WASHINGTON (OSV News) — The Trump administration faced increasing political controversy over its handling of documents surrounding the Jeffrey Epstein case, just as Catholic groups are pressing for new bills to fight human trafficking and protect children.
The same week in Washington, Congress approved a $9 billion rescissions package with cuts for international aid programs and public broadcasting, but sparing PEPFAR, while President Donald Trump suggested his administration would not enforce a longstanding policy against houses of worship endorsing candidates for political office at risk of their tax-exempt status.
Trump Administration Grapples with Epstein Fallout
As Trump allies pushed the administration to release documents in the sex-trafficking investigation into Epstein, a multimillionaire who was found dead in prison of an apparent hanging in 2019, President Donald Trump appeared disinclined to do so. He recently argued on social media that the case files were designed to undermine him.
“What’s going on with my ‘boys’ and, in some cases, ‘gals?'” Trump wrote on his website Truth Social July 12. “They’re all going after Attorney General Pam Bondi, who is doing a FANTASTIC JOB! We’re on one Team, MAGA, and I don’t like what’s happening.”
Trump called the controversy a “hoax.”
Although Trump’s association with Epstein was previously known, they reportedly had a “falling out” in 2004, before Epstein’s first indictment in 2006.
As calls within his party to release the case files intensified, The Wall Street Journal reported Trump sent a “bawdy” letter to Epstein for his 50th birthday in 2003.
The Journal’s report said the letter attributed to Trump concludes: “A pal is a wonderful thing. Happy Birthday — and may every day be another wonderful secret.”
Trump denied the letter and called it a fake. In a series of social media posts, Trump said he would sue the publication and its owner, calling it a “Disgusting and Filthy Rag.”
Trump later said he would direct the Justice Department to seek the release of “all pertinent” grand jury testimony in the case.
The same week this all transpired, representatives of the Alliance to End Human Trafficking and the National Advocacy Center of the Sisters of the Good Shepherd spoke at a Capitol Hill press conference July 16 to advocate Congress take action on three bills to fight trafficking.
One bill, the Frederick Douglass Trafficking Victims Prevention and Protection Reauthorization Act (H.R. 2961), is a reauthorization of the Trafficking Victims Protection Act first adopted in 2000. Another, the Trafficking Survivors Relief Act (H.R. 1379) would vacate and expunge convictions of trafficked persons who committed nonviolent crimes, such as participating in identity fraud or selling drugs.
The third bill, The Kids Online Safety Act (S.1748), introduced in the Senate by Sen. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., specifies a “duty of care” for online platforms, saying they “shall exercise reasonable care in the creation and implementation of any design feature to prevent and mitigate” harms to minors “where a reasonable and prudent person would agree that such harms were reasonably foreseeable by the covered platform and would agree that the design feature is a contributing factor.”
Congress Approves $9 billion Rescissions Package, Spares PEPFAR
Both chambers of Congress approved legislation to rescind approximately $9 billion in previously appropriated funds for international aid programs and public broadcasting, among other cuts. However, cuts to PEPFAR, the U.S. government’s global effort to combat HIV/AIDS, were removed from the package, with the White House’s agreement.
The legislation, known as a rescissions package, will cancel billions of dollars in funding that had previously been approved for spending, and will codify cuts to programs targeted by the Department of Government Efficiency, formerly spearheaded by Tesla CEO Elon Musk, who has since had a falling out with Trump.
The cuts include funds previously designated and approved for the now-shuttered U.S. Agency for International Development, also known as USAID, as well as those for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which funds NPR and PBS and provides grants to several hundred local radio and TV stations, nearly half of them in rural areas.
However, cuts to PEPFAR, the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, were removed from the bill as part of an effort to secure support from enough Republican senators to pass the bill without Democratic support.
Authorized by Congress and President George W. Bush in 2003, PEPFAR is the largest global health program devoted to a single disease. It is credited with saving 25 million lives from AIDS and with scaling back the epidemic’s spread.
Catholic Relief Services, the overseas charitable arm of the Catholic Church in the U.S., has advocated for U.S. foreign aid to continue on a new path shaped by Catholic principles. It expressed concern over the cuts, but emphasized the importance of saving PEPFAR, a program it has helped implement overseas.
