Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson has backtracked on his surprise break with President Donald Trump over the release of the Jeffrey Epstein files and now says the administration needs “space” to vet them.
“We need the administration to have the space to do what it is doing,” Speaker Johnson told reporters at the Capitol on Monday when pushed on whether he would be holding a vote in the House of Representatives on releasing all documents pertaining to the late billionaire pedophile held by the Justice Department.
“If further congressional action is necessary or appropriate, then we’ll look at that,” Johnson said, adding that there would be no such vote before the House breaks for its six-week summer vacation on Thursday.
“I don’t think we’re at that point yet, because we agree with the president.”
The speaker implied that his concerns had been allayed for now by Trump’s move to authorize Attorney General Pam Bondi to seek the unsealing of grand jury testimony from Epstein’s prosecution, a position that may not be shared by the Republican’s MAGA base, which has demanded full disclosure on the sex trafficker.
The president’s supporters, scenting a conspiracy, were dismayed by the FBI and Justice Department’s announcement two weeks ago that they had concluded there was no Epstein “client list” of his influential friends and enablers and that the New Yorker had died by suicide in jail in August 2019.
“There is no daylight between the House Republicans, the House and the president on maximum transparency,” Johnson said. “He has asked the attorney general to request the grand jury files of the court; all of that is in process.”
All of which provides a marked contrast to the comments he made on Benny Johnson’s The Benny Show podcast last week, when Johnson told the host: “We should put everything out there and let the people decide. I agree with the sentiment that we need to – we need to put it out there.”
Since succeeding the ousted Kevin McCarthy in October 2023, Johnson has had a close relationship with Trump and done much to force through his agenda, notably his “Big, Beautiful Bill” earlier this month, which overcame widespread GOP opposition to reach the president’s desk despite concerns about its likely impact.
As the president scrambles to pivot the national conversation away from his past friendship with Epstein, other members of his conservative coalition are likely to prove much harder to appease than Johnson.
Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene posted on social media on Monday: “If you tell the base of people, who support you, of deep state treasonous crimes, election interference, blackmail, and rich powerful elite evil cabals, then you must take down every enemy of The People.
“If not. The base will turn and there’s no going back. Dangling bits of red meat no longer satisfies. They want the whole steak dinner and will accept nothing else.”
