D.C. Memo: Congress returns – and so does the Epstein saga

WASHINGTON The U S House returned from its -day recess this week and so did the Epstein disgrace A congressional committee disclosed more than pages of emails from the estate of the financier who was accused of sex trafficking minors and who died in jail awaiting trial The emails revealed that until his arrest in Epstein insulted President Donald Trump repeatedly and hinted he had threatening information about him Epstein declared he knew Trump intimately and was the one able to take him down Epstein who mingled with the rich and powerful had a longstanding friendship with Trump But Trump revealed he kicked Epstein out of Mar-a-Lago because of a dispute over a real estate deal and because Epstein was poaching employees of his private club However the emails distributed this week show that a relationship continued and was much closer than Trump has described In one email Epstein wrote that Trump spent hours at my house with one of the casualties In another Epstein noted Trump knew about the girls In another email Epstein sent in he petitioned Landon Thomas a New York Times journalist if Thomas would like photos of donald and girls in bikinis in my kitchen Members of Congress also refocused on Epstein because a new member of Congress Adelita Grijalva who was elected in September was absolutely sworn in as the Democratic representative of an Arizona district on Wednesday Grijalva provided the last signature needed on a discharge petition that would force a vote on rule requiring the Justice Department to turn over all its information on Epstein The petition needed the backing of at least members which is a majority in the House The discharge petition requires House Speaker Mike Johnson who opposed the decree to put the Epstein bill up for a vote Johnson revealed he d do that next week The bill is likely to pass the House because a small stampede of Republican members are expected to help it since rejecting the measure would spark ire among numerous MAGA voters Those voters are convinced there has been a coverup to protect the rich and powerful who associated with Epstein and attended parties on his private island and his six properties that featured underaged girls According to Politico Rep Tom Emmer R- th District whose leadership job is to secure votes for Johnson reported he would not whip the Epstein bill Nonetheless Emmer and Minnesota s other Republicans are likely to vote against the act which has infuriated Trump On Truth Social on Wednesday Trump accused Democrats of trying to bring up the Jeffrey Epstein Hoax and warned GOP lawmakers that Only a very bad or stupid Republican would fall into that trap The vote on the Epstein regulation would be largely symbolic The bill faces an uphill climb in the U S Senate and Trump is unlikely to sign it into law Still it would force a large number of GOP lawmakers to defy the president preponderance of them for the first time Shutdown bill allows senators to sue over J probe The deal Congress approved this week that ended the -day federal governing body shutdown was hastily drafted and lawmakers were largely unaware of chosen of its provisions Crafted in the U S Senate the statute would fund several agencies including the Agriculture Department the Department of Veterans Affairs the Food and Drug Administration and the legislative branch of governing body for a full year and the rest of the federal ruling body until the end of January One provision tucked into the bill has raised plenty of eyebrows this week It would give senators the opportunity to sue the Justice Department for per event and reimbursement of legal fees if their phone details was sought or obtained during former special counsel Jack Smith s scrutiny of the Jan attack on the U S Capitol House members whose phone records were obtained would not be eligible Smith sought the phone records of eight GOP senators as well as one member of the House during his probe While Republican House members have decried the scrutiny into lawmaker phone records as illegal and abusive overreach the provision in the shutdown bill set off a furious backlash in the House But that GOP anger in the House did not stop the chamber from passing the bill Wednesday night All Minnesota Democrats voted against the bill and all Minnesota Republicans voted for it While House Republicans were furious they did not strip the provision out of the shutdown bill because changing the decree would have forced the Senate to pass it again delaying the end of the shutdown The provision appeared to be a response to the disclosure last month that the FBI seized the phone records of nine Republicans They were Sens Tommy Tuberville of Alabama Lindsey Graham of South Carolina Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee Ron Johnson of Wisconsin Cynthia Lummis of Wyoming Bill Hagerty of Tennessee Josh Hawley of Missouri Dan Sullivan of Alaska and Rep Mike Kelly of Pennsylvania A salty issue A less noticed provision in the shutdown bill quietly ends efforts by the FDA to set new voluntary sodium standards in the nation s food supply The FDA was trying to get Americans to eat less salt gradually so the decrease would not be noticed It finalized initial voluntary sodium reduction standards in and was ready to update its guidance setting a new standard that advocated even less sodium in foods But the bill mentioned the FDA was barred from spending any money to develop issue promote or advance any final guidelines or new regulations applicable to food manufacturers for long-term population-wide sodium reduction The nation s food industry has reacted to the FDA s voluntary guidelines in different procedures General Mills and Hormel say they have responded to the FDA s voluntary sodium reduction goals by reformulating a large number of of their products to lower the sodium content In other news Though the regime shutdown is over we wrote about Trump administration threats to sanction Minnesota and other states that published full SNAP benefits amid legal wrangling during the impasse Speaking of the shutdown we talked with people in the burgeoning hemp industry who were blindsided by a provision in the bill that reopened the authorities that would outlaw hemp-produced THC products At the state level Matt Blake profiled state Rep Erin Koegel who is stepping down after nearly a decade in the House in part because of what she considers to be extreme partisanship and secrecy in the Legislature Meanwhile Brian Arola wrote a piece about the advance of electric carriage maintenance programs at Minnesota colleges While the Trump administration has put an end to federal tax credits for EV purchases school functionaries say sales trends show the industry requirements EV technicians Brian also visited a World War II aircraft museum in Granite Falls where a Veterans Day celebration included -year-old Bob Brix a Clara City resident who served as a medic during the Battle of Iwo Jima If you have any questions or comments please send them my way I ll try my best to respond Please contact me at aradelat minnpost com The post D C Memo Congress returns and so does the Epstein saga appeared first on MinnPost