Speaker Mike Johnson doesn’t have any plans to put a non-binding resolution on the floor this week before the August recess — or possibly ever — that would call for the administration to release Jeffrey Epstein-related documents.
Instead, GOP leaders have an understanding with White House officials that the House will wait to address the matter until after the monthlong break in order to give the administration time to release documents on its own following President Donald Trump’s move to release grand jury information on the case.
The current plan for dealing with the politically explosive matter on Capitol Hill, detailed Monday by people granted anonymity to share private party strategy, comes as the controversy continues to encircle the House GOP in chaos.
Johnson, his leadership team and Rules Committee Republicans drafted the non-binding Epstein resolution late last week. The idea was to give panel Republicans political cover amid Democratic attacks on the GOP’s handling of the materials related to Epstein, the disgraced financier and convicted sex offender who died in his jail cell by suicide in 2019.
Leaders and their allies also wanted to give their rank-and-file members an alternative to legislation being pushed by Reps. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) and Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) that would compel the release of Epstein case information. Massie and Khanna are seeking a vote on this measure through a discharge petition, a procedural maneuver that allows members to bypass leadership to force a vote on the House floor if it receives 218 signatures. The effort is quickly picking up steam.
But in the middle of a Thursday night Rules panel meeting teeing up this new resolution, Trump announced he would direct Attorney General Pam Bondi to begin the process of unsealing grand jury testimony in Epstein’s criminal case. It followed publication of a Wall Street Journal report alleging Trump sent Epstein a racy birthday letter several decades ago, though Trump has said the letter is fake and is now seeking billions in a defamation lawsuit against the paper.
Johnson, asked by reporters shortly after if he would put the resolution on the House floor, declined to make any specific commitments on moving forward the resolution he crafted. “We’ll determine what happens with all that. There’s a lot developing,” Johnson said. He added there was “no daylight” between House Republicans and Trump over wanting “transparency,” and he noted Trump had directed Bondi to act.
In the meantime, Johnson is under increasing pressure from a growing number of GOP members to simply put the teed up Massie and Khanna-led resolution to a full House vote “ASAP,” according to one House Republican granted anonymity to speak freely.
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.), who has signed onto the discharge petition, on Monday appeared to send a pointed message to Trump on social media: If the Department of Justice does not release more information on Epstein, the president’s supporters will no longer stand behind him.
Without naming Epstein, Greene said Trump is “dangling” only bits of information to his supporters despite promises during the 2024 campaign that his administration would be transparent with the public.
For now, House GOP leaders plan to give the administration space in August to deliver. The White House did not immediately respond to request for comment.
Mia McCarthy contributed.
