Senate GOP blocks push for legal action over Epstein law

WASHINGTON — Senate Republican leadership blocked a Democrat-backed measure Thursday that would direct the chamber to take legal action over the Justice Department’s much-criticized handling of the Jeffrey Epstein documents.

Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer, on the floor, criticized the Trump administration’s response to the law Congress passed last year that required the release of documents tied to the deceased sex offender.

The New York Democrat said millions of pages of documents that have not been released could contain financial records, letters, emails and the names of conspirators. “These are things the public deserves to see and they are shrouded in darkness,” he said.

And, Schumer said, the documents that have been released have often been redacted to an “absurd degree.”

“Look at this,” he said, holding up a completely blacked out document. “There are hundreds of pages that look just like this. This is not transparency. This is not what the law requires. This is a mockery of the truth, and an insult to the survivors.”

Schumer sought unanimous consent to pass a resolution that would direct Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., to initiate or intervene in civil lawsuits in the name of the Senate to seek “appropriate relief” for the “failure of the Department of Justice to act in a manner consistent” with the Epstein files law.

“If the administration will not follow the law, which it isn’t, the Senate must act. No one — not even the president — is above the law,” Schumer said. He said 15 of his Democratic colleagues were co-sponsors.

Majority Whip John Barrasso, R-Wyo., objected and blocked the effort.

“This is another reckless political stunt designed to distract Americans from Democrats’ dangerous plan to shut down the Department of Homeland Security,” Barrasso said, adding the move would delay air travel and delay the preparedness of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, among other consequences.

The Justice Department identified more than 6 million pages that were potentially covered by the law but acknowledged the total production from the department was nearly 3.5 million pages.

—CQ-Roll Call

Members split on plan to use reconciliation again to boost defense

WASHINGTON — As some defense hawks eye a massive influx of defense dollars in a possible forthcoming reconciliation measure, initial reactions from defense appropriators and authorizers have been mixed, foreshadowing what could be a rocky road to achieving President Donald Trump’s stated goal of a $1.5 trillion defense budget in 2027.

In comments to Breaking Defense this week, House Armed Services Chairman Mike D. Rogers, R- Ala., said he and his Senate counterpart, Armed Services Chair Roger Wicker, R- Miss., would like to see Congress enact a second reconciliation package that includes $450 billion for national security to supplement the fiscal 2027 defense budget.

“(Rogers and I) are of the same mind that we need substantial plus ups, some of it may occur in reconciliation, and a good bit of it in the traditional means,” Wicker said Thursday, and indicated that he would support a second reconciliation effort.

But some reluctance, even among top Senate Republicans, materialized almost immediately.

Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, R- W.Va., a Defense appropriator, said reconciliation would be “a heavy lift,” but declined to make any predictions.

“Reconciliation is not the easiest thing to move through,” she said. “I’m assuming this is a reaction to try to figure out a way to help the president get the number he wants. That’s all I know.”

Sen. Mitch McConnell, R- Ky., the chairman of the Defense Appropriations Subcommittee, wants whatever the president requests for defense in fiscal 2027 to come mostly or entirely via a base budget, as opposed to reconciliation.

—CQ-Roll Call

Families of students killed in Parkland shooting blast Broward Sheriff’s Office for delay tactics

Fred Guttenberg blames the Broward Sheriff’s Office for the murder of his 14-year-old daughter Jaime.

He and other parents of the students who died in the mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High gathered Thursday, ahead of the eighth anniversary of the tragedy, and blasted BSO for their lack of accountability in the Feb. 14, 2018, shooting, which led to the deaths of 14 students and three faculty members.

“They all stood outside, scared for their own safety, taking their sweet old time,” said Jennifer Guttenberg, who stood with her husband. Both had orange ribbons for Jaime, a star dancer and volunteer with Best Buddies, pinned on them.

An investigation into the shooting found that BSO deputies failed to do anything to stop it. Most notably was school resource deputy Scot Peterson, who waited outside as Nikolas Cruz, the 19-year-old former Stoneman Douglas student, went on a killing rampage in the freshman building. Cruz was sentenced to life in prison in 2022.

Peterson, who retired from BSO after the shootings, faced 11 criminal charges for failing to confront Cruz but was acquitted of all charges in 2023.

Various civil lawsuits were filed after the shooting and have all concluded, except for the negligence lawsuit filed by the families against BSO in 2019. They said the process has been purposefully delayed by BSO through various motions.

In January, BSO appealed to the 4th District Court of Appeal after a judge ruled against the agency on negligence claims related to deputies’ interactions with the shooter before the massacre, court records show. BSO maintains it’s entitled to immunity as a law-enforcement agency.

“It is understandable that the families of the victims of this senseless tragedy are frustrated at the pace of the litigation,” BSO attorney David Ferguson said in a statement to the Miami Herald. Ferguson said BSO’s motions are “well founded in Florida law.”

“We want to face them in court,” Guttenberg told the families gathered at Pine Trails Park Amphitheater in Parkland. “We want our day in court with a jury. We want to put an end to this.”

—Miami Herald

Cuban leaders dig in, vow to resist Trump’s pressure, warn of difficult times ahead

In a defiant gesture, Cuba’s handpicked president Miguel Díaz-Canel blasted President Donald Trump on Thursday and vowed his government will resist the U.S. “oil blockade” with creativity, but warned the population will go through difficult times.

“The collapse lies in the imperial mindset, but not in the mindset of the Cubans,” he said at a rare press conference Thursday morning. “I know we are going to live through difficult times, but we will overcome them together with creative resilience.”

Cuba’s economy has been in free fall in recent years and the country was already going through its worst economic crisis before Trump moved to cut oil supplies to the island in an effort to bring the Cuban government to the negotiating table. But Díaz-Canel signaled his government would not make political changes, preparing instead to resist at all costs.

Díaz-Canel said the island’s Council of Ministers prepared a plan to deal with “acute” fuel shortages based on Fidel Castro’s directives during the so-called Special Period, the crisis following the fall of the Soviet Union. Díaz-Canel said the plan updated directives for the so-called Option Zero, a situation of extreme scarcity.

He said the country would have to adjust to live off of its national production of crude oil and the population would have to face “restrictive” measures.

“I know people would question more sacrifice, but if we don’t sacrifice, if we don’t resist, what are we going to do? We have shared that surrender is not Cuba’s option. There’s much to defend.”

Díaz-Canel also said his government will still try to get oil from foreign suppliers. “It is our right,” he said.

—Miami Herald

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