| | | |  | | By Jack Blanchard with Dasha Burns | | Presented by |  | | | With help from Eli Okun, Ali Bianco, Irie Sentner and Makayla Gray On today’s Playbook Podcast: Jack and Dasha discuss the immigration showdown looming on the Hill.
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| Good Tuesday morning. This is Jack Blanchard. Get in touch. START YOUR DAY WITH THIS: “Samuel Alito Opens Up About Antonin Scalia and the Path from Roe to Dobbs,” by James Rosen in POLITICO Magazine. In an exclusive interview, the Supreme Court justice remembers a friend and conservative icon’s legacy. “Even since Nino died [in 2016], things are so different,” Alito sighs, relaxed in shirtsleeves and slacks in his chambers at the Supreme Court. “I so often wish he were still here. He started so much, and it would have been good to have him around to see it to completion.” In today’s Playbook … — Why everyone in D.C. is checking the Epstein files. — ICE and CBP leadership face a showdown on the Hill over Minnesota killings. — And POLITICO’s Kyle Cheney explains how Trump lawyers are defying the courts.
|  | DRIVING THE DAY | | WHAT WE’RE ALL READING: Ten days on from the DOJ’s mass dump of Epstein files data, the revelations keep coming. The files thus far have largely exposed a murky world of conspiring elites with questionable moral standards. Digital democracy: And we are witnessing this through the prism of an entirely new phenomenon — an internationally crowdsourced scandal, unfolding in real time across your social media feed. In many cases, citizen journalists have been nearly as capable as professional journalists and investigators at finding insightful documents within the millions of DOJ files and bringing them to the fore. Parlor games: Washington being what it is, the universal access to raw investigative data has given rise to another new fad. People are also scouring the Epstein files for references to their bosses, their corporate rivals, their political enemies — even their own families. Gossip about some of the highest-profile revelations had been swirling in D.C. circles for days in advance, uncovered by the associates of those involved. Plenty of people are hunting not for criminal behavior, but for the intrigue. “We are all searching the files: for colleagues, competitors, clients,” one well-connected PR operative tells POLITICO’s Daniel Lippman. “It's shocking to see what some of the most powerful people in the world say to each other in private — and it's also shocking how many folks we know are mentioned in some capacity, even completely innocuously.” The serious work continues. Last night, the Miami Herald’s Julie Brown uncovered a previously unreported 2019 FBI interview with former Palm Beach Police chief Michael Reiter. In the interview, Reiter recalls a phone call he says he received from Donald Trump in 2006, when the first investigation into Epstein was underway. “Thank goodness you’re stopping him — everyone has known he’s been doing this,” Trump told the chief of police in 2006, according to the interview. Reiter says Trump had described Ghislaine Maxwell as “evil” and recommended they “focus on her,” according to the report. Trump also told Reiter that “he was around Epstein once when teenagers were present and that Trump ‘got the hell out of there,’” per the FBI report. This is a big deal: As the Herald points out, it seems to directly contradict Trump’s public statement in 2019 that he had known nothing about Epstein’s sordid activities. (Expect White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt to be grilled on this point at her 1 p.m. briefing today.) But more importantly, the document ultimately seems to corroborate Trump’s longstanding insistence that he had fallen out with Epstein long before any police inquiry, and cut all ties. It’s important to note that the figures who have so far been damaged by this latest tranche of documents are those who chose to maintain links with Epstein after his 2008 conviction for soliciting prostitution from a minor, like Peter Mandelson, Britain’s now-former ambassador to Washington. By this metric, the U.S. administration official with questions to answer right now is not Trump, but his fellow New York billionaire Howard Lutnick. The Commerce secretary told a podcast last year that he’d vowed in 2005 to never again be in the same room as Epstein, who was once his neighbor on the Upper East Side. But documents from the DOJ archive suggest he continued his interactions with Epstein, including planning a visit to Epstein’s Caribbean island as late as 2012 — several years after his conviction. A spokesman for Lutnick has said: “Secretary Lutnick had limited interactions with Mr. Epstein in the presence of his wife and has never been accused of wrongdoing.” But will Congress settle for that? Will America? Helpfully, Lutnick will be giving testimony to the Senate this very morning at 10 a.m., on the important topic of broadband deployment funding. One can imagine a member on the committee also taking the chance to ask Lutnick about his past connections.
