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The Independent
an hour ago
- Politics
- The Independent
Inside the Republican revolt in the House over the Epstein files that led to the early summer recess for Congress
House Republicans revolted against GOP leadership over the Trump administration's handling of the Jeffrey Epstein files in the days before Speaker Mike Johnson ushered in the chamber's early summer recess to avoid dealing with the crisis, according to a report. As controversy over the administration's refusal to release all government files related to the sex offender continues, Johnson faced a 'growing crisis' of his own among key GOP allies as leadership refused to bring any action on Epstein to the House floor, Politico reports. Behind the scenes, GOP leaders faced a 'standoff' with rank-and-file members who were 'incensed' when they were forced to vote against a Democratic-led effort to release the Epstein files a week before, according to the outlet. Some lawmakers reportedly 'begged' for action on Epstein in closed-door meetings as they warned Republican leadership that the problem wasn't going away. The new reported details illustrate the chaos of what was happening behind the scenes as President Donald Trump continues to be plagued by the case of the convicted pedophile. GOP Rep. Virginia Foxx of Virginia, chair of the House Rules Committee that serves as a final gatekeeper to legislation where a simple majority vote is required, threatened to bring activity on the House floor to a halt unless a better solution to the Epstein issue was put forward, two people with knowledge of the conversation told Politico. The rebellion prompted Trump to meet with GOP members of the House Rules Committee in the Oval Office Tuesday, according to the outlet. Johnson moved to shut down the committee, which meant that the House will not be able to tee up votes to pass many of the spending bills that Congress hoped to pass before the August recess, when members break to go back to their districts. But Johnson likely faces further rebellion in September. 'I think the administration will put more stuff out in August … if they don't, then I promise you, there's going to be some more looking at this in the first week of September,' warned Rep. Chip Roy of Texas. Republican lawmakers have expressed anger over the Epstein fallout, and said they are under intense pressure from constituents on the issue. The rebellion of House Republicans who favored releasing more documents in the Epstein case came as a 'surprise' to White House officials, according to Politico. One anonymous GOP member told CNN that members wanted a chance to vote on the issue. 'To be accused of trying to cover up for a pedophile, it's detestable,' they told the network. Word had got out that Democrats were planning to force an Epstein-related vote Monday. At a meeting with GOP Rules Committee members that evening, Johnson reportedly presented three options on how to proceed. Ultimately, leadership opted to halt the action of the House Rules Committee. 'The rule was going down anyway,' a source with knowledge of the meeting told Politico. 'So the choice was clear.' Johnson defended effectively shutting down the House while speaking with reporters Wednesday. 'No one in Congress is blocking Epstein documents,' he said. The rebellion follows recent revelations that the Department of Justice told Trump that his name appears multiple times in the Epstein files, according to multiple senior administration sources. The sources told The Wall Street Journal that Attorney General Pam Bondi and her deputy, Todd Blanche, informed the president during a May meeting at the White House that the president's name emerged after they sifted through a 'truckload' of documents related to Epstein. Following the Journal's report, sources familiar with the exchange confirmed the account to both The New York Times and CNN. Appearing in the files does not indicate that an individual has committed any wrongdoing, nor has Trump ever been accused of misconduct in connection with the Epstein case. 'This is another fake news story, just like the previous story by The Wall Street Journal,' White House communications director Steven Cheung said about the claims Trump was named.
CBS News
an hour ago
- Politics
- CBS News
House Speaker Johnson says Jeffrey Epstein case is "not a hoax"
House Speaker Mike Johnson told CBS News he wants "full transparency" in the case of Jeffrey Epstein, as the Trump administration faces pressure — including from some Republicans — to release more information on the late child sex offender. "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.
