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  • Hillary Clinton testifies in House committee probe into Jeffrey Epstein

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    Former President Bill Clinton and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton are both scheduled to give testimony to the House Oversight Committee this week as part of the congressional committee’s probe into the late, convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. 

    What You Need To Know

    • Former President Bill Clinton and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton are both scheduled to give testimony to the House Oversight Committee this week as part of the committee’s probe into the late, convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein

    • Hillary Clinton is being deposed Thursday, with Bill Clinton’s testimony on the calendar for Friday. 

    • The former president had a well-documented relationship with Epstein in the late 1990s and early 2000s, and the Clintons have said they had no knowledge that Epstein was sexually abusing underage girls before his arrest

    • The Clintons had initially been scheduled to testify last year, but that was postponed, launching a months-long back-and-forth between the couple and committee Chair Rep. James Comer, R-Ky.

    Hillary Clinton is meeting with the committee Thursday, with Bill Clinton’s testimony on the calendar for Friday. Both are taking place in Chappaqua, New York, according to a spokesperson for the committee.

    On Thursday morning, committee Chair Rep. James Comer, R-Ky., said he expected Hillary Clinton’s deposition to be “long” and Bill Clinton’s to be “even longer.”

    “No one’s accusing at this moment the Clintons of any wrongdoing,” Comer said. “They’re going to have due process. But we have a lot of questions.The purpose of the whole investigation is to try to understand many things about Epstein. How did he accumulate so much wealth?
How was he able to surround himself with some of the most powerful men in the world?”

    Several photographs of Bill Clinton were included in the trove of files made public in December by the Justice Department. The former president had a well-documented relationship with Epstein in the late 1990s and early 2000s. The Clintons have said they had no knowledge that Epstein was sexually abusing underage girls before his arrest.

    “We have a very clear record that we’ve been willing to talk about,” Hillary Clinton said in an interview with the BBC last week. “My husband has said, he took some rides on the airplane for his charitable work.
I don’t recall ever meeting (Epstein).”

    Epstein died by suicide in a New York City jail cell in 2019 while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges. Officials believe that the disgraced financier abused more than 1,000 girls and young women. 

    The Clintons had initially been scheduled to testify last year, but that was postponed, launching a monthslong back-and-forth between the couple and committee Chair Rep. James Comer, R-Ky. 

    Last month, the House Oversight Committee voted to recommend contempt of Congress charges for the Clintons, but less than two weeks later, Comer announced that the couple had “caved” and agreed to “appear for transcribed, filmed depositions.” The Kentucky Republican said that a recording of each deposition “would be made public” afterward.

    After that announcement, the Clintons called for their testimony to not take place behind closed doors. 

    “If they want answers, let’s stop the games & do this the right way: in a public hearing, where the American people can see for themselves what this is really about,” Bill Clinton said in a Feb. 6 post on X. 

    Comer accused the couple of “pushing a false narrative to play victim” in an interview the following day and indicated that the closed-door depositions would take place as planned.

    Clintons’ depositions follow testimony of others in House probe

    The Clintons’ deposition follows that of Victoria’s Secret co-founder Les Wexner, who spoke to lawmakers last week in New Albany, Ohio, as well as that of Epstein’s former girlfriend and longtime confidant Ghislaine Maxwell, who was deposed by video from the Texas prison camp where she is currently serving her 20-year prison sentence on sex trafficking charges

    Comer has also indicated that Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates, who has denied any wrongdoing, may be asked to testify as well. 

    As part of its investigation, the House Oversight Committee has made more than 30,000 documents public. Democrats on the congressional body in recent months have shared additional files, including photos of powerful men in Epstein’s orbit without corresponding caption information or context. The records have served to illustrate Epstein’s ties to high-profile figures in business, government and entertainment.

    The Justice Department’s disclosure of records

    The committee’s probe into Epstein is separate from the Justice Department’s release of millions of files, as required by the Epstein Files Transparency Act. 

    Under the law passed overwhelmingly by Congress and signed by President Donald Trump in November, prosecutors were required to make public all of the files in its investigation into Epstein by Dec. 19 and then provide Congress with a report identifying the categories of records released and withheld, as well as summarizing redactions and their corresponding legal bases.  

    Several batches of documents were shared in December, and then last month, Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche said the Justice Department was releasing more than 3 million additional pages, 2,000 videos and 180,000 images in its final Epstein disclosure.

    In response to the release, prosecutors have faced criticism that the trove of records has contained unredacted identifying information and images of sex abuse victims and that other names and documents were improperly redacted or withheld from the disclosures. 

    Among files reportedly missing from the trove are ones pertaining to a woman’s unverified accusation that Trump assaulted her when she was a minor in the 1980s, journalist Roger Sollenberger –– and subsequently NPR and The New York Times –– reported. 

    California Rep. Robert Garcia, the top Democrat on the House Oversight Committee, said in a post on Bluesky on Tuesday that Democrats on the committee are opening a “parallel investigation into why these documents are missing.”

    In response to a request for comment about the files, the Justice Department directed Spectrum News to a post on its Rapid Response X account, which contended that “NOTHING has been deleted” and that “ALL responsive documents have been produced unless a document falls within one of the following categories: duplicates, privileged, or part of an ongoing federal investigation.”

    The White House referred any questions about the implementation of the Epstein Files Transparency Act to the DOJ, and pointed to a section of the department’s news release about its disclosure, which stated that “Some of the documents contain untrue and sensationalist claims against President Trump that were submitted to the FBI right before the 2020 election.”

    Fallout continues in U.S. and U.K.

    Revelations stemming from the trove of records has led to fallout both in the U.S. and abroad. Most recently, Harvard University announced Wednesday that former U.S. Treasury Secretary Larry Summers will resign from his teaching role at the school amid a campus review of his ties to Epstein. 

    Meanwhile, in the U.K., British police arrested Peter Mandelson, a former U.K. ambassador to the United States, on Monday in a misconduct probe 

    Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, who was stripped of his princely title last year due to revelations about his relationship with Epstein, was arrested last week on suspicion of misconduct in public office amid allegations that he shared confidential documents with the late financier during his time as trade envoy.

    Summers, Mandelson and Mountbatten-Windsor have all denied wrongdoing. 

    The Associated Press contributed to this reporting.

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    Christina Santucci

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  • 8 takeaways from Trump’s State of the Union address

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    WASHINGTON — In his first State of the Union address of his second term, President Donald Trump on Tuesday night declared that “our nation is back — bigger, better, richer and stronger than ever before.” He also proclaimed that the state of the nation is “strong.”

    Trump’s speech to a joint session of Congress — at 108 minutes, a new record long for a State of the Union — touched on a wide range of topics, including the economy, immigration, foreign affairs and the country’s upcoming 250th anniversary. At times, he lashed out at congressional Democrats for not applauding his policies, while Republicans cheered on the president at every turn.

    Here are eight takeaways from the address. For an in-depth recap, visit Spectrum News’ live blog.

    Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., reacts as President Donald Trump gives his State of the Union address to a joint session of Congress, at the Capitol in Washington, Tuesday, Feb. 24, 2026. (Kenny Holston/The New York Times via AP, Pool)

    Trump defends immigration crackdown, clashes with Dems in attendance

    The president took several opportunities to highlight what his administration has done to reduce illegal immigration. He contended that “zero illegal aliens have been admitted to the United States” over the past nine months through the border.  

    Trump later asked attendees to stand if they believed “the first duty of the American government is to protect American citizens, not illegal aliens” and condemned Democrats for not showing their approval for the statement.  

    “You should be ashamed of yourselves for not standing up,” Trump said. “That is why I’m also asking you to end deadly sanctuary cities that protect the criminals and enact serious penalties for public officials who block the removal of criminal aliens — in many cases, drug lords, murderers all over our country.” 

    Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., was at one point shown pointing her finger back at Trump and appearing to say, “You should be ashamed” in response.  

    Trump blames Democrats for affordability concerns

    After blaming former President Joe Biden for inflation, Trump put the onus on Democrats for affordability concerns.

    “You caused that problem,” Trump said to Democrats, prompting Republican lawmakers to stand and applaud. 

     He called Democratic-led criticism about affordability a “dirty, rotten lie.” 

    The president touted his economic record over the last year. He said inflation has fallen to its lowest level in more than five years, dropping to 1.7% in the last quarter of 2025. He also said gas prices had fallen to below $2 per gallon in some parts of the country. 

     He took credit for declining mortgage rates and a rising stock market.  

    Trump calls Supreme Court tariff decision ‘very unfortunate,’ pledges to use alternatives to impose import duties

    Trump took a measured tone when talking about the Supreme Court ruling issued Friday that invalidated his use of the International Emergency Economic Powers Act to impose sweeping tariffs on most U.S. trading partners around the globe. 

     “Just four days ago, an unfortunate ruling from the United States Supreme Court. It just came down, very unfortunate ruling,” Trump said.  

    The language was strikingly different from how he described the decision, as well as the justices whom he had appointed and who ruled against his tariffs, in a news conference on the day the decision was announced. 

    Four justices were in attendance at the State of the Union: Chief Justice John Roberts, who authored Friday’s opinion, and Justices Brett Kavanaugh, Elena Kagan and Amy Coney Barrett. Roberts and Barrett – along with Justice Neil Gorsuch – sided with liberal justices in ruling against Trump’s usage of IEEPA to levy the import duties.  

    Trump has said he plans to impose a 15% global tariff on top of existing import duties, and on Tuesday he contended that “congressional action will not be necessary.” One of the statutes that the Trump administration has said would be used to impose tariffs puts a 150-day cap on their implementation “unless extended by an Act of the Congress.” 

    President Donald Trump delivers the State of the Union address to a joint session of Congress in the House chamber at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, Tuesday, Feb. 24, 2026. (Kenny Holston/The New York Times via AP, Pool)

    President Donald Trump delivers the State of the Union address to a joint session of Congress in the House chamber at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, Tuesday, Feb. 24, 2026. (Kenny Holston/The New York Times via AP, Pool)

    Trump said tech companies will have to ‘provide for their own power needs’

    The president said his administration planned to address concerns over the amount of power used by data centers with a “unique strategy” to make tech companies construct their own electricity infrastructure.  

    “We’re telling the major tech companies that they have the obligation to provide for their own power needs,” he said. “They can build their own power plants as part of their factory so that no one’s prices will go up, and in many cases, prices of electricity will go down for the community.”  

    The president noted that many Americans have been growing increasingly concerned about the power demands of companies involved in artificial intelligence.  

    Trump did not provide details about the logistics of the plan other than calling it a “new rate payer protection pledge.” 

    Trump says Iran has yet to say they will never have a nuclear weapon

    On Iran, Trump noted that his administration is currently in negotiations with the country’s leadership but said they have yet to say “those secret words” that they “will never have a nuclear weapon.” 

    Trump went on to say that his “preference” is to solve the situation with Iran through diplomacy but suggested other options are on the table if that doesn’t work. 

    “But one thing is certain: I will never allow the world’s No. 1 sponsor of terror, which they are by far, to have a nuclear weapon,” Trump said. “Can’t let that happen.” 

    Trump has been urging Iran to make a nuclear deal with the U.S. and officials from both sides have been involved in talks in Geneva. The president responded to a reporter’s questions at an unrelated event last week by confirming that limited strikes against Iran were an option and has been sending U.S. resources to the area.  

    Trump’s comments on Iran came as he was talking about his efforts to end wars and usher in peace around the world. He started by touting his administration’s strikes on three Iranian nuclear sites this past summer. 

    Trump blames Democrats for partial shutdown of Department of Homeland Security

    As Democrats and Republicans continue to wrangle over immigration enforcement reform to restore funding to the Department of Homeland Security, Trump blamed Democrats for the partial government shutdown, which was in its 11th day. 

    “They have closed the agency responsible for protecting Americans from terrorists and murderers,” Trump said.  

    He demanded the “full and immediate restoration of all funding” for DHS, which oversees the Federal Emergency Management Agency, and “for helping people clean up their snow. We have no money because of the Democrats.” 

    The Northeast has been hit with blizzard conditions in recent days. FEMA helps reimburse local governments for snow removal costs during designated periods of record snowfall. 

    Shortly before the speech Tuesday, legislation to fund the department failed to advance in the Senate yet again as every Democrat present except Sen. John Fetterman of Pennsylvania voted against it. There has been little sign of movement toward an agreement to reopen DHS since it shut down 10 days ago.

    Trump again expresses voter fraud claims, calls for new requirements

    The president used his address to reiterate his long-held and frequently mentioned qualms with elections in America while pressing lawmakers to pass a Republican bill seeking to implement new proof of citizenship and photo identification requirements to vote.  

    Without citing evidence, Trump claimed that “cheating is rampant” in U.S. elections before going on to call for all voters to show a photo ID and proof of citizenship to vote and an end to most voting by mail.  

    “Why would anybody not want voter ID? One reason: because they want to cheat,” Trump claimed, again without citing evidence.  

    He asserted such a prospect was widely popular, which comes as the White House has been sharing polling on the voter ID issue. 

    Republicans and Trump have been pushing a bill called the SAVE America Act that would require a person to provide proof of citizenship when registering to vote and “present an eligible photo identification document before voting.” It passed the House but faces a more difficult path in the Senate, where it would need some Democratic support to overcome the chamber’s filibuster rule.  

