Home Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) has claimed that the Democrats speeding towards a vote subsequent week to launch recordsdata linked to the intercourse trafficking investigation into convicted intercourse offender Jeffrey Epstein is part of the social gathering’s “entire game plan.”
“President Trump has clean hands. He’s not worried about it. I talk to him all the time. He has nothing to do with this. He’s frustrated that they’re turning it into a political issue,” the Louisiana politician instructed host Shannon Bream on “Fox News Sunday.”
Johnson known as the transfer “not surprising because the Democrats have nothing else to talk about.”
“What have they accomplished in 10 months? Epstein is their entire game plan,” he added.
Johnson’s remarks got here after Bream performed again a clip of Home Minority Chief Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) saying, “The American people just deserve the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth as it relates to the Epstein files.”
Jeffries torched the GOP and known as out “Trump and his minions” for making a “big deal” in regards to the recordsdata for years however later “trying to bury this information” now “all of a sudden [since] they’re in office.”
Noting that the president “has unequivocally said there’s nothing there [in the files] regarding him” and that if Democrats had something on him, they’d’ve launched it by now, Bream requested Johnson, “Why is there any resistance to releasing any of the information?”
Calling Jeffries’ feedback “comical,” Johnson stated, “Remember that the Biden DOJ had every one of these files in their possession for four years — and neither Hakeem Jeffries or Ro Khanna or Thomas Massie or any of them ever said a word about it.”
“They’re doing this to go after President Trump on this theory that he has something to do with it,” he added.
Johnson then accused Democrats of “cherry pick[ing] three emails out of 20,000 documents” to “try and imply that the president was guilty.”
He was referring to e mail correspondence launched Nov. 12 by Democrats on the Home Oversight Committee that confirmed Epstein alleging that Trump “knew about the girls” in his widespread sex-trafficking ring that victimized dozens of underage ladies.
Trump has repeatedly denied any involvement with Epstein. The world chief’s administration has confronted heavy scrutiny from its personal MAGA supporters and others in current months over its dealing with of the Epstein recordsdata.
The criticism ramped up earlier this 12 months after the Justice Division introduced in a memo in July that there was no proof Epstein had saved a “client list” or died of causes apart from suicide in his jail cell.
Khanna and Massie have been main the push for the Trump administration to launch recordsdata associated to Epstein. The discharge petition they partnered on, which has known as on the Justice Division to launch any paperwork it has associated to Epstein, reached 218 signatures final week, and can power a vote on the measure on the Home flooring.
Talking Sunday on NBC Information’ “Meet the Press,” Khanna stated the petition is about “justice for the survivors” of Epstein’s intercourse trafficking ring and “not about Donald Trump.”
“I don’t even know how involved Trump was. There are a lot of other people who are involved who have to be held accountable,” he added.
Khanna additionally claimed that the right-wing chief is “losing his MAGA base” over the recordsdata.
Watch Johnson’s look on “Fox News Sunday” beneath.
