No contempt for Trump officials over Venezuela deportations, appeals court rules
A US appeals court has overturned a lower court’s ruling finding probable cause to hold Trump administration officials in contempt of court over their handling of the deportations of hundreds of Venezuelan migrants under a centuries-old wartime law.
US district judge James Boasberg found in April that officials could face criminal contempt charges for willfully disregarding his 15 March order barring the deportations to El Salvador of alleged Venezuelan gang members under the 1798 Alien Enemies Act without the chance to challenge their removals.
The Trump administration appealed. This morning, a three-judge panel of the DC circuit US court of appeals sided with the government by a 2-1 vote.
Judges Gregory Katsas and Neomi Rao, both of whom were nominated by Donald Trump in his first term in the White House, concurred with the unsigned majority opinion. Judge Cornelia Pillard, who was appointed by Barack Obama, dissented.
“The District Court’s order raises troubling questions about judicial control over core executive functions like the conduct of foreign policy and the prosecution of criminal offenses,” Katsas wrote in an opinion.
Key events
Second bomb threat at Illinois hotel housing Texas Democrats
Today, the hotel where several Texas Democrats are staying experienced a second bomb threat in one week, according to local police.
The St. Charles Police Department said that they conducted a thorough search of the area, and no explosive device was found. They confirmed that all 70 hotel guests are safe.
Today’s bomb threat comes just days after an initial bomb threat at the same hotel, which is located in a suburb outside Chicago.
It’s not immediately clear how many Texas lawmakers are still staying at the Q-Center hotel where the threats were made.
‘I’m going to call special session after special session,’ says Texas governor
In an interview with NBC News, Texas’s governor, Greg Abbott, said he would call “special session, after special session, after special session with the same agenda items on there”, referring to the Democratic lawmakers who broke quorum this week.
The legislators have vowed to stay out of Texas until at least the end of the current session, which ends on 19 August.
In the interview, Abbott, a Republican, was undeterred. “Democrats act like they’re not going to come back as long as this is an issue,” Abbott said. “That means they’re not going to come back until like 2027 or 2028.”
Since the quorum break, the legislative business of the entire session is now on ice. This includes relief for the victims of the catastrophic flooding that hit Texas last month.
“There’s only one thing that’s denying our ability to get legislation passed. And it’s these Democrats who have fled the state, turned their backs on their fellow constituents,” Abbott said. “And those Democrats are going to lose their job in the upcoming election, if they don’t get kicked out before then, because they’re not stepping up helping out their constituents who are in desperate need.”
It’s important to note that Republican House leadership in Texas chose to start the special session with the question of redistricting legislation.
Texas house attempts to reconvene special session: where things stand
The Texas legislature is hoping to resume its special session today at 1:30pm ET, after Democratic lawmakers broke quorum for two consecutive days earlier this week in protest over a gerrymandered congressional map, drawn by the state’s GOP.
For their part, the dozens of absent Democrats have hunkered down in blue states – such as Illinois, New York and Massachusetts – and have told the Guardian they plan to stay away from the Texas Capitol for “as long as it takes”.
The Democrats’ next stop on their tour to deny quorum is California. Where they’ll hold a press conference at 5pm ET today with Governor Gavin Newsom and House speaker emerita Nancy Pelosi.
Texas’s governor, Greg Abbott, and attorney general, Ken Paxton, both Republicans, have threatened the legislators who left town with civil arrest warrants. Paxton has also promised to file court orders that would declare the Democrats’ seats vacant if they fail to return to Texas by Friday.
Meanwhile, Texas senator John Cornyn, also a Republican, has said the FBI has agreed to help local law enforcement locate and arrest the legislators, despite none of them being been charged with a crime.
For his part, Gavin Newsom has taken a leading role in the redistricting arms race that’s ensued, and pledged to retaliate against Republicans’ redistricting efforts by working to change California’s own congressional map.
