Partial government shutdown expected to extend longer than anticipated

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries said Sunday morning that his caucus will meet later in the day to map out its next steps over its demands for reforms to the Department of Homeland Security as a partial government shutdown went into its second day.

The Senate on Friday voted to separate a DHS funding bill from five others funding other agencies for the rest of the fiscal year after reaching a deal with the White House to put it off for two weeks to negotiate Democratic demands for restrictions on Immigration and Customs Enforcement amid its immigration enforcement operation, including requiring agents to wear body cameras turned on and to not wear masks.

House Speaker Mike Johnson hoped to vote on the funding bills on Monday when the House returns under suspension of the rules, which would have required a two-thirds majority.

But on Saturday, Jeffries said Democrats will not join Republicans in expediting the passage of the Senate package, telling MSNOW, "We need a full and complete debate, and what I've made clear to House Republicans is that they cannot simply move forward with legislation taking a 'my way or the highway' approach."

Ken Cedeno/Reuters - PHOTO: The U.S. Capitol on day two of a partial government shutdown in Washington

Johnson told Fox News on Sunday that he is confident the package will pass by Tuesday.

"We'll have a lot of conversations to have with individual Republican members over the next 24 hours or so," Johnson said. "We'll get all this done by Tuesday, I'm convinced."

Johnson will now have to first pass the package through the House Rules Committee before it can be taken to the floor for a vote so Republicans can attempt to pass the package with a simple majority.

The committee announced Saturday that a markup on the Senate-passed funding package is set for Monday at 4 p.m. -- the first of several steps before the package can receive a full vote on the House floor. It is unclear if Johnson has the necessary GOP support to advance the package given his slim majority.

ABC News - PHOTO: House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries appears on ABC News'

Jeffries told ABC News' "This Week" anchor George Stephanopoulos on Sunday that Democrats want an agreement on their demands for reforms at DHS.

"We need a robust path toward dramatic reform," he told ABC News' "This Week" on Sunday. "The administration can't just talk the talk. They need to walk the walk. That should begin today, not in two weeks."

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Sunday that Trump will be the "decider" on any policy change when it comes to immigration enforcement reforms but said he is willing to negotiate with Democrats.

"Last week, the White House invited moderate Democrat senators to come to the White House and to discuss their concerns so that we can hear them out and at least see what they are trying to put on the table," Leavitt told Fox News' "Sunday Morning Futures. "Unfortunately, that meeting was blocked by their leadership, so these conversations will continue and ultimately, the president will be the decider on any policy changes."

Some Democrats questioned whether Trump really wanted change to the country's immigration enforcement policy.

Rep. Ro Khanna said he would vote against the DHS funding bill.

"I just don't see how, in good conscience, Democrats can vote for continuing ICE funding when they're killing American citizens, when there's no provision to repeal the tripling of the budget. I hope my colleagues will say no."

Democratic Sen. Chris Murphy said he hasn't seen a willingness from Trump to come to the negotiating table.

"He's not convening any process to bring Republicans together to try to reform our laws, Murphy told "Fox News Sunday." "Donald Trump wants to use the issue of immigration to divide us from each other, to try to make us believe that our neighbors, our lawful resident neighbors, are something that we have to fear."

Republican Rep. Michael McCaul criticized Border Patrol commander at large Gregory Bovino for inflaming the ICE's immigration reform effort in Minneapolis and said he thought White House border czar Tom Homan being dispatched there could deescalate tensions.

"He put his agents in a position they should never have been put in. They have no training for crowd control. Their job is to go in and remove criminal aliens, violent felons from the United States, and get them out of here," McCaul told "Face the Nation." And so, you know, Tom Homan is a consummate professional. He's been doing this for a long time. I've known him for a long time. He's going to go back to the core mission of ICE , and that's targeted law enforcement operations, not roving the streets, causing chaos."

Senate TV - PHOTO: Senate Majority Leader John Thune speaks on the floor of the Senate in Washington, Jan. 30, 2026.

Last-minute Senate vote

The latest uncertainty in the government funding saga comes after the Senate met a last-minute deadline Friday to approve the revised package of government funding bills for the rest of the fiscal year.

The vote was 71-29, with only five Republicans voting against: Sens. Rand Paul, Ted Cruz, Mike Lee, Ron Johnson and Rick Scott.

The Senate voted after Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham lifted his hold after securing a commitment from Senate Majority Leader John Thune for a vote in the coming weeks on banning sanctuary cities.

Senate TV - PHOTO: Sen. Lindsey Graham speaks on the floor of the Senate in Washington, Jan. 30, 2026.

Graham earlier Friday said he would lift his hold for a vote on his sanctuary cities bill and one which allows members of Congress to sue the government if federal investigators gain access to their phone records without their knowledge. Those provisions were stripped out of the funding package initially passed by the House.

Government funding negotiations hit snag after Democrats announce deal

The funding fight over DHS erupted in the aftermath of the death of Alex Pretti, an ICU nurse, who was killed in a shooting involving federal law enforcement in Minneapolis over the weekend.

With Senate passage in the rear-view mirror, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer laid out the pillars of reform to the Homeland Security bill that Democrats will fight to enact over the next two weeks.

"The bottom line is very simple: the American people are crying out for change," Schumer said immediately following the Senate vote Friday evening. "This is not America, not America. And when you see those images, know that something is dramatically wrong and it must change. We are fighting to change it. Will our Republican colleagues join us now?"

