House Republican leaders are under fierce internal pressure to send members home for the summer amid deepening anxiety over a possible vote on the Jeffrey Epstein controversy.

Many GOP lawmakers fear being cornered by an expected “discharge petition” that would force a House vote on publicizing Epstein-related records. Reps. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) and Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) launched the effort Tuesday, making it available for signatures and a possible floor vote as soon as next week.

Democrats have already forced Republicans to take tough Epstein-related procedural votes that have stoked a barrage of constituent calls into GOP offices, but they have not yet been able to force a clear up-or-down vote on releasing the so-called Epstein files.

Questions about the late convicted sex predator have exploded inside the GOP since the Justice Department announced earlier this month it had concluded there was no foul play involved in his 2019 death while in federal custody and there is no “client list” of powerful accomplices to be released.

Republicans want to leave town early for several reasons, but senior House Republicans acknowledge the calls for transparency around the Epstein case is becoming a bigger problem for the party.

President Donald Trump’s insistence that the controversy is a “Jeffrey Epstein Hoax” concocted by Democrats — while eviscerating some of his own supporters as “weaklings” who have fallen prey to his political opponents’ “bullshit” — has done little to tamp down the fury.

“It’s all Epstein, all day,” said one frustrated House Republican who was granted anonymity to speak candidly about the controversy. “We can’t ignore this.”

The hope, according to more than a dozen GOP members and aides, has been that Speaker Mike Johnson and Majority Leader Steve Scalise decide to cancel next week’s scheduled House session and instead send members home for an extended summer recess once voting concludes Thursday or Friday.

The thinking, the members and aides said, is that members won’t have to face questions at home about whether or not they have signed on to the Massie-Khanna effort — and that the issue will have died down by the time members return to Washington in September.

Scalise said Tuesday there are no plans to change the House schedule, which has members staying in Washington through July 24. An aide to the majority leader reiterated Thursday that plan “is not changing.”

Leaving early would spark intense anger from appropriators who are already livid over delays in government funding work ahead of the Sept. 30 shutdown deadline. GOP leaders have discussed changing next week’s schedule, but senior Republican aides acknowledge it would not look good to leave for the traditional August recess in mid-July, with plenty more work to do.

Democrats are expected to create more headaches for the GOP Thursday, by seeking to attach an Epstein-related amendment to the Trump administration’s funding clawbacks package in the House Rules Committee. A similar effort failed earlier this week, but not before one GOP member of the panel broke ranks.

Massie said in an interview he was confident the Epstein issue would remain ripe through the summer. He recalled how conservative hard-liners moved a decade ago to remove former Speaker John Boehner right before the August recess — and then Boehner resigned after members came back in September.

“They probably want to let the steam out, but this will build momentum over August,” Massie said. “They can’t sweep it under the rug.”

The Epstein saga has been a subject of deep fascination for many Trump supporters, who see it as emblematic of a deeply corrupt cabal of political elites preying on vulnerable Americans. Trump, who associated with Epstein in the past and has denied any wrongdoing, discussed the controversy on the campaign trail and pledged to root out any coverup.

But after the Justice Department essentially announced there’s no there there, the pressure broke out into a full crisis this week. Some Republican lawmakers have reported an onslaught of calls from constituents. Others are calling for Epstein accomplices and others to testify before Congress.

Some House Republicans have raised the matter in private floor conversations with party leaders, begging them to do something.

The level of alarm exploded after Massie, a dissident Republican, unveiled his discharge effort with Khanna. It would tee up a floor vote on legislation giving Attorney General Pam Bondi 30 days to release a broad array of files related to Epstein, his onetime girlfriend Ghislaine Maxwell and other associates.

Notably, it would provide for the release of investigative files without regard for “[e]mbarrassment, reputational harm, or political sensitivity, including to any government official, public figure, or foreign dignitary.”

Under House rules, the measure becomes available for discharge signatures after seven legislative days.

