House Speaker Johnson says Jeffrey Epstein case is "not a hoax"
"We want full transparency. We want everybody who is involved in any way with the Epstein evils — let's call it what it was — to be brought to justice as quickly as possible. We want the full weight of the law on their heads," Johnson told CBS News' chief Washington correspondent Major Garrett in an interview Wednesday.
"It's not a hoax. Of course not," said the House speaker, a Louisiana Republican, when asked if he considers it a hoax — a word that has been used by President Trump to describe some of his supporters' interest in the Epstein case.
Johnson said he had "never seen the Epstein evidence, it was not in my lane."
The Trump administration's handling of the Epstein case has drawn weeks of public scrutiny, since the Justice Department and FBI released a review of the federal investigations into the financier. The review found no evidence that Epstein had an incriminating "client list" or tried to blackmail powerful people. It also concluded that Epstein died by suicide in 2019 while in federal custody awaiting trial on child sex trafficking charges in New York.
Those findings have not satisfied some of Mr. Trump's supporters, who have called on the Justice Department to release all the information on the Epstein case. A handful of House Republicans joined with Democrats on Wednesday to vote on subpoenaing the Justice Department for some of its files on Epstein.
Johnson and other House GOP leaders have resisted a push to hold a floor vote to force the release of materials on Epstein. Earlier this week, Johnson accused Democrats of playing "political games" by trying to force a vote. Johnson sent the House home for its summer break early amid the controversy roiling the lower chamber over the release of the Epstein files. The House had initially been scheduled to be in session through Thursday, but ended on Wednesday instead.
Asked about the Epstein case — and the FBI and Justice Department's findings — Johnson told CBS News on Wednesday, "I have the same concern and question that a lot of people do."
At Mr. Trump's direction, the Justice Department last week asked federal courts to unseal grand jury testimony related to the federal criminal probes into Epstein and his associate Ghislane Maxwell. A judge in Florida denied a request to release grand jury material stemming from investigations into Epstein in the 2000s, which ended without federal charges. Separate requests to release material from Epstein and Maxwell's more recent cases in New York are still pending, and could take some time.
Meanwhile, Mr. Trump has urged his supporters to stop focusing on the issue, arguing Democrats are trying to capitalize on it.
"Their new SCAM is what we will forever call the Jeffrey Epstein Hoax, and my PAST supporters have bought into this 'bullshit,' hook, line, and sinker," he wrote on Truth Social last week.
See more of the interview with House Speaker Mike Johnson on "The Takeout with Major Garrett," airing at 5 p.m. ET on Thursday, July 24, on CBS News 24/7.
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