With only two weeks to negotiate changes, Schumer stressed that Democrats will demand an end to roving patrols, enforce accountability and mandate masks off and body-cameras turned on.

"If our colleagues are not willing to enact real change, real strong change, they should not expect Democratic votes," Schumer said. "We have only a few days to deliver real progress for the American people, the eyes of the nation are watching."

Schumer said he intends to huddle with Thune to set the parameters of negotiations -- not necessarily President Donald Trump.

"We're going to have a group of Democrats negotiate. We're going to have to negotiate with the Republicans to get this done," Schumer said. "But as we've said over and over again, they shouldn't expect our votes if they're not willing to go along with strong legislation."

"We need Democrats and Republicans in the Senate to pass this, so I'm going to talk to Thune," he said.

Partial government shutdown expected to extend longer than anticipated

House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries said Sunday morning that his caucus will meet later in the day to map out its next ...
Teenagers charged in Louisiana parade shootings that injured child, 4 others

CLINTON, La. (AP) — Authorities in Louisiana said Sunday they have arrested two teenagers in the shootings of a 6-year-old child and four others wounded during a small town's weekend parade.

The suspects, ages 19 and 15, are charged with attempted murder, obstructing justice and reckless discharge of a firearm, the East Feliciana Parish Sheriff's Office said in a statement posted on social media.

Gunfire sent people scrambling for cover Saturday during the Mardi Gras in the Country Parade in Clinton, located about 30 miles (50 kilometers) north of Baton Rouge.

All five victims were expected to survive, sheriff's Chief Criminal Deputy Bill Cox toldThe Advocateon Saturday. The department said Sunday it was unaware of any changes in the victims' conditions.

The sheriff's office said Sunday the two teenagers charged were among three people detained Saturday after they were found with guns near the parade.

The third person, a 26-year-old man, has been charged with illegally possessing a firearm, according to the sheriff's office, but investigators do not believe he was involved in the shootings.

Authorities have not given a suspected motive for the shootings. More arrests are expected, the sheriff's office statement said.

Investigators have asked for anyone with photos or video of the shooting or nearby areas to share those with authorities.

Teenagers charged in Louisiana parade shootings that injured child, 4 others

CLINTON, La. (AP) — Authorities in Louisiana said Sunday they have arrested two teenagers in the shootings of a 6-year-ol...
'Melania,' panned by critics, still makes history. What could it mean?

Critics called "Melania,"the opulent and controversial documentary from Hollywood pariah Brett Ratner, an "elaborate piece of designer taxidermy, horribly overpriced and ice-cold."

The Atlantic said that "Ratner seems desperate to find action, but there is none" in his quest to chronicle first ladyMelania Trump's life in the 20 days leading up to her husband's second inauguration in January 2025. Variety's film critic argued that "Melania," released in theaters Jan. 30, was "a piece of state-sanctioned propaganda out of 1960s Communist China."

And yet, the film still recorded a $7 million opening weekend, according to estimates Sunday, Feb. 1.

<p style=The new "Melania" documentary had a splashy premiere at the Trump Kennedy Center in Washington on Jan. 29, 2026. See which celebrities and political figures walked the red carpet, starting with President Donald Trump first lady Melania Trump.

" style="max-width:100%; height:auto; border-radius:6px; margin:10px 0;" loading="lazy" /> <p style=The first couple steps out for the world premiere.

" style="max-width:100%; height:auto; border-radius:6px; margin:10px 0;" loading="lazy" /> <p style=First lady Melania Trump

" style="max-width:100%; height:auto; border-radius:6px; margin:10px 0;" loading="lazy" /> <p style="Melania" director Brett Ratner

" style="max-width:100%; height:auto; border-radius:6px; margin:10px 0;" loading="lazy" /> <p style=U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

" style="max-width:100%; height:auto; border-radius:6px; margin:10px 0;" loading="lazy" /> <p style=Lisa Oz (from left), Mehmet Oz, Oliver Oz and Daphne Oz.

" style="max-width:100%; height:auto; border-radius:6px; margin:10px 0;" loading="lazy" /> <p style="Melania" producer and first lady adviser Marc Beckman

" style="max-width:100%; height:auto; border-radius:6px; margin:10px 0;" loading="lazy" /> Jeanine Pirro <p style=House Speaker Mike Johnson and his wife Kelly.

" style="max-width:100%; height:auto; border-radius:6px; margin:10px 0;" loading="lazy" /> <p style=U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Jennifer Rauchet

" style="max-width:100%; height:auto; border-radius:6px; margin:10px 0;" loading="lazy" /> <p style=Pete Hegseth kisses Jennifer Rauchet.

" style="max-width:100%; height:auto; border-radius:6px; margin:10px 0;" loading="lazy" /> Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins <p style=U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Mike Waltz and his wife, former U.S. Homeland Security adviser Julia Nesheiwat.