    Trump has long claimed there was fraud in the 2020 election despite audits, courts and the president’s former attorney general not finding evidence of widespread fraud. 

    President invokes America 250 to begin, conclude remarks

    In closing out his State of the Union, Trump returned to the theme that he focused on at the start of his remarks: the nation’s upcoming 250th anniversary.  

    “Less than five months from now, our country will celebrate an epic milestone in American history,” Trump said during the first few minutes of his speech.  

    The U.S. has planned a number of events this year to mark the anniversary of the adoption of the Declaration of Independence on July 4, 1776. 

    “The revolution that began in 1776 has not ended,” Trump said in concluding his remarks. “It still continues because the flame of liberty and independence still burns in the heart of every American patriot, and our future will be bigger, better, brighter, bolder and more glorious than ever before.”

    The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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    Christina Santucci, Susan Carpenter, Maddie Gannon

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  • Request for Jesse Jackson to lie in honor at Capitol denied

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    WASHINGTON — The late Rev. Jesse Jackson will not lie in honor in the United States Capitol Rotunda after a request for the commemoration was denied by the House Speaker Mike Johnson’s office due to past precedent.

    What You Need To Know

    • House Speaker Mike Johnson’s office has denied a request to have the late Rev. Jesse Jackson lie in honor in the United States Capitol Rotunda due to precedents that such honors are usually only designated for presidents

    • Johnson’s office said it received a request from the family to have Jackson’s remains lie in honor at the Capitol

    • The Jackson family has announced scheduled dates for memorial services to honor the civil rights icon in Chicago, South Carolina and Washington, DC

    • No locations or times have yet been outlined for the events in South Carolina and Washington

    Johnson’s office said it received a request from the family to have Jackson’s remains lie in honor at the Capitol, but the request was denied, because of the precedent that the space is typically reserved for former presidents, the military and select officials.

    The civil rights leader died this week at the age of 84. The family and some House Democrats had filed a request for Jackson to be honored at the U.S. Capitol.

    Amid the country’s political divisions, there have been flare ups over who is memorialized at the Capitol with a service to lie in state, or honor, in the Rotunda. During such events, the public is generally allowed to visit the Capitol and pay their respects.

    Recent requests had similarly been made, and denied, to honor Charlie Kirk, the slain conservative activist, and former Vice President Dick Cheney.

    There is no specific rule about who qualifies for the honor, a decision that is controlled by concurrence from both the House and Senate.

    The Jackson family has announced scheduled dates for memorial services beginning next week that will honor the late reverend’s life in Chicago, Washington, D.C. and South Carolina. In a statement, the Jackson family said it had heard from leaders in both South Carolina, Jackson’s native state, and Washington offering for Jackson to be celebrated in both locations. Talks are ongoing with lawmakers about where those proceedings will take place. His final memorial services will be held in Chicago on March 6 and 7.

    Typically, the Capitol and its Rotunda have been reserved for the “most eminent citizens,” according to the Architect of the Capitol’s website. It said government and military officials lay in state, while private citizens in honor.

    In 2020, Congressman John Lewis, another veteran of the Civil Rights movement, was the first Black lawmaker to lie in state in the Capitol Rotunda after a ceremony honoring his legacy was held outside on the Capitol steps due to pandemic restrictions at the time.

    Later that year, then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi allowed services for Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg at the Capitol’s Statuary Hall after agreement could not be reached for services in the Capitol’s Rotunda.

    It is rare for private citizens to be honored at the Capitol, but there is precedent – most notably Civil Rights icon Rosa Parks, in 2005, and the Reverend Billy Graham, in 2018.

    A passionate civil rights leader and globally-minded humanitarian, Jackson’s fiery speeches and dual 1984 and 1988 presidential campaigns transformed American politics for generations. Jackson’s organization, the Rainbow PUSH Coalition, became a hub for progressive organizers across the country.

    His unapologetic calls for a progressive economic agenda and more inclusive policies for all racial groups, religions, genders and orientations laid the groundwork for the progressive movement within the Democratic Party.

    Jackson also garnered a global reputation as a champion for human rights. He conducted the release of American hostages on multiple continents and argued for greater connections between civil rights movements around the world, most notably as a fierce critic of the policies of Apartheid South Africa.

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    Associated Press

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  • British royal family faces its worst crisis in generations

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    LONDON — King Charles III’ s brother was under arrest. Police were searching two royal properties, and news commentators were endlessly discussing the details of a sex scandal with tentacles that stretched to the gates of Buckingham Palace.

    What You Need To Know

    • The British royal family sought to carry on with their normal duties in the hours after the former Prince Andrew was arrested

    • The king attended the first day of London Fashion Week

    • Queen Camilla attended a lunchtime concert, and Princess Anne visited a prison

    • The decision to continue their usual activities was more than just an example of British stoicism in the face of the monarchy’s biggest crisis in almost a century

    So how did Britain’s royal family spend Thursday afternoon? The king sat in the front row on the first day of London Fashion Week. Queen Camilla attended a lunchtime concert, and Princess Anne visited a prison.

    The decision to continue normal royal duties was more than just an example of British stoicism in the face of the monarchy’s biggest crisis in almost a century. It was the opening act of the House of Windsor’s fight for survival as the arrest of the former Prince Andrew threatens to undermine public backing for the monarchy.

    After pledging to support the police investigation into his brother’s friendship with the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, the king stressed his intentions.

    “My family and I will continue in our duty and service to you all,” he said in a statement signed “Charles R.,” using the abbreviation for Rex, the Latin word for king.

    Biggest crisis since 1936 abdication

    The simple fact that Charles made the statement showed the scale of the problem created by the arrest of the king’s 66-year-old sibling, now known as Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, who was held for 11 hours and then released under investigation, meaning he was neither charged nor exonerated.

    The event was so unprecedented that commentators had to reach back to the 1640s and the arrest and execution of King Charles I during the English Civil War to find a parallel.

    Mountbatten-Windsor’s arrest on suspicion of misconduct in public office is shaping up to be the monarchy’s biggest crisis since Edward VIII abdicated in 1936 to marry an American divorcee, Wallis Simpson.

    That scandal weakened public support for the monarchy, which did not fully recover for 15 years. The turnaround came only after Edward’s successor, King George VI, refused to flee Britain during World War II, demonstrating his solidarity with a nation ravaged by Nazi bombs.

    Even before she ascended the throne, Queen Elizabeth II followed her father’s lead and publicly pledged her life in service to Britain.

    But while the impact of Edward’s abdication lingered for years, the crisis reached a crescendo in a few days. And the solution in that case was relatively simple: Edward stepped aside, and his oldest brother took his place.

    By contrast, the drama surrounding Mountbatten-Windsor is ongoing, with no end in sight.

    No ‘clear route forward’

    The current crisis stems from revelations about the relationship between the former prince and Epstein that were uncovered when the U.S. Justice Department released millions of pages of documents last month from its investigation into Epstein.

    Police have previously cited reports that Mountbatten-Windsor sent trade information to Epstein, a wealthy investor, in 2010, when the former prince was Britain’s special envoy for international trade.

    At least eight U.K. police forces have said they are looking into issues raised by the documents.

    Compared with previous royal scandals, “this time there doesn’t seem to be any clear route forward,” said Ed Owens, author of “After Elizabeth: Can the Monarchy Save Itself?” “There’s no blueprint to follow” in terms of how the monarchy and associated organizations deal with the allegations.

    The last time the monarchy had to manage these kinds of questions was after the death of Princess Diana, Charles’ ex-wife. Elizabeth and Charles were criticized for failing to respond to the outpouring of public grief as tens of thousands of people swarmed to Kensington Gardens to lay flowers outside the late princess’ home. Some even called for Charles to step aside as heir to the throne in favor of his son William.

    The queen later commissioned focus groups to better understand the public mood and determine why people felt so strongly about a person they never met. The crisis forced the royals to recognize that Diana’s common touch had connected with people in ways that had not yet occurred to the House of Windsor.

    Those lessons have since inspired other royals, including Diana’s sons, Princes William and Harry, to be more informal and approachable.

    But this moment is different, in part because it is taking place in a rapidly changing media environment at a time when people are demanding transparency from their leaders.

    Family could face uncomfortable questions

    Moving forward also means facing uncomfortable questions about what the institution — and the family members themselves — may have known about Mountbatten-Windsor’s activities. The palace has sought to draw a bold line separating the former prince and the rest of the monarchy by stripping him of his titles, including the right to be called a prince.

    In another blow for the former prince, the British government is considering formally removing him from the line of succession to the crown. Despite losing his status and his honors, Andrew remains eighth in line to the throne. That can only be changed with legislation.

    Charles is the first monarch “that has to meet our expectations of figures in public life, which is to be accountable and to explain yourself,” said Craig Prescott, a royal expert at Royal Holloway, University of London. “And you always have to work to earn the support of the public. And that is a particular challenge when you’re facing a controversy such as Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor.”

    Critics argue that the monarchy was slow to respond to the pressure, given that Mountbatten-Windsor’s links to Epstein have been discussed for more than a decade.

    The best outcome for the monarchy is for the police investigation to focus solely on the information in the Epstein files and how that relates to Mountbatten-Windsor, said Peter Hunt, a former BBC royal correspondent. The worst outcome would be if police expand their inquiries to what the broader institution might have known and when.

    “Were questions raised about his behavior as a trade envoy over those 10 years? Were they answered? What did people do about them?” Hunt said on the BBC.

    And perhaps there’s more to learn.

    “Will there be files?” he asked.

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    Associated Press

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  • Trump says he’ll enact additional 10% tariff after Supreme Court decision

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    Hours after the Supreme Court struck down many of President Donald Trump’s far-reaching tariffs in a 6-3 decision, the president said Friday he plans to sign an excecutive order imposing 10% global import duties “over and above our normal tariffs already being charged,” citing a different statute. 

    What You Need To Know

    • Hours after the Supreme Court struck down many of President Donald Trump’s far-reaching tariffs in a 6-3 decision, the president said he planned to impose a 10% global import duties through another statute

    • The country’s top court issued its long-awaited decision Friday, ruling the president does not have the authority to impose sweeping tariffs under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, or IEEPA, passed in 1977

    • “We claim no special competence in matters of economics or foreign affairs. We claim only, as we must, the limited role assigned to us by Article III of the Constitution. Fulfilling that role, we hold that IEEPA does not authorize the President to impose tariffs,” Chief Justice John Roberts wrote in the majority opinion

    • Justices Neil Gorsuch, Amy Coney Barrett, Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan and Ketanji Brown Jackson all sided with Roberts in invalidating many of Trump’s import taxes levied on U.S. global trading partners; yhree justices –– Justices Brett Kavanaugh, Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito –– dissented from the majority opinion

    During a news conference at the White House after the ruling, Trump quoted Justice Brett Kavanaugh’s dissenting opinion as the president justified pressing on with his tariffs. “Although I firmly disagree with the Court’s holding today, the decision might not substantially constrain a President’s ability to order tariffs going forward,” Kavanaugh wrote.

    The country’s top court issued its long-awaited decision Friday, ruling the president does not have the authority to impose sweeping tariffs under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, or IEEPA, passed in 1977.

    “IEEPA’s grant of authority to ‘regulate . . . importation’ falls short. IEEPA contains no reference to tariffs or duties,” Chief Justice John Roberts wrote in the majority opinion. “The Government points to no statute in which Congress used the word ‘regulate’ to authorize taxation. And until now no President has read IEEPA to confer such power.” 

    Justices Neil Gorsuch, Amy Coney Barrett, Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan and Ketanji Brown Jackson sided with Roberts in invalidating many of Trump’s import taxes levied on U.S. global trading partners. Three justices –– Kavanaugh, Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito –– dissented from the majority opinion.

    “We claim no special competence in matters of economics or foreign affairs. We claim only, as we must, the limited role assigned to us by Article III of the Constitution. Fulfilling that role, we hold that IEEPA does not authorize the President to impose tariffs,” the opinion concluded.

    In his news conference, Trump called the ruling “deeply disappointing” and condemned the Supreme Court majority who struck down the IEEPA duties, accusing the justices of being “swayed by foreign interests and a political movement that is far smaller than people would ever think.”

    Trump pledged to employ “very powerful alternatives.”

    “We’ll take in more money, and we’ll be a lot stronger for it,” he said. “We’re taking in hundreds of billions of dollars. We’ll continue to do so.”

    Separate tariffs that Trump had previously imposed, including ones on goods such as aluminum, steel, lumber and automobiles through Section 232 of the Trade Expansion Act, were not part of the case considered by the Supreme Court and still remain in place. During his remarks Friday, the president also highlighted several additional methods to levy tariffs, including Section 122 of the Trade Act of 1974, which permits import duties of up to 15% to be imposed for 150 days. 

    “I can do anything I want with IEEPA, anything. I just can’t charge anybody for it,” he said. “It’s ridiculous.”

    In November, the nation’s top court heard oral arguments for a consolidated challenge from several Democratic-led states and a handful of small businesses over the president’s “Liberation Day” tariffs, as well as ones he levied on China, Mexico and Canada over what his administration described as “the flow of contraband drugs like fentanyl to the United States.” 

    In both, Trump contended that the situations constituted national emergencies and relied on IEEPA as the justification for imposing tariffs. 