| | | | A message from AHIP: 35 Million Seniors Could See Reduced Benefits and Higher Costs. Health plans welcome reforms to strengthen Medicare Advantage. However, a proposal for flat program funding at a time of sharply rising medical costs and high utilization of care will directly impact seniors' coverage. If finalized, this proposal could result in benefit reductions and higher costs for 35 million seniors and people with disabilities when they renew their Medicare Advantage coverage in October 2026. Learn more. | | | | IN THE MEANTIME: More lawmakers are headed to the DOJ today to review the unredacted files. But they may be disappointed by what they find. Reps. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) and Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) — who have spearheaded the cause to release the files — remained vague on specifics after their swing by the DOJ yesterday. What Massie and Khanna did see were at least six individuals whose identities were redacted in the public release and that they said are likely incriminated by the files. They didn’t rule out using their privilege to name names in committee or on the House floor, POLITICO’s Hailey Fuchs reports. Massie started dropping more hints in a flurry of X posts last night, though Khanna told reporters they wanted to give the DOJ a chance “to say they made a mistake” and release the information themselves. Asked by Playbook’s Ali Bianco if he supported Massie’s call for Lutnick to resign, Khanna concurred: “I think, based on the evidence, he should be out of the Cabinet.” And comparing the lowkey U.S. response to the Epstein crisis gripping the British government, Khanna added: “I know [British PM] Keir Starmer, I was excited when he won. And yet I believe he needs to be held accountable with what's happened with Mandelson … In our country, we have not had that reckoning.” Watch this space. FURTHER READING: “Britain’s crisis-hit Keir Starmer survives one more day,” by POLITICO’s Dan Bloom, Bethany Dawson and Andrew McDonald in London
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| | | | IMMIGRATION FILES ESSENTIAL VIEWING: Expect wall-to-wall coverage on cable news this morning as the heads of ICE and U.S. Customs and Border Protection face their first congressional hearing since the deadly shootings in Minnesota. Acting ICE Director Todd Lyons and CBP Commissioner Rodney Scott are both due before the House Homeland Security Committee at 10 a.m., along with USCIS Director Joseph Edlow. You won’t need reminding that ICE and CBP agents were responsible for the killings of Renee Good and Alex Pretti respectively last month. The DHS leaders can expect a grilling from the panel’s Democrats — on the shootings and their aftermath, and on broader DHS tactics in Minnesota. “We have to hold their feet to the fire,” Rep. LaMonica McIver (D-N.J.) told Playbook’s Eli Okun last night. Lady McIver: McIver will be one of the most interesting Dems to watch on the committee, given one of her previous attempts at ICE oversight ended in federal charges being brought against her. (DOJ says she assaulted law enforcement; McIver has pleaded not guilty, saying the prosecution is politically targeted.) Speaking to Playbook, McIver drew a direct line from her Delaney Hall visits to today’s hearing — and from the high-profile killings in Minnesota to conditions at detention facilities. “Oversight is one of our best tools as members of Congress, and they’re trying to criminalize it and stop us from doing that,” she said. “This is the kind of abuse that has been happening right in front of our eyes now, but imagine what’s been happening behind closed doors.” Also worth watching: Republicans may choose to ask Lyons — an experienced ICE veteran — for his take on the likely impact of the ICE reforms demanded by Democrats as the price of a DHS funding deal. Plenty of Republicans say parts of the wishlist are unworkable and would prevent ICE agents from effectively doing their jobs. You’d imagine Lyons will have a view. Top of the list: The Dem demand that federal law enforcement officials obtain a judicial warrant before entering private property is “dead on arrival,” three people close to the administration and a GOP strategist tell POLITICO’s Myah Ward and colleagues. “The judicial warrants are the key operational thing that [deputy chief of staff] Stephen Miller and the crew do not want to budge on,” said the GOP strategist, who focuses on immigration. Four days to go: The two sides are clearly some way apart as Friday night’s DHS shutdown deadline looms. Senate Majority Leader John Thune said yesterday the White House is in “discussions” with Senate Democrats and that he sees “a possibility” of a deal. But Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries last night flatly rejected a Republican counterproposal as “incomplete and insufficient.” Even previously anti-shutdown Sen. Angus King (I-Maine) told NBC he won’t back another funding bill without reform. More from POLITICO’s Inside Congress