" style="max-width:100%; height:auto; border-radius:6px; margin:10px 0;" loading="lazy" /> <p style=Christie Mullin and Sen. Markwayne Mullin

" style="max-width:100%; height:auto; border-radius:6px; margin:10px 0;" loading="lazy" /> <p style=Special Presidential Envoy for Special Missions of United States Richard Grenell

" style="max-width:100%; height:auto; border-radius:6px; margin:10px 0;" loading="lazy" /> Linda McMahon <p style=Kathryn Burgum and Doug Burgum

" style="max-width:100%; height:auto; border-radius:6px; margin:10px 0;" loading="lazy" /> <p style=Kelly Loeffler and Jeffrey Sprecher

" style="max-width:100%; height:auto; border-radius:6px; margin:10px 0;" loading="lazy" /> <p style=Doug Collins and Lisa Collins

" style="max-width:100%; height:auto; border-radius:6px; margin:10px 0;" loading="lazy" /> <p style=Lee Zeldin and Diana Zeldin

" style="max-width:100%; height:auto; border-radius:6px; margin:10px 0;" loading="lazy" /> Lori Chavez-DeRemer Steve Witkoff Tham Kannalikham Scott Turner Alina Habba <p style=Brett Ratner (left) and Marc Beckman

" style="max-width:100%; height:auto; border-radius:6px; margin:10px 0;" loading="lazy" /> Brett Ratner

Melania Trump is chic in black at movie's Kennedy Center premiere

Thenew "Melania" documentaryhad a splashy premiere at the Trump Kennedy Center in Washington on Jan. 29, 2026. See which celebrities and political figures walked the red carpet, starting with President Donald Trumpfirst lady Melania Trump.

Melania Trump documentary shocks at thebox office

The movie's blockbuster status may represent the gap that continues to exist between Hollywood andPresident Donald Trump'sgrasp on his MAGA fan base.

The film's first weekend success is reminiscent of Trump's two electoral victories in 2016 and 2024, showing the family can provide shock at both the ballot box and the box office.

'Melania' promised 'unprecedented access' into first lady's private world

Produced by the first lady, "Melania" represented a comeback of sorts forembattled director Ratner, accused of sexual misconduct by multiple women – including A-list actress Olivia Munn – in 2017.

An official description called "Melania" an open window into "the 20 days leading up to the 2025 Presidential Inauguration – through the eyes of the First Lady-elect herself," promising "unprecedented access" to moviegoers.

'Melania' Trump movie reviews arrive:What critics are saying

President Trump's own second term was a comeback of sorts for his family: He left office in 2021 after the events of Jan. 6, when rioters stormed the U.S. Capitol building in Washington, DC and several high-profile staff members left the former president's orbit. The Trumps retreated to Mar-A-Lago, the family's sprawling resort in West Palm Beach, Florida and lived their private lives.

Surrounded by a slew of new friends and an army of remaining longtime loyalists, Trump again ran for president, beatingVice President Kamala Harrisin November 2024. The first lady remained on the sidelines for most of the campaign, opting to focus on her only son, 19-year-old Barron.

On Inauguration Day, the following February, she recaptured the public's imagination. Trump donned a matching dark navy blue coat and skirt with a dramatic matching brimmed hat that covered her eyes. She paired the ensemble with matching heels and gloves.

'Melania' surprises film industry with box office performance

Over the past year, she has curated her own appearances, bucking tradition for political spouses. Trump is a member of a small but mighty group of American political spouses tending to the role in their own right.

New York City first lady Rama Duwaji, U.S. second lady Usha Vance and California first partner Jennifer Siebel Newsom have also taken their own approaches to media appearances and public outings.

The ultra-private first lady has appeared, though, atPope Francis' funeral, Fourth of July festivities, the White House Easter Egg Roll and alongside her husband at other prominent events of national importance. "Melania" is the most expensive documentary in history, bought by billionaire Jeff Bezos' Amazon MGM Studios for $40 million, with an alleged$35 million spent on marketing.

First lady Melania Trump attends Amazon MGM's

She also launched herown production company, Muse Films, before the movie's theatrical release. The film is slated to stream on Amazon's Prime Video service later this year.

Alongside President Trump on Thursday,she walked the red carpet at the Trump Kennedy Centerfor the film's DC premiere, wearing a black Dolce & Gabbana buttoned skirt suit and skinny companion belt while the president was uniformed in his standard navy-blue suit and burgundy tie.

Hollywood ousted Brett Ratner. Is'Melania' Trump movie his comeback?

Celebrities including Nicki Minaj, Dr. Phil, Daphne Oz and former New York City Mayor Eric Adams attended the fête. Then on Friday,the film opened in theaters. The release, surpassing early projection numbers, came in third ($7 million) over the weekend, lagging behind a pair of horror films – survival comedy/thriller "Send Help" ($20 million) and indie scary movie "Iron Lung" ($17.9 million).

OnRotten Tomatoes, industry insiders slammed "Melania" with an awful 11% Tomatometer score. But audience tabulation using the website's Popcornmeter remains at a 99% approval rating, and the film boasted an "A" from audience-led CinemaScore measurements.

The filmperformed best in Trump strongholdslike Florida and Texas. For a woman so shrouded in mystery of her own making, Trump seemingly always finds a way to surprise both fans and, yes, the critics.

Contributing: Anthony Robledo, Brian Truitt, Edward Segarra

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY:What 'Melania' movie success means

'Melania,' panned by critics, still makes history. What could it mean?

