The Latest: Questions for Bill Clinton about Epstein ties as Trump stumps in Texas
Former President Bill Clinton is testifying Friday before members of Congress who are investigating convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, answering for his connections to the disgraced financier from more than two decades ago.
The closed-door deposition in Chappaqua, New York, will mark the first time a former president has been compelled to testify to Congress. It comes a day after Clinton’s wife, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, sat with lawmakers for her own deposition.
Meanwhile President Donald Trump is traveling to Texas on Friday to talk about his energy and economic policies amid a red-hot Senate Republican primary race. All three GOP candidates are expected to join him, just days before the election.
The Latest:
Energy secretary approves export expansion at Texas LNG terminal
Ahead of Trump’s visit, Energy Secretary Chris Wright authorized a 12% expansion in liquefied natural gas exports at Cheniere Energy’s Corpus Christi terminal.
The order, signed Thursday as Wright toured the site, makes the terminal the second largest LNG export project in the U.S.
This week marks the 10th anniversary of the first export cargo of U.S. LNG gas produced from the lower 48 states. The U.S. is now the world’s largest LNG exporter.
Wright said he was proud to be in Corpus Christi, “standing alongside the American workers responsible for unleashing American energy dominance.”
Anne Rolfes, director of the Louisiana Bucket Brigade, an environmental group that opposes LNG exports, said the Trump administration was “doubling down on a harmful energy source at exactly the moment when we should be full speed ahead on safe, clean and reliable renewable energy.”
Trump orders all federal agencies to phase out use of Anthropic technology
Trump’s comments came just over an hour before the Pentagon’s deadline for Anthropic to allow unrestricted military use of its AI technology or face consequences — and nearly 24 hours after CEO Dario Amodei said his company “cannot in good conscience accede” to the Defense Department’s demands.
Anthropic didn’t immediately reply to a request for comment to Trump’s remarks.
At issue in the defense contract was a clash over AI’s role in national security and concerns about how increasingly capable machines could be used in high-stakes situations involving lethal force, sensitive information or government surveillance.
Democrats are ‘closely’ reviewing White House offer on DHS
Aides to Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, both New York Democrats, confirmed that the lawmakers have received the White House’s latest offer on ending the ongoing DHS shutdown.
Earlier Friday, a White House official said the administration had sent a new proposal to Schumer and Jeffries on Thursday, calling the offer “serious.”
In a joint statement to reporters, aides to Schumer and Jeffries said their offices are reviewing the White House proposal “closely” and that Democrats are continuing to push for “real reforms” on the conduct of federal immigration agents.
Democrats on House panel say they’re treating Bill Clinton seriously, putting ‘survivors first’
California Rep. Ro Khanna, a leading advocate to release all Epstein documents, said Democratic members and their lawyers put “survivors first” by asking “difficult questions” and establishing “basic facts” from Bill Clinton.
Rep. Melanie Stansbury, D-New Mexico, described the former president as an important witness.
“It is very well established that President Clinton had a relationship with Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxell, and we are treating this investigation extraordinarily seriously,” she said.
She emphasized that “there are not public files available that accuse (Clinton) of a crime, whereas there are publicly available documents that do allege a crime of President Trump.”
But she described Clinton as being among the figures who can shed light on “why there was a culture around (Epstein) where the rich and powerful turned a blind eye.”
There’s a partisan split on what Bill Clinton testified about Trump
omer told reporters that Bill Clinton said Trump “has never said anything to me to make me think he was involved.”
The chairman said that came in response to a question from Garcia, the ranking Democrat, about whether Trump should testify before the committee.
Garcia countered that Comer’s account was not “a complete accurate description of what actually was said.”
He said Clinton “did bring up some additional information about some discussions with President Trump” and argued that raises “some very important new questions about comments that President Trump has actually said in the past.”
That’s another reason to compel Trump to testify, Garcia added.
He declined to go into further details Clinton’s testimony, citing committee rules against disclosure — which he noted with a barb that “Republicans keep breaking the rules.”
Bill Clinton has not invoked the Fifth Amendment, House Democrat says
Rep. Robert Garcia, the top Democrat on the House Oversight Committee, says the former president has answered questions willingly so far in his testimony and “has not taken a pass” by pleading the Fifth Amendment that witnesses use to decline answering in a way that could incriminate them.
Comer: Bill Clinton has taken about two hours of questions
Republicans in the House Oversight Committee majority asked Clinton questions for about an hour, followed by an hour from the Democratic minority, chairman James Comer told reporters outside.
