Congress wasn’t in session in August. But the Epstein files certainly were.
The Epstein files dominated Congress before the summer recess. But when lawmakers returned to Capitol Hill in recent days, the first thing lawmakers wrestled with were the Epstein files again.
Note: If you want something to go away, do not make it among the first orders of business.
The Epstein issue gurgled through the summer. And House Republicans did little to tamp down the embers by adjourning the body a day early in July – because they struggled to pass unrelated bills without delving into a complicated and sticky discussion of the Epstein files. Then, when the House returned, GOP leaders immediately prepped a resolution to formally bless an Epstein investigation by the Oversight Committee. The panel released some 32,000 pages of Epstein-related documents.
Just hours after returning to session, House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., and others met with Epstein accusers.
‘NOT GOING AWAY’: INSIDE THE EPSTEIN DRAMA THAT’S THROWN HOUSE GOP INTO CHAOS
That explains why the issue isn’t ebbing any time soon.
“It is very much a possibility that Jeffrey Epstein was an intelligence asset working for our adversaries,” declared Rep. Anna Paulina Luna, R-Fla., after talking to the Epstein victims at the Capitol. “I think this is going to be a criminal investigation for sure. I will say that what’s been released, obviously, the American people have wanted for a long time.”
Before the recess, Reps. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., and Ro Khanna, D-Calif., teamed up to potentially bypass Johnson and compel the House to vote on releasing the Epstein files. The Epstein milieu quickly infected virtually every single legislative effort in Congress, effectively hamstringing the body. So Johnson cut everyone loose a bit early.
But the issue festered over the recess. Massie and Khanna were back with their parliamentary gambit to go over Johnson’s head and force an Epstein vote.
Lawmakers from both sides routinely convene press conferences at a spot just outside the Capitol called the “House Triangle.” Lawmakers often use this venue to feature non-members or people specific to the legislation they’re pushing at the news conference.
Sometimes members bring a throng of people with them. A crowd occasionally gathers, depending on the issue.
But I had never before witnessed the multitude of people who showed up at the House Triangle on Wednesday morning to hear Massie, Khanna and victims talk about their effort to pry open the files. People spilled out onto the walkways and plaza. That forced U.S. Capitol Police to restrict access to the area.
Some of the victims recounted their Epstein stories in harrowing detail.
“When I got into the massage room, Jeffrey Epstein undressed and asked me to do things to him, my eyes welled up with tears. And I have never been more scared in my life,” said Epstein accuser Haley Robson.
“I was even taken on a trip to Africa with former President Bill Clinton and other notable figures. In those moments, I realized how powerless I was,” said Epstein victim Chauntae Davies.
Massie and Khanna are deploying what’s called a “discharge petition.” It’s a rarely successful gambit to go over the head of the Speaker and force a debate and vote on your issue – provided one can engineer 218 House signatures. If Massie and Khanna cobble together enough signatories, they may be able to force a vote later this month.
House GOP leaders are concerned about this. That’s why Johnson hoped to intervene with his own measure to formalize the House Oversight Committee’s inquiry into Epstein. But Johnson designed the measure in a way that the House could approve it – without taking a direct vote on it. That way, Republicans could point to angry constituents that they were in fact taking the Epstein files seriously – without an actual roll call vote documenting their position and perhaps infuriating President Donald Trump. Or, they could tell other constituents who wouldn’t want them to cross the President on Epstein to say they never directly voted on it at all. After all, it was buried in an unrelated measure.
Make sense?
But there was another motive behind the leadership’s unique parliamentary maneuver on Epstein: They wanted to give Republicans cover to say that the House was in fact addressing the Epstein issue. The move might coax fewer members to support the Massie/Khanna effort. That would prevent the House from taking a concrete vote tied to Epstein. But otherwise, the House may need to directly wrestle with it.
Massie called this a “political cover” to block his plan with Khanna to release the files.
Johnson fired back at Massie.
“I would not put much stock into what Thomas Massie says. The House Republicans have been very consistent about maximum disclosure and maximum transparency,” said Johnson.
Trump long promised to release the files. But Trump’s position this week was to blame Democrats.
“This is a Democrat hoax that never ends. You know, it reminds me a little of the [President John F.] Kennedy situation. We gave them everything over and over again. More and more and more and nobody’s ever satisfied,” said Trump. “But it’s really a Democrat hoax because they’re trying to get people to talk about something that’s totally irrelevant to the success that we’ve had as a nation since I’ve been president.”
Massie suggested that Johnson is just trying to stay on Trump’s good side by walking a political tightrope.
HOUSE OVERSIGHT COMMITTEE RELEASES THOUSANDS OF EPSTEIN DOCUMENTS
“The Speaker is wrestling with [whether] he’s going to have to choose between supporting Donald Trump’s new position that the files shouldn’t be released, or finding justice for these victims and survivors. The Speaker probably doesn’t appreciate that he’s going to have to choose one,” said Massie. “The Speaker’s position depends on him not just rubber-stamping but reinforcing anything Donald Trump wants, even if Donald Trump is wrong. So the Speaker is in a tough spot.”
The materials coughed up by the Oversight panel did include a new video of the so-called “missing minute.” It fills in absent footage from Epstein’s New York jail cell on the night he died.
But Massie insists on the release of more material.
“What’s clear is they’re not redacting, just to protect victims. They are redacting to protect the reputations of people,” said Massie.
One Republican aligned with the President threatened to out those linked to Epstein.
“I’m not afraid to name names,” said Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., at the press conference. “So if they want to give me a list, I will walk into that Capitol on the House floor, and I’ll say every damn name that abused these women.”
Khanna was buoyed by the support of Greene.
“I’ve never done a press conference with Marjorie Taylor Greene before,” said the progressive Khanna. “I don’t think Marjorie Taylor Greene would be part of a stunt against President Trump.”
We’ll know soon if the House has the votes to thwart the GOP leadership and consider the Massie/Khanna resolution. And tangling with the Epstein matter could even start to impact the ability of the House to wrestle with routine legislation again.
And so, the Epstein saga continues. The same as it was before the August recess.
