Epstein Chaos Derails House, Puts Republican Agenda at Risk

The GOP-controlled House is in such chaos that lawmakers are being sent home for their annual summer recess one day early in the wake of President Donald Trump’s about-face on the Epstein files.

Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) canceled Thursday votes amid Republican division over how to address the release of documents related to disgraced financier and sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. Trump said during his campaign last year that he’d release files related to Epstein, a longtime demand of the MAGA right, but this month he pivoted and referred to criticism as a “hoax.” Last week, the Wall Street Journal reported Trump once sent Epstein a risque birthday card — which the president denied — ramping up pressure on the administration.

This is the second week in a row that Johnson’s floor schedule has been thrown into disorder as House Republicans choose between angering their conservative base or the president. The Epstein issue is a ticking time bomb that GOP leaders will need to address when they return from recess.

Rep. Thomas Massie’s (R-Ky.) bipartisan discharge petition on his proposal (H. Res. 581) is set to become ripe for lawmaker signatures in early September, forcing Republicans to go on the record about forcing a release.

House Republicans crafted a non-binding Epstein resolution (H. Res. 589) last week to counter Democrats’ attacks, but Johnson won’t put it on the floor until at least September, if at all. The House Rules Committee recessed indefinitely Monday night without considering priority GOP legislation to avoid voting on Democrats’ Epstein amendments.

“It’s going to be a while” before Rules reconvenes, committee Chairwoman Virginia Foxx (R-N.C.) said Tuesday morning, and the panel may not meet again until September. That would prevent the House from considering party-line legislation, such as Biden-era rule rollbacks, that require a simple majority in the House. Lawmakers will instead spend floor time voting on uncontroversial suspension bills, which don’t require rules but need a two-thirds majority to pass.

Rep. Ralph Norman (R-S.C.), who voted for a binding Epstein amendment in Rules, said House Republicans are giving the Trump administration time to release the files.

“At the end of the day, they will prove that everything will come out,” Norman said Tuesday. “And if it takes 30 days — it may take longer than that — the main thing is, they’re not going to stonewall. President Trump wants everything out, and he will get it out.”

Lawmakers will now decamp to their districts Wednesday afternoon to face their constituents, including hard-right Republicans clamoring for a release of the Epstein files. Massie called this a “watershed moment” for the speaker to either go along with Trump or push for a full file release.

“As soon as we get back, there’s going to be a vote on this, unless the speaker subverts it,” Massie said, adding that he hopes Johnson doesn’t use “parliamentary procedure to subvert or hide the release of these files.” The speaker has used procedures in the Rules Committee to avoid floor votes on proxy voting for new parents and Trump’s tariffs this year.

“I don’t understand Thomas Massie’s motivation,” Johnson told reporters, questioning why he didn’t bring the discharge petition under former President Joe Biden. Johnson said House Republicans are “going to do the right thing.”

The Oversight Committee unanimously voted Tuesday to subpoena Ghislaine Maxwell, who was convicted of facilitating Epstein’s sex trafficking operations.

“The Committee will seek to subpoena Ms. Maxwell as expeditiously as possible,” Oversight Committee spokesperson Jessica Andrews said in a statement. “Since Ms. Maxwell is in federal prison, the Committee will work with the Department of Justice and Bureau of Prisons to identify a date when Committee can depose her.”