Congress
Massie implores GOP colleagues to help force vote to release Epstein files
Rep. Thomas Massie is publicly pleading with his Republican colleagues to break rank with House GOP leaders and join his crusade to force a vote on the release of the Jeffrey Epstein files.
At a Wednesday press conference outside the Capitol alongside some of the late convicted sex offender’s accusers, Massie said he needed just two more members on his side of the aisle to sign onto the discharge petition that will allow him to bypass leadership and get his bill on the floor.
All Democrats are expected to put their names on the petition, meaning a total of six Republican signatures is necessary to reach the 218-member threshold.
“We demand real accountability,” said Massie, a Kentucky Republican. “I encourage my colleagues … there’s over 200 Republicans who have not signed this discharge petition. We only need two of them to sign it.”
Massie’s effort at one point seemed all but guaranteed to succeed, but it’s taken a hit amid pressure from the Trump administration to stand down — and as Republican leaders point to the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee’s success so far in compelling the release of Epstein-related documents through a separate subpoena.
“This is the most comprehensive investigation into Epstein and Maxwell to date,” House Oversight chair James Comer (R-Ky.) said Wednesday morning at a GOP leadership press conference, regarding his panel’s probe.
He also said that Epstein’s estate would begin turning over materials on Sept. 8 in compliance with another subpoena that would, among other materials, compel the release of a “birthday book” that reportedly includes a letter from President Donald Trump to Epstein.
Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) has called Massie’s measure “inartfully drafted” and said he believed the Oversight investigation will uncover new and relevant information as the Justice Department turns over more of the files in its possession.
But Massie countered that the Oversight Committee route is essentially “allowing the DOJ to curate all of the information that the DOJ is giving them.”
He noted that the first batch of materials unloaded Tuesday night included an overwhelming number of redactions and consisted almost exclusively of information that has already been made public. The Oversight Committee also sat on the materials for more than a week before releasing them publicly, allowing staff on both sides of the aisle to comb through documents to ensure that victims’ identities were protected and other criminal matters were not compromised.
Massie’s bill, in contrast, would provide fewer opportunities for the Trump administration and White House allies on Capitol Hill to slow-walk the process of making the Epstein files public.
Whereas the Justice Department is handing over materials piecemeal, Massie’s measure would require the DOJ to turn over nearly all of the information in its possession around Epstein and his co-conspirator Ghislaine Maxwell — who is now serving a 20-year prison sentence for her part in the sex trafficking scheme — within 30 days.
The bill would allow the DOJ to redact information that could compromise a victim’s identity or depict abuse, but it would have to formally justify its redactions to Congress.
“No record shall be withheld, delayed, or redacted on the basis of embarrassment, reputational harm, or political sensitivity, including to any government official, public figure, or foreign dignitary,” the legislation states.
The Epstein saga has, in part, been complicated by President Donald Trump’s ties to the disgraced financier. Trump has maintained that he had a falling out with Epstein, who died by suicide behind bars in 2019 after new sex crimes charges.
Some attendees at the Wednesday press conference held signs that appeared to mock Trump, showing a photo of him and first lady Melania Trump beside Epstein and Maxwell or alleging that the President is on the so-called Epstein list. The Justice Department has said it did not find evidence of the sort of incriminating list.
“The Washington establishment is asking the American public to believe something that is not believable,” Massie said. “They’re asking you to believe that two individuals created hundreds of victims, and they acted alone, and that the DOJ has no idea of who else might’ve been involved.”
Epstein’s victims joined Massie, Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.), and Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) to call for the full release of the files. Responding to Trump’s comments that the Epstein matter was a “hoax,” Haley Robson, one of the women who has accused Epstein of sexual abuse, invited Trump to meet with her in person to hear about her experience. She noted she was a registered Republican.
“Please humanize us,” Robson said. “I would like Donald J. Trump and every person in America and around the world to humanize us. To see us for who we are, and to hear us for what we have to say. There is no hoax. The abuse was real.”
Chauntae Davies, another accuser, said that Epstein would brag about his close friendship with Trump and “had an 8 by 10 framed picture of him on his desk with the two of them.” Davies also said she joined a trip to Africa with Epstein, former President Bill Clinton and others.
Brittany Henderson — an attorney who has worked for some of Epstein’s accusers — suggested at the Wednesday press event it was possible to withhold the identities of some victims without making wholesale redactions designed to shield those who should be held accountable.
“Protect these women while we seek transparency,” Henderson said.
Meredith Lee Hill contributed to this report.
Congress
DHS stopgap set for quick House action after Rules Committee vote
The House Rules Committee advanced a measure Friday evening that would fund the entirety of the Homeland Security Department through May 22 — without setting up debate or a separate vote on the funding bill itself.
The panel, after a raucous meeting that devolved into shouting at multiple points, voted 8-4 on party lines to advance the measure to the floor.
The rule includes a “deem and pass” provision, a tactic that allows legislation to be passed by the House automatically once the rule itself is adopted. While there will be one hour of floor debate and a vote on the rule, there will not be a standalone House vote on the DHS spending bill.
