House Speaker Mike Johnson is trying to spare Donald Trump from another Jeffrey Epstein headache—at least for now.
As uproar from the MAGA base continues, the GOP leader said there will be no vote on any measure related to the so-called “Epstein files” before lawmakers head off on Thursday for summer break until September.
Johnson insisted there’s “no daylight” between House Republicans and the president, citing Trump’s call last week for the Justice Department to make public grand jury testimony from the Epstein prosecution.
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“My belief is we need the administration to have the space to do what it is doing, and if further congressional action is necessary or appropriate, then we’ll look at that,” the Louisiana Republican told reporters at the Capitol on Monday. “But I don’t think we’re at that point right now because we agree with the president.”
A non-binding resolution, approved by Republicans on the House Rules Committee last week, would carry no legal weight to compel the Justice Department to make any further disclosures about Epstein. It called on the DOJ to share materials related to the late sex offender’s case and his death within 30 days. However, if it were to pass in a floor vote, it would still serve as a blow to Trump as he struggles to contain fractures in his base.
It was offered up by Republicans after Democrats—and GOP constituents—applied sustained pressure. Democrats had pounced on the opportunity to capitalize on the MAGA infighting, trying to force votes on measures that would actually compel the DOJ to release the files.
Johnson allowed the Rules Committee to advance the non-binding resolution last week as part of a deal with GOP holdouts on a rescissions package. It was viewed by critics as a way to address the issue without forcing any meaningful action or attracting backlash from Trump.
“Congress thinks you’re stupid,” GOP Rep. Thomas Massie of Kentucky said at the time. “The rules committee passed a NON-BINDING Epstein resolution, hoping folks will accept it as real. It forces the release of NOTHING.”
Johnson also wouldn’t commit to bringing it to the floor—ever—at the time, insisting, “We’re in line with the White House, there’s no daylight between us.“
He seemed intent on hammering that point home after breaking with Trump just days earlier, calling for “transparency” on the Epstein files and saying, “we should put everything out there and let the people decide.”
Democratic National Committee chair Ken Martin slammed Republicans for scrapping several votes this week to avoid confronting the issue.
“Republicans are literally shutting down the House floor and getting ready to go on vacation early just to weasel out of releasing the Epstein files,” Martin said in a statement provided to the Daily Beast.
“While the American people elected leaders to fight for law and order and do their damn jobs, Republicans are bending the knee to Donald Trump and protecting an infamous sex trafficker.”
In a separate push, Massie and Ro Khanna, a California Democrat, have formed an unlikely alliance on bipartisan legislation to make the Justice Department release all Epstein-related materials in an attempt to work around Johnson.
Ten House Republicans have signed on to the measure, including Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene, Lauren Boebert and Nancy Mace.
“If you tell the base of people, who support you, of deep state treasonous crimes, election interference, blackmail, and rich powerful elite evil cabals, then you must take down every enemy of The People,” Greene wrote on X in a cryptic warning on Monday.
“If not. The base will turn and there’s no going back.”
Massie has been pressuring House leaders to put the bill on the floor this week, to no avail.
Trump has been flooding the zone with distractions after the Wall Street Journal on Thursday published a bombshell report describing a lewd birthday card from Trump to Epstein.
That added to the uproar that Trump had been trying for days to stifle after his administration reversed course on making further disclosures about the Epstein case, infuriating a base that has long been fixated on conspiracy theories about it.
“I don’t think this is going to go away,” Massie told CNN on Monday. “And I think when we return in September, we’ll get phase two of the Epstein files.”