Critics called "Melania,"the opulent and controversial documentary from Hollywood pariah Brett Ratner, an ...
Latest Batch of Epstein Files Has Global Impact

UK Ambassador to the US, Lord Peter Mandelson arrives at the Cabinet Office in central London on Wednesday June 18, 2025. Credit - Jonathan Brady—PA Images

Time

The Justice Department's (DOJ) release of files related to investigations into Jeffrey Epstein on Friday has revealed further details about his ties to powerful figures in the United States.

The new batch of some three million pages included never-before-seen communications between Epstein and Secretary of CommerceHoward Lutnick, TeslaCEO Elon Muskand billionaire Microsoft founder Bill Gates, to name a few.

The presence of someone's name or communications in the files is not proof of wrongdoing.

Read more:lintons Refuse Subpoena in Epstein Inquiry as Republicans Threaten Contempt Proceedings

But the files have also revealed Epstein's global reach, causing shockwaves far beyond the United States.

From a resignation in Slovakia's government to a terse response from India's prime minister, here is how the latest batch of Epstein files is reverberating worldwide.

A minister resigns in Slovakia

The national security adviser to Slovakia's Prime Minister Robert Fico has resigned in the wake of the latest document drop by the DOJ after his name was among those who allegedly corresponded with Epstein.

The text messages and emails appear to show a discussion between Miroslav Lajcak, a former Slovak foreign minister, and Epstein about movies, foreign affairs, and women.

In one series of text messages, a Lajcakappearsto message Epstein: "Regards from Kiev! Just to confirm that girls here are as gorgeous as ever:)".

Lajcak denied any wrongdoing and condemned Epstein's crimes in a statement, adding he was stepping down "Not because I did anything criminal or unethical," but so that Fico "does not bear political costs for something unrelated to his decisions," according to localSlovakmedia.

Prime Minister Fico announced Lajcak's decision in a video statement on Facebook, praising him as "a great diplomat." In light of calls from the opposition party for Lajcak to resign, Fico said that media coverage of the case has been "hypocritical."`

India responds to email about Modi

One email between Epstein and a "Y. Jabor", in which he discussed Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi's relationship with the U.S. and Israel, prompted a response from the Indian government on Saturday.  In the email, sent after Modi's 2017 visit to Israel, Epstein said that the prime minister "danced and sang in Israel for the benefit of the US president."

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The Indian governmentdeniedEpstein's characterization of the visit. "Beyond the fact of the Prime Minister's official visit to Israel in July 2017, the rest of the allusions in the email are little more than trashy ruminations by a convicted criminal, which deserve to be dismissed with the utmost contempt," the statement said.

Modi was the first Indian prime minister to visit Israel, and the trip was seen as a shift in relations between the two countries. Donald Trump was in his first term in office as president at the time.

More pressure on Mountbatten-Windsor and Mandelson

Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, formerly Prince Andrew, wasstrippedof his titles and evicted from his royal residence by Buckingham Palace in October 2025 after years of controversy over his well-known ties to Epstein. He is the subject of allegations from one of Epstein's most vocal victims, the late Virginia Giuffre, who said in her posthumous memoir that she was forced to have sexual encounters with Andrew when she was a teen, which the British royal has repeatedly denied.

Mountbatten-Windsor is once again in the news as the newest batch of Epstein files show photographs of the former royal leaning over a woman or girl lying on the floor, whose face has been redacted. It is unclear where the photographs were taken, as no captions or comments accompanied them.

Mountbatten-Windsor has repeatedly denied wrongdoing in relation to Epstein, and has denied Giuffre's accusations.

Beyond Mountbatten-Windsor, Peter Mandelson, Member of the House of Lords of the United Kingdom, has also been implicated in the most recent batch of Epstein files released Friday. Bank statements released in the pages suggest that Epstein made $75,000 in payments to accounts connected to Lord Mandelson. The alleged payments were separated into three $25,000 sums between 2003 and 2004.

The files also suggest that after his release from prison in 2009, Epstein sent thousands of dollars in bank transfers to Peter Mandelson's then-partner Reinaldo Avila da Silva.  A spokesperson for Mandelson toldSky News:"Neither he nor his husband, Reinaldo Avila da Silva, has any record or recollection of receiving payments in 2003 or 2004 or know whether the documentation is authentic."

"There are also multiple formatting errors in the documents and I would like JP Morgan to confirm on the record that they are certain these documents are authentic and that the individual cheques are also authentic," Lord Mandelson told Sky News.

"Until this fact checking has been achieved I maintain my original position which is that I have no record and no recollection of ever receiving these sums and that these statements are false," he continued.

Mandelson was fired as the U.K.'s ambassador to the United States in September after the country's foreign office said that a previous release of emails showed that the extent of his relationship with Jeffrey Epstein was "materially different from that known at the time of his appointment."

The new files add further political pressure on Mandelson and Mountbatten-Windsor to testify before Congress about their links to Epstein. The House Oversight Committee called on the former royal to travel to Washington for questioning.

"In terms of testifying, I have always said anybody who has got information should be prepared to share that information," Prime Minister Keir Starmer told reporters Friday.  "Epstein's victims have to be the first priority."

Contact usatletters@time.com.

Latest Batch of Epstein Files Has Global Impact

UK Ambassador to the US, Lord Peter Mandelson arrives at the Cabinet Office in central London on Wednesday June 18, 2025....
He died in a jail cell, pleading for help. No one told his father why.

COMPTON, California – The man in the suit arrived in an unmarked car on a spring morning in 2020 with the worst news James Brown had ever heard.

