be close to a unanimous vote because everybody here, all the Republicans, want to go on record to show for maximum transparency. But they also want to know that we’re demanding that this stuff get corrected before it has ever moved through the process and is complete,” he said.  

Johnson said he spoke to Senate Majority Leader John Thune and said he hopes the Senate will amend the Epstein files bill.

The speaker accused Democrats of “forcing a political show vote on the Epstein files.”

Johnson has tried to avoid holding a vote in the lower chamber on the Epstein matter. In late July, Johnson sent the House home a day early for August recess because the House was paralyzed in a stalemate over the Epstein issue.

The speaker also sent the House home for more than 50 days during the longest government shutdown in U.S. history — delaying the swearing in of Democrat Adelita Grijalva. After the shutdown ended last week, the Arizona Democrat became the 218th signature on the Epstein discharge petition, compelling the speaker to bring a bill co-sponsored by Kentucky Republican Rep. Thomas Massie and California Democratic Rep. Ro Khanna to the floor for a vote this week.

Johnson on Monday continued to raise concerns about the legislation and said he has spoken to Trump “quite a bit” about it.

“[Trump’s] statements speak for themselves,” Johnson said leaving the House floor on Monday. “He has nothing, he has never had anything to hide. He and I had the same concern, that we wanted to ensure that victims of these heinous crimes were completely protected from disclosure. Those who don’t want their names to be out there, and I am not sure the discharge petition does that and that’s part of the problem.”

Asked Monday about the vote, Trump said he’s “all for it,” and that he would sign it if it reaches his desk.

“We’ll give them everything. Sure. I would let them, let the Senate look at it. Let anybody look at it,” Trump said of the full Epstein files. “But don’t talk about it too much, because honestly, I don’t want to take it away from us.”

Trump does not need to wait for Congress to act — he could order the release immediately.

The measure — called “The Epstein Files Transparency Act” — would compel Attorney General Pam Bondi to make available all “unclassified records, documents, communications and investigative materials” in the Department of Justice’s possession related to Epstein. 

The DOJ and FBI released a joint statement in July that stated a review uncovered no evidence of any client list kept by Epstein or other evidence that would predicate a criminal investigation of any uncharged parties. 

The legislation seeks federal records on Epstein and his convicted accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell, as well as other individuals, including government officials, named or referenced in connection with Epstein’s “criminal activities, civil settlements, immunity, plea agreements or investigatory proceedings.” Victims’ names and other identifying information would be excluded from disclosure, as would any items that may depict or contain child sex abuse material, according to the text of the proposed bill.

Trump, in a post on social media on Sunday, stressed that the Justice Department has “already turned over tens of thousands of pages to the public” on Epstein.

Trump, who was friendly with Epstein for years, said after Epstein’s arrest in 2019 that they hadn’t spoken in more than a decade after having a falling out. White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters last week that emails related to convicted sex offender Epstein released by House Democrats “prove absolutely nothing, other than the fact that President Trump did nothing wrong.”

“The House Oversight Committee can have whatever they are legally entitled to. I DON’T CARE!” Trump added. 

The bill is expected to pass in the House with dozens of Republicans potentially voting in favor — shifting the political pressure to Thune to follow suit with a vote in the upper chamber. If it passes in the Senate, it will go to Trump’s desk for him to sign it into law.

For months, Johnson has pointed at the House Oversight Committee’s inquiry — claiming that the panel’s probe is more far-reaching than the Khanna-Massie bill. House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer has sought additional documents from the Epstein estate and testimony from Epstein’s associates, including former President Bill Clinton.

Proponents of the bill argue that “the record of this vote will last longer than Donald Trump’s presidency.”

“I would remind my Republican colleagues who are deciding how to vote, Donald Trump can protect you in red districts right now by giving you an endorsement. But in 2030, he’s not going to be the president, and you will have voted to protect pedophiles if you don’t vote to release these files,” Massie told ABC News’ “This Week” co-anchor Jonathan Karl. “And the president can’t protect you then.”

