Congress returns from recess to face Epstein information controversy once more

Congress wasn’t in session in August. However the Epstein information definitely had been.

The Epstein information dominated Congress earlier than the summer time recess. However when lawmakers returned to Capitol Hill in current days, the very first thing lawmakers wrestled with had been the Epstein information once more.

Word: In order for you one thing to go away, don’t make it among the many first orders of enterprise.

The Epstein subject gurgled via the summer time. And Home Republicans did little to tamp down the embers by adjourning the physique a day early in July – as a result of they struggled to cross unrelated payments with out delving into a sophisticated and sticky dialogue of the Epstein information. Then, when the Home returned, GOP leaders instantly prepped a decision to formally bless an Epstein investigation by the Oversight Committee. The panel launched some 32,000 pages of Epstein-related paperwork.

Simply hours after returning to session, Home Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., and others met with Epstein accusers.

‘NOT GOING AWAY’: INSIDE THE EPSTEIN DRAMA THAT’S THROWN HOUSE GOP INTO CHAOS

That explains why the difficulty isn’t ebbing any time quickly.

“It is extremely a lot a chance that Jeffrey Epstein was an intelligence asset working for our adversaries,” declared Rep. Anna Paulina Luna, R-Fla., after speaking to the Epstein victims on the Capitol. “I feel that is going to be a legal investigation for certain. I’ll say that what’s been launched, clearly, the American folks have needed for a very long time.”

Earlier than the recess, Reps. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., and Ro Khanna, D-Calif., teamed as much as doubtlessly bypass Johnson and compel the Home to vote on releasing the Epstein information. The Epstein milieu shortly contaminated nearly each single legislative effort in Congress, successfully hamstringing the physique. So Johnson lower everybody unfastened a bit early.

However the subject festered over the recess. Massie and Khanna had been again with their parliamentary gambit to go over Johnson’s head and drive an Epstein vote.

Lawmakers from each side routinely convene press conferences at a spot simply outdoors the Capitol known as the “Home Triangle.” Lawmakers typically use this venue to function non-members or folks particular to the laws they’re pushing on the information convention.

Generally members carry a throng of individuals with them. A crowd sometimes gathers, relying on the difficulty.

However I had by no means earlier than witnessed the multitude of people that confirmed up on the Home Triangle on Wednesday morning to listen to Massie, Khanna and victims speak about their effort to pry open the information. Individuals spilled out onto the walkways and plaza. That compelled U.S. Capitol Police to limit entry to the realm.

A few of the victims recounted their Epstein tales in harrowing element.

“After I bought into the therapeutic massage room, Jeffrey Epstein undressed and requested me to do issues to him, my eyes welled up with tears. And I’ve by no means been extra scared in my life,” mentioned Epstein accuser Haley Robson.

“I used to be even taken on a visit to Africa with former President Invoice Clinton and different notable figures. In these moments, I spotted how powerless I used to be,” mentioned Epstein sufferer Chauntae Davies.

EPSTEIN VICTIMS SET TO BREAK SILENCE AMID BIPARTISAN PUSH TO RELEASE FILES: ‘PEOPLE ARE GOING TO BE OUTRAGED’

Massie and Khanna are deploying what’s known as a “discharge petition.” It’s a not often profitable gambit to go over the top of the Speaker and drive a debate and vote in your subject – supplied one can engineer 218 Home signatures. If Massie and Khanna cobble collectively sufficient signatories, they can drive a vote later this month.

Home GOP leaders are involved about this. That’s why Johnson hoped to intervene together with his personal measure to formalize the Home Oversight Committee’s inquiry into Epstein. However Johnson designed the measure in a means that the Home might approve it – with out taking a direct vote on it. That means, Republicans might level to offended constituents that they had been the truth is taking the Epstein information severely – with out an precise roll name vote documenting their place and maybe infuriating President Donald Trump. Or, they might inform different constituents who wouldn’t need them to cross the President on Epstein to say they by no means immediately voted on it in any respect. In any case, it was buried in an unrelated measure.

Make sense?

However there was one other motive behind the management’s distinctive parliamentary maneuver on Epstein: They needed to present Republicans cowl to say that the Home was the truth is addressing the Epstein subject. The transfer would possibly coax fewer members to assist the Massie/Khanna effort. That might forestall the Home from taking a concrete vote tied to Epstein. However in any other case, the Home might have to immediately wrestle with it.

Massie known as this a “political cowl” to dam his plan with Khanna to launch the information.

Johnson fired again at Massie.

“I might not put a lot inventory into what Thomas Massie says. The Home Republicans have been very constant about most disclosure and most transparency,” mentioned Johnson.

Trump lengthy promised to launch the information. However Trump’s place this week was in charge Democrats.

“This can be a Democrat hoax that by no means ends. , it jogs my memory a bit of the [President John F.] Kennedy scenario. We gave them all the things time and again. Extra and increasingly more and no one’s ever glad,” mentioned Trump. “But it surely’s actually a Democrat hoax as a result of they’re attempting to get folks to speak about one thing that is completely irrelevant to the success that we have had as a nation since I have been president.”

Massie instructed that Johnson is simply attempting to remain on Trump’s good facet by strolling a political tightrope.

HOUSE OVERSIGHT COMMITTEE RELEASES THOUSANDS OF EPSTEIN DOCUMENTS

“The Speaker is wrestling with [whether] he will have to decide on between supporting Donald Trump’s new place that the information should not be launched, or discovering justice for these victims and survivors. The Speaker most likely would not recognize that he will have to decide on one,” mentioned Massie. “The Speaker’s place is determined by him not simply rubber-stamping however reinforcing something Donald Trump needs, even when Donald Trump is unsuitable. So the Speaker is in a tricky spot.”

The supplies coughed up by the Oversight panel did embody a brand new video of the so-called “lacking minute.” It fills in absent footage from Epstein’s New York jail cell on the evening he died.

However Massie insists on the discharge of extra materials.

“What’s clear is they are not redacting, simply to guard victims. They’re redacting to guard the reputations of individuals,” mentioned Massie.

One Republican aligned with the President threatened to out these linked to Epstein.

“I am not afraid to call names,” mentioned Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., on the press convention. “So in the event that they wish to give me a listing, I’ll stroll into that Capitol on the Home ground, and I will say each rattling identify that abused these girls.”

Khanna was buoyed by the assist of Greene.

“I’ve by no means performed a press convention with Marjorie Taylor Greene earlier than,” mentioned the progressive Khanna. “I do not assume Marjorie Taylor Greene could be a part of a stunt towards President Trump.”

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We’ll know quickly if the Home has the votes to thwart the GOP management and think about the Massie/Khanna decision. And tangling with the Epstein matter might even begin to affect the flexibility of the Home to wrestle with routine laws once more.

And so, the Epstein saga continues. The identical because it was earlier than the August recess.