Yahoo
4 hours ago
- Politics
- Yahoo
House Oversight subcommittee votes to subpoena DOJ for Epstein files
In a surprise move, a House Oversight subcommittee voted Wednesday to subpoena the Department of Justice for files related to late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, a highly contentious issue that has exposed major divisions within the Republican party. The Epstein investigation and demands from many of President Donald Trump's supporters for more information has roiled the House in recent days, with Wednesday's vote amounting to a show of defiance by some House Republicans against Speaker Mike Johnson – who has attempted to tamp down on efforts to push the release of the so-called Epstein files. As pressure mounted this week, Johnson shut the door on the possibility of a House vote on releasing information on Epstein before the August recess and moved to send lawmakers home early after it became clear that the issue was not going to fade away. Johnson has said that he supports transparency and has argued that the Trump administration should be granted space to handle the matter before Congress intervenes, pointing to the Trump administration's push to unseal the grand jury materials related to the case. Democratic Rep. Summer Lee forced the vote in the GOP-led subcommittee, bringing a motion to subpoena the Trump DOJ for all records related to the Epstein investigation. The motion passed, 8-2, with three of the panel's Republicans joining with Democrats. GOP Reps. Nancy Mace, Scott Perry and Brian Jack joined with the subpanel's four Democrats and the full committee's ranking member Robert Garcia to approve the subpoena. House Oversight Chair James Comer will be required to sign the subpoena before it can officially be issued, according to committee rules. The subpoena calls for the Epstein files in the Justice Department's possession to be provided to Congress, but the names of the victims to be redacted. It also calls for communications between former Biden officials and the Justice Department related to the Epstein matter, in addition to depositions among some major figures, including Bill and Hillary Clinton and former FBI Director James Comey. The subpoena would force the Justice Department to potentially turn over far more voluminous files than were presented to the grand jury, including some that might reference Trump. In May, Attorney General Pam Bondi briefed Trump that his name, along with other high-profile people's names, appeared in files reviewed by the department related to the case, sources told CNN. It wasn't clear in what context Trump's name appears in the files. The subcommittee's chairman, GOP Rep. Clay Higgins, said he did not know when the subpoenas would be issued. Perry told CNN that he voted for the motion because 'I just think it's important that the American people know what's occurred.' Pressed about Trump's calls for the public to move on from the Epstein controversy, Perry said that he's been 'very clear on my opinion on this issue for a long time.' Earlier Wednesday, Comer also subpoenaed Epstein's former associate Ghislaine Maxwell for a deposition. Trump's Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche is also expected to meet on Thursday with Maxwell, according to two people familiar with the meeting. Maxwell was sentenced in 2022 to 20 years in federal prison for carrying out a years-long scheme with Epstein to groom and sexually abuse underage girls. Key GOP Senate committee chairs say they won't investigate Epstein controversy Meanwhile, two of the three key Senate Republican committee chairs with the power to investigate the Epstein matter said they won't, reflecting a broader lack of interest among many Senate Republicans to pursue the hot-button and evolving issue. 'No, the answer is no,' Sen. Rand Paul, the chairman of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, said when asked if he would probe the issue. 'Not on our agenda.' GOP Sen. Ron Johnson, who chairs the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigation, a powerful post that is part of Paul's committee, also said he's not interested in leading an investigation despite being 'as curious as anybody' about the case. 'I think there's enough people looking at it and I try not to duplicate efforts,' Johnson said. 'Listen, I'm as curious as anybody. I mean the whole situation is odd.' The Republican from Wisconsin added, 'I can understand President Trump's frustration, but also understand the American public's interest in what happened here.' 'Other people are doing it. I've got enough other things that I'm worried about,' Sen. Chuck Grassley, who chairs the Senate Judiciary Committee, said. Grassley also said he is holding off to see if the DOJ will be able to publicly release grand jury transcripts in the case. He expects the Epstein issue to be discussed when Bondi testifies before the committee during an upcoming oversight hearing. Senate Majority Leader John Thune has said that it would be up to the committee chairs to determine if probes were to happen, so their lack of an appetite signals there may not be a full Senate investigation. CNN's Kaitlan Collins, Nicky Robertson and Molly English contributed to this report.