His 30-year-old son Jamall was dead.

Brown hadn't heard from him in the days since he was detained on a parole violation. The man – a Los Angeles County deputy sent to notify Brown for the Riverside County Sheriff's Department – would only say that Jamall had been found unresponsive in a jail cell.

"It hit me like a hammer," Brown, 77, said recently. "How did he just die?"

James Brown poses for a photo in his living room at his home in Compton, Calif., Tuesday, Dec. 2, 2025.

For five years, asdetainee after detainee died in the custody of Riverside Sheriff Chad Bianco's jails, Brown kept asking that question.

Finally, in 2025, with the help of a reporter from the Desert Sun, a member of the USA TODAY Network, Brown began turning up answers.

First came the official answer, in a report released from Bianco's coroner's office: Jamall had refused treatment for his diabetes for days, the report said. He died from diabetic complications after or during a methamphetamine overdose.

But a trove of unreleased jailhouse video and detailed internal investigative reports that current and former sheriff's employees provided to Brown and the Desert Sun told a different story.

Those reports confirm that Jamall died of diabetic complications. But they indicate it wasn't because he was rejecting medical aid. The records and video say deputies and nurses ignored Jamall and failed to provide insulin to him for nearly two days. The jail's cameras recorded him saying he was afraid he was dying. They recorded him slipping into a coma in a pile of trash on the floor of his two-man cell. They recorded deputies and nurses looking at him while he lay unconscious, but not intervening. The reports said investigators found no drugs or evidence of them in the cell after his death.

A screen capture from Riverside County jail cell footage shows Jamall Brown in his cell a day before his death in custody of the Riverside County Sheriff's Department as he pleads for help to his cellmate 4:00 a.m. Sunday, March 15, 2020.

Investigators had collected evidence of the staff's failures within hours of Jamall Brown's death, the documents indicated. But for five years, no one told Brown.

Sheriff Chad Bianco and the department's media team didn't respond to requests for comment, including detailed questions about the findings reported in this story, including those in a 6-page administrative review that detailed deputies' failings in Jamall Brown's death.

James Brown says the sheriff's department has been hiding the truth about his son's death.

"My son left this life in agony," he said. "Just because you arrested someone doesn't give you the right to watch them die. I'm still shocked that a cover-up like this is possible."

The pain of living without a son

James Brown served as a military policeman in the Marine Corps and as president of the union that represents workers at the Compton Municipal Water Department, where he worked for about 30 years. He's retired now, but said seeking the truth behind his son's death from the Riverside County Sheriff's Office felt like a full-time job.

In a pile of Father's Day cards he keeps beside his favorite recliner in his Compton home is one Jamall wrote to him in 2018: "Being a father is more than just paying bills and putting food on the table. Once you have the responsibility, you are obliged to help nurture, guide and be a willing participant in every aspect of that child's life and you've been all that plus more for me."

Jamall concluded the greeting card message saying he couldn't imagine life without his father. Two years later, Brown faced the pain of living without his son.

A father's day card written by Jamall Brown to his father, James Brown.

Jamall had been arrested several times while growing up in Compton, a city just south of Los Angeles, and had completed a prison sentence for assault. His father said he was laboring to get his life back on track while living in a tough neighborhood that could easily derail him.

In spring 2020, Jamall travelled about 65 miles east to Moreno Valley, a large suburb in Riverside County, to be near a woman he was dating. His father was not confident Jamall had a steady place to stay and wasn't surprised when he got a call from him. Jamall asked if his dad could send him some money so he could get back to Compton to meet with his parole officer.

Later that evening, Brown heard his wife pick up the phone. Jamall had been arrested and she asked if he wanted to talk to him. Frustrated, Brown declined, assuming his son would be released in a couple of days.

A police report showed that a deputy patrolling a shopping center saw a man pushing a shopping cart with a suitcase in it. The deputy asked him if he was on probation. Parole, Jamall said.

The deputy searched Jamall and his belongings, finding insulin in his luggage and two ecstasy pills in his pocket.

"During my entire interaction with Brown, I did not notice any unusual behavior," the deputy wrote. "I instructed Brown to tell the nurse at the jail he was diabetic and insulin dependent. Brown stated he understood and would tell nursing staff."

Deaths in custody surge

About two years after Jamall Brown died, deaths in custody began to surge in Bianco's department. There were 19 in 2022 alone. An investigation by The Desert Sun and The New York Times of video and internal reports found thatdeputies had ignored detainees leading up to their deaths by suicide. The county's jails also had thehighest rate of homicide in the state. At one facility three people were killed by other detainees in a matter of four months. Evidence gathered by department investigators showed that deputies at that jail had not been properly trained to do mandatory security checks.

Public scrutiny mounted when a former jail captain sued the department, saying Bianco had pressured her not to participate in a civil grand jury investigation of jail conditions and retaliated against jail staff who spoke out about misconduct.

The video and internal reports of Jamall Brown's death, recently leaked to James Brown and The Desert Sun, provide the earliest evidence of the same deputy failures and policy violations amid the recent surge in deaths in the county jails.

Chad Bianco, who is both sheriff and coroner in Riverside County, has defended his department and criticized the state attorney general's investigation into jail deaths.