| | | | POLITICO Governors Summit Join POLITICO's annual Governors Summit, held alongside the National Governors Association’s Winter Meeting, for a series of forward-looking conversations with governors from across the country about how state leaders are setting the agenda for America’s next chapter. Hear from Gov. Wes Moore (D), Gov. Kevin Stitt (R), and more. Register Now. | | | | | COURT IN THE ACT MUST READ: In a big piece published this morning, POLITICO’s Kyle Cheney digs through thousands of court cases to examine how the Trump administration has handled federal judges’ overwhelming rejection of Trump-era policies to lock up thousands of people without a chance for bond. With increasing frequency, judges say the administration has been skirting, delaying or straight-up flouting their orders. We asked Kyle for a detailed view of what’s going on. What are the non-compliance tactics you’re seeing most commonly from ICE and the Justice Department? Kyle: Lately, judges have complained that ICE has been bending or breaking the rules at virtually every stage of the process. At the very beginning, ICE has been pinballing detainees to multiple detention facilities around the country — a tactic that makes it harder for them to find lawyers, lodge legal challenges and communicate with family members. But what really stood out was all of the smaller ways the Trump administration has been sticking it to detainees even after judges had ordered their release. It’s all forced detainees and their lawyers to race back to court for further help from judges, who have reacted with horror and frustration. How have judges responded? Kyle: In short, they’re pissed. Judges are accustomed to having their orders followed — in letter and spirit. And they’re watching a systematic rejection that falls hardest on people they say should never have been detained in the first place. That’s the opposite of how the system is supposed to work. Is this a constitutional crisis? Kyle: It certainly seems to be. It can be desensitizing to view these issues on a large scale, but each of the cases involve real human beings that the vast majority of judges say are being locked up illegally, without due process, and separated from family members, kids and communities they’ve lived in for years. Most of the people targeted by this mandatory detention policy have no criminal records. Many were paroled into the country and have attended their immigration proceedings while pursuing asylum claims or other forms of legal status. Read the full report here
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| | | | TRAIL MIX FIRST IN PLAYBOOK — Me and Mr. Jones: The RNC is taking potential steps to put a thumb on the scale in the Georgia gubernatorial primary, in a break from its standard neutrality among Republicans, POLITICO’s Erin Doherty reports. Georgia RNC members’ move, which was spurred by the RNC itself, opens the door for the party to officially back Lt. Gov. Burt Jones, who has Trump’s endorsement but is running in a crowded field. ENDORSEMENT ROUNDUP: Texas AG Ken Paxton landed the backing of Turning Point Action for his primary challenge to Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas), Fox News’ Peter Pinedo scooped. In California, Rep. Eric Swalwell’s (D-Calif.) gubernatorial campaign scored a notable win with the endorsement of Sen. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), POLITICO’s Blake Jones reports. THE BRAVE NEW WORLD: Alex Bores’ congressional candidacy in Manhattan looks like an early example of how AI divides within the tech industry will affect campaign spending. Bores, who led state-level AI rules, has seen investors plunk down more than $1 million to beat him in the Democratic primary, with pro-regulation AI experts and tech workers backing him, POLITICO’s Brendan Bordelon reports. BEST OF THE REST YES, THIS IS STILL HAPPENING: U.S. Southern Command conducted another deadly attack yesterday on an alleged drug-trafficking boat in the Pacific, per CNN. The military said it killed two people, bringing the total in this monthslong campaign to at least 121, and left one survivor. … Energy Secretary Chris Wright is slated to brief Senate Energy and Natural Resources about Venezuela behind closed doors today. LOOMING OVER THIS WEEK: “After Greenland, it’s the micro-agressions,” by POLITICO’s Eli Stokols and Clea Caulcutt: “[T]he bad feelings across Europe have only deepened as the president and other administration officials have, in ways large and small, continued to poke politicians and entire populations in the proverbial eye. The provocations come as European officials prepare for the Munich