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GOP lawmakers are itching to leave Washington, D.C. for the summer as fears mount over a potential vote on the full release of the so-called “Epstein files” – as the saga continues to embroil the Trump White House.
House Republican leaders have faced internal pressure to send members home, POLITICO reported, amid suggestions of a bipartisan “discharge petition” that would force a vote.
The petition effort was launched Tuesday by Representative Thomas Massie, a Republican from Kentucky, and Ro Khanna, a California Democrat, according to the outlet. It could be ready for signatures and a floor vote as soon as next week.
Previous efforts by the Democrats to corner the GOP on a vote have been unsuccessful, despite discontent within Republican ranks about the Trump administration’s handling of the information’s release.
The president himself has expressed his frustration on multiple occasions with his MAGA support base’s obsession with the files, despite the Justice Department’s release of a memo stating there was no evidence to support a so-called “client list” belonging to the disgraced financier.
The unsatisfying conclusion to the hyped-up saga has incited the wrath of right-wing influencers as well as House Republicans.
Foreshadowing his petition, Massie promised to force a House vote on “releasing the COMPLETE files,: while Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene blasted: “This is the most famous pedophile in modern-day history, and people are absolutely not going to accept just a memo that was written that says there is no client list.”
However, according to POLITICO, the hope among GOP ranks is that Speaker Mike Johnson and Majority Leader Steve Scalise will cancel next week’s scheduled House session and instead send members home for an extended summer recess once voting concludes Thursday or Friday.
If this happens, members will avoid a potential vote next week and the issue may be less of interest by the time they return to Washington in September.
However, on Thursday, Punchbowl News reported that Johnson’s leadership team was discussing an Epstein-related resolution to quell the unrest.
Speaking to reporters on Thursday, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt was pummelled with questions about the ongoing saga, saying that she did not know if Trump had knowledge of the files’ contents, and blasting the Democrats for their fixation.
In a Truth Social post on Wednesday, Trump called the ongoing interest in the Epstein files a “scam” and a “hoax” put on by “Radical Left Democrats.”
Asked about Trump’s use of the word “hoax” on Thursday, Leavitt replied: “The president is referring to the fact that Democrats have now seized on this as if they ever wanted transparency when it comes to Jeffrey Epstein.”
“The week was a big kick in the balls,” a senior administration official told Rolling Stone on Wednesday.