    During nearly three hours of oral arguments before the justices late last year, attorneys for the plaintiffs insisted that only Congress has the power to tax and argued that tariffs are not included in the scope of IEEPA. They were followed by U.S. Solicitor General D. John Sauer, who contended that tariffs fell under the president’s authority to “regulate foreign commerce.”

    Liberal and some conservative justices at the time seemed to express skepticism about the Trump administration’s arguments.

    One of the plaintiffs in the case –– Rick Woldenberg, CEO of Learning Resources and hand2mind –– praised the ruling in a statement Friday.

    “With today’s decision, we will continue to pursue our mission through innovation, investment, and hard work supporting educators, families, and children around the world, without the burden of unlawful tariffs,” Woldenberg wrote.

    What will happen with the tariffs that have been paid?

    Barrett had asked during oral arguments about logistics of giving refunds to importers if the Supreme Court ruled in favor of the plaintiffs and remarked that the process may be “a mess.”

    During that exchange, Neal Katyal, who was representing small-business plaintiffs, contended that only the companies that were party to the suit would be entitled to receive their money back, and other businesses would have to individually seek repayment.

    To protect their right to request refunds, retail giant Costco and hundreds of other businesses have launched legal challenges. 

    It was not immediately clear from the ruling what would happen, regarding potential refunds.

    Kavanaugh in his dissent Friday echoed Barrett’s comments, writing that the U.S. “may be required to refund billions of dollars to importers who paid the IEEPA tariffs, even though some importers may have already passed on costs to consumers or others.” 

    “As was acknowledged at oral argument, the refund process is likely to be a ‘mess,’” Kavanaugh contended, adding that the Supreme Court’s ruling could also “generate uncertainty” about trade agreements Trump reached with other countries to lower the import duties. 

    On Friday, Trump criticized the Supreme Court majority for not addressing the issue in its opinion, suggesting that the refunds will be subject to a lengthy legal fight.

    “We’ll end up being in court for the next five years,” the president said.

    A coalition of roughly 800 small businesses, We Pay the Tariffs, called on the federal government to expeditiously refund tariff payments to U.S. companies. 

    “But a legal victory is meaningless without actual relief for the businesses that paid these tariffs,” the group wrote in a statement. “The administration’s only responsible course of action now is to establish a fast, efficient, and automatic refund process that returns tariff money to the businesses that paid it.” 

    Customs and Border Protection estimated in December it collected more than $200 billion from new tariffs last year. Of that figure, approximately $133.5 billion was brought in from IEEPA import duties through Dec. 14, 2025, but that number is believed to have ticked up in the weeks since. Reuters reported Friday that more than $175 billion in tariffs may need to be refunded if the Supreme Court rules against Trump, citing an estimate from Penn-Wharton Budget Model economists.

    Trump had previously speculated that the amount would be even higher.

    “The actual numbers that we would have to pay back if, for any reason, the Supreme Court were to rule against the United States of America on Tariffs, would be many Hundreds of Billions of Dollars,” he said Jan. 12 on social media. 

    In a statement, the Committee For a Responsible Federal Budget called on lawmakers to address the lost tariff revenue.

    “With the national debt already the size of the entire U.S. economy and interest on the debt costing more than $1 trillion this year, this is very bad news,” the nonpartisan think tank wrote. “Congress should work quickly to fill that hole.”

    Before Trump’s tariffs took effect last year, the U.S. saw a surge of imports of foreign goods in the first few months. The trade-gap then narrowed for most of the rest of the year, the Commerce Department reported Thursday. 

    But, while the overall trade deficit of goods and services fell to $901 billion last year, the gap between the amount of goods imported versus exported rose to a record-high $1.24 trillion in 2025, the report found, meaning the U.S. ultimately brought in more foreign products than American exporters sent overseas.

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    Christina Santucci

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  • Jesse Jackson celebration of life scheduled for next week

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    CHICAGO — A celebration of life for the late Rev. Jesse Jackson will take place next week in Chicago, his family announced Wednesday. His body will lie in state at the headquarters of the Rainbow/PUSH Coalition he founded 30 years ago to advocate for civil rights and economic justice, followed by a church service and final celebration Feb. 28, the family said.

    What You Need To Know

    • A celebration of life for the late Rev. Jesse Jackson will take place next week in Chicago, his family announced Wednesday

    • His body will lie in state at the headquarters of the Rainbow/PUSH Coalition he founded 30 years ago to advocate for civil rights and economic justice, followed by a church service and final celebration Feb. 28, the family said

    • “Dad’s homegoing services, which are difficult for all of us to accept, are just that: a national and international gathering and meeting of people most importantly from our community who uplifted him and put him on a perch that allowed him to share a vision with all people,” Jesse Jackson Jr. said at a news conference Wednesday with his siblings

    • Jackson Jr. said his father’s funeral is “not for those of you who have an opinion” but for “people who are coming to pay their respects”


    “Dad’s homegoing services, which are difficult for all of us to accept, are just that: a national and international gathering and meeting of people most importantly from our community who uplifted him and put him on a perch that allowed him to share a vision with all people,” Jesse Jackson Jr. said at a news conference Wednesday with his siblings.

    A two-time presidential candidate who fought for social justice in the decades following the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.’s assassination, Jackson died Tuesday at the age of 84.

    Jackson was a young community organizer in Chicago when he was called to meet with King at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee, shortly before King was killed. From that point on, he positioned himself as King’s successor, advocating for the poor and underrepresented on issues from voting rights and job opportunities to education and health care.

    On Wednesday, his children pledged to continue advocating for the same causes and encouraged younger generations to follow in their father’s footsteps.

    “Now this mantle of standing up for freedom, standing up for dignity, standing up for those that have been marginalized is now passed on — not to be inherited by a person, but to be taken over and taken up by another generation,” the reverend’s second oldest son, Rep. Jonathan Jackson, D-Ill., said Wednesday. “It’s a continuous fight as we see the rollbacks of our rights that he’s fought so hard for are now being challenged.”

    As the Trump administration works to root out diversity, equity and inclusion efforts in government and the country, the congressman said, “DEI has been a major part of my father’s work. These are the guardrails to fight against racism and to bring about inclusion to make this a better country.”

    One week after President Donald Trump was sworn in for his second term in January 2025, Rep. Jackson said he formed the DEI Caucus with Rep. Cleo Fields, D-La.

    “We can’t say we’ve made enough progress on race and equity and racial justice,” he said, adding that U.S. DOGE Service cuts to federal agencies last year disproportionately affected African American women. “This is not one man or one woman’s work.”

    Jackson Jr. credited his father with opening the door to the 62 African Americans who currently serve in the U.S. House of Representatives and the five who serve in the Senate.

    Jackson Jr. called on his congressman brother to “find creative ways to do something” about unpaid home health care providers in the United States, saying he and his five siblings had each provided caregiving for their father, who lived with the rare brain disorder known as progressive supranuclear palsy for a decade before his death.

    Jackson Jr. said his father’s funeral is “not for those of you who have an opinion” but for “people who are coming to pay their respects.”

    “We expect a grand meeting of people who are beneficiaries of the life and the work of Jesse Jackson,” he said. “We expect it from the far right, and they are welcome if they come respectfully, and we expect it from the far left to honor Mrs. Jesse Jackson. This is her request.”

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    Susan Carpenter

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  • Jesse Jackson, who led Civil Rights Movement for decades after King, has died

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    CHICAGO — The Rev. Jesse L. Jackson, a protege of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and two-time presidential candidate who led the Civil Rights Movement for decades after the revered leader’s assassination, died Tuesday. He was 84.

    What You Need To Know

    • The Rev. Jesse L. Jackson has died at the age of 84

    • Jackson was a protege of the Rev. Martin Luther King and became a leader of the Civil Rights Movement for decades after King was assassinated in 1968

    • A two-time presidential candidate, Jackson led a lifetime of political crusades, advocating for the poor and underrepresented on issues from voting rights and job opportunities to education and health care

    • He scored diplomatic victories with world leaders and channeled cries for Black pride and self-determination into corporate boardrooms, using his Rainbow/PUSH Coalition to pressure executives to make America a more open and equitable society

    • His family confirmed he died Tuesday




    As a young organizer in Chicago, Jackson was called to meet with King at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee, shortly before King was killed, and he publicly positioned himself thereafter as King’s successor.

    Jackson led a lifetime of crusades in the United States and abroad, advocating for the poor and underrepresented on issues from voting rights and job opportunities to education and health care. He scored diplomatic victories with world leaders, and through his Rainbow/PUSH Coalition, he channeled cries for Black pride and self-determination into corporate boardrooms, pressuring executives to make America a more open and equitable society.

    And when he declared, “I am Somebody,” in a poem he often repeated, he sought to reach people of all colors. “I may be poor, but I am Somebody; I may be young; but I am Somebody; I may be on welfare, but I am Somebody,” Jackson intoned.

    It was a message he took literally and personally, having risen from obscurity in the segregated South to become America’s best-known civil rights activist since King.

    Santita Jackson confirmed that her father died at home in Chicago, surrounded by family.

    “Our father was a servant leader — not only to our family, but to the oppressed, the voiceless, and the overlooked around the world,” the Jackson family said in a statement posted online. “We shared him with the world, and in return, the world became part of our extended family.”

    Fellow civil rights activist the Rev. Al Sharpton said his mentor “was not simply a civil rights leader; he was a movement unto himself.”

    “He taught me that protest must have purpose, that faith must have feet, and that justice is not seasonal, it is daily work,” Sharpton wrote in a statement, adding that Jackson taught “trying is as important as triumph. That you do not wait for the dream to come true; you work to make it real.”

    Despite profound health challenges in his final years including a rare neurological disorder that affected his ability to move and speak, Jackson continued protesting against racial injustice into the era of Black Lives Matter. In 2024, he appeared at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago and at a City Council meeting to show support for a resolution backing a ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas war.

    “Even if we win,” he told marchers in Minneapolis before the officer whose knee kept George Floyd from breathing was convicted of murder, “it’s relief, not victory. They’re still killing our people. Stop the violence, save the children. Keep hope alive.”

    U.S. Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, D-NY, U.S. Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Calif., Rev. Al Sharpton, Rev. Jesse Jackson and NAACP President Derrick Johnson march across the Edmund Pettus bridge during the 60th anniversary of the march to ensure that African Americans could exercise their constitutional right to vote, March 9, 2025, in Selma, Ala. (AP Photo/Mike Stewart, File)

    Calls to action, delivered in a memorable voice

    Jackson’s voice, infused with the stirring cadences and powerful insistence of the Black church, demanded attention. On the campaign trail and elsewhere, he used rhyming and slogans such as: “Hope not dope” and “If my mind can conceive it and my heart can believe it, then I can achieve it,” to deliver his messages.

    Jackson had his share of critics, both within and outside of the Black community. Some considered him a grandstander, too eager to seek out the spotlight. Looking back on his life and legacy, Jackson told The Associated Press in 2011 that he felt blessed to be able to continue the service of other leaders before him and to lay a foundation for those to come.

    “A part of our life’s work was to tear down walls and build bridges, and in a half century of work, we’ve basically torn down walls,” Jackson said. “Sometimes when you tear down walls, you’re scarred by falling debris, but your mission is to open up holes so others behind you can run through.”

    In his final months, as he received 24-hour care, he lost his ability to speak, communicating with family and visitors by holding their hands and squeezing.

    “I get very emotional knowing that these speeches belong to the ages now,” his son, Jesse Jackson Jr., told the AP in October.

    A student athlete drawn to the Civil Rights Movement

    Jesse Louis Jackson was born on Oct. 8, 1941, in Greenville, South Carolina, the son of high school student Helen Burns and Noah Louis Robinson, a married man who lived next door. Jackson was later adopted by Charles Henry Jackson, who married his mother.

    Jackson was a star quarterback on the football team at Sterling High School in Greenville, and accepted a football scholarship from the University of Illinois. But after he reportedly was told Black people couldn’t play quarterback, he transferred to North Carolina A&T in Greensboro, where he became the first-string quarterback, an honor student in sociology and economics, and student body president.

    Arriving on the historically Black campus in 1960 just months after students there launched sit-ins at a whites-only diner, Jackson immersed himself in the blossoming Civil Rights Movement.

    By 1965, he joined the voting rights march King led from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama. King dispatched him to Chicago to launch Operation Breadbasket, a Southern Christian Leadership Conference effort to pressure companies to hire Black workers.

    Jackson called his time with King “a phenomenal four years of work.”

    Jackson was with King on April 4, 1968, when the civil rights leader was slain. Jackson’s account of the assassination was that King died in his arms.

    With his flair for the dramatic, Jackson wore a turtleneck he said was soaked with King’s blood for two days, including at a King memorial service held by the Chicago City Council, where he said: “I come here with a heavy heart because on my chest is the stain of blood from Dr. King’s head.”

    However, several King aides, including speechwriter Alfred Duckett, questioned whether Jackson could have gotten King’s blood on his clothing. There are no images of Jackson in pictures taken shortly after the assassination.

    In 1971, Jackson broke with the Southern Christian Leadership Conference to form Operation PUSH, originally named People United to Save Humanity. The organization based on Chicago’s South Side declared a sweeping mission, from diversifying workforces to registering voters in communities of color nationwide. Using lawsuits and threats of boycotts, Jackson pressured top corporations to spend millions and publicly commit to diversifying their workforces.