Security Conference this weekend where key topics will include the transatlantic relationship and whether the continent can stand on its own without Washington’s help.” MAJOR CLIMATE NEWS: “Trump to Repeal Landmark Climate Finding in Huge Regulatory Rollback,” by WSJ’s Meridith McGraw and Benoît Morenne: “The Trump administration is planning this week to repeal the Obama-era scientific finding that serves as the legal basis for federal greenhouse-gas regulation … The reversal targets the 2009 ‘endangerment finding,’ which concluded that six greenhouse gases pose a threat to public health and welfare.” TRADING PLACES: House Republicans are heading for a dicey vote today over tariffs. Speaker Mike Johnson has teed up a vote to “adopt a rule today that includes language to block votes on Trump’s global tariffs through July after Democrats threatened to move as soon as Wednesday to overturn the president’s levies on Canada,” POLITICO’s Inside Congress reports. “It could get hairy: Under the current member math, as few as two GOP defections could block adoption of the rule.” Massie told our colleague Meredith Lee Hill he’s a no, and Reps. Kevin Kiley (R-Calif.) and Tom McClintock (R-Calif.) are ones worth watching. HOW REPUBLICANS LOSE MICHIGAN? “President Trump threatens to block Gordie Howe International Bridge from opening,” by The Detroit News’ Craig Mauger and Melissa Nann Burke: “The bridge project was once touted by Republican former Gov. Rick Snyder as an ‘enduring symbol of two nations’ partnership. However, in [a Truth Social] post, Trump complained that Ontario won’t allow U.S. alcoholic products on its shelves, that Canada’s prime minister, Mark Carney, was attempting to work with China, and about Canadian tariffs on U.S. dairy products.” Also noteworthy: Trump’s eccentric suggestion that China’s aim is to *check notes* kill off ice hockey in Canada and destroy the Stanley Cup. Karoline Leavitt’s explanation of that one at this afternoon’s briefing should be fun. THE LATEST IMMIGRATION RULINGS: A federal appeals court has reversed a judge’s ruling and allowed DHS for now to cancel Temporary Protected Status for some 89,000 people from Honduras, Nepal and Nicaragua, per Reuters. … And a federal judge blocked California from banning masks for federal immigration agents — but indicated that the state could succeed by expanding the ban to state law enforcement, per the LA Times.
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➡️ Sign up for POLITICO Forecast. | | | | | | | TALK OF THE TOWN | | DEMOCRACY DIES IN DARKNESS — It’s been almost a week, and the furor over mass layoffs at the Washington Post still hasn’t abated. On the contrary, the newsroom guild tells Paul Farhi for the Washingtonian that the number of journalists canned was even more staggering than previously reported: not just one-third of the newsroom, but actually in the range of 44 to 48 percent. (Several of them now have Substacks, as Jack Shafer has been keeping track of.) Tina Brown’s latest piece scorches not just Jeff Bezos — “a master of disaster” — and Will Lewis, but Fred Ryan too. On the flip side: The Post’s comms teams sharply rebutted allegations that laid-off foreign correspondents were left in the lurch to make their own way home from war zones, saying that in fact the paper is providing “transition support for our international employees.” And you can count former WSJ editor-in-chief Gerard Baker among those blaming (in part) what he calls “biased, incompetent reporting” at the Post for its travails. FIRST IN PLAYBOOK — New Dems raised $1.1 million for the DCCC at a dinner last night, according to NewDem Action Fund Chair Rep. Greg Stanton (D-Ariz.). The large center-left Democratic coalition is pushing to protect front-line candidates and flip Republican seats by backing moderate Dems. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, DCCC Chair Suzan DelBene (D-Wash.) and New Democrat Coalition Chair Brad Schneider (D-Ill.) also spoke at the fundraiser. Also SPOTTED: Reps. Pete Aguilar (D-Calif.), Nikki Budzinski (D-Ill.), Salud Carbajal (D-Calif.), Josh Harder (D-Calif.), Marilyn Strickland (D-Wash.), Jennifer McClellan (D-Va.), Andrea Salinas (D-Ore.), Kristen McDonald Rivet (D-Mich.), Kim Schrier (D-Wash.) and Janelle Bynum (D-Ore.). TRAGIC NEWS — Jeff Johnson suspended his Minnesota GOP gubernatorial campaign after his daughter died this weekend, in what authorities allege was a domestic violence-related homicide. More from the St. Cloud Times NOTABLE ON THE HILL TODAY — “Shark Tank’s” Kevin O’Leary will testify about housing and borrowing costs (and maybe “Marty Supreme”?) at the House Financial Services Committee at 10 a.m. At the same time, Chris Ruddy will be before the Senate Commerce Committee, fresh off a Donald Trump endorsement of the Nexstar-Tegna merger that the Newsmax