Lawsuit seeks justice department and FBI communications about Epstein investigation
Michael Sainato
An advocacy group sued the US justice department and the FBI on Friday for records detailing their handling of the sex-trafficking investigation into the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
The legal organization Democracy Forward is seeking records related to senior administration officials’ communications about Epstein documents and any regarding correspondence between Epstein and Donald Trump.
The lawsuit, filed in federal court in Washington DC, appears to be the first of its kind. The group says it submitted requests under the Freedom of Information Act (Foia) for the records related to communications about the case in late July that have not yet been fulfilled.
“The court should intervene urgently to ensure the public has access to the information they need about this extraordinary situation,” said Skye Perryman, the president and CEO of the Democratic-aligned group, in a statement. The federal government often shields records related to criminal investigations from public view.
The Epstein case has been subject to heightened public focus since the justice department said last month it would not release additional documents from the case.
Meanwhile, top Trump officials reportedly met at the White House on Wednesday night to discuss strategy moving forward as the Trump administration continues to face criticism, including from Republicans, for its handling of the official files related to Epstein and the US president’s responses to calls for the release of all documents related to the criminal investigation.
The meeting was reportedly hosted by JD Vance, with the gathering moved from the vice-president’s official residence to the White House, according to reporting by CNN. The meeting had been billed to include top Trump officials, including the US attorney general, Pam Bondi, and the FBI director, Kash Patel. Vance and his staff had denied that a meeting to discuss the handling of the rumbling Epstein scandal was taking place.
The Trump administration is now weighing whether to release recorded audio from the recent Department of Justice interview with Epstein’s convicted accomplice, Ghislaine Maxwell.
Mexico at no risk of US military intervention, says President Sheinbaum
Mexico’s president, Claudia Sheinbaum, has said that members of the US military would not be entering Mexican territory after a news report that Washington may take such action to combat drug cartels.
Earlier today, the New York Times (paywall) reported that Donald Trump had secretly signed a directive to the Pentagon to begin using military force against certain Latin American drug cartels.
Sheinbaum said her government had been informed of a coming order but that it had nothing to do with the US military operating on Mexican soil.
No contempt for Trump officials over Venezuela deportations, appeals court rules
A US appeals court has overturned a lower court’s ruling finding probable cause to hold Trump administration officials in contempt of court over their handling of the deportations of hundreds of Venezuelan migrants under a centuries-old wartime law.
US district judge James Boasberg found in April that officials could face criminal contempt charges for willfully disregarding his 15 March order barring the deportations to El Salvador of alleged Venezuelan gang members under the 1798 Alien Enemies Act without the chance to challenge their removals.
The Trump administration appealed. This morning, a three-judge panel of the DC circuit US court of appeals sided with the government by a 2-1 vote.
Judges Gregory Katsas and Neomi Rao, both of whom were nominated by Donald Trump in his first term in the White House, concurred with the unsigned majority opinion. Judge Cornelia Pillard, who was appointed by Barack Obama, dissented.
“The District Court’s order raises troubling questions about judicial control over core executive functions like the conduct of foreign policy and the prosecution of criminal offenses,” Katsas wrote in an opinion.
The Washington division of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) posted on X today – in the early hours – to show their presence alongside US park police.
This comes after the White House committed to beef up federal law enforcement to combat crime in the nation’s capital, despite a 30-year low in violent crime in 2024, according to a report by the justice department.
Robert Tait
Trump firing labor statistics head won’t achieve his agenda, says former chief
Donald Trump will need to take more radical action than simply firing the head of the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) if he is determined to “cook the books” on jobs figures, the federal agency’s former commissioner has said.
Erica Groshen, who ran the BLS during Barack Obama’s presidency, said meddling with how government statisticians calculate unemployment and labour market trends would require “a whole new cadre” of people to be brought in by a new commissioner. It would also provoke upheaval and a likely rash of whistleblowing among the existing workforce.
Trump provoked widespread criticism last week by firing the BLS’s commissioner, Erika McEntarfer, after weaker-than-expected jobs numbers for July and downward revisions for the two previous months, statistics that seemed to portend a looming economic slowdown.