Even if the measure passes through the House and Senate and is ultimately signed into law by Trump, it’s unlikely the Justice Department would release the entire Epstein file, according to sources. Any materials related to ongoing investigations or White House claims of executive privilege will likely remain out of public view.

Epstein died by suicide in 2019 while awaiting trial on charges of trafficking young girls and women.

Maxwell is currently serving a 20-year prison sentence. She was convicted on five counts of aiding Epstein in his abuse of underage girls in December 2021.

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(WASHINGTON) — Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene hit back at President Donald Trump on Tuesday at a press conference outside the U.S. Capitol alongside women victimized by late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

Trump withdrew his support for Greene, one of his staunchest allies, over the weekend after she criticized him and his administration for their handling of the Epstein investigation, along with other matters.

“I was called a traitor by a man that I fought for five, no, actually, six years for, and I gave him my loyalty for free,” Greene said, referencing a social media post from Trump over the weekend where he called her “Marjorie ‘Traitor’ Greene.”

“I won my first election without his endorsement, beating eight men in a primary, and I’ve never owed him anything, but I fought for him, for the policies and for America first, and he called me a traitor for standing with these women and refusing to take my name off the discharge petition.”

Greene appeared to insinuate on Tuesday that Trump was the “traitor.”

“Let me tell you what a traitor is. A traitor is an American that serves foreign countries and themselves. A patriot is an American that serves the United States of America and Americans like the women standing behind me now,” Greene continued.

The comments came ahead of Tuesday’s House vote on a bill to force the Justice Department to release all files related to Epstein, an effort Trump opposed for months before suddenly reversing himself as it became clear enough Republicans would vote in favor.

At the press conference with Epstein survivors outside the Capitol, Greene was praised by the bill’s co-sponsors Democratic Rep. Ro Khanna and Republican Rep. Thomas Massie as well as several survivors.

“When Ro and I started this effort, most discharge petitions never make it, maybe only 4%, so we had long odds, but we had some brave women on the Republican side. My colleague, Marjorie Taylor Greene, is one of them who’s here with us today. You cannot even imagine the consequences that they have suffered,” Massie said.

Survivor Haley Robson, in her remarks, said if Greene ever decided to read names of people connected to Epstein on the House floor, she would stand with her and hold her hand.

Greene on Tuesday was asked if she takes Trump at his word after he said on Monday he would sign the bill to release the Epstein files if it reaches his desk, and if she has confidence these files will be released.

“I only take people’s actions seriously, no longer words,” Greene said.

“I’ll tell you, because I’m — I wasn’t a Johnny-come-lately to the MAGA train. I was Day 1 [in] 2015. And there’s a big difference in those Americans and those that decided to support President Trump later on,” Greene said.

Greene said “watching this actually turn into a fight has ripped MAGA apart.”

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(WASHINGTON) — A group of women victimized by late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein spoke out at the U.S. Capitol on Tuesday ahead of a highly anticipated vote on a House bill ordering the release of the Justice Department’s files on Epstein.

“We are fighting for the children,” said survivor Haley Robson, as she held up a photograph of herself as a young girl.

Robson said this is a “human issue” and called for political agendas to be put aside before delivering a direct message to President Donald Trump.

“And to the president of the United States of America, who is not here today, I want to send a clear message to you. While I do understand that your position has changed on the Epstein files and I’m grateful that you have pledged to sign this bill, I can’t help to be skeptical of what the agenda is. So with that being said, I want to relay this message to you: I am traumatized. I am not stupid.”

“You have put us through so much stress, the lockdown, the halt of these procedures that were supposed to have happened 50 days ago, the Adelita Grijalva who waited to get sworn in, and then get upset when your own party goes against you, because what is being done is wrong,” Robson said. “It’s not right. For your own self-serving purposes. This is America. This is land of the free, land of the free.”

“I do not feel free today,” Robson added. “I don’t know if the women behind me feel free today, so I am begging every member of Congress, every representative, to step up and choose the chaos. Choose the survivors, choose the children. Protect the children, all children. You protect all of us equally.”

Another survivor, Jena-Lisa Jones, also directly addressed Trump and criticized his administration’s handling of the Epstein matter.

