On the day that marks a year since former President Biden dropped out of the 2024 presidential race, his son Hunter came out swinging in a new interview.

Among the defenses of his father, he suggested the former president had been taking Ambien leading up to the June 2024 presidential debate and that the drug was partly to blame for his poor performance in the debate. “I know exactly what happened in that debate,” Hunter Biden told YouTube personality Andrew Callaghan.

In D.C., Congress is pushing toward its summer recess this week, putting the focus on government funding amid the swirling saga of Jeffrey Epstein.

Monday marks two weeks since the Justice Department and FBI issued a memo stating the disgraced financier and sex offender kept no “client list” and that he died from suicide in 2019.

A Sunday report in the New York Times said Epstein accuser Maria Farmer asked the FBI to investigate people in Epstein’s circles, including Trump.

A report by the Wall Street Journal last week on a “bawdy” letter allegedly written by Trump to Epstein triggered a Trump lawsuit against the Journal after the president said the story was false. That had the effect of uniting the MAGA movement against a common ally, and Trump later pushed for grand jury documents on the Epstein case to be released.

But it is not entirely clear that will settle the controversy, as some voices in MAGA continue to call for the release of more information by the administration.

The political spotlight will be on Texas this week, as the legislature opens a special session that will consider, among other things, a mid-decade redistricting to pump up the number of GOP-held seats. Trump has a sharp eye on that effort.

The House returns to Washington on Monday for its last week before August recess. The Senate returns, as well, but is in session a week longer before breaking. This stretch will be full of conversations surrounding Epstein, whether the documents related to him should be released and how the Justice Department has dealt with the uproar.

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• Epstein saga hangs over Congress’s sprint to summer recess
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Follow along here for updates all day.