By KEVIN FREKING and CHRIS MEGERIAN, Related Press
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump stated Home Republicans ought to vote to launch the information within the Jeffrey Epstein case, a startling reversal after beforehand combating the proposal as a rising variety of these in his personal social gathering supported it.
“We’ve nothing to cover, and it’s time to maneuver on from this Democrat Hoax perpetrated by Radical Left Lunatics with the intention to deflect from the Nice Success of the Republican Occasion,” Trump wrote on social media late Sunday after touchdown at Joint Base Andrews following a weekend in Florida.
Trump’s assertion adopted a fierce battle inside the GOP over the information, together with an more and more nasty break up with Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, who had lengthy been one in every of his fiercest supporters.
The president’s shift is an implicit acknowledgement that supporters of the measure have sufficient votes to cross it the Home, though it has an unclear future within the Senate.
It’s a uncommon instance of Trump backtracking due to opposition inside the GOP. In his return to workplace and in his second time period as president, Trump has largely consolidated energy within the Republican Occasion.
“I DON’T CARE!” Trump wrote in his social media submit. “All I do care about is that Republicans get BACK ON POINT.”
Lawmakers who assist the invoice have been predicting an enormous win within the Home this week with a “deluge of Republicans” voting for it, bucking the GOP management and the president.
In his opposition to the proposal, Trump even reached out to 2 of the Republican lawmakers who signed it. One, Colorado Rep. Lauren Boebert, met final week with administration officers within the White Home Scenario Room to debate it.
The invoice would power the Justice Division to launch all information and communications associated to Epstein, in addition to any details about the investigation into his loss of life in federal jail. Details about Epstein’s victims or ongoing federal investigations can be allowed to be redacted.
“There may very well be 100 or extra” votes from Republicans, stated Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., among the many lawmakers discussing the laws on Sunday information present appearances. “I’m hoping to get a veto-proof majority on this laws when it comes up for a vote.”
Massie and Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Calif., launched a discharge petition in July to power a vote on their invoice. That may be a not often profitable instrument that enables a majority of members to bypass Home management and power a ground vote.
Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., had panned the discharge petition effort and despatched members residence early for his or her August recess when the GOP’s legislative agenda was upended within the clamoring for an Epstein vote. Democrats additionally contend the seating of Rep. Adelita Grijalva, D-Ariz., was stalled to delay her changing into the 218th member to signal the petition and acquire the brink wanted to power a vote. She grew to become the 218th signature moments after taking the oath of workplace final week.
Massie stated Johnson, Trump and others who’ve been important of his efforts can be “taking an enormous loss this week.”
“I’m not uninterested in profitable but, however we’re profitable,” Massie stated.
The view from GOP management
Johnson appears to anticipate the Home will decisively again the Epstein invoice.
“We’ll simply get this carried out and transfer it on. There’s nothing to cover,” including that the Home Oversight and Authorities Reform Committee has been releasing “way more data than the discharge petition, their little gambit.”
The vote comes at a time when new paperwork are elevating contemporary questions on Epstein and his associates, together with a 2019 electronic mail that Epstein wrote to a journalist that stated Trump “knew concerning the ladies.” The White Home has accused Democrats of selectively leaking the emails to smear the Republican president.
Johnson stated Trump “has nothing to cover from this.”
“They’re doing this to go after President Trump on this principle that he has one thing to do with it. He doesn’t,” Johnson stated.
Trump’s affiliation with Epstein is well-established and the president’s identify was included in data that his personal Justice Division launched in February as a part of an effort to fulfill public curiosity in data from the sex-trafficking investigation.
Trump has by no means been accused of wrongdoing in reference to Epstein and the mere inclusion of somebody’s identify in information from the investigation doesn’t indicate in any other case. Epstein, who killed himself in jail in 2019 whereas awaiting trial, additionally had many outstanding acquaintances in political and celeb circles apart from Trump.
Khanna voiced extra modest expectations on the vote depend than Massie. Nonetheless, Khanna stated he hoped for 40 or extra Republicans to hitch the trouble.
“I don’t even know the way concerned Trump was,” Khanna stated. “There are plenty of different folks concerned who should be held accountable.”
Khanna additionally requested Trump to fulfill with those that have been abused. Some can be on the Capitol on Tuesday for a information convention, he stated.
Massie stated Republican lawmakers who concern shedding Trump’s endorsement due to how they vote can have a mark on their file, in the event that they vote “no,” that might damage their political prospects in the long run.
“The file of this vote will last more than Donald Trump’s presidency,” Massie stated.
A MAGA break up
On the Republican facet, three Republicans joined with Massie in signing the discharge petition: Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia, Nancy Mace of South Carolina and Boebert.
Trump publicly known as it quits with Greene final week and stated he would endorse a challenger towards her in 2026 “if the appropriate particular person runs.”
Greene attributed the fallout with Trump as “sadly, it has all come right down to the Epstein information.” She stated the nation deserves transparency on the problem and that Trump’s criticism of her is complicated as a result of the ladies she has talked to say he did nothing mistaken.
“I do not know what’s within the information. I can’t even guess. However that’s the questions everyone seems to be asking, is, why battle this so onerous?” Greene stated.
Trump’s feud with Greene escalated over the weekend, with Trump sending out one final social media submit about her whereas nonetheless sitting in his helicopter on the White Home garden when he arrived residence late Sunday, writing “The very fact is, no person cares about this Traitor to our Nation!”
Even when the invoice passes the Home, there isn’t a assure that Senate Republicans will go alongside. Massie stated he simply hopes Senate Majority Chief John Thune, R-S.D., “will do the appropriate factor.”
“The strain goes to be there if we get an enormous vote within the Home,” Massie stated, who thinks “we might have a deluge of Republicans.”
Massie appeared on ABC’s “This Week,” Johnson was on “Fox Information Sunday,” Khanna spoke on NBC’s “Meet the Press” and Greene was interviewed on CNN’s “State of the Union.”
Related Press author Michelle L. Worth contributed to this report.
