Speaker Johnson: Epstein drama ‘not a hoax,' Congress wants ‘full transparency'
'We want full transparency,' Johnson (R-La.) told CBS News' 'The Takeout with Major Garrett' Wednesday. 'We want everybody who is involved in any way with the Epstein evils — let's call it what it was — to be brought to justice as quickly as possible.'
'We want the full weight of the law on their heads.'
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A weeks-long controversy has roiled Trump's MAGA movement after the Justice Department and FBI concluded in a July 6 memo that Epstein most likely killed himself in his Manhattan jail cell and didn't have an 'incriminating client list' of rich and powerful people who took part in sex with girls as young as 14.
The conclusion has caused headaches for Johnson after House Democrats won over several Republicans in a push to publicly release the full case file.
3 House Speaker Mike Johnson said he hasn't seen the Jeffrey Epstein evidence in question.
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3 Interest in Jeffrey Epstein was revived after a DOJ and FBI memo this week kicked up a firestorm and demands within MAGA world for more transparency.
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On Monday, the House Rules Committee — the lower chamber's gatekeeper for most legislation that gets a floor vote — was forced to adjourn by Republicans who wanted to short-circuit a Democratic effort to force the disclosure of the Epstein files.
Johnson then opted to send lawmakers home to their districts Wednesday for the August recess — one day ahead of schedule — due to the House floor effectively being frozen over the Epstein revolt.
President Trump has seethed at the controversy, calling out 'past' supporters as 'weaklings' for buying into the 'hoax.'
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'It's not a hoax. Of course not,' Johnson told Garrett.
3 House Speaker Mike Johnson has been careful not to break with President Trump on the Jeffrey Epstein ordeal.
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'I've never seen the Epstein evidence; it wasn't in my lane, but I had the same concerning questions that a lot of people do,' he later added.
Rank-and-file lawmakers are pushing Johnson to hold a vote to compel the release of outstanding documents once the House returns from its recess Sept. 2.
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Reps. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) and Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) are pursuing a discharge petition — a legislative technique to force a vote on a bill without the speaker's blessing — to that effect.
Meanwhile, Trump has announced his support for the release of grand jury testimony in the cases against Epstein and his co-conspirator, Ghislaine Maxwell.
On Thursday, Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche met with Maxwell and her legal team in Tallahassee, Fla. to discuss the case.
Additionally, the GOP-led House Oversight Committee has subpoenaed Maxwell for testimony, with an interview tentatively set for Aug. 11.
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Boston Globe
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- Boston Globe
Vice President JD Vance is on the road again to sell the Republicans' big new tax law
In West Pittston, Pennsylvania, Vance told attendees at an industrial machine shop that they should be able to keep more of their pay in their pockets, highlighting the law's new tax deductions on overtime. Get Starting Point A guide through the most important stories of the morning, delivered Monday through Friday. Enter Email Sign Up Vance also discussed a new children's savings program called Trump Accounts and how the new law promotes energy extraction, while decrying Democrats for opposing the bill that keeps the current tax rates, which would have otherwise expired later this year. Advertisement The legislation cleared the GOP-controlled Congress by the narrowest of margins, with Vance breaking a tie vote in the Senate for the package that also sets aside hundreds of billions of dollars for Trump's immigration agenda while slashing Medicaid and food stamps. The vice president is also stepping up his public relations blitz on the bill as the White House tries to deflect attention away from the growing controversy over Jeffrey Epstein. Advertisement The disgraced financier killed himself, authorities say, in a New York jail cell in 2019 as he awaited trial on sex trafficking charges. Trump and his top allies stoked conspiracy theories about Epstein's death before Trump returned to the White House and are now reckoning with the consequences of a Justice Department announcement earlier this month that Epstein did indeed die by suicide and that no further documents about the case would be released. Questions about the case continued to dog Trump in Scotland, where he on Sunday announced a framework trade deal with the European Union. Asked about the timing of the trade announcement and the Epstein case and whether it was correlated, Trump responded: 'You got to be kidding with that.' 'No, had nothing to do with it,' Trump told the reporter. 'Only you would think that.' The White House sees the new law as a clear political boon, sending Vance to promote it in swing congressional districts that will determine whether Republicans retain their House majority next year. The northeastern Pennsylvania stop is in the district represented by Republican Rep. Rob Bresnahan, a first-term lawmaker who knocked off a six-time Democratic incumbent last fall. On Monday, Vance will be in the district of Democratic Rep. Emilia Sykes, who is a top target for the National Republican Congressional Committee this cycle. Polls before the bill's passage showed that it largely remained unpopular, although the public approves of some individual provisions such as increasing the child tax credit and allowing workers to deduct more of their tips on taxes.
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2 hours ago
- Washington Post
Vice President JD Vance is on the road again to sell the Republicans' big new tax law
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