Newsweek
6 hours ago
- Politics
- Newsweek
Donald Trump's 'Do Nothing Congress' is One of the Least Productive Ever
On Tuesday evening, Speaker of the House of Representatives Mike Johnson announced an early adjournment of the chamber, saying there was nothing "time sensitive" to work on. In doing so, he halted all legislative action until September and ended an intensifying debate regarding the release of files associated with Jeffrey Epstein. In doing so, he may have also inadvertently cemented the 119th Congress's position as one of the least productive Congressional sessions in history. The 119th Congress, which convened on January 3, 2025, for the end of former President Joe Biden's presidency and will conclude in January 2027, is, like any other Congress, important in advancing legislation that affects the lives of the American people in all manner of ways. However, according to the legislative tracking website GovTrack, its legislative action is lethargic. It has passed just 27 bills, far fewer than the number of bills passed at the same point in most previous sessions since the 103rd Congress, which convened in 1993 when Bill Clinton was in office. This comes despite the Republicans having a majority of 219 to 212 in the House of Representatives and a majority of 53 to 45 in the Senate. In his 1948 re-election campaign, Democratic President Harry Truman raged against a Republican-controlled "do nothing Congress" for hampering his legislative priorities. Is Trump's 119th Congress comparable? Photo-illustration by Newsweek/Getty Speaking to Newsweek, Mark Shanahan, who teaches American politics at the University of Surrey in the U.K., said Congress was passing fewer bills because it was only acting on issues Trump wants to advance. That, and the Republicans' slim majorities in both chambers, have slowed the passage of legislation, he said. "This is a Congress that's acting as a rubber stamp for the president, not as a vigorous legislature separated from the Executive in its powers and actions," he said. "The second Trump administration is delivering his campaign promises, no more, no less, and is blinkered to anything beyond its somewhat retributive agenda. But Congress is very much under the presidential thumb, acting in a hyper-partisan manner and delivering only what Trump decrees. Majorities in the House and Senate are slim, so every committee hearing and floor debate is painful and protracted, and neither the legislation, not the legislators charged with delivering it are the strongest set Capitol Hill has ever seen. Congress has been sidelined by an increasingly authoritarian Executive and is already showing its fatigue." Scott Lucas, who teaches international politics at University College Dublin, agreed that "Trump rules by executive order" and only goes to Congress for "big high-profile legislation." He told Newsweek that the Trump administration had been "much more ambitious" in its use of executive orders in its second term and that he had been more "authoritarian." "If you're the big authority, why do you need Congress?" While the 119th Congress has passed relatively few bills, it is not the least law-making Congress since 1993. That status belongs to the 118th Congress, the least productive, which had passed 13 bills by a comparable stage of its session. However, this came amid divisions. Republicans controlled the House while Democrats controlled the Senate and the White House. There was also infighting in the Republican Party which resulted in Kevin McCarthy losing the speakership. This affected Congress' ability to move legislation. Meanwhile, during the first eight months of the 104th Congress in 1995, only 22 bills were passed. In passing 27 laws, the 119th Congress is the third-least productive Congressional session since January 1993. On the flip side, as per the GovTrack data, the most productive Congressional session was the 103rd session, when 82 bills were passed. The 108th was also among the most productive, passing 76 bills during the third quarter of George W. Bush's first term in office. Meanwhile, the two Congressional sessions that coincided with Trump's first term, the 115th and the 116th, were also more productive than the current Congressional term, with 55 and 56 bills passed, respectively, by the end of August in their first year in Congress. However, this may all be meaningless. Richard Johnson, a senior lecturer in U.S. politics and policy at Queen Mary University of London in the U.K., said that "the number of laws passed is not on its own informative of congressional activity." "We are seeing a pattern now of Congress passing large omnibus bills, which historically would have been several pieces of legislation, rolled into one," he told Newsweek. "For example, the Big Beautiful Bill Act was at least five different bills rolled into one: a tax bill, a welfare reform bill, a climate subsidy repeal bill, an immigration and security bill, and a miscellaneous funding bill. The raw numbers do not tell us about the size, scale, or importance of the legislation." The 119th Congress will resume its session in September. Whether it comes back with a flurry of legislation or continues its relatively slow approach remains to be seen.
CNN
7 hours ago
- Politics
- CNN
The Epstein files are roiling the House GOP, and there's no end in sight
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.