In an interview, Groshen said Trump’s reasoning for terminating McEntarfer had “no basis at all”. She said the decision was “very shocking” despite having warned of such a possibility earlier this year in a briefing paper that flagged changes in civil service employment classifications under Trump, which make it easer to fire senior officials deemed to be out of step with the president’s agenda.
“This isn’t inconsistent with the way he’s acted in other situations,” she said. “[But] it’s a question of boundaries. I had quietly hoped and assumed it wouldn’t happen.”
Read more here:
We’re getting more updates from the Chevening House visit between JD Vance and the UK foreign secretary, David Lammy.
Ahead of their meeting today, the US vice-president and Lammy took the opportunity to go carp fishing behind the estate. Alas, no fish were actually caught.
Speaking to reporters, Lammy said that the pair will be “discussing the developing situation in the Middle East and in Gaza”, and Vance noted that the US has “no plans to recognise a Palestinian state” but “the president has been very moved by these terrible images of the humanitarian crisis in Gaza. So we want to make sure that we solve that problem.”
As we wait for more on the meeting, here are a few snaps of the fruitless fishing expedition.
Trump directs US military to target Latin American drug cartels – report
According to new reporting by the New York Times, the president has secretly signed a directive to the Pentagon to begin using military force against certain Latin American drug cartels that the Trump administration considers terrorist organizations.
According to the Times’ sources, US military officials have started drawing up options for how the military could go after the group. The Times also notes that this escalation would be the most “aggressive step” in the administration’s “campaign against cartels”. They also noted that this continues the president’s preference for using “military forces to carry out what has primarily been considered a law enforcement responsibility to curb the flow of fentanyl and other illegal drugs”.
In February, the state department designated Tren de Aragua, MS-13 and several other organizations as foreign terrorist organizations.
Hearing scheduled on fate of Flores Agreement
Today, a federal judge in Los Angeles will hear arguments in the Trump administration’s request to strike down the landmark Flores settlement agreement – a 1997 consent decree which provides basic rights and protections to child immigrants in its custody.
The settlement also limits the length of time that Customs and Border Protection (CBP) can hold children in custody to 72 hours, and requires them to be housed in safe and sanitary conditions. The administration argues that “unlawful family migration barely existed 1997”. They add that the agreement has prevented agencies from carrying out effective immigration policy.
Last year, the same judge presiding over today’s hearing approved the Biden administration’s request to partially lift oversight protections at the Department of Health and Human Services. The agreement is still in place at CBP and Immigration and Customs Enforcement agencies.
During Trump’s first term in office, the administration asked a judge to dissolve the Flores settlement agreement, but its motion was struck down.
Trump gears up for peace summit between Azerbaijan and Armenia
The president’s day really kicks into gear at 2.30pm ET, when he will welcome the Armenian prime minister, Nikol Pashinyan, to the White House, followed by the president of Azerbaijan, Ilham Aliyev.
Donald Trump will hold separate meeting with the two leaders, and the day will culminate in a trilateral signing between the three nations. The president has characterised the day as a “Historic Peace Summit” on Truth Social, and touted his role as an international peacemaker.
“Many Leaders have tried to end the War, with no success, until now, thanks to ‘TRUMP’,” he said in his post.
We’ve already seen some reaction to Donald Trump’s nomination of Stephen Miran – currently the chair of the Council of Economic Advisers – to fill the vacant seat on the Federal Reserve’s board of governors.
Senator Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, the ranking member on the Senate Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Committee said in a statement late yesterday that Miran was “a Trump loyalist”. The Senate Banking committee is responsible for holding a confirmation hearing for the nominee.
In her statement, Warren promised “tough questions” for Miran to determine “whether he’d serve the American people as an independent voice at the Fed or merely serve Donald Trump”.
Donald Trump on Thursday demanded the immediate resignation of new Intel CEO Lip-Bu Tan, calling him “highly conflicted” due to his ties to Chinese firms and raising doubts about plans to turn around the struggling American chip icon.