Trump’s effort Wednesday to tamp down the controversy — suggesting his own supporters had “bought into this ‘bullshit,’ hook, line, and sinker” — only triggered more alarm across the GOP conference.

“People are like, ‘What the fuck is the president doing?’” said a second House Republican, also granted anonymity to speak candidly.

The lawmaker added that “people are freaking out” and the issue is “only getting worse.”

Asked by reporters Thursday if he supports using congressional authority to investigate the Epstein matter, Johnson replied, ”Look, we’ll see how it all develops.”

“We’re for transparency. I’ve said that repeatedly, so has the president,” Johnson said. “And all the credible information needs to come out and the American people need to make their own decisions.”

Emil Bove’s nomination to serve as a judge on the Third Circuit Court of Appeals is headed to the Senate floor after Democrats walked out of the Senate Judiciary Committee meeting in protest.

The panel voted Thursday morning with only Republican support to advance Bove’s nomination, as every Democrat abstained from recording a vote either way. Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) shouted over the proceedings as the roll was called, imploring colleagues to continue debate and accusing committee Chair Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) of failing to follow Senate rules.

All Democrats, barring Booker, left the hearing room during the votes to advance Bove and other nominees pending before the committee.

“This lacks decency. It lacks decorum. It shows that you do not want to simply hear from your colleagues,” Booker said. “This is us simply trying to rush through one of the most controversial nominees we’ve had under this presidential administration.”

Booker shouted through the votes for a number of other judicial nominees, before ultimately following his colleagues out of the room.

Grassley argued the Republican-led committee’s conduct had precedent. He said that, in November 2023, Democrats proceeded with a vote on two judicial nominees put forward by President Joe Biden, despite Republican protests to continue debate.

But Bove, the former criminal defense attorney to President Donald Trump who is now principal associate deputy attorney general, has come under scrutiny after a whistleblower complaint from a former Department of Justice employee alleged that he had suggested defying court orders for the administration’s deportation agenda.

“He has been trailed by a history of complaints, long predating his affiliation with President Trump about his temperament, his poor judgment and lack of candor in front of the court,” said Senate Judiciary ranking member Dick Durbin of Illinois. “Think of it: We’re talking about a judge for life.”

Democrats earlier this week asked to have the whistleblower at the center of the allegations against Bove testify before lawmakers before holding a vote to send the nomination to the Senate floor. Grassley rejected the request, saying he had reviewed the materials from the whistleblower and his office had investigated the allegations. He said he found them unconvincing and decided there was no reason to delay Bove’s nomination.

Durbin also questioned Thursday whether Bove was involved in the Justice Department’s decision not to release files in the case against disgraced financier and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein who was found dead in his jail cell in 2019. In recent days, Democrats have sought to juxtapose Trump allies’ promises of transparency around the Epstein case with the DOJ’s decision to withhold release of further materials. Their campaign has sought to exploit division between Trump and his MAGA base, which has long championed conspiracies around a cover-up of the Epstein files.

Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.), who has become the de facto swing vote on the judiciary panel amid his announcement he won’t seek reelection next year, opted to advance Bove’s nomination, despite recently saying he would not support nominees who have supported the events at the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.

As a senior Justice Department leader, Bove played a role in the agency’s dismissal of staffers who had worked on cases tied to the Capitol attack during the Biden administration. Tillis, however, fiercely defended his decision to support Bove and emphasized he would not support any nominee who had specifically endorsed violence against Capitol police officers.

“Does anybody really believe that, if I was convinced that Bove had made any statements condoning the violent acts against Capitol police officers, that I’d be voting for him?” Tillis said during Thursday’s committee meeting. “Just ask Ed Martin whether or not that’s a red line.”

Tillis objected to Martin’s nomination to be U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia, citing his defense of Capitol rioters and his comments around the attack. The senator’s decision to oppose Martin on those grounds effectively tanked his confirmation chances, with former Fox News host Jeanine Pirro nominated as Trump’s second choice for the job.

