House Republican leaders are pushing a vote on whether to compel the Trump administration to release the Jeffrey Epstein files until after the August recess — at the earliest, Politico reported Monday.
Convicted sex offender and former Trump associate Epstein died by suicide in his Manhattan jail cell in 2019.
Reporter Meredith Lee Hill wrote that "GOP leaders have an understanding with White House officials" to hold off on a vote "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."
She added that the vote might never make it to the House floor.
Trump instructed Attorney General Pam Bondi to request a judge to release the case's grand jury testimony, which she did last Friday. Trump's request came after the Murdoch-owned Wall Street Journal published a story linking Trump to a racy birthday card for Epstein's 50th birthday in which he allegedly wrote, "Happy Birthday — and may every day be another wonderful secret.”
Trump claimed "fake news" and filed a libel suit against the Journal shortly after publication.
House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) led the drafting of a non-binding Epstein resolution last week. It's believed to provide an "outlet" to "fend off Democratic attacks that the GOP is showing a lack of transparency on the case," Hill wrote.
Reps. Thomas Massie (R-KY) and Ro Khanna (D-CA) are trying to force a workaround to release the Epstein information through a "discharge petition" that would allow them to "bypass leadership to force a vote on the House floor if it receives 218 signatures," according to the report.
One House Republican told Politico that "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 Politico, any action on the files will be put off until after the House returns to Capitol Hill.