The Epstein files are roiling the House GOP, and there's no end in sight

CNN

5 days ago

President Donald Trump has helped Speaker Mike Johnson survive every political storm of his speakership. Now, Johnson is stuck in a crisis of Trump's own making over Jeffrey Epstein — and there's no clear way forward without risking the ire of the speaker's most critical ally.
Despite Johnson's efforts to quell the furor inside the GOP this week, he and Trump are now getting an outcome they'd sought to avoid after House Republicans joined Democrats on Wednesday for a high-stakes vote demanding the release of the Epstein files. The move took place in a House Oversight subcommittee and will soon require the GOP-led panel to sign off on a subpoena to Trump's Justice Department.
Johnson knew in advance that tensions could escalate. Kentucky Rep. James Comer, who leads that Oversight panel, told CNN he cautioned Johnson last week that his panel would likely move forward with a subpoena related to Epstein if given the chance.
'People overwhelmingly want to do it,' Comer recalled of his conversation with Johnson. The Kentucky Republican also moved ahead with his own subpoena on Wednesday, demanding information from a high-profile Epstein associate.
Republicans acknowledge their GOP speaker is trying to walk an impossible tight rope, yielding to Trump while also signaling support to members who wanted to see some action. But he ended the week under fire from hardliners and moderates alike over his handling of the supercharged issue that has dogged their party throughout July. Just weeks after his single biggest legislative victory, Johnson and his leadership team are now retreating into the five-week summer recess under a cloud of Epstein drama, with leadership even sending members home a day early rather than face a barrage of Democratic votes.
'There's a lot of frustration,' said one GOP lawmaker who has worked closely with leadership on the issue and was granted anonymity to discuss private conversations. 'We don't want to be adversarial with the President … but eventually you gotta call a play.'
While his own members have clamored to vote to release the Epstein files, some complained that Johnson instead showed such deference to Trump that he didn't act at all. GOP leaders declined to bring any measure on Epstein to the floor, even if it meant shutting down all substantive work in the House in its final week of work until after Labor Day.
'To be accused of trying to cover up for a pedophile, it's detestable,' that GOP member said, explaining why GOP members were pushing leadership for a chance to vote on the issue.
The nasty intra-GOP fight over Epstein paralyzed the House this week, with Johnson's own Rules Committee effectively shut down as Democrats flooded the panel with Epstein-related measures. Those members didn't want to go on the record against the measures without a clearer plan from Johnson. (Johnson himself had negotiated an agreement with the Rules panel on an Epstein transparency measure last week, but he didn't call it to the floor this week, to the surprise of some members.)
Democrats continued to force the issue through committee work on Wednesday. In the House Committee on Education and Workforce, Democrats were planning to offer two amendments related to Epstein on an unrelated bill about human trafficking, but Republicans on the panel pulled the bill, a committee source told CNN. The committee then moved into recess.
Behind the scenes, Johnson and his leadership team have told members they do not want to bring up an Epstein measure — even one that's nonbinding — because they don't want to split the party, and are hoping the courts will handle the issue in August, according to two people familiar with the matter. Johnson himself cited legal reasons not to release the files, such as victim information. And given how much Democrats have seized on the issue, Johnson has argued that continuing to take votes would just play into Democratic hands. Still, multiple other GOP sources told CNN that they believe Johnson is intentionally trying to avoid crossing the White House on this issue.
Trump himself appears not to have gotten involved in the growing tension in the House conference. When some members arrived at the White House on Tuesday for an event, a group of Rules Committee members were brought into the Oval Office, according to the GOP member. Some were privately worried he might try to confront them about the Epstein resolution. Instead, he allowed them to watch him negotiate for Japan, thanking them for coming and giving them a White House Challenge Coin souvenir.
Johnson defended his position on Wednesday, arguing that there was 'no daylight' between him and his conference, nor between House Republicans and the president. He pushed back on suggestions that the House had been brought to a standstill to avoid taking Epstein votes, insisting Republicans 'don't have any fear' and instead turned the blame on Democrats.
'No one in Congress is blocking Epstein documents. No one in Congress is doing that. What we're doing here, Republicans are preventing Democrats from making a mockery of the Rules Committee process because we refuse to engage in their political charade,' he said.
He said that Congress 'will evaluate any necessary measures' to undertake if the Trump administration convinces courts to unseal the grand jury transcripts in the Epstein investigation. (The administration has already run into an early legal roadblock, with the judge blocking their request ). But Johnson also struck a careful balance when asked if he backed Comer's effort to subpoena convicted Epstein associate Ghislaine Maxwell.
