House GOP Grasp for Epstein Response   07/18 06:11

   

   WASHINGTON (AP) -- House Republicans were grasping late Thursday to 
formulate a response to the Trump administration's handling of records in the 
Jeffrey Epstein sex trafficking case, ultimately putting forward a resolution 
that carries no legal weight but nodded to the growing demand for greater 
transparency.

   The House resolution, which could potentially be voted on next week, will do 
practically nothing to force the Justice Department to release more records in 
the case. Still, it showed how backlash from the Republican base is putting 
pressure on the Trump administration and roiling GOP lawmakers.

   The House was held up for hours Thursday from final consideration of 
President Donald Trump's request for about $9 billion in government funding 
cuts because GOP leaders were trying to respond to demands from their own ranks 
that they weigh in on the Epstein files. In the late evening they settled on 
the resolution as an attempt to simultaneously placate calls from the far-right 
for greater transparency and satisfy Trump, who has called the issue a "hoax" 
that his supporters should forget about.

   Yet the House resolution was the latest demonstration of how practically no 
one is moving on from Attorney General Pam Bondi's promises to publicly release 
documents related to Epstein. Since he was found dead in his New York jail cell 
in August 2019 following his arrest on sex trafficking charges, the 
well-connected financier has loomed large among conservatives and conspiracy 
theorists who have now lashed out at Trump and Bondi for declining to release 
more files in the case.

   "The House Republicans are for transparency, and they're looking for a way 
to say that they agree with the White House. We agree with the president. 
Everything he said about that, all the credible evidence should come out," 
House Speaker Mike Johnson said Thursday afternoon.

   Democrats vehemently decried the resolution's lack of force. They have 
advanced their own legislation, with support from nine Republicans, that would 
require the Justice Department to release more information on the case.

   Rep. Jim McGovern, who led the Democrats' debate against the Republican 
resolution Thursday night, called it a "glorified press release" and "a fig 
leaf so they can move on from this issue."

   Under pressure from his own GOP members, Johnson had to demonstrate action 
on the Epstein files or risk having Republicans support the Democratic measures 
that would force the release of nearly all documents.

   "The American people simply need to know the truth, the whole truth, and 
nothing but the truth," House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries said at a news 
conference. "Democrats didn't put this into the public domain. The conspiracy 
theory provocateur-in-chief Donald Trump is the one, along with his extreme 
MAGA Republican associates, who put this whole thing into the public domain for 
years. And now they are reaping what they have sown."

   Still, Democrats, who hold minorities in both chambers, have relished the 
opportunity to make Republicans repeatedly block their attempts to force the 
Justice Department to release the documents.

   Trump in recent years has suggested he would release more information about 
the investigation into Epstein, especially amid speculation over a supposed 
list of Epstein's clients.

   In February, the Justice Department released some government documents 
regarding the case, but there were no new revelations. After a months-long 
review of additional evidence, the department earlier this month released a 
video meant to prove that Epstein killed himself, but said no other files 
related to the case would be made public.

   A White House spokeswoman said Thursday that Trump would not recommend a 
special counsel in the case. But later Thursday, the president said he had 
asked Bondi to seek the release of testimony from grand jury proceedings in the 
case.

   Rep. Ro Khanna, a California Democrat, said that process would likely only 
produce limited information, but added that it showed that "the president is 
hearing the American people."