House Republicans have spent a considerable amount of time this year fighting with each other over leadership, government spending and reconciliation. But just a few days before August recess, they’re warring over Jeffery Epstein.
Republican Rep. Thomas Massie is leading a bipartisan discharge petition with Democratic Rep. Ro Khanna that would effectively force a vote on getting the Trump administration to release Epstein-related documents. Procedurally, however, the petition would not take effect until Thursday — when leadership is hoping the House is gone until September.
“This transcends all other issues,” Massie told reporters Monday night. “This is about whether there’s an elite and powerful group of people who are above the law or whether they answer to the law. And that’s what this is about.”
“Anybody who wants to subvert or keep the Epstein files secret,” he continued, “they are on the wrong side.”
The tension over Epstein resolutions reached a fever pitch Monday evening. A band of Republicans said they would not advance any rule out of concerns Democrats would force a string of tough Epstein-related votes, which Rep. Ralph Norman decried as “grandstanding.” This led to the House Rules Committee adjourning on Monday night with no plans to come back. The blockade would effectively shut down votes on legislation on the floor — including on unrelated appropriations bills.
Although Speaker Mike Johnson professed he supports transparency regarding the Epstein documents, he has other ideas for how the House will spend its final three days before leaving town.
Johnson told reporters Monday that the House will not vote on the Epstein resolution before leaving Washington, adding that, “There is no daylight between the House Republicans, the House and the president on maximum transparency.”
“He’s asked the attorney general to request the grand jury files of the court,” Johnson said of President Donald Trump. “All of that is in process right now.”
Leadership has proposed a nonbinding resolution as an alternative, effectively giving Republican members cover to theoretically voice support to release Epstein-related documents without actually compelling the administration to do anything about it. But Johnson doesn’t even plan to put that measure on the floor this week, let alone Massie’s discharge petition.
Currently the plan is to spread votes on a remaining slew of noncontroversial bills that can pass with two-thirds of the House’s support over the next two days, sending members home on Wednesday for August recess, a source told NOTUS.
“We’re over for the week,” Rep. Jim McGovern, the top Democrat on the Rules Committee, told NOTUS. “They created this crisis and they’re going to have to figure out a way to deal with it, and I think the only effective way to deal with it is to move the Massie–Khanna bill to the floor. Let’s pass it and move on.”
But as Republicans are making clear, passing the bill and moving on is looking increasingly dubious. The debate over the Epstein documents has stoked a massive ideological rift in the party, with some Republicans long insisting that the federal government, regardless of who is in power, needs to disclose the documents.
“I support the idea of full visibility and transparency,” Rep. Jeff Van Drew, a co-sponsor on the discharge petition, told NOTUS.
Members in leadership and their allies insisted that the slower approach was prudent but they weren’t trying to prevent any files from being released.
“We’re going to get an opportunity to see how we can best support the president and the speaker on getting this information to the people,” said Rep. Kevin Hern, a member of leadership. “I’ve been from Day 1 about transparency, and I know that matters to not only us in the Republican Party but our members at large and our voters at large.”
Trump, for his part, can’t seem to quell concerns from MAGA voices on the issue. The podcaster Theo Von, who has interviewed Trump and Vice President JD Vance, called for a floor vote for Massie’s discharge petition. And The Wall Street Journal’s story alleging a potentially damning birthday note Trump left for Epstein has added fuel to the fire.
“Of course,” Rep. Eli Crane told NOTUS. “Transparency is important. I mean we’re here to represent the voters of this country, and as you can tell, they haven’t moved on.”
The situation has caused a massive headache for Johnson. Not only could work in the House grind to a halt just as his chamber is beginning to consider appropriations bills, but preventing a vote doesn’t help stop the spread of a cover-up conspiracy.
“I think this is the referendum on his leadership,” Massie said of Johnson. “Who’s he going to pick? Is he going to pick the pedophiles and the underage sex traffickers or is he going to pick the American people and justice for the victims?”
Trump has made clear that he wants the Epstein news cycle to die down. Having members back in their districts for five weeks might very well do the trick, with 435 lawmakers away from throngs of reporters questioning them about Epstein.
Several Republicans told NOTUS that they aren’t expecting much heat in their districts. Their constituents are less concerned about Epstein, some said, than they are issues like government funding.
“The average American doesn’t give a rat’s behind about the Epstein files. They want to see something done for their way of life. That’s me,” Rep. Paul Gosar, a member of the House Freedom Caucus, told NOTUS. (A group of polls found that Americans are very upset with how the Trump administration has handled Epstein documents.)
Rep. Clay Higgins, a House Freedom Caucus member, also dismissed any urgency to addressing it this week.
“I’m not freaked out about it, man. I’m a criminal justice guy, you know that. An Epstein resolution was not at the top of my radar. The criminal justice system moves forward the way it moves forward, and I do not support the random release of investigative files. Are you out of your mind?”
Massie is betting the opposite, telling reporters Monday he believes leadership may be accidentally shooting itself in the foot by delaying a vote. With his petition dangling for weeks, he said that he suspects lawmakers will hear from their voters during the recess and support the bill.
“This is not going away,” he said. “Less than 10% of the American people believe that this shouldn’t be released, and the legislation that we wrote protects the victims and protects national security, so there’s no reason not to release everything that they’ve got over there.”