Jeffrey Epstein saga continues as Congress returns from recess

Congress wasn t in session in August But the Epstein files certainly were The Epstein files dominated Congress before the summer recess But when lawmakers returned to Capitol Hill in current days the first thing lawmakers wrestled with were the Epstein files again Note If you want something to go away do not make it among the first orders of business The Epstein issue gurgled through the summer And House Republicans did little to tamp down the embers by adjourning the body a day early in July because they struggled to pass unrelated bills without delving into a complicated and sticky discussion of the Epstein files Then when the House returned GOP leaders instantly prepped a resolution to formally bless an Epstein study by the Oversight Committee The panel distributed various pages of Epstein-related documents Just hours after returning to session House Speaker Mike Johnson R-La and others met with Epstein accusers 'NOT GOING AWAY' INSIDE THE EPSTEIN DRAMA THAT'S THROWN HOUSE GOP INTO CHAOSThat explains why the issue isn t ebbing any time soon It is very much a possibility that Jeffrey Epstein was an intelligence asset working for our adversaries declared Rep Anna Paulina Luna R-Fla after talking to the Epstein casualties at the Capitol I think this is going to be a criminal inspection for sure I will say that what's been published obviously the American people have longed for a long time Before the recess Reps Thomas Massie R-Ky and Ro Khanna D-Calif teamed up to potentially get around Johnson and compel the House to vote on releasing the Epstein files The Epstein milieu expeditiously infected virtually every single legislative effort in Congress effectively hamstringing the body So Johnson cut everyone loose a bit early But the issue festered over the recess Massie and Khanna were back with their parliamentary gambit to go over Johnson s head and force an Epstein vote Lawmakers from both sides routinely convene press conferences at a spot just outside the Capitol called the House Triangle Lawmakers often use this venue to feature non-members or people specific to the provision they re pushing at the news conference Sometimes members bring a throng of people with them A crowd occasionally gathers depending on the issue But I had never before witnessed the multitude of people who indicated up at the House Triangle on Wednesday morning to hear Massie Khanna and casualties talk about their effort to pry open the files People spilled out onto the walkways and plaza That forced U S Capitol Police to restrict access to the area Various of the casualties recounted their Epstein stories in harrowing detail When I got into the massage room Jeffrey Epstein undressed and solicited me to do things to him my eyes welled up with tears And I have never been more scared in my life mentioned Epstein accuser Haley Robson I was even taken on a trip to Africa with former President Bill Clinton and other notable figures In those moments I realized how powerless I was noted Epstein victim Chauntae Davies EPSTEIN CASUALTIES SET TO BREAK SILENCE AMID BIPARTISAN PUSH TO RELEASE FILES 'PEOPLE ARE GOING TO BE OUTRAGED'Massie and Khanna are deploying what s called a discharge petition It s a rarely profitable gambit to go over the head of the Speaker and force a debate and vote on your issue provided one can engineer House signatures If Massie and Khanna cobble together enough signatories they may be able to force a vote later this month House GOP leaders are concerned about this That s why Johnson hoped to intervene with his own measure to formalize the House Oversight Committee s inquiry into Epstein But Johnson designed the measure in a way that the House could approve it without taking a direct vote on it That way Republicans could point to angry constituents that they were in fact taking the Epstein files seriously without an actual roll call vote documenting their position and perhaps infuriating President Donald Trump Or they could tell other constituents who wouldn t want them to cross the President on Epstein to say they never directly voted on it at all After all it was buried in an unrelated measure Make sense But there was another motive behind the leadership s unique parliamentary maneuver on Epstein They yearned to give Republicans cover to say that the House was in fact addressing the Epstein issue The move might coax fewer members to aid the Massie Khanna effort That would prevent the House from taking a concrete vote tied to Epstein But otherwise the House may need to directly wrestle with it Massie called this a political cover to block his plan with Khanna to release the files Johnson fired back at Massie I would not put much stock into what Thomas Massie says The House Republicans have been very consistent about maximum disclosure and maximum transparency mentioned Johnson Trump long promised to release the files But Trump s position this week was to blame Democrats This is a Democrat hoax that never ends You know it reminds me a little of the President John F Kennedy situation We gave them everything over and over again More and more and more and nobody's ever satisfied announced Trump But it's really a Democrat hoax because they're trying to get people to talk about something that's totally irrelevant to the success that we've had as a nation since I've been president Massie suggested that Johnson is just trying to stay on Trump's good side by walking a political tightrope HOUSE OVERSIGHT COMMITTEE RELEASES THOUSANDS OF EPSTEIN DOCUMENTS The Speaker is wrestling with whether he's going to have to choose between supporting Donald Trump s new position that the files shouldn't be circulated or finding justice for these casualties and survivors The Speaker ostensibly doesn't appreciate that he's going to have to choose one noted Massie The Speaker's position depends on him not just rubber-stamping but reinforcing anything Donald Trump wants even if Donald Trump is wrong So the Speaker is in a tough spot The materials coughed up by the Oversight panel did include a new video of the so-called missing minute It fills in absent footage from Epstein s New York jail cell on the night he died But Massie insists on the release of more material What's clear is they're not redacting just to protect casualties They are redacting to protect the reputations of people stated Massie One Republican aligned with the President threatened to out those linked to Epstein I'm not afraid to name names revealed Rep Marjorie Taylor Greene R-Ga at the press conference So if they want to give me a list I will walk into that Capitol on the House floor and I'll say every damn name that abused these women Khanna was buoyed by the sponsorship of Greene I've never done a press conference with Marjorie Taylor Greene before commented the progressive Khanna I don't think Marjorie Taylor Greene would be part of a stunt against President Trump We ll know soon if the House has the votes to thwart the GOP leadership and consider the Massie Khanna resolution And tangling with the Epstein matter could even start to impact the ability of the House to wrestle with routine act again And so the Epstein saga continues The same as it was before the August recess