Home Republicans who had been at odds all week over the Trump administration’s dealing with of Jeffrey Epstein disclosures are holding their breaths to see if the tsunami of criticism from their base over the matter is lastly subsiding.
GOP members on the Home Guidelines Committee voted in favor of a decision directing Lawyer Basic Pam Bondi to launch extra supplies referring to the late rich and linked intercourse offender. President Trump relented and directed Bondi to request grand jury testimony from the Epstein case be unsealed. And Republicans are banding collectively to dismiss and criticize the Wall Road Journal’s report a couple of “bawdy” birthday letter Trump despatched greater than 20 years in the past.
However none of these developments have the load to totally put the Epstein matter to relaxation.
The Guidelines Committee decision, for starters, doesn’t have any authorized weight to power the Trump administration to launch any supplies. As a substitute, it requires the disclosure of some data whereas giving Bondi the flexibility to withhold some parts.
Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas), one of many Guidelines panel members who voted to advance the decision, dismissed that criticism — arguing {that a} binding invoice would go nowhere within the Senate and do little to power launch of supplies even when Trump did signal it. It’s higher, he mentioned, to have a minimum of a unified assertion from Republicans, and set the stage for different potential oversight.
“If they don’t” launch the Epstein supplies, Roy mentioned, “then we have now the powers [in] Congress to then do no matter Congress can do, which is what — maintain hearings, have individuals come testify, have oversight, energy of the purse. These are our precise powers.”
However it’s unclear if Republicans will even make that unified assertion. Home GOP leaders haven’t dedicated to convey maintain a ground vote on the decision and refusing to take action might spark outcry from GOP lawmakers who’re most incensed by the Epstein saga and are pushing to see the data.
“We’ll determine what happens with all that,” Johnson mentioned when requested by The Hill if he’ll put the decision on the ground. “There’s a lot developing. The president made his statements this afternoon, he’s asked the attorney general to release the information, I’m certain that she will, and everybody can make their own decisions about that.”
Pressed on the matter, he equally demurred, saying: “We will see how all this develops.”
“We’re in line with the White House, there’s no daylight between us,” he added. “We want transparency, and I think that will be delivered for the people.”
It’s attainable, then, that the decision serves as little else however political cowl for the Republican members of the Guidelines Committee, who had been lambasted for days after voting down a Democratic modification in assist of releasing extra Epstein materials earlier within the week. The panel’s members delayed ultimate passage on the primary Division of Authorities Effectivity (DOGE) cuts to public broadcasting and overseas assist as they negotiated a committee vote on the GOP Epstein decision.
One other Epstein-release effort threatens to maintain the difficulty alive in Congress, although.
Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) and Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) have promised to file a discharge petition to attempt to circumvent GOP management and power a vote on their Epstein disclosures invoice. They would wish to succeed in 218 signatures — and have already got 14 different cosponsors on the measure, together with 10 different Republicans.
The petition can open as quickly as subsequent week, however there’s a ready interval earlier than it might power ground motion — which means the matter that has sharply cut up Trump’s base might nonetheless be a dwell difficulty weeks from now, when Congress returns from the upcoming August recess.
Whereas the discharge petition lingers, some who’ve known as for extra disclosures are praising Trump’s transfer to direct Bondi to request that courts unseal testimony from the Epstein case.
“This is the right course of action. Thank you @AGPamBondi and @realDonaldTrump,” Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) wrote on X in response to Trump’s announcement.
However others be aware that testimony transcripts are only a fraction of the supplies that would give new insights into different wealthy and highly effective individuals accused of taking part within the abuse of younger women, as Epstein did.
Rep. Dan Goldman (D-N.Y.), a former federal prosecutor, made that case on X late Thursday night time, shortly after Trump’s announcement, telling Bondi: “Nice try.”
“What about videos, photographs and other recordings? What about FBI 302’s (witness interviews)? What about texts and emails? That’s where the evidence about Trump and others will be,” Goldman wrote. “Grand jury testimony will only relate to Epstein and Maxwell.”
However because the Epstein outrage saga dragged on, Trump acquired a lift — albeit a counterintuitive one — with the discharge of a Wall Road Journal article outlining his previous connections to Epstein, full with an outline of a “bawdy” fiftieth birthday letter that had a doodle of a unadorned girl.
“Enigmas never age,” Trump’s birthday message to Epstein reportedly mentioned, ending: “May every day be another wonderful secret.”
The report clearly infuriated the president, who vigorously denied the report and asserted he “never wrote a picture in my life.” He threatened to sue the Wall Road Journal and its proprietor, Rupert Murdoch.
However the report additionally had the impact of unifying Republicans in bashing the report — even those that had damaged with Trump over releasing extra Epstein materials.
Rep. Warren Davidson (R-Ohio) known as the report “nonsense.”
“If President Trump had committed real crimes, Democrats wouldn’t have needed to make up stuff for their lawfare schemes. If this were true, it would have been used,” Davison posted on X Thursday night time.
Even Elon Musk — who helped turbocharge the Epstein saga final month when he mentioned Trump was talked about within the information — got here to the president’s protection, declaring that “the letter sounds bogus.”
Rep. Tim Burchett (R-Tenn.) mentioned that with the week’s developments, the general public outrage will “eventually” die down.
“But I don’t think totally,” Burchett added.