“The fact of the matter is, I can’t find one piece of evidence where he said that the violent acts against police officers were okay or condoned,” Tillis said of Bove. “If you find it, let me know.”

But Democrats also decried Bove’s nomination by pointing to his involvement in the dismissal of corruption charges against Eric Adams, which coincided with the New York City Democratic mayor’s decision to cooperate with federal immigration enforcement activities at the Rikers Island jail. Lawyers at the Justice Department resigned over the episode amid accusations that Adams had entered into a quid pro quo.

The judiciary panel also voted Thursday to proceed on a number of other nominations, including Pirro, who has been serving in that role in an interim capacity.

Turns out President Donald Trump didn’t have the magic touch House Republicans were expecting. Another day of crypto drama has now put the House in a severe time crunch, setting members up for a mammoth day of voting Thursday.

To recap: Speaker Mike Johnson headed into Wednesday confident that Trump had struck a deal with conservative holdouts to move a trio of cryptocurrency bills. But that quickly evaporated after committee chairs pushed back at hard-liners’ demands to attach a central bank digital currency ban to another bipartisan crypto bill.

The impasse kept the House rule vote open for nine hours until GOP leaders finally cut a late-night deal to include a CBDC ban in the National Defense Authorization Act.

The crypto crash-out now leaves the House with a lot to do in very little time: The three crypto bills, the Defense appropriations bill and a rescissions package were all scheduled to get a vote this week. House Republican leaders wanted to punt the Defense bill to next week — but an irate Appropriations Chair Tom Cole (R-Okla.) insisted they finish up this week. The House stayed in extra late Wednesday night for general debate and en bloc amendments.

“He is just mad — I don’t blame him,” one House Republican told Blue Light News about Cole, who has his eye on the 11 unpassed fiscal 2026 spending bills and the Sept. 30 shutdown deadline.

Which brings us to Thursday: House Majority Leader Steve Scalise told Blue Light News the House will begin debating individual Defense amendments Thursday morning before finishing up that bill and moving on to the three cryptocurrency bills.

But the real must-do is recissions. The Senate finally passed a modified package around 2:30 a.m. Now the House needs to reconvene the Rules Committee, approve yet another rule on the floor and then vote on sending the $9 billion clawbacks package to Trump’s desk.

That’s a lot to cram into less than two days, especially with the rescissions deadline looming Friday night. If they get too close to the deadline, it’s possible Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries — fresh off of an eight-hour “magic minute” speech two weeks ago — could try to blow past it.

If something’s got to give, watch to see whether all three cryptocurrency bills end up getting a vote this week as planned. One possibility under discussion is passing only the Senate-approved stablecoin bill, which Trump wants to sign as soon as possible, and punting the other votes.

He called into a meeting with holdouts and key committee leaders late Wednesday after they struck a new deal — for real this time.

“He’s happy with it,” a person in the room told Blue Light News of the outcome.

What else we’re watching:

— Senate Approps resumes: Senate Appropriations will resume its markup of the Commerce-Justice-Science funding bill Thursday morning after a fight over the future location of FBI headquarters derailed last week’s proceedings.

— Bove, Pirro get a committee vote: It appears all but certain Senate Judiciary will have the votes to favorably advance Emil Bove’s nomination Thursday morning, but the panel’s Democrats are still expected to put up a big fight against Trump’s pick to serve as a judge to the 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals. Also up for a committee vote is Jeanine Pirro, Trump’s nominee to be the U.S. Attorney for D.C.

— Epstein files fallout: GOP leaders are keeping their distance as MAGA outrage grows over the releasing of files related to sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. Johnson said he was “misquoted and misrepresented” in reports that he was breaking with Trump over whether to release the files. Senate Majority Leader John Thune dodged again Wednesday, telling reporters: “I’m not at this point taking a position on it. I just think it’s going to be a question that’s left to others to decide.”

Meredith Lee Hill, Jennifer Scholtes and Hailey Fuchs contributed to this report.