The House voted overwhelmingly to pass a bill Tuesday to force the Justice Department to publicly release its files on the convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, a remarkable display of approval for an effort that had struggled for months to overcome opposition from President Donald Trump and Republican leadership.
When a small bipartisan group of House lawmakers introduced a petition in July to maneuver around House Speaker Mike Johnson’s control of which bills reach the House floor, it appeared a longshot effort — especially as Trump urged his supporters to dismiss the matter as a “hoax.”
But both Trump and Johnson failed in their efforts to prevent the vote. Now the president has bowed to the growing momentum behind the bill and even said he will sign it if it also passes the Senate.
Tuesday’s vote further showed the pressure mounting on lawmakers and the Trump administration to meet long-held demands that the Justice Department release its case files on Epstein, a well-connected financier who killed himself in a Manhattan jail while awaiting trial in 2019 on charges he sexually abused and trafficked underage girls.
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DHS plans to deploy 250 border agents to Louisiana in major immigration sweep, AP sources say
The federal agents are set to descend on New Orleans for a two-month crackdown dubbed “Swamp Sweep,” with the aim of arresting roughly 5,000 people across southeast Louisiana and into Mississippi. That’s according to documents obtained by AP and three people familiar with the operation who could not publicly discuss details and spoke on condition of anonymity.
The deployment, expected to begin in earnest Dec. 1, marks the latest escalation in a series of rapid-fire crackdowns unfolding nationwide as the administration moves aggressively to fulfill the president’s campaign promise of mass deportations.
The Louisiana operation is unfolding on the home turf of Republican Gov. Jeff Landry, a close Trump ally who has moved to align state policy with the White House’s enforcement agenda. But as seen in other blue cities in Republican-led states, increased federal enforcement presence could set up a collision with officials in liberal New Orleans who have long resisted federal sweeps.
