‘I’m shocked by it’: GOP lawmaker stunned by own party’s dedication to bury Epstein files

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) is calling out what she considers to be a “major misstep” by her own party’s leadership, one that threatens to cripple the GOP in the upcoming midterm elections.

Greene has been among the loudest voices of dissent within her party as it relates to the handling of files held by the Justice Department on Jeffrey Epstein, the disgraced financier who died in 2019 awaiting trial on sex-trafficking charges, and is alleged to have run a blackmail operation targeting powerful figures.

“We campaigned on transparency issues like ‘release the Epstein files,’” Greene said, speaking to the Wall Street Journal for a report published Saturday. “And all of a sudden there’s this hard stance coming from the Republican leadership and many of the members and the administration, and I’m shocked by it.”

From House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) dropping a bombshell Friday by claiming to reporters that President Donald Trump was an “FBI informant” tasked with gathering information on Epstein, to the White House issuing ominous warnings to lawmakers for supporting efforts to release files on the disgraced financier, Republican leadership has struggled to suppress interest in the matter.

And that continued scrambling by leadership in her own party, Greene argued, will end up having major consequences next year as Republicans fight to maintain their slim majority in Congress.

“I think it’s a major misstep,” she said. “It is an uncalculated error that is going to have ramifications directly in the midterms.”

Greene is not alone in her worry that the GOP’s suppression of interest in Epstein would hit Republicans hard next year. Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY), who’s leading the charge to force the DOJ to release all of its files on Epstein, predicted that his own party would outright “lose the majority” were it to continue to stonewall Epstein’s victims efforts towards transparency.

Trump, who shares a long history with Epstein, having once called him a “terrific guy” and “a lot of fun to be with,” has remained defiant amid the handful of GOP dissenters pursuing the matter, calling it a Democrat-manufactured “hoax.” Nevertheless, Greene has remained a close ally with the president, telling the Wall Street Journal “I just know [Trump’s] heart,” and that he would eventually come around.