WASHINGTON ― Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) on Tuesday abruptly canceled upcoming Home votes and determined to ship lawmakers residence early for a five-week recess, all as a result of he desires to dam a bipartisan effort to drive a vote on releasing information on Jeffrey Epstein, the disgraced financier and former shut good friend to President Donald Trump.
The Home was scheduled to be in session via Thursday, with votes set for that day. However Tuesday morning, Johnson scrapped these plans and determined to shut up store by Wednesday afternoon. Lawmakers at the moment are heading again to their districts till Sept. 2.
Johnson instructed reporters he’s fed up with Democrats’ efforts to drive votes on releasing Epstein’s information.
“The American people are best served by putting an end to Democrats’ side shows,” he mentioned in a Tuesday press convention. “That’s what we’re doing by not allowing the Rules Committee to continue with that nonsense this week.”
“We’re done being lectured on transparency,” he mentioned.
On Monday night time, Democrats compelled an early finish to a Home Guidelines Committee listening to by asserting plans to drive the committee to vote on a bipartisan invoice to make the Justice Division launch all of its information on Epstein, who confronted a number of expenses referring to intercourse trafficking of minors.
The committee, which the speaker straight controls, ended its assembly and by no means got here again.
Johnson claimed Tuesday that he helps “maximum transparency” on Epstein’s data, however is anxious about the necessity to “protect innocent victims” of Epstein. The concept that the Justice Division ought to launch all of its data on Epstein might hurt them, he mentioned.
“We also have to be judicious and careful about protecting the innocent,” he claimed. “We cannot be careless in an open release like that.”
However Johnson glossed over the actual drawback he’s going through, which is that many Home Republicans additionally need to see all of Epstein’s information launched. Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) and 11 different Republicans signed onto the bipartisan invoice with Democrats, and so they’re not backing down in attempting to drive a vote on it.
“Americans were promised justice,” Massie mentioned Tuesday on social media. “Our binding bipartisan legislation to release the complete Epstein files now has 20 sponsors. Soon we can begin collecting signatures required to force a public vote in the U.S. House. Is your member on this list?”
The opposite GOPers on this invoice are Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene (Ga.), Tim Burchett (Tenn.), Eric Burlison (Mo.), Lauren Boebert (Colo.), Jeff Van Drew (N.J.), Eli Crane (Ariz.), Cory Mills (Fla.), Tom Barrett (Mich.), Max Miller (Ohio), Nancy Mace (S.C.) and Keith Self (Texas).
Trump created this drawback for himself. He and prime officers in his administration spent years fueling conspiracies about an Epstein shopper listing, and Trump vowed to launch this purported listing when he was operating for president. All of them fanned this concept that Democrats have been hiding Epstein’s shopper listing to guard highly effective figures of their occasion who they alleged have been on it. Lawyer Basic Pam Bondi defiantly claimed in February, weeks after Trump had received, that Epstein’s shopper listing was “sitting right now on my desk for review.”
However Bondi is now claiming this listing doesn’t exist in any respect, and Trump is attempting to maneuver on.
It infuriated a lot of his staunch supporters, who’re questioning, together with everybody else, why he’s hiding Epstein’s information. In the meantime, the Wall Avenue Journal reported final week on a racy birthday card that Trump gave to Epstein in 2003, with an odd be aware. Trump, livid about this story, is now suing the newspaper for $10 billion over it.
Throughout his Tuesday press convention, Johnson knocked Massie for working with Democrats to attempt to drive the discharge of Epstein’s information.
“Massie is the one trying to bite Republicans,” Johnson mentioned in response to a query about his GOP colleague’s efforts. “Let me just say about Thomas Massie: Could you just accept my southern, ‘Bless his heart?’”
The speaker additionally appeared to be attempting to mislead folks about what Massie and others try to perform with their invoice versus what motion Trump is presently taking relating to Epstein’s information. He repeatedly mentioned Trump ordered the Justice Division to “get everything released,” which suggests there’s “no purpose for Congress” to additionally push for this.
However Trump solely directed the discharge of grand jury testimony associated to Epstein’s case, which is a tiny fraction of Epstein’s data and information. And even this order solely got here in response to a groundswell of stress from his personal base.
“Trump is all over the Epstein files.”
– Rep. Ted Lieu (D-Calif.)
Rep. Ted Lieu (D-Calif.) mentioned he talked concerning the Epstein information through the Biden administration, and it’s clear how shut Trump and Epstein have been primarily based on what’s been made public to date. He mentioned the 2 seem collectively in a number of movies and images, there’s “weird quotes” from Trump about Epstein, court docket pleadings that embody Trump’s identify, airplane logs exhibiting Trump flying with Epstein, and “now this creepy birthday card.”
“Trump is all over the Epstein files,” Lieu instructed reporters Tuesday.
“Why do you think we have this entire explosion now about Epstein?” he requested. “Because Attorney General Pam Bondi went on national TV and told the American people that Jeffrey Epstein’s client list was, quote, sitting on my desk right now. Where’s that client list? Why doesn’t she release it?”
Later Tuesday, former longtime Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) introduced that she would even be signing onto the bipartisan invoice. It seems she’s had a change of coronary heart on the scenario, as simply days in the past she was calling the Epstein controversy “a distraction.”
“For years, Epstein’s victims ― many of them just children when they were abused ― have waited for justice, often in silence and in pain. They deserve answers,” Pelosi mentioned in a press release. “They deserve dignity. And they deserve action from their government.”
She took direct purpose at Johnson for his efforts to “block transparency,” saying his actions are an “abdication of duty” and a “profound insult” to Epstein’s victims.
Pelosi mentioned, “It is especially shameful that Speaker Johnson has shut down the House of Representatives for the summer to avoid a vote on this resolution.”