Trump Indicates IRS Policy Change for Houses of Worship
Trump on July 15 suggested his administration would not enforce a longstanding policy against houses of worship endorsing candidates for political office at risk of their tax-exempt status.
During remarks at a White House Faith Office summit, Trump argued, “God is once again welcomed back into our public square.”
Tax-exempt nonprofits, including houses of worship, have for decades been barred from making such endorsements to preserve that status under a provision in the tax code called the Johnson Amendment. Trump has previously stated his opposition to that policy in his first term, but suggested he would not enforce it in his second.
“I said, ‘You have more power than anybody, but you’re not allowed to use your power.’ I said, ‘We’re going to get rid of that, because people want to hear what you have to say more than anybody else,'” Trump said. “You were even afraid to talk about it. But they’re not afraid any longer, and I think they appreciate it.”
Trump’s remarks follow a lawsuit by the National Religious Broadcasters and several churches against the IRS over that policy, arguing that it infringes on their First Amendment rights, both to freedom of speech and religion.
But IRS Commissioner Billy Long said in a court filing in that case that when a house of worship speaks on “matters of faith” concerning “electoral politics viewed through the lens of religious faith, it neither ‘participate(s)’ nor ‘intervene(s)’ in a ‘political campaign.'”
The Catholic Church will maintain its position of not endorsing particular candidates for elected office, a spokesperson for the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops said in response to the possible IRS shift.
US Destroys 500 Metric Tons of Emergency Food Aid
The State Department acknowledged it destroyed 500 metric tons of emergency food aid that was stored in a warehouse in the Middle East, calling the destruction necessary because the food had expired.
Tammy Bruce, the department’s spokesperson, said at a July 17 press briefing, “The fact (is) that if something is expired, we will destroy it. It’s a matter of whether or not it’s safe to distribute.”
The Atlantic reported USAID previously spent about $800,000 on the food, high-energy biscuits designed to serve as a stopgap measure for young children in emergencies, and the food expired amid the Trump administration’s pause on foreign assistance. The Atlantic reported it would cost an additional $130,000 to incinerate the expired food.
“There is a dynamic there where we’re going to destroy — and have, we have before — the emergency food rations in particular that might expire, and then replenish that,” Bruce said.
Bruce said destruction would not impact future distribution of similar assistance.
Opponents of Catholic Charter School Drop Suit after Supreme Court Ruling
A group of Oklahoma parents seeking to block the establishment of what would have been the nation’s first Catholic charter school dropped their lawsuit following a deadlocked ruling on the proposed school from the Supreme Court in May.
An effort by the Archdiocese of Oklahoma City and the Diocese of Tulsa and Eastern Oklahoma to establish the St. Isidore of Seville Catholic Virtual School was approved by a state school board in 2023, but was challenged in court by the state’s attorney general. He argued a religious charter school with public funds would be a violation of both the constitutional separation of church and state and Oklahoma’s state law. But supporters argued its application met all criteria for approval as a charter school and should not be discriminated against for its religious identity.
On May 22, an evenly-divided Supreme Court sidestepped a major ruling in the case, effectively blocking the effort. The 4-4 ruling left in place a previous decision by the Oklahoma Supreme Court, which found the establishment of St. Isidore as a publicly-funded religious school would violate state law and the Constitution.
Rachel Laser, president and CEO of Americans United for Separation of Church and State, one of the groups representing those parents, said in a statement they were “proud to work closely with Oklahomans to protect inclusive public education and religious freedom.”
“We won’t let them turn Oklahoma’s public schools into Sunday schools,” Laser said, adding they would continue to litigate similar cases.
Justice Amy Coney Barrett, who may have otherwise been a decisive vote, recused herself from any involvement in the case. No official reason was given by the court for her decision, but Barrett was previously a professor at Notre Dame Law School, which worked on behalf of the proposed Catholic charter school.
Archbishop Paul S. Coakley of Oklahoma City and Bishop David A. Konderla of the Diocese of Tulsa and Eastern Oklahoma said in a written statement in May about the outcome, “Families across the state of Oklahoma deserve the educational opportunities presented by St. Isidore of Seville Catholic Virtual School. We are disappointed that the Oklahoma State Supreme Court’s decision was upheld in a 4-4 decision without explanation.”
Kate Scanlon is a national reporter for OSV News covering Washington. Follow her on X @kgscanlon.
