House Republicans all say they want a light shone on the abuse Jeffrey Epstein and his associates perpetrated in a complex sex trafficking scheme, but how far they’re willing to go in forcing that transparency varies.
A House committee has obtained and released some of the Epstein case files, but a few Republicans say more should be done.
Rep. Thomas Massie, Kentucky Republican, said the only way for Congress to ensure full release of the Epstein files is to pass a law forcing the Justice Department to release them.
He is using the discharge petition process to try to force a House vote on his bill that would compel the release of the documents, with limited exemptions, like one to protect personally identifiable information of Epstein’s victims.
The measure is cosponsored by Rep. Ro Khanna, California Democrat, and backed by Epstein victims who spoke at a press conference Wednesday with the lawmakers on Capitol Hill.
The discharge petition needs 218 signatures to succeed; it had 206 as of Wednesday afternoon.
Three other Republicans, Reps. Nancy Mace of South Carolina, Lauren Boebert of Colorado and Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia, joined Mr. Massie in signing the petition.
“These are women taking up for women,” Mr. Massie said. “Where are the men here in the Republican Party taking up for the victims of sexual abuse? None of them have stepped up to join us yet.”
House Speaker Mike Johnson, Louisiana Republican, and other GOP leaders are opposed to the discharge petition and are instead backing an Oversight and Government Reform Committee investigation that has so far procured the release of more than 34,000 pages of documents.
“The Oversight probe is going to be wide and expansive, and they’re going to follow the truth wherever it leads,” Mr. Johnson said. “That’s why the discharge position has been made moot and unnecessary.”
He said the Justice Department has been complying with the Oversight Committee’s subpoena for the Epstein files and will continue producing documents.
“I talked to the president himself last night about this,” Mr. Johnson said. “He says, ‘Get it out there. Put it all out there.’”
Mr. Trump on Wednesday cited the “thousands of pages of documents” that have been released but dismissed the broader focus on the Epstein files as “a Democrat hoax.”
“They’re trying to get people to talk about something that’s totally irrelevant to the success we’ve had as a nation since I’ve been president,” he said.
The Epstein victims who spoke on Capitol Hill took issue with the president dismissing the matter as a “hoax.”
“I would like Donald J. Trump and every person in America and around the world to humanize us,” said Haley Robson, a registered Republican who Epstein sexually abused starting at age 16 and pressured to recruit her high school classmates. “There is no hoax. The abuse was real.”
The Epstein victims said the matter for them is not political and urged all lawmakers to support the Massie-Khanna bill to help expose the identities of their abusers, whom they declined to name publicly for fear of retribution.
A few Republicans who signaled in July that they would support the discharge petition said they changed their mind because of the Oversight panel’s work.
“We made a lot of progress over August, so we’re going to let it play out,” Rep. Keith Self, Texas Republican, told The Washington Times. “But transparency is still the issue, and it’s still exposing the criminals, protecting the innocent and the victims.”
House Republicans adopted a resolution on Wednesday, tucked into an unrelated procedural measure, that directs the Oversight Committee to continue its investigation into the “possible mismanagement” of the federal investigation into Epstein and his associate Ghislaine Maxwell.
Maxwell was convicted in the sex trafficking scheme, which involved abusing minors. Epstein was indicted but died in jail before he could stand trial. Others have not been prosecuted, and lawmakers hope releasing the files will ensure other accomplices are held to account.
Mr. Johnson told House Republicans during a closed-door conference meeting that backing the resolution supporting the Oversight panel’s investigation would give them “political cover” as he urged them not to sign the discharge petition, according to Mr. Massie.
Mr. Massie said that cover would be “fleeting” if the Oversight investigation doesn’t turn up new information about Epstein’s accomplices. The files the Justice Department has so far provided to the committee contain heavy redactions, which Mr. Massie said would not be allowed under his bill.
“What’s clear is they’re not redacting just to protect victims,” he said. “They are redacting to protect reputations of people. And some of those people are probably innocent, but some of them are most certainly guilty.”
Mr. Johnson and House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, Louisiana Republican, argued the Oversight investigation goes even further than the discharge petition because the committee is subpoenaing information from the Epstein estate that may not be in the Justice Department’s possession.
Oversight Chairman James Comer, Kentucky Republican, said the estate will start giving documents to the committee next week.
Mr. Massie acknowledged Mr. Comer, whom he considers a close friend, “will find some material that our discharge petition would not otherwise uncover, but he is also not going to uncover some of the things that our discharge petition would.”
• Lindsey McPherson can be reached at lmcpherson@washingtontimes.com.