Rep. Jim McGovern (D-Mass.) described himself as needing “a neck brace” from the whiplash of hearing Republicans argue for hours that the Senate’s early-morning voice vote on a different DHS funding measure was “shameful” for lack of transparency and accountability.
House Appropriations Chair Tom Cole (R-Okla.) accused the Senate of moving their bill “in the middle of the night, with the smell of jet fumes in the air,” lamenting that the House was left “to take it or leave it.”
House leaders, McGovern suggested, have chosen a similar path by fast-tracking the eight-week DHS stopgap.
“You’re in charge,” he told Rules Chair Virginia Foxx (R-N.C.). “You can do whatever the hell you want to do.”
Congress
Rand Paul weighs a 2028 presidential bid
Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) is considering a bid for president in 2028, as Republicans jockey for the future of the GOP post-Trump.
In a “CBS Sunday Morning” interview airing Sunday, a reporter asked Paul about an article that implied he would be running for president.
“We’re thinking about it,” Paul said. “I would say fifty-fifty,” adding that he would make a final decision after the midterm elections.
Paul ran for the Republican nomination for president in 2016 with a libertarianism-focused campaign but ultimately dropped out after a poor performance in the Iowa caucuses and a shortage of cash. He instead ran for reelection to the Senate.
Paul has had a complex relationship with his own party and with President Donald Trump, often finding himself the lone Republican on certain issues. More recently, he was the only Republican to support a joint resolution that would limit Trump’s war powers in Iran.
His father, former Rep. Ron Paul, also ran for president three times: first as a Libertarian in 1988, and twice as a Republican in 2008 and 2012.
Congress
‘Meltdown’: DHS shutdown set to drag on after House GOP rejects Senate deal
House Republicans moved Friday to further extend the six-week shutdown of the Department of Homeland Security by rejecting a Senate bill that would fund the vast majority of DHS agencies through September.
Instead, Speaker Mike Johnson proposed a temporary extension of DHS funding through May 22 — a plan that has uncertain prospects in the House and certainly won’t pass the Senate before the shutdown becomes the longest funding lapse in U.S. history Saturday.
But Johnson said House Republicans simply could not swallow the Senate bill, which omits funding for Immigration and Customs Enforcement as well as Border Patrol and some other parts of Customs and Border Protection.
“The Republicans are not going to be any part of any effort to reopen our borders or to stop immigration enforcement,” he said. “We are going to deport dangerous criminal illegal aliens because it is a basic function of the government. The Democrats fundamentally disagree.”
The move toward an eight-week stopgap creates a tactical gulf between Johnson and Senate Majority Leader John Thune, who called an end to weeks of abortive bipartisan talks Thursday and pushed through the funding bill in hopes of tacking on funding later for ICE and CBP in a party-line budget reconciliation bill.
President Donald Trump has largely stayed out of the GOP infighting on Capitol Hill, keeping his criticism trained on Democrats. He ordered DHS to pay TSA officers Thursday as long security lines snarls more U.S. airports.
Johnson played down the split with his Senate counterpart, saying the Democratic leader there bore more blame for the impasse.
“I wouldn’t call John Thune the engineer of this,” he said. “Chuck Schumer and the Democrats in the Senate have forced this upon the Senate. I have to protect the House. … Our colleagues on this side understand this is not a game. We are not playing their games.”
Thune said early Friday morning he did not speak directly to Johnson in the final hours leading up to the Senate’s voice vote, but he said they had texted. He acknowledged he did not know in advance how the House would handle the Senate bill.
“Hopefully they’ll be around, and we can get at least a lot of the government opened up again, and then we’ll go from there,” he said.
Johnson made his game plan clear with House Republicans on a private call just minutes before addressing reporters in the Capitol, according to four people granted anonymity to describe the call. He warned that a failure to advance the short-term DHS stopgap would upend GOP plans for a reconciliation bill, the people said.
He suggested the Senate could quickly clear the stopgap measure once it passes the House. Most senators have left Washington for a recess running through April 13, but Johnson said the chamber could approve the House measure by unanimous consent at a planned pro forma session Monday.
But some House Republicans on the private call, including Rep. Carlos Gimenez of Florida, aired doubts it could pass the Senate — or even the House. Some fellow GOP centrists argued that the House should just swallow the Senate bill and end the standoff.
The House plan for a 60-day stopgap won a cold reception in the Senate, with even Republicans warning it will only prolong the partial government shutdown.
The plan is instead fueling frustration among both Republicans and Democrats who view House Republicans as essentially throwing temper tantrum. Three people granted anonymity to speak candidly each described the House as having a “meltdown.”
Schumer publicly slammed the House GOP plan Friday, saying it was “dead on arrival” across the Capitol, “and Republicans know it.”
A Senate GOP aide granted anonymity to speak candidly added that the quickest way to end the shutdown is for the House to pass the Senate bill.
Five people granted anonymity to comment on Senate dynamics said there was no possibility that Democrats would let the House GOP plan pass during the Senate’s brief pro forma sessions over the next two weeks. It would only take one Democratic senator to show up and object to any attempt to pass it.
The bill, according to the five people, also can’t get 60 votes in the Senate once the chamber returns. Democrats have previously rejected even shorter stopgaps, leaving some to privately question why House Republicans would ever think their plan would work.
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