    The constant campaigns often left his wife, Jacqueline Lavinia Brown, the college sweetheart he married in 1963, taking the lead in raising their five children: Santita Jackson, Yusef DuBois Jackson, Jacqueline Lavinia Jackson Jr., and two future members of Congress, U.S. Rep. Jonathan Luther Jackson and Jesse L. Jackson Jr., who resigned in 2012 but is seeking reelection in the 2026 midterms.

    The elder Jackson, who was ordained as a Baptist minister in 1968 and earned his Master of Divinity in 2000, also acknowledged fathering a child, Ashley Jackson, with one of his employees at Rainbow/PUSH, Karen L. Stanford. He said he understood what it means to be born out of wedlock and supported her emotionally and financially.

    Presidential aspirations fall short but help ‘keep hope alive’

    Despite once telling a Black audience he would not run for president “because white people are incapable of appreciating me,” Jackson ran twice and did better than any Black politician had before President Barack Obama, winning 13 primaries and caucuses for the Democratic nomination in 1988, four years after his first failed attempt.

    Democratic presidential primary candidate Jesse Jackson speaks to a group of his supporters at a rally held at a Baptist Church in Dayton, Ohio, April 14, 1984. (AP Photo/Rob Burns, File)

    Democratic presidential primary candidate Jesse Jackson speaks to a group of his supporters at a rally held at a Baptist Church in Dayton, Ohio, April 14, 1984. (AP Photo/Rob Burns, File)

    His successes left supporters chanting another Jackson slogan, “Keep Hope Alive.”

    “I was able to run for the presidency twice and redefine what was possible; it raised the lid for women and other people of color,” he told the AP. “Part of my job was to sow seeds of the possibilities.”

    U.S. Rep. John Lewis said during a 1988 C-SPAN interview that Jackson’s two runs for the Democratic nomination “opened some doors that some minority person will be able to walk through and become president.”

    Jackson also pushed for cultural change, joining calls by NAACP members and other movement leaders in the late 1980s to identify Black people in the United States as African Americans.

    “To be called African Americans has cultural integrity — it puts us in our proper historical context,” Jackson said at the time. “Every ethnic group in this country has a reference to some base, some historical cultural base. African Americans have hit that level of cultural maturity.”

    Jackson’s words sometimes got him in trouble.

    In 1984, he apologized for what he thought were private comments to a reporter, calling New York City “Hymietown,” a derogatory reference to its large Jewish population. And in 2008, he made headlines when he complained that Obama was “talking down to Black people” in comments captured by a microphone he didn’t know was on during a break in a television taping.

    Still, when Jackson joined the jubilant crowd in Chicago’s Grant Park to greet Obama that election night, he had tears streaming down his face.

    “I wish for a moment that Dr. King or (slain civil rights leader) Medgar Evers … could’ve just been there for 30 seconds to see the fruits of their labor,” he told the AP years later. “I became overwhelmed. It was the joy and the journey.”

    Exerting influence on events at home and abroad

    Jackson also had influence abroad, meeting world leaders and scoring diplomatic victories, including the release of Navy Lt. Robert Goodman from Syria in 1984, as well as the 1990 release of more than 700 foreign women and children held after Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait. In 1999, he won the freedom of three Americans imprisoned by Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic.

    In 2000, President Bill Clinton awarded Jackson the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the country’s highest civilian honor.

    “Citizens have the right to do something or do nothing,” Jackson said, before heading to Syria. “We choose to do something.”

    In 2021, Jackson joined the parents of Ahmaud Arbery inside the Georgia courtroom where three white men were convicted of killing the young Black jogger. In 2022, he hand-delivered a letter to the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Chicago, calling for federal charges against former Chicago Police Officer Jason Van Dyke in the 2014 killing of Black teenager Laquan McDonald.

    Jackson, who stepped down as president of Rainbow/PUSH in July 2023, disclosed in 2017 that he had sought treatment for Parkinson’s, but he continued to make public appearances even as the disease made it more difficult for listeners to understand him. Earlier this year doctors confirmed a diagnosis of progressive supranuclear palsy, a life-threatening neurological disorder. He was admitted to a hospital in November for nearly two weeks.

    During the coronavirus pandemic, he and his wife survived being hospitalized with COVID-19. Jackson was vaccinated early, urging Black people in particular to get protected, given their higher risks for bad outcomes.

    “It’s America’s unfinished business — we’re free, but not equal,” Jackson told the AP. “There’s a reality check that has been brought by the coronavirus, that exposes the weakness and the opportunity.”

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    Associated Press

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  • U.S. military reports series of strikes against Islamic State targets in Syria

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    WASHINGTON — The U.S. military on Saturday reported a series of strikes against Islamic State group targets in Syria in retaliation for the December ambush that killed two U.S. soldiers and one American civilian interpreter.

    What You Need To Know

    • The U.S. military is reporting a series of strikes against Islamic State group targets in Syria

    • The strikes were carried out in retaliation of the December ambush that killed two U.S. soldiers and one American civilian interpreter

    • U.S. Central Command says American aircraft conducted 10 strikes against more than 30 IS targets between Feb. 3 and Thursday

    • The strikes were on weapons storage facilities and other infrastructure

    U.S. Central Command said in a statement that American aircraft had conducted 10 strikes against more than 30 IS targets between Feb. 3 and Thursday, hitting weapons storage facilities and other infrastructure.

    At least 50 members of IS have been killed or captured, while more than 100 IS targets have been struck since the United States began its strikes after the Dec. 13 ambush, according to Central Command. That attack killed Sgt. Edgar Brian Torres-Tovar, Sgt. William Nathaniel Howard, and Ayad Mansoor Sakat, the civilian interpreter.

    Meanwhile, the Syrian Defense Ministry said Thursday that government forces took control of a base in the east of the country that was run for years by U.S. troops as part of the fight against IS. The Al-Tanf base played a major role after IS declared a caliphate in large parts of Syria and Iraq in 2014.

    The U.S. military on Friday completed the transfer of thousands of IS detainees from Syria to Iraq, where they are expected to stand trial. The prisoners were sent to Iraq at the request of Baghdad, in a move welcomed by the U.S.-led coalition that had for years fought against IS.

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  • President Trump, first lady to visit Fort Bragg Friday

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    President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump will visit Fort Bragg in Fayetteville, North Carolina, on Friday. 

    The president will meet with military families and members of the special forces who took part in the operation to capture Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a news conference Tuesday.  

    Trump is a regular visitor to North Carolina. In December, Trump visited Rocky Mount. The president visited Fort Bragg last summer for a military celebration. 

    Fort Bragg is the home of the Joint Special Operations Command. 

    Last year, the base went through controversial change. It was re-branded as Fort Liberty in 2023, going from a base that carried the name of a former Confederate soldier to Liberty instead. 

    In 2025, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth signed an order to reinstating the Bragg name, but this time to honor a World War II paratrooper. 

    Trump’s trip to the base comes as early voting begins in North Carolina’s primary elections. The midterm primary is set for March 3, with a competitive U.S. Senate seat, every U.S. House seat and the entire state legislature up for election.

    President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump walk from Marine One to board Air Force One, Sunday, Oct. 5, 2025, at Joint Base Andrews, Md., en route to Norfolk, Va. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

     

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    Elizabeth Townsend

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  • FBI concluded Epstein wasn’t running a sex trafficking ring for powerful men

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    NEW YORK — The FBI pored over Jeffrey Epstein’s bank records and emails. It searched his homes. It spent years interviewing his victims and examining his connections to some of the world’s most influential people.

    What You Need To Know

    • The FBI pored over Jeffrey Epstein’s bank records and emails, searched his homes, spent years interviewing his victims and examining his connections to some of the world’s most influential people

    • But while investigators collected ample proof that Epstein sexually abused multiple underage girls, records released by the Justice Department show they found scant evidence he led a sex trafficking ring serving powerful men

    • Investigators wrote in one memo reviewed by The Associated Press that they were unable to substantiate one victim’s highly public claim that he “lent her” to his rich friends, and found no other victims telling a similar story

    But while investigators collected ample proof that Epstein sexually abused underage girls, they found scant evidence the well-connected financier led a sex trafficking ring serving powerful men, an Associated Press review of internal Justice Department records shows.

    Videos and photos seized from Epstein’s homes in New York, Florida and the Virgin Islands didn’t depict victims being abused or implicate anyone else in his crimes, a prosecutor wrote in one 2025 memo.

    An examination of Epstein’s financial records, including payments he made to entities linked to influential figures in academia, finance and global diplomacy, found no connection to criminal activity, said another internal memo in 2019.

    While one Epstein victim made highly public claims that he “lent her” to his rich friends, agents couldn’t confirm that and found no other victims telling a similar story, the records said.

    Summarizing the investigation in an email last July, agents said “four or five” Epstein accusers claimed other men or women had sexually abused them. But, the agents said, there “was not enough evidence to federally charge these individuals, so the cases were referred to local law enforcement.”

    The AP and other media organizations are still reviewing millions of pages of documents, many of them previously confidential, that the Justice Department released under the Epstein Files Transparency Act and it is possible those records contain evidence overlooked by investigators.

    But the documents, which include police reports, FBI interview notes and prosecutor emails, provide the clearest picture to date of the investigation — and why U.S. authorities ultimately decided to close it without additional charges.

    Dozens of victims come forward

    The Epstein investigation began in 2005, when the parents of a 14-year-old girl reported she had been molested at the millionaire’s home in Palm Beach, Florida.

    Police would identify at least 35 girls with similar stories: Epstein was paying high school age students $200 or $300 to give him sexualized massages.

    After the FBI joined the probe, federal prosecutors drafted indictments to charge Epstein and some personal assistants who had arranged the girls’ visits and payments. But instead, then-Miami U.S. attorney Alexander Acosta struck a deal letting Epstein plead guilty to state charges of soliciting prostitution from an underage girl. Sentenced to 18 months in jail, Epstein was free by mid-2009.

    In 2018, a series of Miami Herald stories about the plea deal prompted New York federal prosecutors to take a fresh look at the accusations.

    Epstein was arrested in July 2019. One month later, he killed himself in his jail cell.

    A year later, prosecutors charged Epstein’s longtime confidant, Ghislaine Maxwell, saying she’d recruited several of his victims and sometimes joined the sexual abuse. Convicted in 2021, Maxwell is serving a 20-year prison term.

    Prosecutors fail to find evidence backing most sensational claims

    Prosecution memos, case summaries and other documents made public in the department’s latest release of Epstein-related records show that FBI agents and federal prosecutors diligently pursued potential coconspirators. Even seemingly outlandish and incomprehensible claims, called in to tip lines, were examined.

    Some allegations couldn’t be verified, investigators wrote.

    In 2011 and again in 2019, investigators interviewed Virginia Roberts Giuffre, who in lawsuits and news interviews had accused Epstein of arranging for her to have sexual encounters with numerous men, including Britain’s former Prince Andrew.

    Investigators said they confirmed that Giuffre had been sexually abused by Epstein. But other parts of her story were problematic.

    Two other Epstein victims who Giuffre had claimed were also “lent out” to powerful men told investigators they had no such experience, prosecutors wrote in a 2019 internal memo.

    “No other victim has described being expressly directed by either Maxwell or Epstein to engage in sexual activity with other men,” the memo said.

    Giuffre acknowledged writing a partly fictionalized memoir of her time with Epstein containing descriptions of things that didn’t take place. She had also offered shifting accounts in interviews with investigators, they wrote, and had “engaged in a continuous stream of public interviews about her allegations, many of which have included sensationalized if not demonstrably inaccurate characterizations of her experiences.” Those inaccuracies included false accounts of her interactions with the FBI, they said.

    Still, U.S. prosecutors attempted to arrange an interview with Andrew, now known as Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor. He refused to make himself available. Giuffre settled a lawsuit with Mountbatten-Windsor in which she had accused him of sexual misconduct.

    In a memoir published after she killed herself last year, Giuffre wrote that prosecutors told her they didn’t include her in the case against Maxwell because they didn’t want her allegations to distract the jury. She insisted her accounts of being trafficked to elite men were true.

    Prosecutors say photos and videos don’t implicate others

    Investigators seized a multitude of videos and photos from Epstein’s electronic devices and homes in New York, Florida and the U.S. Virgin Islands. They found CDs, hard copy photographs and at least one videotape containing nude images of females, some of whom seemed as if they might be minors. One device contained 15 to 20 images depicting commercial child sex abuse material — pictures investigators said Epstein obtained on the internet.

    No videos or photos showed Epstein victims being sexually abused, none showed any males with any of the nude females, and none contained evidence implicating anyone other than Epstein and Maxwell, then-Assistant U.S. Attorney Maurene Comey wrote in an email for FBI officials last year.

    Had they existed, the government “would have pursued any leads they generated,” Comey wrote. “We did not, however, locate any such videos.”

    Investigators who scoured Epstein’s bank records found payments to more than 25 women who appeared to be models — but no evidence that he was engaged in prostituting women to other men, prosecutors wrote.

    Epstein’s close associates go uncharged

    In 2019, prosecutors weighed the possibility of charging one of Epstein’s longtime assistants but decided against it.

    Prosecutors concluded that while the assistant was involved in helping Epstein pay girls for sex and may have been aware that some were underage, she herself was a victim of his sexual abuse and manipulation.

    Investigators examined Epstein’s relationship with the French modeling agent Jean-Luc Brunel, who once was involved in an agency with Epstein in the U.S., and who was accused in a separate case of sexually assaulting women in Europe. Brunel killed himself in jail while awaiting trial on a rape charge in France.

