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Tensions over Epstein files complicate Republican plan to vote on cuts bill

Tensions over Epstein files complicate Republican plan to vote on cuts bill

The Guardian6 days ago
Tensions over the release of documents related to the disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein have complicated House Republicans' plans to hold a vote on Thursday on legislation demanded by Donald Trump to cancel $9bn in government spending.
The House of Representatives faces a Friday deadline to pass the rescissions package demanded by Trump and approved by the Senate in the wee hours of Thursday morning, otherwise the administration will be obligated to spend about $8bn meant for foreign assistance programs, and $1.1bn budgeted for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which funds NPR and PBS.
But before the House can vote on the package, it must be approved by the rules committee, where the Democratic minority has sought to capitalize on a growing furor among Republicans and their supporters over the Trump administration's handling of documents related to the Epstein case by forcing the majority to take politically tricky votes.
After several hours of delay, the committee announced it would hold a hearing into the package on Thursday evening, setting the stage for House Republicans to pass the legislation later in the night.
Ranking member Jim McGovern accused the GOP of 'stalling' the rules committee hearing, and said Democrats would propose an amendment to the rescissions package meant to win release of any files related to Epstein.
'They're afraid to meet again to have another vote. Well, we're going to keep the heat on and you need to keep the pressure on members of Congress,' McGovern said. 'Release the files. Full transparency.'
On Monday, rules committee Democrats made two attempts to add language to a cryptocurrency bill that would have required the release of documents dealing with the financier, who was accused of running a sex-trafficking ring catering to global elites. Republicans voted both down.
The Epstein case has grown into a crisis for Trump and the GOP ever since the justice department announced last week that, after a review of US government files, it had determined the financier's 2019 death in federal custody was a suicide, and that no list of his clients existed to be made public.
Trump's Maga coalition includes believers in a conspiracy theory that the 'deep state' is covering up a global pedophile ring in which Epstein was a major figure, and that files exist to prove it. The president has strenuously denied that his administration is hiding anything, and insulted those who call for the documents' release as 'weaklings' who fell for a 'radical left' hoax intended to discredit him.
Democrats, relegated to the minority in both chamber of Congress, have seized on that tension with an array of legislative maneuvers intended to make public any Epstein-related documents. On Tuesday, the House speaker, Mike Johnson, told a conservative podcaster who asked about the case: 'It's a very delicate subject, but we should put everything out there and let the people decide it.'
Meanwhile, Thomas Massie, an iconoclastic Republican congressman who has repeatedly clashed with Trump, and the Democratic congressman Ro Khanna are trying to get a majority of the House to sign on to a petition that will force a vote on releasing the files, and has already received signatures from nine GOP lawmakers.
The rescissions passage passed the House in June, but the chamber must vote on it again after the Senate declined to cut funding for Pepfar, a program credited with saving millions of people from infection or death from HIV that was created in 2003 under the Republican president George W Bush.
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Trump ‘clearly furious' that his summer victory tour has been swallowed by Epstein fallout, insiders reveal
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Minnesota Democratic Rep. Ilhan Omar has denounced the Republican Party after House Speaker Mike Johnson declined to hold a vote on the release of files relating to Jeffrey Epstein before Congress breaks for its summer recess. 'The pedophile protection party is shutting down Congress just to avoid voting on the release of the Epstein files,' Omar wrote on X on Tuesday. Despite risking President Donald Trump 's ire by calling for the release of the files himself last week on a podcast, Johnson has since changed course and said on Monday the administration needed 'space' to vet the documents in question due to their likely sensitivity. Speaking to reporters on Capitol Hill, Johnson was asked whether the House of Representatives would get to vote on whether or not to release the files and answered: 'If further congressional action is necessary or appropriate, then we'll look at that... I don't think we're at that point yet, because we agree with the president.' A day later, he called an early start to representatives' five-week recess, leaving no time for a vote on the matter until their return in September, by which point other matters may be considered more pressing. 'The American people are best served by putting an end to Democrats' side shows,' Johnson said at a press conference defending his manoeuvre. '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.' Omar, who is regularly targeted by conservatives, was by no means the only member of Congress to attack Johnson over the decision. Her ally, New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, wrote on X: 'Ummm so let me get this straight: Republicans have ground Congress to a halt and are considering adjourning the entire House for six weeks to avoid releasing the info they have on Epstein? What is going on here?' Kentucky Rep. Thomas Massie, an anti-Trump Republican rebel who has drafted legislation of his own calling for the release of the files, addressed the House GOP leader in a post on X that read: 'Speaker Johnson, why are you running cover for an underage sex trafficking ring and pretending this is a partisan issue? MAGA voted for this.' There could be some movement in the interim on the Epstein case, which has bitterly divided his base and left him scrambling to change the national conversation amid awkward questions about his past friendship with the financier. A panel of federal court judges is currently weighing up whether relevant grand jury transcripts can be released at Attorney General Pam Bondi 's request. Meanwhile, Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche has announced that he is attempting to arrange a meeting with the pedophile's jailed accomplice, Ghislaine Maxwell. Trump signaled his apparent approval of that step in the Oval Office on Tuesday, saying it 'sounded appropriate.' The House Oversight and Government Reform Subcommittee has also voted to subpoena Maxwell. 'This is progress. We will not stop fighting until the Epstein files are released. Trump and Bondi must stop blocking the American people from the truth,' Oversight Committee Democrats wrote on X.

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