Speaker Mike Johnson announced on Tuesday that he was cutting short the week’s legislative business and sending the House home early for the summer on Wednesday to avoid having to hold votes on releasing files related to the accused sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein.

Mr. Johnson’s move will, for now, deny Democrats the chance to force procedural votes that would call on the Justice Department to make the information public. It reflected how deep divisions among Republicans on the matter have paralyzed the House, where G.O.P. lawmakers are trying to avoid another politically perilous vote on an issue that is confounding President Trump and roiling the MAGA base.

“We’re done being lectured on transparency,” Mr. Johnson said at a news conference, where the typically unflappable speaker appeared frustrated.

As he wrapped up his final news conference before a summer recess that was to have begun on Friday and lasted until September, Mr. Johnson complained about “endless efforts to politicize the Epstein investigation.”

He insisted that Republicans “have been intellectually consistent the entire time,” and added that “we’re not going to play political games with this.”

Mr. Johnson’s decision to shut down the House early was the latest example of how the speaker has in many ways ceded the chamber’s independence in order to please or avoid angering Mr. Trump. He has deferred to the president on matters large and small, including when it comes to Congress’s spending power. He quietly maneuvered this year to yield the House’s ability to weigh in on Mr. Trump’s tariffs, in order to spare Republicans from having to cast politically tricky votes on whether to end them.