Comer said Republicans would get another hour before a break. He said the day would be at about “the halfway point” by then, suggesting Clinton will spend at least six hours with lawmakers.Comer: Bill Clinton has taken about two hours of questions
Trump misquotes Calvin Coolidge
Trump on Friday put himself among the many who have misquoted a famous sentiment from the 30th U.S. president.
“President Calvin Coolidge: ‘The Business of America is BUSINESS!’” he wrote in a Truth Social post as he headed to Texas aboard Air Force One.
However, this isn’t exactly what Coolidge said. His actual words, said during an address in Washington to the American Society of Newspaper Editors on Jan. 17, 1925, were: “After all, the chief business of the American people is business.”
Coolidge was talking about the “double purpose” of American newspapers — providing readers with information while also having their own business interests. He concluded that this dual role did not “seem to be cause for alarm.”
The ranking Democrat on the Senate Armed Services Committee warns against war with Iran
Sen. Jack Reed of Rhode Island said Trump has failed to explain the rationale or the risks involved in military action.
“President Trump’s saber-rattling for war with Iran is taking the country down a dangerous path without a clear strategy or endgame and putting U.S. national security at considerable risk,” Reed said in a statement.
As the House and Senate prepare for votes next week on war powers resolutions, he said Congress has received “no real briefings” on the administration’s plans.
“The administration has not presented Congress or the American people with any coherent legal or strategic justification for preemptive strikes,” Reed said. “The president is the Commander-In-Chief, but Congress alone holds the constitutional authority to authorize war.”
Congress prepares for war powers votes to block strikes on Iran
House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries said Friday a bipartisan coalition is working to force a vote as soon as next week on a war powers resolution that would attempt to prevent any U.S. action against Iran without approval from Congress.
“The American people don’t want another failed forever foreign war, particularly in the Middle East, when we know the outcome is likely to be disastrous,” Jeffries said on MSNow.
“What we’ve got to do right now, of course, is to do everything we can to prevent that from happening,” he said. “It would be reckless. It would be dangerous. It would be harmful to America’s national security interests.”
White House sends another DHS offer to Democrats
As the Department of Homeland Security remains shut down, the White House and Democratic leaders are continuing to exchange proposals to end the impasse.
A White House official said Friday that the administration sent another counteroffer to Democrats on Thursday. The official, granted anonymity to discuss private negotiations, called the offer “serious.”
Federal funding for DHS lapsed Jan. 30, with Democrats calling for more restrictions on the behavior of federal immigration agents in the aftermath of the death of two U.S. citizens in Minnesota.
But most of DHS provides critical governments, which means that federal employees are working — but not getting paid.
Attorney general announces indictments against 30 more people who protested at a Minnesota church
Pam Bondi says federal prosecutors have indicted 30 more people tied to a protest at a Minnesota church over an immigration enforcement crackdown.
Bondi says 25 of those people are already under arrest. The protest on Jan. 18 also led to the arrests of independent journalist Don Lemon and local activist Nekima Levy Armstrong. Both have pleaded not guilty to civil rights charges.
Trump officials have strongly condemned the protest for interrupting a church service. Protesters took the action after learning a pastor there is also an immigration enforcement official.
Trump suggests the U.S. could have a ‘friendly takeover of Cuba’
In comments to reporters as he left the White House, Trump said Secretary of State Marco Rubio was negotiating at a high level with the Cuban government.
“The Cuban government is talking with us” the president said. “They have no money. They have no anything right now.” He added: “We could very well end up having a friendly takeover of Cuba.”
After his administration ousted Cuban ally and Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, Trump for weeks suggested Cuba was on the brink of collapse economically.
He didn’t say what he meant by a “friendly takeover” but suggested that after decades “of dealing with Cuba” something could happen that’d be “very positive” for Cuban exiles living in the U.S.
Trump says he’s ‘not happy’ with the way Iran talks are going
“I’m not happy with the fact that they’re not willing to give us what we have to have. I’m not thrilled with that. We’ll see what happens. We’re talking later,” Trump said to reporters as he left the White House.
Trump said it would be “wonderful” if Iran negotiated “in good faith and conscience,” but said, “They are not getting there.”
Trump was asked about the risks of the U.S. getting involved in a drawn-out conflict in the Middle East if it launches strikes on Iran.
“I guess you could say there’s always a risk,” Trump replied. “You know, when there’s war, there’s a risk of anything, both good and bad.”
