WASHINGTON — Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., the conservative firebrand who’s clashed with Donald Trump and different GOP leaders, filed a discharge petition Tuesday to power a ground vote compelling the Justice Division to launch the entire recordsdata from the Jeffrey Epstein case.
It is one of many first Home actions as lawmakers return to Washington from their five-week summer time recess. And the problem is bound to dominate Capitol Hill this week, as sexual assault survivors of Epstein — the convicted intercourse offender who took his personal life in jail in 2019 — meet with key lawmakers Tuesday and maintain a much-anticipated information convention on Wednesday.
Massie and his Democratic co-author, Rep. Ro Khanna of California, mentioned they are going to start gathering signatures for his or her Epstein decision beginning Tuesday. They want a minimum of 218 signatures — half the members of the Home — to power a vote, and Khanna informed NBC he’s sure that every one 212 Democrats will signal on, together with a minimum of six Republicans.
If they will safe the requisite 218 signatures, there may be nonetheless an extra seven-legislative-day ready interval earlier than a vote can occur. Then the Home speaker has two legislative days earlier than he should name up the measure for a vote on the ground. So, the earliest a ultimate vote might occur could be in two weeks.
Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., and different GOP leaders are against the push, arguing that it’s not wanted as a result of the Home Oversight Committee is investigating the matter and is within the technique of reviewing a tranche of Epstein data.
However the discharge petition permits a majority of the Home to avoid management’s needs.
Making an attempt to launch the constructing strain on Epstein, GOP leaders on Tuesday added their very own Epstein-related invoice to the record of laws the Home will sort out this week.
However the invoice has little tooth: It might direct the Oversight Committee to “proceed its ongoing investigation into the potential mismanagement of the Federal authorities’s investigation of Mr. Jeffrey Epstein and Ms. Ghislaine Maxwell” — one thing the panel is already doing.
“@SpeakerJohnson simply scheduled this meaningless vote to offer political cowl for these members who don’t assist our bipartisan laws to power the discharge of the Epstein recordsdata,” Massie wrote on X.
Johnson, chatting with reporters within the Capitol, shot again at Massie: “I’d describe nearly every little thing Thomas Massie says associated to this situation as meaningless.”
The bipartisan discharge push coincides with a gaggle of survivors from the Epstein case touring to Capitol Hill for each private and non-private occasions. On Tuesday afternoon, survivors will meet with a bipartisan group of Oversight Committee members behind closed doorways. Then on Wednesday morning, a unique group of survivors will seem at a information convention hosted by Massie and Khanna.
Massie mentioned in a separate put up on X that 10 survivors will be a part of the press convention and that some have by no means spoken publicly earlier than. Khanna mentioned the revelations from the survivors will likely be “explosive.”
Although Congress was not in session in August, the Home Oversight Committee continued its work on the Epstein investigation over the recess. They introduced in a number of key witnesses for closed-door deposition, together with former Legal professional Basic William Barr. They’ve additionally issued subpoenas to Invoice and Hillary Clinton, James Comey, Loretta Lynch, Eric Holder, Merrick Garland, Robert Mueller, Jeff Classes and Alberto Gonzales.
Classes, Gonzalez and Holder all swore affidavits saying they’d no data of the Epstein affair in trade for not showing. Mueller won’t seem as a result of well being points.
The committee has additionally scheduled a transcribed interview with former U.S. Legal professional Alex Acosta, whose workplace oversaw the Epstein case and reached a secret non-prosecution settlement with him in 2008. The panel additionally subpoenaed Epstein’s affiliate, Ghislaine Maxwell, for a deposition.
The committee has additionally acquired a whole bunch of paperwork from DOJ associated to the case and is anticipating extra. And it has subpoenaed the Epstein Property for paperwork; the property is predicted to reply the subpoena as early as this week.
Among the many paperwork within the possession of the property is Epstein’s “birthday e-book,” which the Wall Avenue Journal reported Trump contributed an express message to. Trump has denied authoring the message and sued the Journal. NBC Information has not independently verified or seen the e-book.
