☕ Daily Brief: The Charlie Kirk Trial

💰 DHS shutdown finally ends — except for border agencies. The House passed a Senate-backed plan funding the Department of Homeland Security except for ICE and Customs and Border Protection. The shutdown began in February after Democrats demanded immigration enforcement reforms. Republicans plan to fund the excluded agencies through reconciliation, bypassing the 60-vote threshold Democrats used to block full funding.

📈 Trump launches retirement accounts matching federal employee plans. President Trump introduced Trump IRAs, giving Americans access to the same Thrift Savings Plans federal employees enjoy. The president stated from the Oval Office that “low-income Americans will be eligible to receive up to $1,000 per year in matching funds deposited directly into their accounts.”

📱 Mike Lee pushes bill to limit secret phone record seizures. Sen. Mike Lee's (R-UT) NDO Fairness Act would require federal prosecutors to notify subjects when seizing phone records unless a judge approves a warrant. The legislation responds to Biden's Arctic Frost investigation, where officials secretly seized records from Republican lawmakers investigating the 2020 election. The bill has bipartisan support and White House backing.

📝 Jeffrey Epstein's suicide note remains sealed seven years later. Epstein reportedly wrote a note proclaiming his innocence before his 2019 death, which his cellmate Nicholas Tartaglione found tucked in a book. The note supposedly read "Time to say goodbye" and claimed investigators had "found nothing" despite months of searching. A federal judge sealed it as part of Tartaglione's case, and DOJ investigators said they've never seen it.