Internal documents show the jail's medical staff recorded that Jamall Brown was diabetic, insulin-dependent and required blood sugar monitoring. When he was booked, he did not appear under the influence and answered questions coherently, although he mentioned he suspected he might have a mental illness and was noted as a detainee who required extra monitoring.

He spent his first night in custody at the county's central jail in Riverside, where investigators later wrote he was seen eating, sleeping and acting ordinarily.

Transferred to the county's jail in Banning, he was placed in a cell with a camera constantly recording audio and video. A Desert Sun reporter obtained an hour of clips of the video, which recorded Jamall Brown's cell constantly from the evening of March 14, 2020, to the morning of March 16, 2020.  According to the video clips and a deputy's detailed written description of all 40 hours of footage, Brown never received treatment for his diabetes during the time he was at the Banning facility.

Internal records show that soon after Jamall Brown was taken to the hospital in cardiac arrest, the department's investigators began processing about three days of video evidence that captured him losing consciousness as his blood sugar spiked and his heart stopped on the concrete floor.

In jail, Brown died of a medical condition that he had been adequately treating even while unhoused in the days prior to his arrest – a fact department investigators discovered the same day he died.

March 14-15, 2020: First night in jail

On his first night at the Banning jail, video shows that on two occasions a deputy and a nurse opened a pill slot but closed it without speaking with Jamall Brown. Yet they recorded in documents repeatedly during his stay that he had refused medical care.

At 2 a.m., after hours with little food and no medication, the camera captured Brown rubbing his stomach and moaning. He walked unsteadily to the cell's toilet, bumping into the side of the bunk, and drank water before lying down.

A deputy walked by his cell, glancing in through the window before walking away. Minutes later, a deputy is heard on the cell's intercom calling his name and asking: "Do you want your diabetic check?" When Brown didn't answer, the deputy can be heard on video saying, "I'll take your silence as a no."

Exhaustion is a symptom that the body is slipping into diabetic ketoacidosis, as is increased thirst, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. A type one diabetic, like Jamall Brown, can begin experiencing this life-threatening condition after as little as 12 hours without insulin.

A screen capture from Riverside County jail cell footage shows Jamall Brown on his top bunk as he pleads for help from his cellmate around 6:00 a.m. Sunday, March 15, 2020.

Jamall Brown didn't stir when the lights turned on the next morning and breakfast was served. Hours later, he woke up confused about what time it was, saying he didn't think the door ever opened.

"Tell 'em I'm dyin', cellie," he said to his cellmate. "Please. Tell 'em I'm diabetic."

A deputy approached the cell, shining a light inside before walking away without interacting with Jamall Brown as he lay on his bunk.

"My stomach hurts bad," he is recorded saying at about 6 a.m. "You want me to die on you?" he said with a groan. "Please, somebody please," he pleaded. No deputy responded through the cell's intercom and his cellmate told him to be quiet.

March 15, 2020: Second day in jail

On his second day in jail without medication, Jamall Brown got off his bunk and attempted to walk around, appearing dizzy.

"Something's wrong," he's recorded on camera saying. Soon after, he can be seen losing his balance, falling against the wall and sliding down.

A screen capture from Riverside County jail cell footage shows Jamall Brown having collapsed from his stool shortly before noon, Sunday, March 15, 2020. From this point, footage did not show Brown standing again before a nurse and deputy found him laying on the ground, not breathing, 19 hours and 56 minutes later.

Over the next several hours, the camera captured Jamall Brown attempting to lift himself up but falling partially into the cell's toilet. He rolled under a table and fell again near a stool. When his cellmate brought in two lunch trays, Brown didn't respond.

Meanwhile, deputies proceeded with the jail's schedule as if nothing was happening. Several deputies walked by, asking if Brown was OK. A few times, Brown's cellmate responded, once saying, "Yeah, he's all right" and another time saying, "He's down and out, fool." Still, deputies left without helping.

March 15-16, 2020: Second night in jail

Jamall Brown spent his entire second night on the floor with labored breathing and minimal movement. At around 2 a.m., on March 16, a deputy used the cell's intercom to ask, remotely: "Brown, do you want to see medical?" He repeated it several times, urging him to respond while Brown didn't appear to move.

"No," his cellmate said.

"All right, thank you," the deputy said. Officials noted that exchange in jail records, saying Jamall Brown refused a diabetic check, though he had not said a word.

For the next seven hours, three more deputies walked past the cell multiple times without looking at or speaking with Jamall Brown, who was now virtually motionless on the floor. Internal reports and video show deputies passing the cell 33 times. Sometimes staff tried to speak to Brown and got no response. Other times they didn't stop at all.

A screen capture from Riverside County jail cell footage shows Jamall Brown laying on the ground in his cell groaning and motionless as a deputy passes by his cell door about an hour before Brown is found to not be breathing, Monday, March 16, 2020. The deputy walked by the doorway and glanced at Brown through the window but did not stop.

"All inmates were breathing and accounted for," one deputy wrote of a 6:30 a.m. security check. At this point Jamall Brown had been on the ground for about 24 hours. He had been without insulin for far longer. An hour later, the same deputy added: "Nothing appeared to be out of the ordinary."

Finally, another hour later, the same deputy and a nurse noticed Brown wasn't breathing.

Aftermath of a jail death

Within three hours of Jamall Brown's death, an internal-affairs sergeant was writing a different version of what had happened.

