{"id":11338,"date":"2025-07-15T20:46:49","date_gmt":"2025-07-15T20:46:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/johnson-breaks-with-trump-calls-for-doj-to-release-epstein-files\/"},"modified":"2025-07-15T20:46:49","modified_gmt":"2025-07-15T20:46:49","slug":"johnson-breaks-with-trump-calls-for-doj-to-release-epstein-files","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/johnson-breaks-with-trump-calls-for-doj-to-release-epstein-files\/","title":{"rendered":"Johnson breaks with Trump, calls for DOJ to release Epstein files"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Speaker Mike Johnson is calling for the Department of Justice to release all of its information on Jeffrey Epstein, the disgraced financier who died in jail after being charged with sex trafficking<\/a>, and wants Attorney General Pam Bondi to explain previous statements on the matter.<\/p>\n

The Trump administration this month declined to release additional information regarding Epstein\u2019s death, with the Justice Department and FBI concluding there\u2019s no evidence that Epstein had a list of clients or was murdered in his jail cell. Republicans blocked a House vote on Tuesday afternoon that Democrats tried to cast as a referendum to force the White House to release the files.<\/p>\n

In an interview published shortly after the vote<\/a>, Johnson told conservative commentator Benny Johnson that he is \u201cfor transparency.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt’s a very delicate subject, but you should put everything out there, let the people decide it,\u201d the Louisiana Republican said.<\/p>\n

He added that Bondi needs to clarify previous remarks she made about having some sort of \u201cclient list\u201d of Epstein\u2019s \u2014 pivoting from Monday when he threw his support behind the attorney general<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think she was talking about documents, as I understood that were on her desk. I don’t know that she was specific about a list or whatever, but she needs to come forward and explain that to everybody,\u201d Johnson said.<\/p>\n

The DOJ did not immediately respond to a request for comment.<\/p>\n

In February, Bondi told Fox News that files related to the Epstein investigation \u2014 including a document suspected to include high-profile names associated with his sex crimes \u2014 was \u201csitting on my desk right now.\u201d\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n

But in a Cabinet meeting earlier this month, Bondi denied saying she had a client list.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy response was, it\u2019s sitting on my desk to be reviewed. Meaning the file, along with the JFK and MLK files,\u201d Bondi said during the meeting.<\/p>\n

Some of Trump\u2019s top supporters, including congressional lawmakers<\/a> and his former senior adviser Elon Musk, have expressed outrage<\/a> over the administration\u2019s decision to withhold information detailed in the reports.<\/p>\n

Trump on Tuesday defended Bondi<\/a> amid calls for her to step down.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe attorney general has handled that very well. She\u2019s really done a very good job, and I think that when you look at that, you\u2019ll understand it,\u201d Trump told reporters at the White House.<\/p>\n

Johnson on Tuesday said he is \u201canxious\u201d to get the issue resolved.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe need the DOJ focusing on the major priorities. Let’s get this thing resolved so that they can deal with violent crime and public safety and election integrity and going after ActBlue and the things that the president is most concerned about,\u201d said Johnson.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Speaker Mike Johnson is calling for the Department of Justice to release all of its information on Jeffrey Epstein, the disgraced financier who died in jail after being charged with sex trafficking, and wants Attorney General Pam Bondi to explain previous statements on the matter. The Trump administration this month declined to release additional information […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11338","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-congress"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11338","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11338"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11338\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11338"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11338"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11338"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}