'Every single one of us are for maximum transparency, and we'll use every power that we have to ensure that that's done. If they see fit to bring in Ghislaine Maxwell for testimony, that's fine,' he said when asked by CNN if he backed Comer's move, though he then raised questions about her credibility. 'Can we trust what she's gonna say?'
With the House now gone for five weeks, Johnson and his team have a temporary reprieve from the outrage over Epstein. But it won't last long.
Just days after lawmakers return in September, Johnson will have to deal with a rogue push by a gang of GOP hardliners to force a full vote for the release of the Epstein files on the floor of the House. That group of roughly a dozen Republicans, led by Rep. Thomas Massie, are using a maneuver known as a discharge petition to circumvent Johnson and force a bill to the floor with the help of Democrats.
Massie has been vocal that if GOP leaders attempt to kill his maneuver, they'll lose their majority next November.
'The Epstein files are symbolic of what energized MAGA, which was this notion that you could give Republicans both majorities and put Donald Trump in the White House, and this group of people that were so powerful and so rich that they couldn't be touched by the law or by the judicial system, would finally get exposed,' Massie said. 'And if people believe that whole deal was off, that Trump and the Republicans aren't going to do that anymore, then they're going to be apathetic and disengaged in the midterms.'
Johnson may have no choice but to bring the measure to the floor. Republicans on the House Rules panel have already warned Johnson they will not help him kill the resolution, as he's sought to do with similar rogue pushes from members, according to the GOP member involved in the talks.
In the meantime, though, Johnson has privately urged his conference – including in a closed-door meeting on Tuesday – to give the Trump administration time to handle the investigation. He and his leadership believe the White House will take its own steps to address the matter over the August recess.
Republicans feeling the heat back home from constituents, though, do not think more time away from Congress will sap momentum on the issue. And many have directly expressed their frustrations with House GOP leadership.
GOP Rep. Eric Burlison of Missouri, who supports the release of the Epstein files, said that Epstein-related calls are the number one his office is receiving.
'It's the number one phone call that we get. By far. It's probably 500 to one,' he said. Burlison said he doesn't blame Johnson, but that each member needs to deal with it on their own.
'The American people have felt like this government keeps secrets from them for decades, right? Here we have one big national scandal slash conspiracy that we were this close to getting the details on so that's why the fact it isn't happening is just fanning flames of more conspiracy. People are assuming the worst and they are going to until the details get released,' Burlison said.
And some Republicans are frustrated that Johnson's own messaging has been, at times, unclear. For instance, some were upset that Johnson called on Congress to 'put everything out there' on Epstein on a conservative podcast – just after he had instructed his own Rules Committee to take a vote rejecting Democrats' Epstein transparency push. They argued that the disconnect in the GOP message opened up their own members to vulnerabilities, such as Democratic attacks, and only fueled more scrutiny in Congress.
Rep. Ralph Norman, who sits on the House Rules Committee and did vote for that Democratic transparency measure, warned that the pressure for the administration to release information related to Epstein will not die down during the time that the House is in its weeks-long August recess.
'It's not going to die down. I know. If you assume that, the public decides that anyway. I don't assume anything, particularly this. This transcends politics. This is about 13, 14, 15-year-old girls getting abused. Nah, this is above politics. This is beyond politics,' Norman told CNN.
(Other members are irked that members like Norman have backed the Democratic amendments and have signed onto Massie's discharge petition, and yet continue to sit on Johnson's powerful Rules panel.)
Even some Republicans who are demanding votes on Epstein transparency measures acknowledge the difficult position Johnson is in.
'I think the Speaker is doing the job he has to do' GOP Rep. Scott Perry told CNN. Perry was one of the House Republicans who defied their own leadership to vote to subpoena the Department of Justice files related to Jeffrey Epstein. 'I just think it's important that the American people know what's occurred,' Perry later told CNN.
GOP Rep. Keith Self added, 'Speaker Johnson has a tough job. I think he's doing a great job managing all of the influences in our conference, so I'll leave it at that.'
House GOP Conference Chair Lisa McClain argued that Republicans have to strike a balance but not let Democrats push them off message as they head back to their districts for five weeks.
'They need to do what they think is right for their district,' McClain told CNN when asked about the advice she'd give to members addressing the issue back home. 'But number two, focus on the 'One Big Beautiful bill' and all the wins that we're getting.'
CNN's Nicky Robertson, Veronica Stracqualursi and Morgan Rimmer contributed to this report.