    Prosecutors also weighed whether to charge one of Epstein’s girlfriends who had participated in sexual acts with some of his victims. Investigators interviewed the girlfriend, who was 18 to 20 years old at the time, “but it was determined there was not enough evidence,” according to a summary given to FBI Director Kash Patel last July.

    Days before Epstein’s July 2019 arrest, the FBI strategized about sending agents to serve grand jury subpoenas on people close to Epstein, including his pilots and longtime business client, retail mogul Les Wexner.

    Wexner’s lawyers told investigators that neither he nor his wife had knowledge of Epstein’s sexual misconduct. Epstein had managed Wexner’s finances, but the couple’s lawyers said they cut him off in 2007 after learning he’d stolen from them.

    “There is limited evidence regarding his involvement,” an FBI agent wrote of Wexner in an Aug. 16, 2019, email.

    In a statement to the AP, a legal representative for Wexner said prosecutors had informed him that he was “neither a coconspirator nor target in any respect,” and that Wexner had cooperated with investigators.

    Prosecutors also examined accounts from women who said they’d given massages at Epstein’s home to guests who’d tried to make the encounters sexual. One woman accused private equity investor Leon Black of initiating sexual contact during a massage in 2011 or 2012, causing her to flee the room.

    The Manhattan district attorney’s office subsequently investigated, but no charges were filed.

    Black’s lawyer, Susan Estrich, said he had paid Epstein for estate planning and tax advice. She said in a statement that Black didn’t engage in misconduct and had no awareness of Epstein’s criminal activities. Lawsuits by two women who accused Black of sexual misconduct were dismissed or withdrawn. One is pending.

    No client list

    Attorney General Pam Bondi told Fox News in February 2025 that Epstein’s never-before-seen “client list” was “sitting on my desk right now.” A few months later, she claimed the FBI was reviewing “tens of thousands of videos” of Epstein “with children or child porn.”

    But FBI agents wrote superiors saying the client list didn’t exist.

    On Dec. 30, 2024, about three weeks before President Joe Biden left office, then-FBI Deputy Director Paul Abbate reached out through subordinates to ask “whether our investigation to date indicates the ‘client list,’ often referred to in the media, does or does not exist,” according to an email summarizing his query.

    A day later, an FBI official replied that the case agent had confirmed no client list existed.

    On Feb. 19, 2025, two days before Bondi’s Fox News appearance, an FBI supervisory special agent wrote: “While media coverage of the Jeffrey Epstein case references a ‘client list,’ investigators did not locate such a list during the course of the investigation.”

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    Associated Press

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  • DOJ to allow lawmakers to see unredacted Epstein files

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    WASHINGTON — The Department of Justice will allow members of Congress to review unredacted files on the convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein starting on Monday, according to a letter that was sent to lawmakers.

    What You Need To Know

    • The Department of Justice will allow members of Congress to review unredacted files on the convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein

    • That’s according to a letter obtained by The Associated Press says that lawmakers starting Monday will be able to review unredacted versions of the more than 3 million files that the Justice Department has released

    • To access the files, lawmakers will need to give the Justice Department 24 hours advance notice

    • They will be able to review the files on computers at the Department of Justice, and only lawmakers and not their staff will have access to the files

    The letter obtained by The Associated Press says that lawmakers will be able to review unredacted versions of the more than 3 million files that the Justice Department has released to comply with a law passed by Congress last year.

    To access the files, lawmakers will need to give the Justice Department 24 hours’ notice. They will be able to review the files on computers at the Department of Justice. Only lawmakers, not their staff, will have access to the files, and they will be permitted to take notes, but not make electronic copies.

    The arrangement, first reported by NBC News, showed the continued demand for information on Epstein and his crimes by lawmakers, even after the Justice Department devoted large numbers of its staff to comply with the law passed by Congress last year. The Justice Department has come under criticism for delays in the release of information, failing to redact the personal information and photos of victims and not releasing the entire 6 million documents collected in relation to Epstein.

    Still, lawmakers central to the push for transparency, described the concession by the Justice Department as a victory.

    “When Congress pushes back, Congress can prevail,” Rep. Ro Khanna, who sponsored what’s known as the Epstein Files Transparency Act, posted on social media.

    Khanna has pointed to several emails between Epstein and individuals whose information was redacted that appeared to refer to the sexual abuse of underage girls. The release of the case files has prompted inquiries around the world about men who cavorted with the well-connected financier. Still, lawmakers are pressing for a further reckoning over anyone who may have had knowledge of Epstein’s abuse or could have helped facilitate it.

    Epstein killed himself in a New York jail cell in 2019 while he faced charges that he sexually abused and trafficked dozens of underage girls. The case was brought more than a decade after he secretly cut a deal with federal prosecutors in Florida to dispose of nearly identical allegations. Epstein was accused of paying underage girls hundreds of dollars in cash for massages and then molesting them.

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    Associated Press

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  • U.S. applications for jobless benefits jump by 22,000 to 231,000 last week

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    WASHINGTON — The number of Americans applying for unemployment benefits jumped last week but remains in the same historically low range of the past few years.

    What You Need To Know

    • The number of Americans applying for unemployment benefits jumped last week but remains in the same historically low range of the past few years

    • Applications for jobless aid for the week ending Jan. 31 rose by 22,000 to 231,000 from the previous week, the Labor Department reported Thursday

    • That’s significantly more than the 211,000 new applications that analysts had forecast

    • Applications for unemployment benefits are seen as representative of U.S. layoffs and are close to a real-time indicator of the health of the job market

    Applications for jobless aid for the week ending Jan. 31 rose by 22,000 to 231,000 from the previous week, the Labor Department reported Thursday. That’s significantly more than the 211,000 new applications that analysts surveyed by the data firm FactSet had forecast.

    Applications for unemployment benefits are seen as representative of U.S. layoffs and are close to a real-time indicator of the health of the job market.

    The four-week average of jobless claims, which balances out some of the week-to-week gyrations, rose by 6,000 to 212,250.

    The total number of Americans filing for jobless benefits for the previous week ending Jan. 24 grew by 25,000 to 1.84 million, the government said.

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  • Senate Banking panel GOP chair: Powell didn’t commit crime

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    WASHINGTON — Democrats and one Republican on a key committee are seeking to hold up advancing President Donald Trump’s choice to be the next Federal Reserve chair until the administration’s investigation into the current one is put to rest.

    It comes as the top Republican on the panel expressed confidence that Kevin Warsh’s nomination will move forward soon, even as he said current Fed Chair Jerome Powell did not commit a crime. 

    What You Need To Know

    • This week, all Democratic members of the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs — which plays an essential role in the process of confirming nominees for the Federal Reserve — sent a letter to the panel’s Republican chair, Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina, urging him not to hold a hearing on the president’s pick for the next head of the Fed until investigations launched under the Trump administration into Powell and Fed Governor Lisa Cook have been closed

    • It echoed what one Republican on the committee, Sen. Thom Tillis of North Carolina, whose support is likely critical, expressed after Trump announced his pick of former Federal Reserve official Kevin Warsh to be the next chair last week

    • Powell’s announced last month that the Justice Department is investigating him regarding renovations to the Fed’s office buildings and his testimony to Congress about it

    • Scott said in an interview this week that he does not believe Powell committed in crime in his testimony; He also expressed confidence Warsh’s nomination would move forward 
    • Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent declined to rule out the possibility that the administration would seek to sue Warsh if he doesn’t lower interest rates during an appearance in front of the Senate Banking Committee on Capitol Hill Thursday

    This week, all Democratic members of the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs — which plays an essential role in the process of confirming nominees for the Federal Reserve — sent a letter to the panel’s Republican chair, Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina, urging him not to hold a hearing on the president’s pick for the next head of the Fed until investigations launched under the Trump administration into Powell and Fed governor Lisa Cook have been closed. 

    “The nomination comes after months of repeated efforts by President Trump and his Administration to influence the Fed by intimidation, including by opening criminal investigations into Fed Governor Lisa Cook and Fed Chair Jerome Powell,” the 11 Democrats on the committee wrote in the letter. “These ongoing efforts by the President to control the Fed — which must be able to exercise independent judgment — undermine public confidence in any nomination for chair at this time.”

    It echoed what one Republican on the committee, Sen. Thom Tillis of North Carolina, whose support is likely critical, expressed after Trump announced his pick of former Federal Reserve official Kevin Warsh to be the next chair last week. 

    “My position has not changed: I will oppose the confirmation of any Federal Reserve nominee, including for the position of Chairman, until the DOJ’s inquiry into Chairman Powell is fully and transparently resolved,” Tillis wrote on X despite noting that he believes Warsh is a “qualified nominee with a deep understanding of monetary policy.”

    Tillis — who announced his retirement from Congress at the end of his term after a high-profile spat with the president — initially pledged to to oppose any nominee for the Fed, including Trump’s upcoming pick for chair, in the wake of Powell’s announcement last month that the Justice Department is investigating him regarding renovations to the Fed’s office buildings and his testimony to Congress about it. The revelation caused a firestorm on Capitol Hill. The administration has also sought to fire Cook over mortgage fraud allegations — which she denies — in a case that is now in front of the Supreme Court.

    Trump has consistently criticized Powell since he returned to the White House, making clear his disapproval of the Fed chair for not lowering interest rates as much or as quickly as he would like. The president has held off on moving to try to oust him, however, often citing the fact that Powell’s term as chairman is up in May. 

    Despite noting he is glad the country is set to get a new Federal Reserve chair, Scott said in a notable statement Wednesday he did not believe Powell committed a crime during his testimony in front of the committee the South Carolina Republican chairs about the central bank’s renovation project. 

    “I found him to be inept at doing his job, but ineptness or being incompetent is not a criminal act,” Scott told Fox News in an interview regarding Powell. “I believe what he did was make a gross error in judgment. He was not prepared for that hearing. I do not believe that he committed a crime during the hearing.”

    Scott went on to express confidence that Warsh’s nomination will be able to move forward despite the demands from Tillis and the panel’s Democrats. 

    “I believe that we’re going to resolve that issue, we’re going to move forward, and Thom Tillis will be voting for Kevin Warsh as the next chairman of the Federal Reserve,” he said. 

    Trump announced his pick of Warsh days ago after weeks of speculation about whom he would tap for the role as the president has left no doubts that he hopes the person would seek to lower interest rates. 

    Trump has said that he didn’t ask Warsh to commit to cutting rates ahead of time — referring to such a request as “inappropriate” — but has made clear he believes his pick wants to and will. 

    Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, however, declined Thursday to rule out the possibility that the administration would seek to sue Warsh if he doesn’t lower interest ratesduring an appearance in front of the Senate Banking Committee on Capitol Hill Thursday. 

    “That is up to the president,” Bessent said during a Senate Banking Committee hearing.

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  • 2 officers fired shots during encounter that killed Alex Pretti, DHS says

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    WASHINGTON — Two federal officers fired shots during the encounter that killed ICU nurse Alex Pretti over the weekend in Minneapolis, a Customs and Border Protection official told Congress in a notice sent Tuesday, while Ecuador’s minister of foreign affairs filed an objection saying immigration agents tried to enter the country’s consulate in the city without permission.

    What You Need To Know

    • A Customs and Border Protection official told Congress in a notice that two federal officers fired shots during an encounter that killed ICU nurse Alex Pretti in Minneapolis

    • Tuesday’s notification obtained by The Associated Press said officers tried to take Pretti into custody and he resisted, leading to a struggle

    • The official said that during the struggle, a Border Patrol agent yelled, “He’s got a gun!” multiple times

    • Investigators from CBP’s Office of Professional Responsibility conducted the analysis based on a review of body-worn camera footage and agency documentation
    • Also Tuesday, federal immigration authorities released an Ecuadorian man whose detention led the chief federal judge in Minnesota to order the head of Immigration and Customs Enforcement to appear in his courtroom, the man’s attorney said

    Officers tried to take Pretti into custody and he resisted, leading to a struggle, according to a notification to Congress obtained by The Associated Press. During the struggle, a Border Patrol agent yelled, “He’s got a gun!” multiple times, the official said.

    A Border Patrol officer and a CBP officer each fired Glock pistols, the notice said.

    Investigators from CBP’s Office of Professional Responsibility conducted the analysis based on a review of body-worn camera footage and agency documentation, the notice said. The law requires the agency to inform relevant congressional committees about deaths in CBP custody within 72 hours.

    Separately, a man was arrested after he sprayed an unknown liquid at U.S. Rep. Ilhan Omar while she was speaking at a town hall meeting in Minneapolis. The Democrat had just called for the abolishment of Immigration and Customs Enforcement and for Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem to resign when she was sprayed.

    Trump says ‘we’re going to de-escalate a little bit’

    The developments came a day after President Donald Trump ordered border czar Tom Homan to take over his administration’s immigration crackdown in Minnesota in the wake of Pretti’s death, which was the second fatal shooting this month of a person at the hands of immigration law enforcement.

    By sending Homan to Minnesota, “we’re going to de-escalate a little bit,” Trump said during an interview on Fox News’ “Will Cain Show.” That’s significant since White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt, when questioned repeatedly Monday about Homan’s being dispatched to Minnesota, refused to say that doing so was an effort to calm the situation.

