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House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., said Friday there “probably will be a vote of some sense” on a resolution requiring the Trump administration to release files related to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
Johnson noted, however, that a resolution was “not even necessary” because the Department of Justice and the Trump administration have already been fully compliant.
Lawmakers are set to return next week from their August recess to address several pending matters, with the Epstein documents among them. The House Oversight Committee subpoenaed Epstein’s estate on Monday as part of its effort to determine who was connected to the disgraced financier and whether prosecutors mishandled his case.
During a Friday appearance on “CNN News Central,” Johnson was asked if the House would vote on a “discharge petition” resolution introduced by Reps. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., and Ro Khanna, D-Calif., which would require Attorney General Pam Bondi to release the Epstein files within 30 days.
Johnson responded that such a resolution was not needed because the DOJ and administration “have been fully compliant with Congress’ subpoenas” over the summer. “The process is playing out as it should,” he said. “Very soon the American people will have that information, and they should have had it all along.”
When asked if his comments meant a floor vote on the Massie-Khanna resolution would not occur, Johnson said, “There may be a floor vote of one measure or another. We have our own resolutions to do all this, but it’s sort of not necessary at the point because the administration’s already doing this, they’re turning it over.”
On whether he could guarantee a vote on a discharge resolution, Johnson said: “There probably will be a vote of some sense, but we’ve got to get everybody collected again and build consensus around that.”
Johnson emphasized his support for transparency in the Epstein case. “We’re for maximum, maximum transparency,” he said. “With the Epstein files, I’ve been saying this for years — we’ve been intellectually consistent from day one, and over this break, over the last couple weeks in August, the Department of Justice and the administration have been fully compliant with Congress’ subpoenas, and they’ve submitted over 34,000 Epstein documents already.
“Our House Oversight Committee is doing their due diligence so that we can release it all, but they’re going through carefully to make sure that the victims of these horrific sex crimes, let’s be frank about it, are not exposed. They’ve already been through harm.”
On Aug. 22, the Justice Department released transcripts of interviews its No. 2 official conducted with Epstein’s imprisoned former girlfriend, Ghislaine Maxwell. Maxwell repeatedly denied witnessing any sexually inappropriate interactions with President Donald Trump.