Trump comments on Clinton deposition
Trump said on Friday that he is not pleased with the deposition of former President Bill Clinton in the House Epstein investigation.
“I like Bill Clinton and I don’t like seeing him deposed,” the president told reporters as he departed the White House en route to Corpus Christi, Texas.
Trump’s new NASA chief speeds up pace of moon program flights
“It should be incredibly obvious” that three years between launches is unacceptable, NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman said, urging the space agency to cut the gap between Artemis flights to one year or less if it hopes to return astronauts to the moon on a sustainable schedule.
Isaacman unveiled an Artemis program overhaul Friday that adds an extra mission before any lunar landing by astronauts. Instead of attempting to land astronauts on the moon an estimated three years after the upcoming lunar fly-around, NASA will launch astronauts into orbit around Earth in their Orion capsule and have them practice docking with an orbiting lunar lander.
This new plan has the possibility of securing one and maybe two moon landings in 2028, during Trump’s second term.
The move aims to build momentum after repeated rocket repairs and warnings from a safety advisory panel. Isaacman noted that NASA’s Mercury, Gemini and Apollo programs flew in rapid succession before Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin’s landing on the moon in 1969.
“No one here at NASA forgot their history books,” Isaacman said.
Clinton uses his Epstein testimony for civics advice — and to tweak Republicans
Bill Clinton says in his prepared statement that “no person is above the law, even presidents.” He agreed to testify, he adds, because, “I love my country.”
Bill and Hillary Clinton initially pushed back against subpoenas they called a partisan stunt by Republicans. They yielded but demanded proceedings be opened. Republicans refused.
“The search for truth and justice,” Clinton planned to tell lawmakers, is more important than “the partisan urge to score points and create spectacle.”
He added a wish that political discourse be ratcheted down.
“Democracy requires every person to play their part, and I hope that by being her today, we can bring ourselves a little further away from the brink and back to being a country where we can disagree with one another civilly,” he says, adding, “I’ll do my part, and I hope you’ll do yours.”
Bill Clinton says lawmakers may hear ‘I don’t recall’ from him often
“That might be unsatisfying,” the former president says of his plans to answer some questions by saying he has no recollection. “But I’m not going to say something I’m not sure of. This was all a long time ago.”
Clinton adds that he is “bound by my oath not to speculate, or to guess” — a standard he says “is not merely for my benefit but because it doesn’t help you for me to play detective 24 years later.”
Elsewhere in his prepared opening remarks, Bill Clinton is more emphatic about his own actions.
“I know what I saw, and more importantly, what I didn’t see,” he says. “I know what I did, and more importantly, what I didn’t do.”
Bill Clinton says he would have reported Epstein had he known of abuse
“As someone who grew up in a home with domestic abuse, not only would I not have flown on his plane if I had any inkling of what he was doing — I would have turned him in myself and led the call for justice for his crimes, not sweetheart deals,” Bill Clinton says in his prepared opening statement.
“We are only here because he hid it from everyone so well for so long.”
Bill Clinton chides Republicans for calling Hillary Clinton to testify
The former president says in his prepared opening remarks that his wife — the former secretary of state and first lady — should never have been ensnared by the committee.
“Before we start, I have to get personal,” Bill Clinton says in his statement. “You made Hillary come in. She had nothing to do with Jeffrey Epstein. Nothing. She has no memory of even meeting him. She neither traveled with him nor visited any of his properties.”
He continues: “Whether you subpoenaed 10 people or 10,000, including her was simply not right.”
And he tells lawmakers that, just as he’s bound in sworn testimony, “each and every one of you owes nothing less than truth and accuracy to the American people.”
Bill Clinton opening statement says he saw no signs of Epstein abuse
The former president is telling the House Oversight Committee that his “brief acquaintance with Jeffrey Epstein ended years before his crimes came to light.”
That’s according to a printed copy of his opening statement as it was prepared and released by Clinton’s office.
“I saw nothing, and I did nothing wrong,” Clinton says. “I saw nothing that ever gave me pause.”
Clinton’s remarks state that he is testifying “to offer what little I know so that it might prevent anything like this from ever happening again” and because “the girls and women whose lives Jeffrey Epstein destroyed deserve not only justice, but healing.”
Sen. John Cornyn is on board Air Force One
The Texas Republican fighting for reelection in a March 3 primary is flying with Trump back to his home state.
