Speaker Mike Johnson Called Our Donald Trump Over The Epstein Files
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After standing by President Donald Trump on everything from deploying Marines to quell protests to ramping up deportations, House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) is finally breaking with him... over the Jeffrey Epstein files.
In an interview with conservative podcaster Benny Johnson on Tuesday, the speaker called for 'transparency' regarding the Epstein investigation, adding that 'we should put everything out there and let the people decide it.'
His statements come over a week after the Justice Department and FBI said they wouldn't be releasing any additional files about Epstein after concluding that there wasn't evidence the disgraced financier kept a so-called 'client list' to blackmail influential figures or that he had died by means other than suicide.
In a post this past weekend, Trump doubled down on this stance, defending Attorney General Pam Bondi and calling for his followers to move on. On Tuesday, he softened his position somewhat, stating that Bondi should 'release whatever she thinks is credible.'
Johnson, who also stated that he trusts Trump, has 'never broken so publicly with the president on an issue,' writes the Washington Post's Marianna Sotomayor.
'I agree with the sentiment that we need to put it out here,' Johnson said, noting that Bondi should explain what she meant when she once referenced having the Epstein client list on her desk. 'She needs to come forward and explain that to everybody,' Johnson said. (White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt has said that Bondi was referencing the 'entirety of all the paperwork' related to the Epstein case.)
The speaker's position points to blowback Trump and his administration have received from his base over the handling of the Epstein files, and highlights how Republican lawmakers are trying to acknowledge the uproar while still backing the president.
Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.) on Tuesday called for the appointment of a special counsel to uncover the 'truth about the Epstein Files,' tagging former Rep. Matt Gaetz, who previously resigned from Congress as the House was investigating allegations of sexual misconduct against him.
Johnson and other House Republicans were also widely criticized Tuesday for claiming to want transparency about the Epstein files, but stymying a Democratic effort to push for their release.
On Tuesday, Republicans blocked a vote on a measure from Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.), which would have forced the release of documents related to the DOJ's Epstein investigation.
'Republicans spent years screaming for the Epstein Files to be released. Now Donald Trump wants to hide them. Today, every R can vote to release the files. Will they give the American people transparency or block the truth to protect Trump?' Rep. Dan Goldman (D-N.Y.) wrote on X.
— Daniel Goldman (@danielsgoldman) July 15, 2025
@danielsgoldman/X / Via Twitter: @danielsgoldman
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On the U.S. side, industry is also reeling from the tariff uncertainty. Jerry Pacheco, who operates an industrial park in Santa Teresa, N.M., a few miles west of El Paso, said several companies that planned new projects there have pulled out since Trump took office. His park abuts a new militarized zone that stretches 200 miles across a vast expanse of New Mexico. Another 63-mile-long zone has been established along the border nearby in Texas. The Pentagon, which made the designations, has deployed some 9,000 active-duty troops to the border as part of Trump's directive to expand the military's role in reducing migrant crossings. Migrants who enter the new "national defense" zones while crossing the border are being detained by U.S. troops, charged with trespassing and turned over to immigration authorities. It's part of a broader militarization of immigration enforcement in this stretch of border. U-2 spy planes have been flying missions in the skies. At the nearby Army base of Ft. Bliss, the U.S. is constructing a new 5,000-bed immigrant detention camp. The U.S. has also pushed Mexico to keep migrants from reaching Juárez and other border cities, and Mexican troops have ramped up enforcement in recent years. Migrant advocates blame those policies on a deadly fire at a detention center in Juárez in 2023 that killed 40 migrants and injured 27. Ortíz, the activist, used to traverse the part of the border that has been turned into a national defense zone, leaving water for the migrants who crossed. But on a recent afternoon, while heading out to check on a water tank, he was stopped by Border Patrol agents who warned him he was trespassing on military land. The buildup of troops at the border and Trump's changes to the asylum system have made it nearly impossible for migrants to cross, Ortíz said. In June, there were fewer Border Patrol encounters with migrants than in any month on record, according to the White House. On the day with fewest encounters, border agents apprehended just 137 people across the entire 2,000-mile long border. But Ortíz is convinced that migration levels can't stay this low forever. There are too many jobs that need filling north of the border, he said, and too much poverty and strife south of it. This region has been a site of migration since pre-colonial times, he said. El Paso, which means "the pass," got its name from Spanish explorers who arrived in the late 16th century and established a trade route here leading from Mexico City to Santa Fe. Movement, he said, is part of our nature. "You will never be able to fully stop human migration," Ortíz said. "You never have and you never will.' Those most desperate to cross will find a way, he says. And that will probably mean paying smugglers even larger sums and taking riskier routes. Sign up for Essential California for news, features and recommendations from the L.A. Times and beyond in your inbox six days a week. This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
