Speaker Mike Johnson said Thursday he doesn’t believe a bipartisan effort to force a House vote compelling the release of Jeffrey Epstein-related documents will succeed.
Asked about the discharge petition led by Reps. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) and Ro Khanna (D-Calif.), Johnson said he doubted they would convince enough Republicans to sign on.
Massie and three other GOP members have so far signed; at least two more House Republicans would be needed in order to end-run Johnson and force a vote on requiring the Justice Department to release its entire file on the disgraced sex trafficker.
“I don’t expect he will,” Johnson said when asked about Massie’s chances of success.
White House officials are running an intense pressure campaign to keep Republicans from joining the discharge effort. Trump aides have made calls to GOP members who have co-sponsored the Massie-Khanna measure, pressuring those who haven’t signed to keep their names off the discharge petition and those who have to remove their names, according to three Republicans granted anonymity to discuss the conversations.
Johnson said in a separate interview Thursday that Massie’s effort is “superfluous” after Republicans approved a leadership-blessed measure encouraging the House Oversight Committee to continue its pending Epstein probe.
That vote is symbolic in nature and was put forward by GOP leaders as a way to head off Massie’s binding effort.
Johnson also said he suspected President Donald Trump will “probably” meet with Epstein’s victims, some of whom came to Capitol Hill Wednesday to appear with Massie and Khanna.
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