Cornyn was spotted at Andrews Air Force Base ahead of Trump’s departure from Washington for an event in Corpus Christi. The other Texas senator, Ted Cruz, is also traveling with the president, but he is not on the ballot this year.
Cornyn is locked in a viciously personal three-way primary with state Attorney General Ken Paxton and Rep. Wesley Hunt. Missing the coveted endorsement from Trump, all three have been trying to highlight their ties to him as campaigning intensifies ahead of Tuesday’s vote.
Democrats renew calls for Trump to testify on Epstein
“We’re going to ask President Clinton the hard questions today,” said Rep. Suhas Subramanyam, D-Va. “What is truth about his relationship with Jeffrey Epstein? But let’s be real. We’re talking to the wrong president today.”
Democrats hope to leverage the Clintons’ appearances before House Oversight. They’ve noted that files released so far suggest Trump was more closely involved with Epstein than Clinton. And they want to emphasize that it’s the former president who is submitting to questions while the sitting president denies any involvement.
“President Trump is the one who is blocking our investigation. President Trump is the one who wants us to go away, but it will not go away,” Subramanyam said.
Top Democrat on House Oversight says Bill Clinton should not invoke the Fifth Amendment
“I think it was telling that Secretary Clinton did not take the Fifth one time,” Garcia told reporters, referring to the constitutional protection defendants and witnesses sometimes cite when declining to answer questions in legal proceedings.
Garcia continued: “I think it’s important the president (Bill Clinton) do the same. I think he will answer questions today.”
Republicans, Democrats offer different accounts of Hillary Clinton testimony
Mace described Hillary Clinton “screaming” during her deposition on Thursday.
“I hope that President Clinton is less unhinged than his wife was yesterday,” Mace said Friday outside the building where the House Oversight panel is convening.
Democrats dismissed Mace’s description, which Rep. Robert Garcia said proves the need for Comer to release the “full, unedited” video. The Clintons had wanted to testify publicly but Comer insisted on the private sessions.
Garcia called the Republican questioning Thursday a “disgrace” focused on old “conspiracy theories.” He praised Hillary Clinton for participating.
He reminded reporters Friday that Democrats still want the proceedings to be open “so that you can hear the answer and the questions directly.”
Mace says Howard Lutnick should testify on Epstein relationship
Rep. Nancy Mace, R-S.C., said ahead of Bill Clinton’s testimony Friday that Trump’s Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick should answer questions before the House Oversight Committee.
The secretary has admitted meeting Epstein after previously denying knowing him.
After Hillary Clinton’s testimony on Thursday, Comer would not rule out asking Lutnick to appear for questioning.
Comer promises Bill Clinton updates, release of Hillary Clinton deposition video
Chairman James Comey says he’ll send Republican members of his House Oversight Committee out to update reporters as Bill Clinton is being deposed.
Comey also promised to release video and transcripts of Hillary Clinton’s testimony.
The Clintons had wanted to testify in public, but the Republicans in control insisted on closed-door depositions. Democrats on the committee called for Comey to release the full video of the former secretary of state’s Thursday session.
Scouting America says it’s sticking to ‘core commitments’ after Pentagon talks
Scouting America says it is waiving registration fees for military families and creating a merit badge that focuses on military services and veterans after months of talks with the Defense Department.
The organization released its statement Friday after Hegseth said it was altering policies about transgender kids, among other changes. But Scouting America’s statement did not mention transgender youth.
“Scouting America held firm on the core commitments that define us. We maintained our name as ‘Scouting America’ and preserved our service to the more than 200,000 girls who participate in our programs,” the organization said.
Scouting America, formerly known as the Boy Scouts, said it has been talking with Defense Department officials for months as the Pentagon takes aim at the military’s partnership with the organization. Hegseth said he wants to root out scouting’s “woke culture.”
Marco Rubio to visit Israel next week as tensions with Iran soar
The Secretary of State will make a quick trip to Israel early next week as tensions between the United States and Iran soar amid a massive buildup of U.S. forces in the Middle East, the State Department said Friday.
The department said in a statement that Rubio would visit Israel on Monday and Tuesday to “discuss a range of regional priorities including Iran, Lebanon, and ongoing efforts to implement President Trump’s 20-Point Peace Plan for Gaza.” It offered no other details.
The announcement comes just hours after the U.S. Embassy in Jerusalem implemented “authorized departure” status for nonessential personnel and family members, which means that eligible staffers can leave the country voluntarily at government expense.