"Inmate Brown was type-1 diabetic and had refused all medication for several days," wrote John Lenton, a sergeant at the Professional Standards Bureau, which conducts internal affairs investigations. "He was being monitored by jail medical staff in regard to his meds refusal."

In a coroner's report completed months later in September 2020, Assistant Coroner Aimee Roberts repeated that Jamall Brown had refused treatment for his diabetes and added that he had also overdosed on methamphetamine. Though cameras showed Brown collapsing on the floor, Roberts wrote instead that he was "making strange movements" such as doing "head stands" against the wall.

Of hours of video reviewed for this story, the only thing resembling a head stand is when Jamall Brown fell against the wall at an awkward angle.

Dr. Alex Charmoz, the emergency room doctor who handled Jamall Brown's case, reported jail staff told him Brown had been acting "bizarre" and was "shaky or twitchy" before he was  brought to the hospital without a pulse. Charmoz said he was told he'd declined treatment for his diabetes. Charmoz wrote that his blood sugar was at 1,111 — more than 10 times the ordinary level — and that resulting diabetic complications had killed him. Charmoz did not respond to requests for comment for this story.

James Brown looks off into the distance while talking about his son's death while incarcerated in a Riverside County jail at his home in Compton, Calif., Tuesday, Dec. 2, 2025.

In 2025, James Brown received hundreds of pages of sheriff's department reports and video clips capturing his son's final days, materials that were also provided to The Desert Sun.

The reports reveal that, within days of his death, department administrators had collected a highly detailed account of how Jamall Brown was neglected. On March 18, 2020, a deputy completed a 38-page report summarizing the video footage showing him in his cell at the jail, including minute-by-minute descriptions of each of his movements as he lay dying on the cell floor. The department declined to release this report to The Desert Sun but did not dispute its authenticity.

"I want the public to know what really happened to my son," James Brown said. "These reports and video tell a completely different story than what they were trying to sell to me. They had the audacity to let someone die right in front of their eyes."

About a month after Jamall Brown died, Sgt. Marcus Schultz wrote an internal administrative report based on the jail cell video. He found that deputies had failed to perform security checks, monitor the camera as it captured an "inmate who was in medical distress," and inaccurately interpreted the dying man's inability to speak "as a refusal for medical care."

"The proper performance of fundamental, daily responsibilities could have possibly prevented inmate Brown's death," Schultz wrote.

His report was among the documents leaked to James Brown and The Desert Sun.

None of these findings were reported to the public, mentioned in the coroner report or reflected in the department's report on the death to state regulators.

About a month after Jamall Brown died, Riverside County Sheriff's Department Sgt. Marcus Schultz wrote an internal administrative report based on the jail cell video. Among other failures, he concluded that deputies had failed to properly perform security checks.

Another of Schultz's findings excluded from the public reports directly contradicts the department's death ruling: The emergency room doctor noted that the level of methamphetamine found in Jamall Brown's system was not reliable evidence that he had used the drug in jail or that he'd suffered an overdose.

"Due to limitations of the test, medical staff were unable to determine the amount of methamphetamine in Brown's system and were, therefore, unable to determine when he last used methamphetamine," Schultz wrote. His report does not state that methamphetamine had anything to do with Brown's death. It said there was no medical evidence to indicate he was a chronic drug user.

Department officials did not respond to questions about the discrepancy in these reports.

In the aftermath of Jamall Brown's death, Schultz noted, administrators began working to address insufficient security checks. Medical staff were ordered to make sure all refusals of medical treatment were made directly to them and documented.

"No longer will an attempted intercom communication be acceptable," he wrote.

A total of  10 deputies and three nurses failed to intervene when Jamall Brown was having a medical emergency over about two days in 2020. Employment records from 2023 show that all but two deputies captured by the cameras still worked for the department. The department did not respond to questions about the eight deputies are still employed.

Included in the leaked reports is Jamall Brown's death review presentation, which is supposed to be completed within 30 days of a death. It closely reflects what is captured in the video and in the leaked internal incident reports. The presentation does not state that Jamall Brown used drugs while in jail or that he died of an overdose.

James Brown holds up an old school photo of his son, Jamall Brown, at his home in Compton, Calif., Tuesday, Dec. 2, 2025.

While James Brown long ago accepted he'll never see his son again, learning the details of his mistreatment in the care of Riverside county officials has inflicted on him a new kind of pain. He said he sometimes has trouble sleeping when he imagines what his son experienced in his final moments. As he learned more and more disturbing details, he kept fighting to learn the truth. Not just for Jamall's memory, he said, but for all the other people who've had relatives die in the county's jails in the years since.

He said he'll continue to fight for transparency from the department in light of the video and reports he now has. He said the deputies and nurses that let this happen to Jamall need to be held accountable. And he hopes the department will implement real change that puts an end to similar deaths due to neglect.

"This is all a cover up," James Brown said. "They let my son die. They lied about it. It's hurt me to my heart."

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY:Jail documents reveal how a son died on the floor, pleading for help

He died in a jail cell, pleading for help. No one told his father why.

COMPTON, California – The man in the suit arrived in an unmarked car on a spring morning in 2020 with the worst news Jame...
Top Justice Department official plays down chance for charges arising from Epstein files revelations

WASHINGTON (AP) — A top Justice Department official played down the possibility of additional criminal charges arising from theJeffrey Epstein files, saying Sunday that the existence of "horrible photographs" and troubling email correspondence does not "allow us necessarily to prosecute somebody."