“I beg you, President Trump, please stop making this political. It is not about you, President Trump. You are our president. Please start acting like it. Show some class, show some real leadership, show that you actually care about people other than yourself. I voted for you, but your behavior on this issue has been a national embarrassment,” Jones said.

This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.

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(WASHINGTON) — Democratic Sens. Martin Heinrich and Mark Kelly will introduce legislation in the Senate on Tuesday that would strip out a provision in the just-passed government funding bill that allows senators to sue the government if their phone records are investigated without notifying them. 

The bill comes after Senate Republicans included within the massive government funding bill that ended the 43-day government shutdown a provision that would allow senators whose phone records were subpoenaed by Special Counsel Jack Smith as part of his investigation into the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol to sue for $500,000 per accessed device.

News of the Senate’s inclusion of this provision caused bipartisan outrage in the House of Representatives.

House Speaker Mike Johnson last week said the House would hold a standalone vote on a provision to strip the language out of the funding bill this week. Due to the bipartisan objection to these provisions, the House bill has a high likelihood of being successfully passed out of the lower chamber.

“I think that was way out of line. I don’t think that was a smart thing … and the House is going to reverse — we are going to repeal that, and I’m going to expect our colleagues in the Senate to do the same thing,” Johnson said at a press conference last week.

Kelly and Heinrich’s bill is not identical to the House provision but the two bills closely resemble one another. 

Efforts to repeal the phone record provision face a far more difficult path in the Senate than in the House. 

The bill has 24 Democratic co-sponsors but currently no GOP supporters. 

Sources told ABC News that Senate Majority Leader John Thune was personally responsible for including the language in the bill. Thune would be the one responsible for placing the bill on the floor, where it would need 60 votes to advance. 

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(NEW YORK) — New York City councilmember Chi Ossé appeared to confirm he would challenge House Democratic leader Rep. Hakeem Jeffries for his seat representing New York’s 8th congressional district in an X post on Monday.

Ossé responded to another post calling him out for saying last month that he was not going to run. This comes after Ossé’s name appeared on FEC filings launching a bid for NY-08 earlier Monday.

“How can Brooklyn voters take you at your word when just last month you said this? ‘It would take a very dire situation in order for me to even consider spending the rest of my 20s in DC. Just to be clear, I’m not running for Congress,'” a post said.

Ossé responded: “Seems like we’re in a dire situation.”

Ossé told Axios that he is “currently exploring” the challenge and that the filings are legitimate.

“The Democratic Party’s leadership is not only failing to effectively fight back against Donald Trump, they have also failed to deliver a vision that we can all believe in,” Ossé, who recently joined the Democratic Socialists of America, said in a statement to Axios.

“These failures are some of the many reasons why I am currently exploring a potential run for New York’s 8th Congressional District,” he told the outlet. 

Ossé is floating a challenge without the complete and total blessing from progressives. New York City Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani’s team has reportedly been attempting to discourage Ossé from running, and Adam Green, co-founder of the Progressive Change Campaign Committee, said in a statement that “it is not the right moment to launch a primary challenge to Hakeem Jeffries.”

Jeffries endorsed Mamdani in the last days of the New York City mayoral race. 

Asked about Ossé’s FEC filings in a press conference on the Hill Monday afternoon, Jeffries appeared to welcome the challenge, saying, “Come on in, the water is warm.”

A spokesperson for Jeffries said in a statement to ABC News that they “welcome this primary challenge” from Ossé and “look forward to a rigorous debate.” 

“Leader Jeffries is fighting hard to lower the high cost of living, address the Republican healthcare crisis, combat corruption and win back control of the House for the good of the country. We welcome this primary challenge and look forward to a rigorous debate about the type of serious leadership required to deliver for the people of Brooklyn and the nation,” said Justin Chermol, Jeffries’ spokesperson.

Ossé, 27, made waves as New York’s first Gen Z city councilmember when he was sworn into office in 2022 and led the charge on the FARE Act, which was passed last year and forces landlords to pay broker’s fees instead of tenants. 

Ossé left the New York City chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America in 2020 “very shortly after signing up,” saying on X that he “wasn’t aligned with the organization itself.” He later rejoined NYC-DSA in 2025.

