Epstein probe ‘the gateway’ to sparking major GOP break from Trump: Dem lawmaker

As tensions over the ongoing Jeffrey Epstein probe continue to roil Republican House leadership, a group of GOP lawmakers are holding firm in demanding the release of files on the disgraced financier, a push one Democratic lawmaker on Saturday called “the getaway” for a major Republican break from President Donald Trump.

“With the Epstein files, we're talking about a group of Republicans who actually take sexual violence seriously,” said Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD) during an appearance Saturday on MSNBC’s “The Weekend.”

“These are members of Congress – like Nancy Mace, who has written about having been raped – who have talked about sexual violence and sexual harassment as a serious problem, and so I've got to hand it to them, they're taking it seriously.”

Democrats have increased pressure on Trump’s Justice Department to release its files on Epstein since The Washington Post’s bombshell report in July that revealed new details about Trump’s relationship with the disgraced financier who died in 2019 while awaiting trial on sex-trafficking charges.

Those efforts have been aided by Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY), who filed a discharge petition to force a vote on a measure forcing the DOJ to release its files on Epstein. Massie’s efforts have been unanimously supported by Democrats, alongside a handful of dissenting GOP House members: Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA), Lauren Boebert (R-CO) and Nancy Mace (R-SC).

Despite an ominous threat from the White House issued to GOP lawmakers against supporting Massie’s discharge petition, the four dissenting Republicans have held firm, and to such an extent that Raskin said he believed they may soon break with the White House on other matters.

“I think that might be the gateway issue for them,” Raskin said. “I liken it to a religious cultist who wakes up on the basement floor and they're listening to tapes of the leader and just saying 'maybe our messiah is a false prophet, and if I can question on this thing, maybe I can start questioning on a whole bunch of things,' including Medicaid and Affordable Care Act tax credits instead of just following in line like lemmings.”

Massie’s discharge petition remains just one signature short of its required 218 vote threshold to force a vote on the measure on the House floor. As for the dissenting GOP House members, Raskin said – at least on the Epstein probe – that their position has earned them his respect.

“I respect them for, at least up until this point, standing up to a huge pressure campaign coming from the White House to get them to defect from the bi-partisan majority of Congress that is demanding we extricate the Epstein file legislation and get it out so we can open up the whole Epstein file,” he said.