The lawmakers behind the trouble to drive the Justice Department to release all of the Jeffrey Epstein case files appeared optimistic on Sunday about their invoice’s possibilities of passing, insisting there was growing support among the many GOP within the US House.
GOP Rep. Thomas Massie of Kentucky mentioned Sunday that he thinks 100 or extra Republicans within the House may break with President Donald Trump, who tried to flip the handful of Republicans who signed on to his discharge petition effort with California Rep. Ro Khanna, a Democrat.
A discharge petition forces a ground vote even when it’s not launched by management. House Speaker Mike Johnson has beforehand called the trouble a “moot point” given an ongoing House Oversight Committee investigation, which has launched hundreds of paperwork, together with from Epstein’s property.
The resolution to transfer shortly with a ground vote, which is predicted on Tuesday, got here shortly after hundreds of new Epstein emails have been launched by the panel on Wednesday.
“I think we could have a deluge of Republicans. There could be 100 or more. I’m hoping to get a veto-proof majority on this legislation when it comes up for a vote,” Massie mentioned on ABC’s “This Week.”
Massie mentioned he thinks Trump is “trying to protect a bunch of rich and powerful friends, billionaires, donors to his campaign, friends in his social circles” and instructed his fellow GOP lawmakers that the “record of this vote will last longer” than Trump’s presidency.
“I would remind my Republican colleagues who are deciding how to vote, Donald Trump can protect you in red districts right now by giving you an endorsement, but in 2030 he’s not going to be the president, and you will have voted to protect pedophiles,” he mentioned.
Khanna, who mentioned he’s hoping round 40 Republican lawmakers will vote to release all of the Epstein files this week, insisted on Sunday that Trump was “sowing the seeds for his own lame-duck presidency” by going after Republicans in Congress who support the release of the files, resembling Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene.
“He’s out of touch with his own base,” Khanna mentioned on NBC’s “Meet the Press.”
Greene, as soon as a staunch Trump ally, has fallen out of favor with the president over her support for the release of files. Trump mentioned Friday that he would not support and endorse Greene, who’s operating for reelection in 2026.
Greene, for her half, lamented the fracture, insisting on Sunday that the rift “has all come down to the Epstein files.” She instructed NCS’s Dana Bash on “State of the Union” that she doesn’t perceive why the president is preventing the files’ release, as she doesn’t imagine he has been implicated in something unlawful by any of Epstein’s victims.
“That is the question everyone is asking, is ‘Why fight this so hard?’” Greene mentioned, including she would proceed to do her “small part” to get the files launched.
Though Trump has opposed the effort within the House to release the files, he mentioned late last week that he would ask the Justice Department to examine Epstein’s ties to a slew of high-profile figures linked to the Democratic Party. Attorney General Pam Bondi mentioned on Friday she would launch the investigation, assigning Jay Clayton, the US lawyer in New York’s Southern District, to lead it. The transfer raised fears amongst critics that the president is in search of to use the Justice Department to politicize any investigation.
Khanna mentioned he’s involved the probe may additionally get in the way in which of releasing the files, whilst his and Massie’s effort awaits an unsure destiny in Congress’ higher chamber.
“I’m all for investigation wherever it leads, in terms of whether it’s Democrat or Republican,” Khanna mentioned. “My concern is that he is doing this to prevent a release of the files, because some people are saying that when you can say there’s an active investigation, you don’t have to release the files.”
When requested on Sunday whether or not he thinks the Senate would take up the trouble, Massie mentioned he hopes Senate Majority Leader John Thune will “do the right thing,” insisting that “pressure is going to be there if we get a big vote in the House.”
With the invoice’s precarious future within the Senate obvious, Johnson was seemingly resigned to its passage this week within the House, dismissing the transfer as a Democratic political stunt.
“We’ll just get this done and move it on. There’s nothing to hide,” Johnson mentioned on “Fox News Sunday.”
A senior White House official told NCS last week that Trump was made conscious forward of time that Johnson was going to expedite the vote, and that the 2 had spoken about it.
“It was made clear to President Trump, and he understands that this is an inevitable reality,” the official mentioned.
NCS’s Annie Grayer and Manu Raju contributed to this report.