Republican rebels on Wednesday ramped up the strain on their occasion to pressure the Trump administration to launch its recordsdata on Jeffrey Epstein, internet hosting victims of the convicted intercourse offender on the Capitol, the place they delivered harrowing pleas for Congress to behave.
The dramatic demonstration appeared to go away most Republicans unmoved, nonetheless, and GOP leaders stepped up their very own efforts to defuse the Epstein controversy by approving another invoice designed to bolster an ongoing investigation by the Home Oversight and Authorities Reform Committee.
The competing maneuvers have created a form of stalemate — no less than for now — between the clashing GOP factions in a debate that’s ruptured their occasion and infuriated the MAGA loyalists who helped propel President Trump into the White Home for a second time.
On one aspect, the rebels — led by Reps. Thomas Massie (Ky.) and Marjorie Taylor Greene (Ga.) — are in need of the Republican help they should compel the Justice Division (DOJ) to launch its Epstein recordsdata. Their discharge petition is 2 Republicans shy of forcing that vote.
On the opposite aspect, Speaker Mike Johnson (La.) and his management crew look like a great distance from quelling the interior revolt over the destiny of the delicate paperwork. And the looks of the Epstein victims on Capitol Hill sparked a media frenzy that has made that process solely more durable.
The deadlock means the difficulty is for certain to hover over Trump and the GOP convention properly into September, creating new complications for Republican leaders as they scramble to stave off a authorities shutdown on the finish of the month.
The battle has been brewing all summer time, since Trump’s Justice Division — which is led by officers who beforehand vowed to launch the Epstein recordsdata — reversed course in July to say the case was closed and no further disclosures had been merited.
The change of tune infuriated lots of Trump’s MAGA supporters, prompted Massie and Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) to suggest laws forcing the DOJ’s hand and led to Wednesday’s emotional press convention on the Capitol, the place 9 survivors of Epstein’s sexual abuse hammered the federal government for holding the recordsdata secret and accused Congress of defending the wealthy and highly effective on the expense of assault survivors.
“We are not asking for pity. We are here demanding accountability, and I’m demanding justice,” stated Lisa Phillips, who stated she was taken to Epstein’s non-public island in 2000. “Congress should select: Will you proceed to guard predators, or will you lastly shield survivors?”
The occasion was organized by Khanna and Massie, and the victims made clear they need Congress to vote on their bipartisan invoice — and endorse the discharge petition if GOP leaders received’t convey it to the ground voluntarily.
“All of them are on the same page,” stated Bradley Edwards, a lawyer representing lots of the victims. “Unequivocally, redact personally identifying information and release everything else.”
Johnson has rejected these calls, warning that the Khanna-Massie invoice isn’t written rigorously sufficient to forestall the discharge of private info that would harm the victims. Shortly after the victims spoke Wednesday, he and his management crew staged a vote on their various invoice, which goals to advance the Oversight Committee’s probe.
The Speaker stated that’s the popular avenue as a result of it “has the force of law, will protect victims, does not require Senate approval, and is already underway and delivering results.”
Critics of the invoice disagree, saying Johnson’s proposal lacks the tooth to compel the DOJ to launch any recordsdata it desires to maintain below wraps. Massie, for one, stated the hundreds of DOJ paperwork launched by the Oversight panel Tuesday had been “managed by the White House” and the Johnson invoice is merely “a polite request to the DOJ to police themselves.”
“They are redacting things to prevent embarrassment. They’re not redacting things to protect victims. And in the process of preventing embarrassment, they’re hiding some criminals,” Massie stated. “You can’t trust them. You can’t let them curate all of the evidence that implicates the DOJ and their best friends.”
From the White Home, Trump weighed in on the controversy even because the victims had been talking on the Capitol. Speaking to reporters within the Oval Workplace, he framed the Epstein controversy as a “hoax,” devised by Democrats, to harm him politically.
“It’s really a Democrat hoax, because they’re trying to get people to talk about something that’s totally irrelevant to the success we’ve had as a nation since I’ve been president,” Trump stated.
Trump’s characterization infuriated the Epstein victims on the Capitol, who wasted no time pushing again towards the president. Certainly one of them, Haley Robson, stated she’s a registered Republican and challenged Trump to satisfy along with her throughout her go to to Washington.
“These women are real. We’re here in person,” she stated. “There is no hoax. The abuse was real.”
A White Home official additionally stepped into the controversy Wednesday with a warning to any Republicans who is likely to be weighing a transfer to signal Massie’s discharge petition.
“Helping Thomas Massie and Liberal Democrats with their attention-seeking, while the DOJ is fully supporting a more comprehensive file release effort from the oversight committee, would be viewed as a very hostile act to the administration,” the official stated.
That prompted an outcry from Greene, a outstanding Trump ally, who referred to as the official “a coward.”
“The ‘hostile act’ was Jeffrey Epstein raping 14-year-old girls,” she stated Wednesday in an interview with Actual America’s Voice, a conservative outlet. “That was the ‘hostile act’ and it’s not a hoax.”
Nonetheless, Greene is one in all solely 4 Republicans to endorse the discharge petition, together with Massie and Reps. Nancy Mace (S.C.) and Lauren Boebert (Colo.). And it’s unclear whether or not supporters will discover two extra GOP lawmakers to buck the president.
Massie stated he’s holding out hope his Republican colleagues will return to their districts and face strain to take action from conservative voters clamoring for extra transparency from the federal authorities.
“Where are the men on the Republican side of the aisle? They need to step up and just basically tell the White House, ‘Look, I support your ideology at the White House, but on this issue, you’re wrong,” he stated.
“Eighty % of the bottom — 80 % of the individuals who elected Donald Trump — need these recordsdata launched. And the opposite 20 % aren’t listening to the difficulty,” he added. “So it is the best factor coverage clever and it is the best factor politicalwise. They only need to disassociate themselves from a couple of billionaire donors that they really feel indebted to.”
Emily Brooks contributed.
