Inside the House GOP rebellion over Epstein

Politico

24-07-2025

One option, of which Johnson appeared to be most supportive, was to forgo moving legislation through the Rules Committee for the rest of the week – effectively a legislative surrender but it would give the White House time over August recess to work on releasing Epstein-related information.
Another route was to vote on a rule that included some of the Epstein language from the GOP-authored, non-binding resolution from the previous week, which would call for the release of a limited scope of Epstein documents. But GOP leaders believed that would likely fail on the chamber floor.
Then there was the alternative that some House Republicans bristled at the most: to forge ahead in the Rules Committee and to vote 'no' on Democratic-led Epstein amendments. But that also wouldn't have satisfied Republicans who wanted leaders to come up with a palatable alternative to support like the non-binding resolution.
'The rule was going down anyway,' said another person with knowledge of the matter. 'So the choice was clear.'
So Republicans picked door No. 1, a choice that has opened Johnson up to mockery on the Democratic side of the aisle and incredulity inside his conference.
'People want the information. They don't want things covered up,' GOP Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, one of Trump's biggest cheerleaders in the House, told reporters this week.
Majority Leader Steve Scalise in an interview Wednesday played off the crisis, saying that the fallout wasn't a 'rebellion' but rather Democrats trying to 'turn the Rules Committee into a circus' and Republicans 'weren't going to let that happen.'
But Senior House Republicans have also been irritated that the White House hadn't offered much in terms of backup, according to two other Republicans with knowledge of the conversations. When there is a problem in the House GOP conference, leaders often call in Trump to mediate.
Trump did speak to Rules Committee Republicans — who were at the center of the protest over Epstein this week — in the Oval Office Tuesday night, according to three people with direct knowledge of the meeting. Foxx, the Rules chair, said the meeting was to thank panel Republicans for their work to pass Trump's megabill ahead of a White House celebration around the legislative achievement.
But Rules Committee Rep. Ralph Norman — who this week accused House GOP leaders this week of 'stalling' on Epstein matters — said he believes Trump now 'is gonna release everything.'
'We were with him last night,' Norman added.
Reps. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) and Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) have been pushing for a vote on a binding Epstein file-release measure that could have the support to pass the house in September, when the bipartisan duo will be able to use procedural maneuvers to force the issue. GOP leaders privately argue their best chance to defeat it is for the administration to make progress in August – an outcome Norman and others are rooting for, too.
In the meantime, the firestorm doesn't appear to be dying down, especially following a Wall Street Journal report that the Justice Department informed Trump in May his name was in documents related to the Epstein case.
'That is our best, and only, option now,' one senior House Republican said. 'Otherwise, we'll be right back here in September.'
Nicholas Wu and Mia McCarthy contributed to this report.