Reuters reported exclusively in April that Tan invested at least $200m in hundreds of Chinese advanced manufacturing and chip firms, some of which were linked to the Chinese military.
Trump’s comments came a day after Reuters was first to report that Republican Senator Tom Cotton had sent a letter to Intel’s board chair with questions about Tan’s ties to Chinese firms and a recent criminal case involving his former firm Cadence Design.
“The CEO of INTEL is highly CONFLICTED and must resign, immediately. There is no other solution to this problem,” Trump said in a post on his Truth Social platform.
Intel shares closed down 3% on Thursday.
Donald Trump announced he will host the leaders of Armenia and Azerbaijan on Friday for what he called a “Historic Peace Summit” aimed at ending decades of hostilities between the two former Soviet republics.
Nikol Pashinyan, Armenia’s prime minister, and Ilham Aliyev, the president of Azerbaijan, “will join me at the White House for an official Peace Signing Ceremony,” Trump posted Thursday on his Truth Social platform.
Sworn enemies for decades, the two went to war twice over the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region, which Azerbaijan recaptured from Armenian forces in a lightning 2023 offensive, sparking the exodus of more than 100,000 ethnic Armenians.
The two countries have held talks aimed at securing a peaceful resolution, including last month in the United Arab Emirates, but a breakthrough had proved elusive.
Trump picks Stephen Miran to fill open spot on Fed Board
Donald Trump on Thursday said he will nominate Council of Economic Advisers chairman Stephen Miran to serve out the final few months of a newly vacant seat at the Federal Reserve while the White House seeks a permanent addition to the central bank’s governing board and continues its search for a new Fed chair.
Miran, who has called for a complete overhaul of the Fed’s governance, will take over from Fed Governor Adriana Kugler following her surprise resignation last week, as she returns to her tenured professorship at Georgetown University.
The term expires 31 January, 2026 and is subject to approval by the Senate, Reuters reported.
Trump said the White House continues to search for someone to serve in the 14-year Fed Board seat that opens 1 February. Trump is also weighing options for a successor to Fed chair Jerome Powell, whose term ends 15 May, 2026.
The Trump administration is doubling to $50m a reward for the arrest of Venezuela’s president, Nicolas Maduro, accusing him of being one of the world’s largest narco-traffickers and working with cartels to flood the US with fentanyl-laced cocaine.
“Under president Trump’s leadership, Maduro will not escape justice and he will be held accountable for his despicable crimes,” Attorney General Pam Bondi said Thursday in a video announcing the reward.
Maduro was indicted in Manhattan federal court in 2020, during the first Trump presidency, along with several close allies on federal charges of narco-terrorism and conspiracy to import cocaine. At the time, the US offered a $15 million reward for his arrest.
That was later raised by the Biden administration to $25 million — the same amount the US offered for the capture of Osama bin Laden following the 11 September, 2001, attacks.
JD Vance kicks off a trip in the United Kingdom with a meeting with British foreign secretary David Lammy on Friday that will bring renewed scrutiny of Vance’s sharp criticism of Britain and its governing Labour party.
The US vice-president, his wife, Usha, and their three young children are expected to land in London at the start of a trip that includes staying with Lammy at Chevening, the country residence used by the foreign minister, Reuters reported.
They will later stay in the Cotswolds, a picturesque area of English countryside and a popular retreat for wealthy and influential figures, from footballers and film stars to media and political figures.
The visit to the United Kingdom comes amid heightened transatlantic tensions, domestic political shifts in both countries and increased attention on Vance’s foreign policy views as he emerges as a key figure in president Donald Trump’s administration.
A source familiar with the planning described the trip as a working visit that will include several official engagements, meetings and visits to cultural sites. Vance is also expected to meet with US troops.
White House ups federal law enforcement at tourist hot spots in Washington, DC
Good morning and welcome to the US politics live blog. I’m Tom Ambrose and I will be bringing you all the latest news lines from the day.
