Speaker Johnson says House won't vote on Epstein resolution before recess

The Hill

4 days ago

The House will not vote on a resolution calling for the release of some documents related to Jeffrey Epstein before the August recess, Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) announced on Monday, despite growing GOP outcry over the Trump administration's handling of the case.
The news came after the House Rules Committee advanced the measure last week, and as the lower chamber prepares to break for the weeks-long August recess on Thursday.
Asked if the House will vote on the resolution before leaving Washington, Johnson told reporters: 'No.'
The Speaker said he wants to leave time for the administration to act on the matter before moving ahead with congressional action. Last week, President Trump ordered Attorney General Pam Bondi to request that the grand jury transcripts in the Epstein case be unsealed. Trump has tried to downplay the matter, urging Republicans to drop the issue.
'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 said in 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 came less than one week after Republicans on the House Rules Committee advanced a non-binding resolution calling for the release of some information related to the case involving Epstein, a convicted sex offender. It specifically directs Bondi to publicize 'all credible' documents, communications and metadata related to the investigations of Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell, who was convicted of sex trafficking, but allows her to make exemptions.
The panel advanced the resolution after GOP lawmakers on the committee voted down a similar measure earlier in the week that was spearheaded by Democrats. Republicans on the panel took heat from the MAGA base after opposing the measure, which prompted the vote on the GOP-crafted legislation last week.
Asked last week if he would stage a vote on the legislation Johnson stopped short of making any commitments, suggesting the purpose was to give Republicans on the panel political cover.
'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 said last 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.'
Still, there is deep frustration among some Republicans over the administration's handling of the case. Trump campaigned on releasing the files and many people now in his Cabinet 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 resolution to release the files in the case. The pair is vowing to start a discharge petition for the legislation in an attempt to force it to the floor. The resolution already has at least 10 GOP co-sponsors.
Johnson on Monday downplayed the effort.
'Discharge petitions are never a good idea in the House,' he told 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.'
Other rank-and-file Republicans — including some of the president's closest allies — have expressed their displeasure with how the administration has approached the situation.
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.), one of the president's top 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.