CEO surely didn’t like. PLAYBOOK METRO SECTION — Part of 14th Street NW near Thomas Circle is closed because the city discovered that “the road is at risk of collapse due to a century-old abandoned sewer tunnel beneath the road,” per WUSA9’s Matt Pusatory. The pictures are well worth a look SPOTTED: Viggo Mortensen at a press conference that Sens. Angus King (I-Maine) and Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) held yesterday in Nuuk, Greenland. Like the northern senators, the Danish actor has been a strong supporter of Greenland’s sovereignty amid Trump’s threats. Pic OUT AND ABOUT — SPOTTED at the 2026 State of the Net conference hosted by the Internet Education Foundation at Convene Hamilton Square yesterday: Rep. April McClain Delaney (D-Md.), FCC Commissioners Anna Gomez and Olivia Trusty, Arielle Roth, Arpan Sura, Cory Gardner, Keith Sonderling, California state Sen. Scott Wiener, Tim Lordan, Morgan Reed, Shane Tews, Amie Stepanovich, Jesse Blumenthal, David Don, Michael Daniel, Helen Toner, Katie Barr, Amy Schatz, Rachel Wolbers, John Perrino, Shae Gardner, Jenn Taylor Hodges, Elise Phillips, Johanna Shelton, Chris Lewis and Harold Feld. — SPOTTED at Americans for a Clean Energy Grid’s “Transmission Champions” reception last night at the Library of Congress: Reps. Mariannette Miller-Meeks (R-Iowa) and Sean Casten (D-Ill.), FERC Commissioner David Rosner, Phil Bartlett, Joseph Sullivan, Davante Lewis, Katie Dykes, Christina Hayes and Rob Gramlich. FIRST IN PLAYBOOK — The Aspen Economic Strategy Group is announcing this year’s new members: Evan Spiegel, Patrick Collison, Gita Gopinath and Peter Orszag. MEDIA MOVES — Evan Vucci is joining Reuters as a senior photojournalist in D.C. He previously was the longtime chief photographer for the AP in D.C., where he won a Pulitzer. … Ian Fisher is returning to the NYT to lead the Washington bureau’s weekend news report. He previously worked at Bloomberg. TRANSITIONS — Mark Hamer is returning to Baker McKenzie. He most recently was a deputy assistant AG, serving as the Justice Department’s No. 2 antitrust official. More from Reuters … Jennifer Harris is joining TechNet as executive director for Texas and the South. She previously worked at the Commerce Department’s National Telecommunications and Information Administration. … … Comcast NBCUniversal’s Washington office is adding Ray Salazar as associate VP for legislative affairs and Samantha Runyon as executive director of government comms. Salazar most recently worked for House Minority Whip Katherine Clark (D-Mass.). Runyon most recently worked for ExxonMobil and is a Joe Manchin alum. … Matthew Muma is joining the American Benefits Council as senior counsel for health policy. He most recently worked for the Joint Committee on Taxation and is a Treasury alum. HAPPY BIRTHDAY: Sen. Lisa Blunt Rochester (D-Del.) … Rep. Dan Meuser (R-Pa.) … George Stephanopoulos … Bob Iger … WSJ’s Michael Gordon … Glenn Beck … POLITICO’s Greg Mott, Kaitlyn Tibbetts and Jessica Meyers … The Atlantic’s Margy Slattery … The Guardian’s Aram Roston … Emily Horne … Izzy Klein … Mindy Finn … Curt Levey of the Committee for Justice … Susan Crabtree … John Yang … Kyle Trygstad … Constituting America’s Cathy Gillespie … CNN’s Mallory Thompson … Marisa Kashino … Merck’s John Cummins … Cavan Jones of the American Society of Anesthesiologists … Alex Davidson of the National Turkey Federation … Jo-Marie St. Martin … Natalie Knight of House Judiciary … Eric Storey … Tim Graham … Matt Holt … Steve Beynon … Scott Sendek … John Sturm … Jim Pfaff of the Conservative Caucus … Joanna Belanger … Jeff Jacoby … Jim Cramer … Capitol CNCT’s Selby Tennent … Erin Logan … Jake Silverman Did someone forward this email to you? Sign up here. Send Playbookers tips to playbook@politico.com or text us on Signal here. Playbook couldn’t happen without our editor Giuseppe Macri and deputy editor Garrett Ross.
| | | | A message from AHIP: 35 Million Seniors Could See Reduced Benefits and Higher Costs
Health plans welcome reforms to strengthen Medicare Advantage. However, a proposal for flat program funding at a time of sharply rising medical costs and high utilization of care will directly impact seniors' coverage. If finalized, this proposal could result in benefit reductions and higher costs for 35 million seniors and people with disabilities when they renew their Medicare Advantage coverage in October 2026. Learn more. | | | | | | | | Follow us on X | | | | Subscribe to the POLITICO Playbook family Playbook | Playbook PM | California Playbook | Florida Playbook | Illinois Playbook | Massachusetts Playbook | New Jersey Playbook | New York Playbook | Canada Playbook | Brussels Playbook | London Playbook View all our political and policy newsletters | | Follow us | | | |
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