There will be increased presence of federal law enforcement in Washington DC, the White House announced yesterday, to combat crime for at least the next week.
It comes amid Donald Trump’s suggestions that his administration could fully take over running the city, Associated Press reports.
“Washington, DC is an amazing city, but it has been plagued by violent crime for far too long,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a statement. “President Trump has directed an increased presence of federal law enforcement to protect innocent citizens.”
She added that the increased federal presence means “there will be no safe harbor for violent criminals in DC”.
Trump has repeatedly suggested that the rule of Washington could be returned to federal authorities. Doing so would require a repeal of the Home Rule Act of 1973 in Congress, a step Trump said lawyers are examining — but could face steep push back.
“We have a capital that’s very unsafe,” Trump told reporters at the White House this week. “We have to run DC.”
Trump’s intervention follows an alleged attack on on a federal employee who worked for the so-called “department of government efficiency” (Doge).
In other developments:
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Vice-president JD Vance kicks off a trip in the United Kingdom with a meeting with British foreign secretary David Lammy on Friday that will bring renewed scrutiny of Vance’s sharp criticism of Britain and its governing Labour party. Vance, his wife, Usha, and their three young children are expected to land in London at the start of a trip that includes staying with Lammy at Chevening, the country residence used by the foreign minister.
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The Texas attorney general Ken Paxton and state house speaker Dustin Burrows have filed a lawsuit in Illinois to enforce arrest warrants against Democratic lawmakers who left Texas to block Republicans from enacting a gerrymandered congressional map that would likely add five more Republican seats before next year’s midterm elections. The civil petition was filed in an Adams county, Illinois, circuit court, about a four and a half hour drive from Chicago. More than 30 Texas Democratic members are named in the suit.
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The Trump administration is doubling to $50 million a reward for the arrest of Venezuela’s president Nicolas Maduro, accusing him of being one of the world’s largest narco-traffickers and working with cartels to flood the US with fentanyl-laced cocaine. “Under president Trump’s leadership, Maduro will not escape justice and he will be held accountable for his despicable crimes,” Attorney General Pam Bondi said Thursday in a video announcing the reward.
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Israel’s political-security cabinet approved a plan early on Friday to take control of Gaza City, a move expanding military operations despite intensifying criticism at home and abroad over the devastating, almost two-year-old war. Far-right allies in prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s coalition have been pushing for a total takeover of Gaza as part of his vow to eradicate Hamas militants, though the military has warned this could jeopardise the lives of remaining hostages.
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President Donald Trump on Thursday said he will nominate Council of Economic Advisers Chairman Stephen Miran to serve out the final few months of a newly vacant seat at the Federal Reserve while the White House seeks a permanent addition to the central bank’s governing board and continues its search for a new Fed chair. Miran, who has called for a complete overhaul of the Fed’s governance, will take over from Fed Governor Adriana Kugler following her surprise resignation last week, as she returns to her tenured professorship at Georgetown University.
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Donald Trump will announce a peace deal between Azerbaijan and Armenia on Friday 8 August, according to reports from both Reuters and CBS News. The respective leaders of both Azerbaijan and Armenia, Ilham Aliyev and Nikol Pashinyan, will attend events at the White House tomorrow, despite decades-long tension between the two countries.
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Donald Trump has said he was ready to meet Vladimir Putin despite the Russian leader’s refusal to meet Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelenskyy – dispelling speculation that direct talks between the two warring presidents were a precondition to a high-level US-Russia summit. Speaking to reporters in the Oval Office on Thursday, Trump said that Putin did not have to meet with Zelenskyy first before the US and Russian presidents could meet.
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Donald Trump has called on Intel’s chief executive to resign, alleging Lip-Bu Tan had ties to the Chinese Communist party, sending the stock of the US chipmaker falling. “The CEO of Intel is highly CONFLICTED and must resign, immediately,” Trump posted on Truth Social about Tan. “There is no other solution to this problem. Thank you for your attention to this problem!”.
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