    The president added of Homan, “Tom, as tough as he is, gets along” with governors and mayors, even in Democratic areas.

    As he left the White House on Tuesday, the president was asked whether Pretti’s killing was justified. He responded by saying that a “big investigation” was underway. In the hours after Pretti’s death, some administration officials sought to blame the shooting on the 37-year-old intensive care nurse.

    Stephen Miller, Trump’s deputy chief of staff who had initially called Pretti “an assassin,” issued a statement suggesting CBP officers in Minneapolis “may not have been following” protocol. He said the Homeland Security Department’s initial statements about what transpired on Saturday was “based on reports from CBP on the ground.”

    Ecuador files a protest with the U.S. Embassy

    A video of the Ecuadorian consulate entry attempt posted on social media shows a staffer running to the door to turn the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents away, telling them, “This is the Ecuadorian consulate. You’re not allowed to enter.” One ICE officer can be heard responding by threatening to “grab” the staffer if he touched the agent before agreeing to leave.

    International law generally prohibits law enforcement authorities from entering foreign consulates or embassies without permission, though sometimes permission may be assumed granted for life-threatening emergencies, like fires.

    “Consulate officials immediately prevented the ICE officer from entering the consular building, thus ensuring the protection of the Ecuadorians who were present at the time and activating the emergency protocols issued by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Human Mobility,” the ministry wrote on X.

    A “note of protest” was filed with the U.S. Embassy in Ecuador so that similar attempts aren’t made at other consulates, the ministry said. The State Department, Homeland Security and Immigration and Customs Enforcement did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

    Trump says of sending Bovino to Minneapolis: ‘Maybe it wasn’t good here’

    Immigration enforcement activity witnessed by journalists in Minneapolis and surrounding suburbs on Tuesday appeared comparable with recent weeks. As before, most didn’t result in major confrontations with agents. Activists say they continue to monitor enforcement operations through social media and chats on messaging apps.

    The White House had tried to blame Democratic leaders for the protests of immigration raids. But after Pretti’s killing and videos suggesting he was not an active threat, the administration tapped Homan to take charge of the Minnesota operation from Border Patrol commander Gregory Bovino.

    Trump said Bovino, the go-to architect for the president’s large-scale city-by-city immigration crackdowns, was “very good” but added “he’s a pretty out-there kind of a guy” and “maybe it wasn’t good here.”

    Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz and Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey, along with the city’s police chief, met with Homan on Tuesday and agreed to keep talking. Homan posted on social media that the discussions “were a productive starting point.”

    Courts weigh in on detained immigrants

    In Texas, a federal judge issued a temporary order prohibiting the removal of a 5-year-old Ecuadorian boy and his father who were detained last week in Minnesota in an incident that further inflamed divisions on immigration. U.S. Judge Fred Biery ruled Monday that any removal or transfer of 5-year-old Liam Conejo Ramos and his father, Adrian Alexander Conejo Arias, is on hold while a court case proceeds.

    Also in Texas, federal immigration authorities released an Ecuadorian man whose detention led the chief federal judge in Minnesota to order the head of ICE to appear in his courtroom, the man’s attorney said.

    Attorney Graham Ojala-Barbour said the man was released in Texas. The lawyer said in an email to The Associated Press that he was notified in an email from the U.S. attorneys office in Minneapolis that his client had been freed.

    In an order dated Monday, Chief Judge Patrick J. Schiltz expressed frustration with the Trump administration’s handling of immigration cases. He took the extraordinary step of ordering Todd Lyons, the acting director of ICE, to personally appear in his courtroom Friday.

    Schiltz had said in his order that he would cancel Lyons’ appearance if the man was released from custody.

    “This Court has been extremely patient with respondents, even though respondents decided to send thousands of agents to Minnesota to detain aliens without making any provision for dealing with the hundreds of habeas petitions and other lawsuits that were sure to result,” he wrote.

    Schiltz’s order followed a federal court hearing Monday on a request by the state and the mayors of Minneapolis and St. Paul for a judge to halt the immigration enforcement surge. The judge in that case said she would prioritize the ruling but did not give a timeline for a decision.

    Schiltz wrote that he recognizes ordering the head of a federal agency to appear personally is extraordinary. “But the extent of ICE’s violation of court orders is likewise extraordinary, and lesser measures have been tried and failed,” he said.

    The Associated Press left messages Tuesday with ICE and a DHS spokesperson seeking a response.

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  • TikTok settles as social media giants face landmark youth addiction trial

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    LOS ANGELES — TikTok agreed to settle a landmark social media addiction lawsuit just before the trial kicked off, the plaintiff’s attorneys confirmed.

    What You Need To Know

    • TikTok has agreed to settle in a landmark social media addiction lawsuit just before the trial kicked off, the plaintiff’s attorneys confirmed

    • The social video platform was one of three companies facing claims that their platforms deliberately addict and harm children, along with Meta’s Instagram and Google’s YouTube

    • Snapchat’s parent company Snap Inc., settled the case last week for an undisclosed sum

    • Additional details of the settlement with TikTok were not disclosed

    The social video platform was one of three companies — along with Meta’s Instagram and Google’s YouTube — facing claims that their platforms deliberately addict and harm children. A fourth company named in the lawsuit, Snapchat parent company Snap Inc., settled the case last week for an undisclosed sum.

    Details of the settlement with TikTok were not disclosed, and the company did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

    At the core of the case is a 19-year-old identified only by the initials “KGM,” whose case could determine how thousands of other, similar lawsuits against social media companies will play out. She and two other plaintiffs have been selected for bellwether trials — essentially test cases for both sides to see how their arguments play out before a jury and what damages, if any, may be awarded, said Clay Calvert, a nonresident senior fellow of technology policy studies at the American Enterprise Institute.

    A lawyer for the plaintiff said in a statement Tuesday that TikTok remains a defendant in the other personal injury cases, and that the trial will proceed as scheduled against Meta and YouTube.

    Jury selection starts this week in the Los Angeles County Superior Court. It’s the first time the companies will argue their case before a jury, and the outcome could have profound effects on their businesses and how they will handle children using their platforms. The selection process is expected to take at least a few days, with 75 potential jurors questioned each day through at least Thursday. A fourth company named in the lawsuit, Snapchat parent company Snap Inc., settled the case last week for an undisclosed sum.

    KGM claims that her use of social media from an early age addicted her to the technology and exacerbated depression and suicidal thoughts. Importantly, the lawsuit claims that this was done through deliberate design choices made by companies that sought to make their platforms more addictive to children to boost profits. This argument, if successful, could sidestep the companies’ First Amendment shield and Section 230, which protects tech companies from liability for material posted on their platforms.

    “Borrowing heavily from the behavioral and neurobiological techniques used by slot machines and exploited by the cigarette industry, Defendants deliberately embedded in their products an array of design features aimed at maximizing youth engagement to drive advertising revenue,” the lawsuit says.

    Executives, including Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, are expected to testify at the trial, which will last six to eight weeks. Experts have drawn similarities to the Big Tobacco trials that led to a 1998 settlement requiring cigarette companies to pay billions in health care costs and restrict marketing targeting minors.

    “Plaintiffs are not merely the collateral damage of Defendants’ products,” the lawsuit says. “They are the direct victims of the intentional product design choices made by each Defendant. They are the intended targets of the harmful features that pushed them into self-destructive feedback loops.”

    The tech companies dispute the claims that their products deliberately harm children, citing a bevy of safeguards they have added over the years and arguing that they are not liable for content posted on their sites by third parties.

    “Recently, a number of lawsuits have attempted to place the blame for teen mental health struggles squarely on social media companies,” Meta said in a recent blog post. “But this oversimplifies a serious issue. Clinicians and researchers find that mental health is a deeply complex and multifaceted issue, and trends regarding teens’ well-being aren’t clear-cut or universal. Narrowing the challenges faced by teens to a single factor ignores the scientific research and the many stressors impacting young people today, like academic pressure, school safety, socio-economic challenges and substance abuse.”

    A Meta spokesperson said in a statement Monday the company strongly disagrees with the allegations outlined in the lawsuit and that it’s “confident the evidence will show our longstanding commitment to supporting young people.”

    José Castañeda, a Google Spokesperson, said Monday that the allegations against YouTube are “simply not true.” In a statement, he said “Providing young people with a safer, healthier experience has always been core to our work.”

    TikTok did not immediately respond to a request for comment Monday.

    The case will be the first in a slew of cases beginning this year that seek to hold social media companies responsible for harming children’s mental well-being. A federal bellwether trial beginning in June in Oakland, California, will be the first to represent school districts that have sued social media platforms over harms to children.

    In addition, more than 40 state attorneys general have filed lawsuits against Meta, claiming it is harming young people and contributing to the youth mental health crisis by deliberately designing features on Instagram and Facebook that addict children to its platforms. The majority of cases filed their lawsuits in federal court, but some sued in their respective states.

    TikTok also faces similar lawsuits in more than a dozen states.

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  • Videos of deadly Minneapolis shooting contradict government statements

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    Videos quickly emerged showing the fatal shooting of a Minneapolis protester by a Border Patrol agent that has been widely denounced as a case of excessive force carried out by untrained federal officers. The Trump administration says it was a case of an armed man provoking violence.

    What You Need To Know

    • Videos quickly emerged showing the fatal shooting of a Minneapolis protester by a Border Patrol agent that has been widely denounced as a case of excessive force carried out by untrained federal officers

    • The administration says it was a case of an armed man provoking violence

    • The Associated Press reviewed multiple bystander videos that show a Border Patrol agent shooting and killing 37-year-old Alex Pretti after a roughly 30-second scuffle on Saturday morning

    • The videos appear to contradict statements by the Trump administration, which said the shots were fired “defensively” against Pretti as he “approached” them with a gun
    • In the videos, Pretti is seen with only a phone in his hand

    The Associated Press reviewed multiple bystander videos that show a Border Patrol agent shooting and killing 37-year-old Alex Pretti after a roughly 30-second scuffle around 9 a.m. Saturday. The videos appear to contradict statements by the Trump administration, which said the shots were fired “defensively” against Pretti as he “approached” them with a gun.

    In the videos, Pretti is seen with only a phone in his hand. During the scuffle, “gun, gun” is heard, and an officer appears to pull a handgun from Pretti’s waist area and begins moving away. As that happens, a first shot is fired by a Border Patrol officer. There’s a slight pause, and then the same officer fires several more times into Pretti’s back.

    Afterward, authorities said Pretti had a 9 mm semiautomatic handgun. He was licensed to carry a concealed weapon.

    Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey, who said he watched one of the videos, said he saw “more than six masked agents pummeling one of our constituents, shooting him to death.” Frey has said Minneapolis and St. Paul are being “invaded” by the administration’s largest immigration crackdown, dubbed Operation Metro Surge.

    Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said Pretti attacked officers, and Customs and Border Patrol Commander Gregory Bovino said Pretti wanted to do “maximum damage and massacre law enforcement.” In posts on X, President Donald Trump’s deputy chief of staff, Stephen Miller, called Pretti “a would-be assassin.”

    It was the second fatal shooting in Minneapolis by federal immigration authorities this month. The first, on Jan. 7, involved Renee Good. It also was captured on videos and produced a similar schism among political leaders.

    The shooting occurred when officers were pursuing a man in the country illegally who was wanted for domestic assault, Bovino said. Protesters routinely try to disrupt such operations, and they sounded high-pitched whistles, honked horns and yelled at officers.

    Among them was Pretti. At one point, in a video obtained by AP, Pretti is standing in the street and holding up his phone. He is face-to-face with an officer in a tactical vest, who places his hand on Pretti and pushes him toward the sidewalk.

    Pretti is talking to the officer, though it is not clear what he is saying.

    The video shows protesters wandering in and out of the street as officers persist in trying to keep them at bay. One protester is put in handcuffs. Some officers are carrying pepper spray canisters.

    Pretti comes in again when the video shows an officer wearing tactical gear shoving a protester. The protester, who is wearing a skirt over black tights and holding a water bottle, reaches out for Pretti.

    The same officer shoves Pretti in his chest, leading Pretti and the other protester to stumble backward.

    A different video then shows Pretti moving toward another protester, who falls over after being shoved by the same officer. Pretti moves between the protester and the officer, reaching his arms out toward the officer.

    The officer deploys pepper spray, and Pretti raises his hand and turns his face. The officer grabs Pretti’s hand to bring it behind his back, deploys the pepper spray canister again and then pushes Pretti away.

    Seconds later, at least a half-dozen federal officers surround Pretti, who is wrestled to the ground and hit several times. Several agents try to bring Pretti’s arms behind his back, and he struggles.

    Videos show an officer, who is hovering over the scuffle with his right hand on Pretti’s back, backing away from the group with what appears to be a gun in his right hand just before the first shot.

    Someone shouts “gun, gun.” It is not clear if that’s a reference to the weapon authorities say Pretti had.

    Then the first shot is heard.

    Pretti slumps to the ground. Videos show the officers backing away, some with guns drawn. More shots are fired.

    The Department of Homeland Security said Pretti was shot after he “approached” Border Patrol officers with a gun. Officials did not say if Pretti brandished the weapon or kept it hidden.

    An agency statement said officers fired “defensive shots” after Pretti “violently resisted” officers tried to disarm him.

    Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz expressed dismay at the characterization.

    “I’ve seen the videos, from several angles, and it’s sickening,” he said.