US advises embassy staff to leave Israel now if they want, as risk of war hangs over Middle East
The U.S. Embassy in Israel urged anyone considering departure to do so immediately on Friday, as the threat of an American strike on Iran looms.
The email from Ambassador Mike Huckabee to embassy employees was recounted to The Associated Press by someone involved with the U.S. mission who wasn’t authorized to share details. Sent before 10:30 a.m., it urged staff considering departure to get on any flight out of Israel and then make their way to Washington.
There’s no need for panic, Huckabee wrote, but for those desiring to leave, it was important to make plans soon. “While there may be outbound flights over the coming days, there may not be,” Huckabee wrote.
Iran and the United States walked away from nuclear negotiations Thursday without a deal. Vice President JD Vance is scheduled to meet Friday in Washington with a mediator, Oman’s foreign minister, Badr al-Busaidi, according to a person with knowledge of the meeting who spoke on condition of anonymity because the meeting is private.
— Sam Mednick and Sam Metz
Republicans relishing the chance to scrutinize the former Democratic president under oath
“The Clintons haven’t answered very many, if any, questions about their knowledge or involvement with Epstein and Maxwell,” Rep. James Comer, the Republican chair of the House Oversight Committee, said Thursday. “No one’s accusing, at this moment, the Clintons of any wrongdoing,” he added.
But Hillary Clinton said she had answered their questions — telling lawmakers she had no knowledge of how Epstein had sexually abused underage girls and had no recollection of even meeting him.
Bill Clinton will have to answer questions about his well-documented relationship with Epstein and his former girlfriend Ghislaine Maxwell in the late 1990s and early 2000s.
Hillary Clinton said she expected her husband to testify that he had no knowledge of Epstein’s sexual abuse at the time they knew each other.
US stocks slump and oil prices jump as worries about AI, inflation and possible war hit Wall Street
U.S. stocks are sinking as Wall Street gets back to hunting and punishing potential losers in the artificial-intelligence revolution. A surprisingly discouraging update on inflation also hurt the market.
The report showed U.S. wholesale inflation at 2.9% last month, much higher than the 1.6% economists expected. It’s so much worse than expected that it could help persuade the Federal Reserve to hold off longer on the interest rate cuts that Trump constantly pushes for. Lower rates would give the economy and prices for investments a boost, but they risk worsening inflation at the same time.
Oil prices also jumped amid worries of military conflict between the United States and Iran.
Biden draws attention at Reagan Airport en route to SC
Joe Biden’s appearance in a boarding area awaiting a flight to South Carolina drew a crowd Friday morning at the airport near downtown Washington.
The former president is spending Friday evening with Democrats in South Carolina who have organized a thank you event to commemorate his thunderous victory in the state’s 2020 Democratic presidential primary.
Other passengers were primarily deterred by the dozen Secret Service agents who surrounded Biden as he sat at the gate. But Biden took selfies with American Airlines employees, and dozens of passengers in the area filmed him on their cellphones.
Once on board awaiting takeoff, passengers passed by to shake Biden’s hand. “God bless you, sir,” one woman said.
Defense secretary says Scouting America will alter its policies — or lose Pentagon support
Scouting America will alter several policies at the urging of the Pentagon, including a requirement that members use “biological sex at birth and not gender identity,” Pete Hegseth announced Friday.
Some of the changes mirror what the organization suggested in January in response to Defense Department pressure. Hegseth has taken aim at the military’s partnership with Scouting America, decrying its historic rebrand to include girls and other “woke culture” efforts he wants to root out. He said in video posted on X that the Pentagon will “vigorously review” the changes in six months and cease its support of Scouting America if it fails to comply.
“Ideally I believe the Boy Scouts should go back to being the Boy Scouts as originally founded, a group that develops boys into men. Maybe someday,” Hegseth said.
Scouting America didn’t immediately comment.
US military acknowledges using anti-drone laser again in Texas
After criticism by lawmakers, the FAA, CBP and the Pentagon issued a joint statement late Thursday acknowledging that the military responded to a “seemingly threatening unmanned aerial system operating within military airspace” over Texas.
Congressional Democrats said it was a laser that shot down a Border Protection drone, prompting the Federal Aviation Administration to shut down Texas airspace for the second time in two weeks. Illinois Democratic U.S. Sen. Tammy Duckworth, the ranking member on the Senate’s Aviation Subcommittee, called for an independent investigation into what she calls Trump administration “incompetence” causing “chaos in our skies.”
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said he was planning to brief members of Congress about the incident.