Trump admin updates: ICE launches immigration enforcement operation in Boston

Attorneys representing former CDC Director Susan Monarez pushed back on Kennedy's narrative of the events that led to her firing last week.

The HHS secretary claimed in a hearing on Thursday, “I told her she had to resign because I asked her, 'Are you a trustworthy person?' And she said, 'No.'”

Monarez's lawyers call Kennedy's claim "false" and "patently ridiculous."

"Dr. Monarez stands by what she said in her op-ed in The Wall Street Journal, would repeat it all under oath and continues to support the vision she outlined at her confirmation hearing that science will control her decisions," her lawyers Mark Zaid and Abbe Lowell said in a statement.

"I was told to preapprove the recommendations of a vaccine advisory panel newly filled with people who have publicly expressed antivaccine rhetoric," Monarez wrote in her op-ed published Thursday.

Monarez was also asked to fire senior CDC officials, according to officials with knowledge of the situation.

-ABC News' Cheyenne Haslett

First Lady Melania Trump held the second task force meeting on artificial intelligence education, which comes as the White House focuses on utilizing and expanding the use of AI.

"In fact, I predict AI will present the single largest growth category in our nation during this administration and I won't be surprised if AI becomes known as the greatest engine," she said during Thursday's meeting.

"The robots are here. Our future is no longer science fiction," Trump said.

The meeting also comes after the first lady launched her Presidential Artificial Intelligence Challenge, geared towards students in K-12. Secretary of Education Linda McMahon attended the meeting, where she shared that grants from the Department of Education can be used for AI tools and technologies.

"We've issued a Dear Colleague letter telling anyone who has received an ED grant that AI, tools and technologies are allowable use of federal education funds. Our goal is to empower states and schools to begin exploring AI integration in a way that works best for their communities," McMahon said.

-ABC News' Hannah Demissie and Lalee Issa

Republican Rep. Thomas Massie is pressing forward on his discharge petition, which now has 215 signatures – just three short of an absolute majority of 218 signatures.

Only one Democrat, Rep. Eric Swalwell of California, has not yet signed onto the petition. Swalwell has been absent from legislative business this week as he grieves the death of his mother but has promised to sign as soon as he returns to Washington.

That would leave Massie with just two more Republicans to pin down. He told ABC News that he believes he will get the signatures by the end of September.

While Massie continues to suffer the ire of Speaker Mike Johnson and Trump, the congressman said his Epstein effort is not about targeting Trump, but creating a level of transparency that provides closure for Epstein’s victims.

“I don't think Donald Trump's name is on the list,” Massie said. “I think there are some very rich donors to the Republican Party and some, ironically, to the Democratic Party as well, who are going to be on that list, maybe not indictable offenses, but very embarrassing, and if you look at the release of documents that went from DOJ to the Oversight Committee this week, the entire flight log is redacted now. They say they're redacting to protect survivors and victims. The problem with that is they even redacted the pilot's name like the everybody on that plane wasn't a victim, so they are clearly curating that release to protect people that aren't victims.”

Even if he gets the signatures to force consideration of the bill, Massie believes Republican leaders will try to “sideline” the petition. He said that some Republicans have privately signaled “a wait and see” approach to afford the Department of Justice additional time to be more responsive to the Oversight Committee’s subpoena for Epstein records.

“Bottom line, this has got to be released to the public. I think it has to. I don't know how they're going to avoid this. It's the right thing to do,” he said.

-ABC News’ John Parkinson

President Donald Trump is set to host dozens of technology and business CEOs for a dinner on Thursday night in the newly renovated Rose Garden.

The White House extended invitations to multiple top tech leaders, including Meta founder Mark Zuckerberg, Apple CEO Tim Cook, Microsoft founder Bill Gates and OpenAI founder Sam Altman, according to a White House official.

It comes as the top leaders in the industry have cozied up to Trump as he's threatened penalties for companies that choose to keep making products overseas. Last month, Cook visited the Oval Office to publicly pledge a $600 billion investment into the United States. Zuckerberg, Pichai and Altman all attended Trump's inauguration.

Trump's czar on artificial intelligence, David Sacks, will also be in attendance. Not invited to attend is Elon Musk, the world's richest man and a close ally of Trump before their very public feud in June.

-ABC News' Lalee Ibsaa