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(WASHINGTON) — President Donald Trump on Monday said he would sign the bill to compel the Justice Department to release all files relating sex offender Jeffrey Epstein if it comes to his desk.

“I’m all for it,” he said as he took reporter questions during an event in the Oval Office, contending the controversy is deflecting from his administration successes.

Pressed again moments later if he would sign the bill that the House is set to take up Tuesday, Trump replied: “Sure I would.”

“Let the Senate look at it. Let anybody look at it. But don’t talk about it too much, because, honestly, I don’t want it to take away from us. It’s really a Democrat problem,” he said.

This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.

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(WASHINGTON) —Acting Federal Emergency Management Agency David Richardson resigned on Monday after six months on the job.

Richardson, who was temporarily installed in May after former acting Administrator Cameron Hamilton was fired by Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem a day after telling Congress the agency should not be disbanded, putting him at odds with President Donald Trump’s suggestions that FEMA be downsized or dissolved.

Richardson was also in charge of the department’s countering Weapons of Mass Destruction office.

In an exclusive statement to ABC News, Richardson said that he stepped up when others didn’t weeks before the start of hurricane season. 

“I agreed to be the acting administrator through hurricane season when others wouldn’t. Hurricane season ends on 1 December.  Since the danger has largely passed, I can now leave for other opportunities,” Richardson said. “Many were asked. One raised his hand and said, ‘I’ll do it.’ I knew hurricane season was three weeks away and time was of the essence. I didn’t hesitate. It was the same in the 2006 during the worst days of Iraq and the streets of Ramadi. Nobody wanted to train and fight alongside the Iraqis. I said, ‘I’ll do it.'”

The Department of Homeland Security confirmed that Richardson resigned as FEMA administrator and said that FEMA Chief of Staff Karen Evans will step into the role on Dec. 1. 

“The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) extend their sincere appreciation to the Senior Official Performing the Duties of the Administrator, David Richardson, for his dedicated service and wish him continued success in his return to the private sector,” a DHS spokesperson said. “Mr. Richardson led FEMA through the 2025 hurricane season, delivering historic funding to North Carolina, Texas, Florida, New Mexico and Alaska, and overseeing a comprehensive review that identified and eliminated serious governmental waste and inefficiency, while refocusing the agency to deliver swift resources to Americans in crisis.”

Richardson has faced criticism during his tenure at the top of the agency.

In a House Transportation Committee hearing following the deadly flooding in Texas in July, Democrats panned Richardson’s and FEMA’s response.

“You’re the leader, but you did not lead, as you are required to by federal law. But worse, you seem uninterested to learn what went wrong and how to respond,” Rep. Greg Stanton, D-Ariz., said. 

Richardson was on vacation with his two sons during the flooding but he testified that he immediately coordinated a response with Texas officials, the White House and others from his truck.

Sources close to Richardson contend that he was available during the disaster. A source said he was on the phone from the moment the floods struck while on vacation and drove back to Washington as soon as he could. 

In June, shortly after hurricane season began at the beginning of the month, Richardson told staff in an all-hands that he was unaware it had started, according to sources familiar with the meeting.

It was unclear if Richardson was joking, but a Department of Homeland Security spokesperson argued he was.

When asked by reporters during a White House press briefing whether Trump was “still comfortable” with Richardson after his remarks, press secretary Karoline Leavitt dismissed concerns and said FEMA is taking hurricane season “seriously, contrary to some of the reporting we have seen based on jokes that were made and leaks from meetings.”

Richardson’s comments followed an internal review indicating FEMA was “not ready” for the 2025 hurricane season in mid-May.

The DHS spokesperson denied FEMA is unprepared, saying “Despite meanspirited attempts to falsely frame a joke as policy, there is no uncertainty about what FEMA will be doing this Hurricane Season.”

“FEMA is laser-focused on disaster response and protecting the American people,” the spokesperson added.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., slammed Richardson, posting on X that he is “unaware of why he hasn’t been fired yet.”

“Trump’s FEMA chief is incompetent,” Sen. Ed Markey, D-Mass., added. “People will die.”

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