The Home won’t vote on a decision calling for the discharge of some paperwork associated to Jeffrey Epstein earlier than the August recess, Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) introduced on Monday, regardless of rising GOP outcry over the Trump administration’s dealing with of the case.
The information got here after the Home Guidelines Committee superior the measure final week, and because the decrease chamber prepares to interrupt for the weeks-long August recess on Thursday.
Requested if the Home will vote on the decision earlier than leaving Washington, Johnson advised reporters: “No.”
The Speaker mentioned he needs to depart time for the administration to behave on the matter earlier than transferring forward with congressional motion. Final week, President Trump ordered Legal professional Basic Pam Bondi to request that the grand jury transcripts within the Epstein case be unsealed. Trump has tried to downplay the matter, urging Republicans to drop the problem.
“Here’s what I would say about the Epstein files: There is no daylight between the House Republicans, the House, and the president on maximum transparency,” Johnson mentioned within the Capitol on Monday. “He has said that he wants all the credible files related to Epstein to be released. He’s asked the attorney general to request the grand jury files of the court. All of that is in process right now.”
“My belief is we need the administration to have the space to do what it is doing and if further Congressional action is necessary or appropriate, then we’ll look at that,” he added. “But I don’t think we’re at that point right now because we agree with the president.”
Johnson’s announcement got here lower than one week after Republicans on the Home Guidelines Committee superior a non-binding decision calling for the discharge of some info associated to the case involving Epstein, a convicted intercourse offender. It particularly directs Bondi to publicize “all credible” paperwork, communications and metadata associated to the investigations of Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell, who was convicted of intercourse trafficking, however permits her to make exemptions.
The panel superior the decision after GOP lawmakers on the committee voted down an identical measure earlier within the week that was spearheaded by Democrats. Republicans on the panel took warmth from the MAGA base after opposing the measure, which prompted the vote on the GOP-crafted laws final week.
Requested final week if he would stage a vote on the laws Johnson stopped wanting making any commitments, suggesting the aim was to present Republicans on the panel political cowl.
“The Republicans on the Rules Committee, most of them that were present, voted against Democrat amendments to try to hijack that. That was the right thing for them,” Johnson mentioned final week. “They were wrongfully tarred and feathered by people who did not understand what was happening and said that they were covering up for they were in favor of concealing Epstein files. It’s simply not true.”
“So the resolution that was advanced tonight in the Rules Committee was for them to go on record and say no, of course, we’re for transparency, of course,” he continued. “Every single one of the Republicans on the Rules Committee are for transparency and for releasing the files, just as the president of the United States is, and they wanted that to make crystal clear. Make it crystal clear. I think their vote tonight did.”
Nonetheless, there’s deep frustration amongst some Republicans over the administration’s dealing with of the case. Trump campaigned on releasing the information and many individuals now in his Cupboard helped amplify theories about what was in them.
Underscoring that sentiment, Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) has teamed up with Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) on a decision to launch the information within the case. The pair is vowing to begin a discharge petition for the laws in an try and drive it to the ground. The decision already has at the least 10 GOP co-sponsors.
Johnson on Monday downplayed the trouble.
“Discharge petitions are never a good idea in the House,” he advised reporters on Monday. “It is a tool of the minority party, not the majority. The majority party has stated its position, and it is mine and it is the president’s, that we want maximum disclosure. So the rest of it is a political game that Democrats are playing and I hope Republicans won’t go into that.”
Different rank-and-file Republicans — together with among the president’s closest allies — have expressed their displeasure with how the administration has approached the state of affairs.
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.), one of many president’s prime supporters on Capitol Hill, aired an ominous message Monday morning.
“If you tell the base of people, who support you, of deep state treasonous crimes, election interference, blackmail, and rich powerful elite evil cabals, then you must take down every enemy of The People. If not. The base will turn and there’s no going back. Dangling bits of red meat no longer satisfies. They want the whole steak dinner and will accept nothing else,” she wrote on X.