    Trump weighed in on social media by lashing out Walz and Frey. Trump shared images of the gun that immigration officials said was recovered from Pretti and said “What is that all about? Where are the local Police? Why weren’t they allowed to protect ICE Officers?”

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  • Man shot and killed during Minneapolis immigration crackdown

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    A man fatally shot by a federal officer in Minnesota worked as an ICU nurse, his parents say

    By The Associated Press undefined

    A federal officer fatally shot a 37-year-old man in Minneapolis amid the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown, according to a hospital record obtained by The Associated Press. Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, a Democrat, said in a social media post that he had been in contact with the White House after the shooting. He called on President Donald Trump to end the crackdown in his state. The Minnesota National Guard, which had been activated earlier by Walz, was assisting local police amid growing protests.

     

    A federal immigration officer fatally shot a man in Minneapolis on Saturday, drawing hundreds of protesters onto the frigidly cold streets in a city already shaken by another fatal shooting weeks earlier.

    Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara said a 37-year-old man was killed but declined to identify him. He added that information about what led up to the shooting was limited. The man was identified by his parents as Alex Jeffrey Pretti, an intensive care unit nurse. The officer who shot Pretti is an eight-year Border Patrol veteran, federal officials said.

    The Minnesota National Guard has been activated by Gov. Tim Walz and is assisting local police amid growing protests. Guard troops are going to both to the shooting site and to a federal building where officials have squared off with protesters daily.

    There have been daily protests in the Twin Cities since the Jan. 7 shooting of 37-year-old Renee Good by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer who fired into her vehicle. Pretti was killed just over a mile away from where Good was shot.

    The Latest:

    Family: ‘heartbroken but also very angry’

    Pretti’s family released a statement Saturday evening saying they are “heartbroken but also very angry” and calling him a kindhearted soul who wanted to make a difference in the world through his work as a nurse.

    “The sickening lies told about our son by the administration are reprehensible and disgusting. Alex is clearly not holding a gun when attacked by Trump’s murdering and cowardly ICE thugs. He has his phone in his right hand and his empty left hand is raised above his head while trying to protect the woman ICE just pushed down all while being pepper sprayed,” the statement said.

    “Please get the truth out about our son. He was a good man. Thank you.”

    Gun rights group ‘deeply concerned’ about shooting

    While noting that “many critical facts remain unknown,” the Minnesota Gun Owners Caucus said in a statement that “there has been no evidence produced indicating an intent to harm the officers” and called for an investigation by both state and federal authorities.

    “Every peaceable Minnesotan has the right to keep and bear arms — including while attending protests, acting as observers, or exercising their First Amendment rights,” the group said. “These rights do not disappear when someone is lawfully armed.”

    Federal officials have said Pretti was armed and officers fired defensively after he approached them during an operation and resisted attempts to disarm him. However bystander videos do not appear to show Pretti holding a weapon.

    The Minneapolis police chief said Pretti had a permit to carry a gun.

    Another evening rally at a park near the scene of Saturday’s shooting

    People chanted “say his name” in memory of Alex Pretti, who was fatally shot earlier in the day by a federal agent.

    One speaker called for sit-ins at congressional offices to urge a halt to funding for Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Another participant said he believes the tide of public opinion is turning in the protesters’ favor.

    Some carried lit candles, and all were bundled up against the frigid nighttime cold.

    After about an hour they went to the scene of the shooting. There were chants of “Resisting ICE is not a crime” and “Observing ICE is not a crime.”

    There were also chants honoring Renee Good, another person who was fatally shot by a federal agent in Minneapolis this month.

    Republican chair of House Homeland Security Committee requests ICE, CBP, USCIS appear before Congress

    Rep. Andrew Garbarino, a New York Republican who chairs the committee that oversees the Department of Homeland Security, sent a letter to the department requesting three top officials appear for questioning before the committee.

    “As chairman of the House Committee on Homeland Security, my top priority remains keeping Americans safe and ensuring the Department of Homeland Security can accomplish its core mission,” Garbarino said in a statement. “Congress has an important responsibility to ensure the safety of law enforcement and the people they serve and protect.”

    Garbarino requested that Immigration and Customs Enforcement senior official Todd Lyons, Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Rodney Scott and U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services Director Joseph Edlow appear.

    The public hearing would take place sometime in the next two months. Garbarino previously requested that senior DHS officials appear before the committee in a Jan. 15 letter.

    Schumer: Democrats will block spending bill if it includes Homeland Security funding

    Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer said Senate Democrats will not vote for a spending package that includes money for the Department of Homeland Security.

    Schumer’s statement increases the possibility that the government could partially shut down Jan. 30 when funding runs out. Several Democrats said Saturday that they will not vote for the bipartisan package of bills, which will need some Democratic votes to pass.

    Democrats say the legislation, which includes money for a broad swath of government agencies, does not include enough restrictions on ICE.

    Schumer said what is happening in Minnesota is “appalling.”

    “Democrats sought common sense reforms in the Department of Homeland Security spending bill, but because of Republicans’ refusal to stand up to President Trump, the DHS bill is woefully inadequate to rein in the abuses of ICE,” Schumer said. “I will vote no.”

    Justice Department official says Minnesota leaders ‘created this escalation’

    Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche called the shooting an “avoidable tragedy” that is the “result of the total failure of Minnesota’s city and state officials who have resisted federal law enforcement and created this escalation.”

    Blanche said in a statement that the Justice Department will “continue to hold those breaking federal law accountable, including those who harass and violently attack law enforcement in the name of protest.”

    The Department of Homeland Security is leading the investigation into the shooting with assistance from the FBI. The DOJ has not yet indicated whether it would open a civil rights investigation but declined to do so after the earlier shooting, of Renee Good.

    That was a sharp departure from past administrations, which have moved quickly to probe shootings of civilians by law enforcement officials for potential civil rights offenses.

    Dozens of people pay their respects to protester killed by federal agent

    They lit candles, placed flowers and stood in silence at the vigil Saturday evening. As dark fell, hundreds of people gathered somberly and quietly by the growing memorial at the shooting scene.

    Caleb Spike came from a nearby suburb to show his support and his frustration. “It feels like every day something crazier happens,” he said. “What’s happening in our community is wrong, it’s sickening, it’s disgusting.”

    A nearby doughnut shop and clothing store stayed open to offer a place for people to warm up, as well as water, coffee and snacks.

    Democratic senators come out against funding DHS, raising risk of another shutdown

    Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto said Saturday that she too would not vote for legislation in the Senate that would fund the Department of Homeland Security.

    In doing so, Cortez Masto joined fellow Nevada Democratic Sen. Jacky Rosen. The two moderates broke with their party last year on a vote over the last government shutdown.

    Others like Democratic Sen. Brian Schatz of Hawaii have said in the wake of the shooting that they would oppose a DHS funding bill that is part of a spending package in the Senate that aims to avoid a partial government shutdown at the end of the month.

    Minnesota-born Defense Secretary Hegseth says ICE is greater than Minnesota

    Pete Hegseth posted on the social platform X to thank God for the “patriots” who work for ICE and said, “we have your back 100%.”

    The Pentagon chief added: “Shame on the leadership of Minnesota — and the lunatics in the street. ICE MN.”

    Hegseth was born and raised in Minnesota.

    Nevada Sen. Rosen says she will vote against any government funding package that funds ICE

    Sen. Jacky Rosen, a moderate Democrat from a political swing state, made the announcement Saturday after the fatal shooting in Minneapolis. Rosen was one of eight Democratic senators last year to break ranks with her party and vote with Republicans to move to reopen the government.

    “The abuses of power we are seeing from ICE in Minneapolis and across the country are un-American and cannot be normalized,” Rosen said via the social platform X.

    “Enough is enough. We need to rein in ICE’s out of control conduct,” Rosen said.

    A bill that funds the Department of Homeland Security is part of a package of spending bills that is moving through the Senate to avoid a partial government shutdown at the end of the month.

    Top Democrat on House Homeland Security Committee calls for Noem impeachment

    Congressman Bennie Thompson, the top Democrat on the U.S. House Homeland Security Committee, called for Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem to be impeached and denounced statements from the administration about the man DHS agents killed.

    “Apparently, the Trump administration and its secret police only support the First and Second Amendments when it’s convenient to them,” Thompson said in a statement.

    Thompson called on Democrats in the U.S. Senate to vote against a funding bill for DHS that passed the lower chamber last week. “This is un-American and has to stop,” Thompson said. “The House must immediately take steps to impeach Kristi Noem.”

    Walz excoriates immigration operations in Minnesota

    Walz issued a statement Saturday calling immigration enforcement “organized brutality.”

    “The federal occupation of Minnesota long ago stopped being a matter of immigration enforcement. It is a campaign of organized brutality against the people of our state. And today, that campaign claimed yet another life,” Walz said.

    He said the state, and not the federal government, will lead the investigation into the death of 37-year-old Alex Pretti.

    Pretti was shot and killed by federal officers amid an immigration operation.

    “Minnesotans and our local law enforcement have done everything we can to deescalate. The federal government must deescalate. I once again call on the President to remove the 3,000 agents from Minnesota who are sowing chaos and violence.”

    Congressional Democrats sharply criticize DHS chief Kristi Noem

    Congressional Democrats responded with immediate outrage to the killing of another person by federal agents in Minneapolis.

    Congressman Robert Garcia, the top Democrat on the House Oversight Committee, called for ICE to be “abolished” and for Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem to be impeached.

    “Trump has created a militarized police force accountable only to him and ready to murder people in our streets. These agents need to leave our cities NOW,” the California Democrat wrote on social media.

    Congressman Brad Schneider, chair of the moderate New Democratic Coalition in the U.S. House, called for an investigation into the shooting and for federal agents to leave Minnesota.

    “Every agent involved in this shooting must be suspended pending a full and independent investigation and ultimately held to account for their actions today,” Schneider said in a statement. “And, Kristi Noem has got to go. She needs to resign or be fired. If not, Congress must act,” the Illinois Democrat continued.

    Man identified who was shot and killed amid Minneapolis immigration operation

    The man who was shot and killed by a federal officer during an immigration operation has been identified as 37-year-old Alex Pretti. His parents told The Associated Press that Pretti was an intensive care unit nurse.

    Vance criticizes local authorities for refusing to cooperate with ICE agents

    Vice President JD Vance responded to the shooting in a post on X and said that when he visited Minneapolis this week, “what the ICE agents wanted more than anything was to work with local law enforcement so that situations on the ground didn’t get out of hand.”

    He accused local officials in Minnesota of ignoring requests from ICE agents to work with them.

    Notably, federal officials refused to cooperate with local officials on an investigation into the shooting death of Renee Good on Jan. 7.

    Store owner opens to help protesters amid freezing temperatures

    Allison Bross opened her fashion store, b. Resale, next to the shooting scene for the protesters to grab food, water, use the restroom, receive medical attention and get a warm break from the frigid temperatures outside.

    “We’re a community-based business, we don’t exist without the community,” she said. “So if we hear someone in our neighborhood is getting hurt, I’m going to be here immediately.”

    Meanwhile, a makeshift memorial at a bus stop next to the site of the shooting was taking shape. People left flowers and lit candles.

    Hennepin County Sheriff’s Office asks for National Guard help

    Sheriff Dawanna Witt has requested assistance from the Minnesota National Guard to support deputies at the Whipple Federal Building so that deputies can be assigned to other areas.

    The Minnesota National Guard’s role is to work in support of local law enforcement and emergency responders, providing additional resources, the sheriff’s office said.

    Their presence is meant to help create a secure environment where all Minnesotans can exercise their rights safely, including the right to peacefully protest.

    “We know this moment is challenging for our community. Remember that our local teams are also part of this community. We respect and protect everyone’s rights to voice concerns and stand up for what they believe in, but we urge all actions to remain peaceful and lawful. Our collective priority remains protecting our neighborhoods and keeping people safe,” a statement said.

    Trump weighs in on the shooting in Minneapolis

    Trump posted to his Truth Social account after a man was killed by federal officers during an immigration enforcement action in Minneapolis. Trump’s statement said:

    “This is the gunman’s gun, loaded (with two additional full magazines!), and ready to go — What is that all about? Where are the local Police? Why weren’t they allowed to protect ICE Officers? The Mayor and the Governor called them off? It is stated that many of these Police were not allowed to do their job, that ICE had to protect themselves — Not an easy thing to do! Why does Ilhan Omar have $34 Million Dollars in her account? And where are the Tens of Billions of Dollars that have been stolen from the once Great State of Minnesota? We are there because of massive Monetary Fraud, with Billions of Dollars missing, and Illegal Criminals that were allowed to infiltrate the State through the Democrats’ Open Border Policy. We want the money back, and we want it back, NOW. Those Fraudsters who stole the money are going to jail, where they belong! This is no different than a really big Bank Robbery. Much of what you’re witnessing is a COVER UP for this Theft and Fraud.

    “The Mayor and the Governor are inciting Insurrection, with their pompous, dangerous, and arrogant rhetoric! Instead, these sanctimonious political fools should be looking for the Billions of Dollars that has been stolen from the people of Minnesota, and the United States of America. LET OUR ICE PATRIOTS DO THEIR JOB! 12,000 Illegal Alien Criminals, many of them violent, have been arrested and taken out of Minnesota. If they were still there, you would see something far worse than you are witnessing today!”

