The Latest: Jack Smith set for private interview with lawmakers about Trump investigations

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Former Justice Department special counsel Jack Smith is set for a closed-door interview with House Republicans on Wednesday after lawmakers rebuffed his offer to testify publicly about his investigations into President Donald Trump.

The private deposition is part of an ongoing investigation by the Republican-led House Judiciary Committee into the Justice Department’s criminal inquiries of Trump during the Biden administration. Smith was subpoenaed earlier this month to provide both testimony and documents, and his lawyers indicated that he would cooperate with the congressional demand despite having volunteered more than a month earlier to answer questions publicly before the committee.

Trump says he will address the nation on Wednesday night: Trump announced his plans in a post on his social media site, saying he will speak live from the White House at 9 p.m. EST. White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters that the president will discuss what he accomplished this year, the first of his second term, and his plans for the next three years.

And the West Wing went into damage control after Trump’s understated but influential chief of staff, Susie Wiles, criticized Attorney General Pam Bondi’s handling of the Jeffrey Epstein case and offered an unvarnished take on her boss and others in his orbit in interviews published Tuesday in Vanity Fair

Here’s the latest:

The Senate Commerce committee is expected to question Brendan Carr Wednesday about how he pressured broadcasters to take ABC late-night host Jimmy Kimmel off the air.

As chairman of the nation’s top broadcast regulator, Carr has closely aligned with Trump’s aggressive posture toward media outlets the administration views as hostile, launching Federal Communications Commission investigations into ABC, CBS and NBC News, in addition to some local stations.

ABC announced Kimmel’s suspension hours after Carr’s “We can do this the easy way or the hard way” warning. The show returned to air within a week amid bipartisan criticism.

“It is unbelievably dangerous for government to put itself in the position of saying ‘we’re going to decide what speech we like and what we don’t’,” Senate Commerce chair Ted Cruz said.

Trump isn’t alone in questioning the lack of video that might clearly identify the gunman who fatally shot two students and wounded nine others in a building at the edge of Brown University ’s campus before escaping into the surrounding neighborhood. Both authorities and community members are raising questions about campus security.

But some others say the attention on security measures does little to address the real issue.

“The issue isn’t the doors, it’s the guns,” said Zoe Kass, a senior who fled the engineering building as police stormed in Saturday. After spending of her life in schools where every door was locked and school shootings continued to persist, Kass said such security measures only created “the illusion of safety.”

In his latest commentary on the Brown University shooting that killed two students, the president suggests the campus should have had more video surveillance.

“Why did Brown University have so few Security Cameras? There can be no excuse for that. In the modern age, it just doesn’t get worse!!!” Trump posted on Truth Social.

Brown President Christina Paxson said the campus has 1,200 cameras, though none captured the shooter clearly. “I have been deeply saddened by people questioning that,” she said Tuesday. “As time goes on, there is a natural instinct to assign responsibility for tragic events like this ... but the shooter is responsible.”

Authorities released a video timeline potentially showing the shooter; they’re seeking additional footage from the public. No arrests have been made.

Trump called it “a school problem” when asked about authorities, including the FBI, not having a suspect.

House Republican leaders are determined to push ahead with a GOP health care bill that excludes efforts to address the soaring monthly premiums millions of Americans will soon endure as pandemic-era tax credits for people who buy insurance through the Affordable Care Act expire at year’s end.

Speaker Mike Johnson had discussed the prospect of allowing more politically vulnerable GOP lawmakers a chance to vote on their amendment that would temporarily extend pandemic-era subsidies for ACA coverage. But after days of private talks, leadership sided with the more conservative wing of the conference, which has assailed the subsidies as propping up a failed ACA marketplace.

The maneuvering surrounding the health care vote all but guarantees that many Americans will see substantially higher insurance costs in 2026. In the Senate, a bipartisan group was still trying to come up with a compromise to extend the subsidies, which fueled this year’s government shutdown. But senators made clear that any potential legislation would likely wait until January, after the holiday break.

▶ Read more about the GOP’s plan

Trump has said for weeks said that the U.S. will move its military pressure campaign beyond the water and start strikes on land. His announcement Tuesday night he’s ordering a naval blockade of all “sanctioned oil tankers” is ramping up pressure on Venezuela’s authoritarian leader Nicolás Maduro.

Trump accused Venezuela of using oil to fund drug trafficking and other crimes and vowed to continue military pressure. “It will only get bigger, and the shock to them will be like nothing they have ever seen before — Until such time as they return to the United States of America all of the Oil, Land, and other Assets that they previously stole from us.”

“On his social media, he assumes that Venezuela’s oil, land, and mineral wealth are his property,” Venezuela’s government responded in a statement. “Consequently, he demands that Venezuela immediately hand over all its riches. The President of the United States intends to impose, in an utterly irrational manner, a supposed naval blockade on Venezuela with the aim of stealing the wealth that belongs to our nation.”

Congress is divided over supporting or challenging the U.S. military strikes on boats in the Caribbean and eastern Pacific that have killed at least 95 people.

▶ Read more about the blockade

Former Justice Department special counsel Jack Smith is set for a closed-door interview with House Republicans on Wednesday after lawmakers rebuffed his offer to testify publicly about his investigations into President Trump.

The private deposition is part of an ongoing investigation by the Republican-led House Judiciary Committee into the Justice Department’s criminal inquiries of Trump during the Biden administration. Smith was subpoenaed earlier this month to provide both testimony and documents, and his lawyers indicated that he would cooperate with the congressional demand despite having volunteered more than a month earlier to answer questions publicly before the committee.

Smith is expected to discuss both of his investigations of Trump but will not answer questions that call for grand jury materials, which are restricted by law, according to a person familiar with the investigation who insisted on anonymity to discuss the interview. He is also expected to correct what he regards as mischaracterizations from Republicans about his work, including about his team’s use of cellphone records belonging to certain GOP lawmakers, the person said.

▶ Read more about the closed-door interview

Warner Bros. urged its shareholders Wednesday to reject a hostile takeover bid from Paramount Skydance, saying that a rival bid from Netflix will be better for customers.

Paramount is offering $30 per Warner share to Netflix’s $27.75. Paramount seeks control of the entire company — including cable stalwarts CNN and Discovery — while the Netflix bid, if approved by regulators and shareholders, will close only after Warner completes its previously announced separation of its cable operations.

In its appeal to shareholders, Paramount noted its offer also contains more cash than Netflix’s bid — $18 billion more — and argued that it’s more likely to pass scrutiny from the Trump administration, a big concern given his habit of injecting himself in American business decisions.

Paramount is run by David Ellison, the son of Oracle CEO and close Trump ally Larry Ellison. A private equity firm owned by Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, is no longer backing the Paramount deal, the firm confirmed Tuesday.

President Donald Trump is going to Dover Air Force Base in Delaware for a dignified transfer for the two Iowa National Guard members killed in an attack in the Syrian desert.

Trump will travel to Delaware on Wednesday. The ritual at Dover Air Force Base honors U.S. service members killed in action and is one of the most solemn duties undertaken by the commander in chief. Trump has called it “the toughest thing” he has to do as president.