Associated Press Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche takes a question from a reporter during a news conference after the Justice Department announced the release of three million pages of documents in the latest Jeffrey Epstein disclosure in Washington, Friday, Jan. 30, 2026. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite) A document with an email chain from Jeffrey Epstein illustrates the amount of redactions of personally identifiable information that the U.S. Department of Justice was required to do before release of Epstein documents, is photographed Sunday, Feb. 1, 2026. (AP Photo/Jon Elswick)

Justice Department Jeffrey Epstein

Department officials said over the summer that a review of Epstein-related records did not establish a basis for new criminal investigations.

That position remains unchanged, Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche said, even as a massive document dump since Friday has focused fresh attention on Epstein's links to powerful individuals around the world and revived questions about what, if any, knowledge the wealthy financier's associates had about his crimes.

"There's a lot of correspondence. There's a lot of emails. There's a lot of photographs. There's a lot of horrible photographs that appear to be taken by Mr. Epstein or people around him," Blanche said Sunday on CNN's "State of the Union." "But that doesn't allow us necessarily to prosecute somebody."

He said that victims of Epstein's sex abuse "want to be made whole," but that "doesn't mean we can just create evidence or that we can just kind of come up with a case that isn't there."

President Donald Trump's Justice Department said Friday that it would be releasing more than 3 million pages of documents along with more than 2,000 videos and 180,000 images under a law intended to reveal most of the material it collected during two decades of investigations into Epstein.

The fallout from the release of the files has been swift. A top official in Slovakia left his position after photos and emails revealed he had met with Epstein in the years after Epstein was released from jail. British Prime Minister Keir Starmer suggested that longtime Epstein friendAndrew Mountbatten-Windsor, formerly known as Prince Andrew, should tell U.S. investigators whether he knows about Epstein's activities.

The revelations continue

The files, posted to the department's website, included documents involving Epstein's friendship with Mountbatten-Windsor, and Epstein's email correspondence with onetime Trump adviser Steve Bannon, New York Giants co-owner Steve Tisch and other prominent contacts with people in political, business and philanthropic circles, such as billionairesBill GatesandElon Musk.

The Epstein saga has long fueled public fascination in part because of the financier's past friendships with Trump and former President Bill Clinton. Both men said they had no knowledge Epstein was abusing underage girls.

Among the newly released records was a spreadsheet created last August that summarized calls made to the FBI's National Threat Operation Center or to a hotline set by prosecutors from people claiming to have some knowledge of wrongdoing by Trump. That document included a range of uncorroborated stories involving many different celebrities, and somewhat fantastical scenarios, occasionally with notations indicating what follow-up, if any, was done by agents.

Blanche said Sunday that there were a "ton of people" named in the Epstein files besides Trump and that the FBI had fielded "hundreds of calls" about prominent individuals that were "quickly determined to not be credible."

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Some of Epstein's personal email correspondence contained candid discussions with other people about his penchant for paying women for sex, even after he served jail time for soliciting an underage prostitute. Epsteinkilled himself in a New York jailin August 2019, a month after being indicted on federal sex trafficking charges.

In one 2013 email, a person whose name was blacked out wrote to Epstein about his choice "to surround yourself with these young women in a capacity that bleeds — perhaps, somewhat arbitrarily — from the professional into the personal and back."

"Though these women are young, they are not too young to know that they are making a very particular choice in taking on this role with you," the person wrote. "Especially in the aftermath of your trial which, after all, was public and could be — indeed was — interpreted as a powerful man taking advantage of powerless young women, instead of the other way around."

In another email written in 2009, not long after Epstein had finished serving jail time for his Florida sex crime, another woman, whose name was redacted, excoriated him for breaking a promise that they would spend time alone together and try to conceive a baby.

"I find myself having to question every agreement we have made (no prostitutes staying in the house, in our bed, movies, naps, two weeks Alone, baby...)," She wrote. "Your last minute suggestion to spend THIS weekend with prostitutes is just too much for me to handle. I can't live like this anymore."

'This review is over'

Blanche said in a separate appearance on ABC's "This Week" that though there are a "small number of documents" that the Justice Department is waiting for a judge's approval before it can release, when it comes to the department's own scouring of documents, "this review is over."

"We reviewed over six million pieces of paper, thousands of videos, tens of thousands of images," Blanche said.

House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., told NBC's "Meet the Press" on Sunday that he thinks the Department of Justice is complying with the law requiring public disclosure of the Epstein files.

But Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Calif., and co-sponsor of the law requiring the Justice Department to release its Epstein files, said he did not believe the department had fully complied. He said survivors are upset that many of their names accidentally had come out without redactions and they want to make sure the rest of the files come out.

Blanche said each time the department has learned that a victim's name was not properly redacted, it has moved quickly to fix the problem but that those mistakes account for a tiny fraction of the overall materials.

The AP is reviewing the documents released by the Justice Department in collaboration with journalists from Versant, CBS and NBC. Journalists from each newsroom are working together to examine the files and share information about what is in them. Each outlet is responsible for its own independent news coverage of the documents.

Top Justice Department official plays down chance for charges arising from Epstein files revelations

WASHINGTON (AP) — A top Justice Department official played down the possibility of additional criminal charges arising fr...

 

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