    DHS says officers fired ‘defensive shots’

    Department of Homeland Security spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin said in a statement that federal officers were conducting an operation as part of the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown.

    She said officers fired “defensive shots” after a man with a handgun approached them and “violently resisted” when officers tried to disarm him. O’Hara said police believe the man was a “lawful gun owner with a permit to carry.”

    Police chief says man shot and killed was a ‘lawful gun owner’

    O’Hara said the man’s only previous interaction with law enforcement as far as he knew was for traffic tickets.

    “And we believe he is a lawful gun owner with a permit to carry,” he said.

    Police chief asks public, law enforcement to remain calm

    Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara appealed for calm, both from the public and from federal law enforcement, following the shooting of a man.

    “Our demand today is for those federal agencies that are operating in our city to do so with the same discipline, humanity and integrity that effective law enforcement in this country demands,” the chief said.

    “We urge everyone to remain peaceful. We recognize that there is a lot of anger and a lot of questions around what has happened, but we need people to remain peaceful in the area.”

    Police also clarified that the age of the man shot is 37.

    Angry crowd gathers after shooting of man in Minneapolis

    An angry crowd gathered after the shooting and screamed profanities at federal officers, calling them “cowards” and telling them to go home.

    One officer responded mockingly as he walked away, telling them: “Boo hoo.” Agents elsewhere shoved a yelling protester into a car.

    The intersection where the shooting has been blocked off, and Border Patrol agents are on the scene wielding batons.

    The shooting happened a day after thousands of demonstrators protesting the crackdown on immigrants crowded the city’s streets in frigid weather, calling for federal law enforcement to leave.

    Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar expresses outrage at shooting

    Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar has expressed outrage at the shooting of a man during an immigration operation.

    “Donald Trump and all your lieutenants who ordered this ICE surge: watch the horrific video of the killing today. The world is watching. Thousands of citizens stopped and harassed. Local police no longer able to do their work. Kids hiding. Schools closed. Get ICE out of Minnesota,” Klobuchar said in a message posted on X.

    Minnesota Democrats react to the shooting

    Minnesota Sen. Tina Smith issued a statement after the shooting of a man during an ICE operation. She said, “We are gathering more information, but ICE must leave now so MPD can secure the scene and do their jobs.”

    Rep. Angie Craig said in a statement that she has seen “my own eyes the video of another horrific killing by ICE agents this morning in Minneapolis. This is sickening.

    “The agency is beyond out of control. How much more evidence do my Republican colleagues in Minnesota need to speak out?”

    Minneapolis police chief calls for calm

    Police Chief Brian O’Hara called for protesters who amassed at the scene of a shooting to stay calm and leave the area. “Please do not destroy our own city,” he said at a news conference.

    Rep. Omar releases statement after Minnesota shooting

    Rep. Ilhan Omar issued a statement after the shooting of a man by federal officers in Minnesota.

    “I am absolutely heartbroken, horrified, and appalled that federal agents murdered another member of our community. It is beyond shameful these federal agents are targeting our residents instead of protecting them,” she said in a statement.

    “This isn’t isolated or accidental. The Trump administration is trying to beat us into submission rather than protect us. … This administration cannot continue violating constitutional rights under the guise of immigration enforcement.”

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  • Trump extends FEMA Review Council charter

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    WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump has signed an executive order extending the FEMA Review Council’s charter 60 days, the White House announced Friday night.

    Saturday marks one year since Trump signed a different executive order creating the council to advise him on what to do with the Federal Emergency Management Agency, including whether to eliminate it.

    What You Need To Know

    • President Donald Trump has signed an executive order extending the FEMA Review Council’s charter 60 days, the White House announced Friday night
    • Saturday marks one year since President Donald Trump signed an executive order creating a council to advise him on what to do with the Federal Emergency Management Agency, including whether to eliminate it

    • The council’s charter called for the FEMA Review Council to end its operations after one year unless the president extended the deadline

    • That deadline had been Saturday — but the council’s report, containing its findings and recommendations, has not been publicly released

    • Trump said last year, “I think we’re going to recommend that FEMA go away, and we pay directly, we pay a percentage to the state, and the state should fix it”

    The council’s charter called for the FEMA Review Council to end its operations after one year. That deadline had been Saturday. The council’s report, containing its findings and recommendations, has not been publicly released.

    A spokesperson for Tampa Mayor Jane Castor, who serves on the council, told Spectrum News council members previously reviewed and unanimously supported their report.

    But the council’s scheduled meeting in December, when the report was expected to be released, was canceled.

    At the time a White House official told Spectrum News the meeting was canceled because “White House officials had not been fully briefed on the latest draft of the report, despite some officials at (the Department of Homeland Security) thinking they had been.”

    More than a month later, it’s unclear when or if the report will be issued.

    A spokesperson for Castor told Spectrum News the mayor hadn’t heard anything as of Friday regarding the council since the canceled meeting.

    The council’s charter states, “The Council shall terminate on January 24, 2026, unless extended by the President.”

    Trump created the council after ripping the agency during a trip to western North Carolina shortly after his inauguration last January. He traveled to the state to meet with officials as the area recovered from Tropical Storm Helene the previous September.

    “I think we’re going to recommend that FEMA go away, and we pay directly, we pay a percentage to the state, and the state should fix it,” he said.

    The council is chaired by Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth. Members of the council include Gov. Greg Abbott of Texas, former Gov. Glen Youngkin of Virginia and former Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Whatley.

    Editor’s Note: This article was updated after the White House announced the council’s termination date was extended. (Jan. 24, 2026)

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    Reuben Jones

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  • Family: Man killed by a U.S. Border Patrol officer in Minneapolis was ICU nurse

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    MINNEAPOLIS — Family members say the man killed by a U.S. Border Patrol officer in Minneapolis on Saturday was an intensive care nurse at a VA hospital who cared deeply about people and was upset by President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown in his city.

    What You Need To Know

    • Family members say the man who was killed by a federal officer in Minneapolis was an intensive care nurse at a U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs hospital who cared deeply about people and was upset by President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown in his city

    • Thirty-seven-year-old Alex Jeffrey Pretti was an avid outdoorsman who loved getting in adventures with his dog

    • He had participated in protests following the killing of Renee Good by a U.S. Immigration and Customs Law Enforcement officer earlier this month

    • Court records showed he had no criminal record

    Alex Jeffrey Pretti, 37, was an avid outdoorsman who enjoyed getting in adventures with Joule, his beloved Catahoula Leopard dog who also recently died. He worked for the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs and had participated in protests following the Jan. 7 killing of Renee Good by an Immigration and Customs officer .

    “He cared about people deeply and he was very upset with what was happening in Minneapolis and throughout the United States with ICE, as millions of other people are upset,” said Michael Pretti, Alex’s father. “He thought it was terrible, you know, kidnapping children, just grabbing people off the street. He cared about those people, and he knew it was wrong, so he did participate in protests.”

    Pretti was a U.S. citizen, born in Illinois. Like Good, court records showed he had no criminal record and his family said he had never had any interactions with law enforcement beyond a handful of traffic tickets.

    In a recent conversation with their son, his parents, who live in Colorado, told him to be careful when protesting.

    “We had this discussion with him two weeks ago or so, you know, that go ahead and protest, but do not engage, do not do anything stupid, basically,” Michael Pretti said. “And he said he knows that. He knew that.”

    The Department of Homeland Security said that the man was shot after he “approached” Border Patrol officers with a 9 mm semiautomatic handgun. Officials did not specify if Pretti brandished the gun. In bystander videos of the shooting that emerged soon after, Pretti is seen with a phone in his hand but none appears to show him with a visible weapon.

    Family members said Pretti owned a handgun and had a permit to carry a concealed handgun in Minnesota. They said they had never known him to carry it.

    Alex Pretti’s family struggles for information about what happened

    The family first learned of the shooting when they were called by an Associated Press reporter. They watched the video and said the man killed appeared to be their son. They then tried reaching out to officials in Minnesota.

    “I can’t get any information from anybody,” Michael Pretti said Saturday. “The police, they said call Border Patrol, Border Patrol’s closed, the hospitals won’t answer any questions.”

    Eventually, the family called the Hennepin County Medical Examiner, who they said confirmed had a body matching the name and description of their son.

    As of Saturday evening, the family said they had still not heard from anyone at a federal law enforcement agency about their son’s death.

    Alex Pretti grew up in Green Bay, Wisconsin, where he played football, baseball and ran track for Preble High School. He was a Boy Scout and sang in the Green Bay Boy Choir.

    After graduation, he went to the University of Minnesota, graduating in 2011 with a bachelor’s degree in biology, society and the environment, according to the family. He worked as a research scientist before returning to school to become a registered nurse.

    Alex Pretti had protested before

    Pretti’s ex-wife, Rachel N. Canoun, said she was not surprised he would have been involved in protesting Trump’s immigration crackdown. She said she had not spoken to him since they divorced more than two years ago and she moved to another state.

    She said he was a Democratic voter and that he had participated in the wave of street protests following the killing of George Floyd by a Minneapolis police officer in 2020, not far from the couple’s neighborhood. She described him a someone who might shout at law enforcement officers at a protest, but she had never known him to be physically confrontational.

    “These kinds of things, you know, he felt the injustice to it,” Canoun said. “So it doesn’t surprise me that he would be involved.”

    Canoun said Pretti got a permit to carry a concealed firearm about three years ago and that he owned at least one semiautomatic handgun when they separated.

    “He didn’t carry it around me, because it made me uncomfortable,” she said.

    Pretti had ‘a great heart,’ neighbor says

    Pretti lived in a four-unit condominium building about 2 miles from where he was shot. Neighbors described him as quiet and warmhearted.

    “He’s a wonderful person,” said Sue Gitar, who lived downstairs from Pretti and said he moved into the building about three years ago. “He has a great heart.”

    If there was something suspicious going on in the neighborhood, or when they worried the building might have a gas leak, he would jump in to help.

    Pretti lived alone and worked long hours as a nurse, but he was not a loner, his neighbors said, and would sometimes have friends over.

    His neighbors knew he had guns — he’d occasionally take a rifle to shoot at a gun range — but were surprised at the idea that he might carry a pistol on the streets.

    “I never thought of him as a person who carried a gun,” said Gitar.

    Pretti was also passionate about the outdoors

    A competitive bicycle racer who lavished care on his new Audi, Pretti had also been deeply attached to his dog, who died about a year ago.

    His parents said their last conversation with their son was a couple days before his death. They talked about repairs he had done to the garage door of his home. The worker was a Latino man, and they said with all that was happening in Minneapolis he gave the man a $100 tip.

    Pretti’s mother said her son cared immensely about the direction the county was headed, especially the Trump administration’s rollback of environmental regulations.

    “He hated that, you know, people were just trashing the land,” Susan Pretti said. “He was an outdoorsman. He took his dog everywhere he went. You know, he loved this country, but he hated what people were doing to it.”

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    Associated Press

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  • White House shares altered image showing arrest in Minnesota

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    The Trump administration on Thursday misrepresented the arrest of a prominent civil rights attorney for her role in an anti-immigration enforcement protest that disrupted a service at a Minnesota church.

    What You Need To Know

    • The Trump administration is misrepresenting the arrest of civil rights attorney Nekima Levy Armstrong for her role in an anti-immigration enforcement protest that disrupted a service at a Minnesota church

    • The White House on Thursday shared an image that made it appear like she was crying

    • The original image, posted on X by Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, shows Levy Armstrong with a neutral expression

    • An attorney for Levy Armstrong said any videos or photos that show her crying were manipulated

    On its official X page, the White House shared an image of Nekima Levy Armstrong that showed her in tears with, her arms behind her back, standing in front of someone wearing a badge around their neck.

    The problem? Levy Armstrong wasn’t actually crying. The image was manipulated to make the moment more dramatic than it actually was.

    Here’s a closer look at the facts.

    CLAIM: An image shows civil rights attorney Nekima Levy Armstrong crying while being arrested in Minnesota.

    THE FACTS: This is false. The original image, which shows Levy Armstrong with a neutral expression, was altered to make her appear emotional.

    Jordan Kushner, an attorney for Levy Armstrong, said he was present at his client’s arrest and said any videos and photos put out by the administration showing her crying were manipulated images.

    “It is just so outrageous that the White House would make up stories about someone to try and discredit them,” Kushner said. “She was completely calm and composed and rational. There was no one crying. So this is just outrageous defamation.”

    He added that video Levy Armstrong’s husband shot “dismantles what they claim” and that the video would be released soon.

    Amid growing questions about the image, White House Deputy Communications Director Kaelan Dorr wrote on X Thursday afternoon: “YET AGAIN to the people who feel the need to reflexively defend perpetrators of heinous crimes in our country I share with you this message: Enforcement of the law will continue. The memes will continue. Thank you for your attention to this matter.”

    Attorney General Pam Bondi announced Levy Armstrong’s arrest in an X post at 9:28 a.m. EST. Less than an hour later, at 10:21 a.m. EST, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem posted the original photo of Levy Armstrong, also on X. The White House then shared the manipulated image at 10:54 a.m. EST.

    Certain details in both images are the same, indicating they are not simply photos taken at different times. For example, the badge worn by the person behind Levy Armstrong is in the same position, as are the lights shining through the curtain to the left of Levy Armstrong’s head.

    Neither the White House nor Homeland Security immediately responded to requests for additional comment.

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    Associated Press

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