Mike Johnson’s Supposed ‘Moral Responsibility’ to Pack It Up Early
This is your TPM evening briefing.
By now you’ve maybe seen the news that House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) is, effectively, shutting down the House’s legislative work and sending everyone home early for August recess in order to block any House floor action on the release of investigative files on Jeffrey Epstein, the deceased convicted sex offender.
His rationale for all of this is two-fold. He says that after conversations with the White House and President Trump, he believes that lawmakers need to give the executive branch “space” to do the work they are already doing to release the files. This supposed work to make the documents public is only a few days old. Trump only directed Attorney General Pam Bondi to look into unsealing grand jury material in the case (a maneuver that will likely yield little) after a week of bad-for-Trump headlines — spurred by his own Justice Department’s decision to not release any more info to the public. A growing rift began to emerge last week not just among Trump’s MAGA base of conspiracy theorist influencers, but within the Republican Party as well.
At least 10 House Republicans had indicated they would join Democrats in supporting a bipartisan resolution sponsored by Reps. Ro Khanna (D-CA) and Thomas Massie (R-KY), which calls for releasing a lot more from the Epstein investigative files than the Trump administration is currently looking into unsealing. Massie and Khanna planned to use a procedural move, a discharge petition, to compel a vote on the matter. Per CNN:
That procedural maneuver requires seven legislative days before House lawmakers can formally collect the necessary signatures. Once they prove they have support from 218 members, it would force party leaders to bring it to the floor.
Trump’s attorney general has asked for grand jury material to be made public – which also is likely to be a slow-moving effort, and one that requires court approval. But the Massie and Khanna measure goes significantly further, requiring the Trump administration to release “all unclassified records, documents, communications, and investigative materials” related to Epstein within 30 days.
It would also require the White House to release a “list of all government officials and politically exposed persons named or referenced in the released materials” — a list that Trump’s base has been demanding.
Meanwhile House Republicans on the Rules Committee are blocking any legislation from reaching the House floor for a vote this week in order to block Democrats from introducing Epstein-related amendments. When Johnson decided to close down the House as early as Wednesday afternoon and shut down a vote on a non-binding resolution that would’ve allowed some House Republicans to vocalize their concerns over the Epstein matter before heading home for recess, he defiantly declared, “we’re done being lectured on transparency.”
He then went on to paint the issue as a moral dilemma that involved protecting the identity of Epstein’s victims — his second reason for packing things up early. Here’s Johnson’s quote in full, part of remarks he made during a press conference Tuesday when he also ridiculed Massie:
What I know about the president’s heart on this is that he agrees with everything I’ve said here today. He wants maximum transparency but he is also very insistent that we do not subject people, who have already been victims of unspeakable crimes, to further public scrutiny. It would be a very dangerous thing to put those people’s names out or to do a release of information in a way that is haphazard, where they could easily unmasked. And so you have to be very careful about how you do that. I think we have a moral responsibility to do that. We have a moral responsibility to expose the evil of Epstein and everybody that was involved in that, absolutely. And we’re resolved to do it, but we also have an equal moral responsibility to protect the innocent. And that is a fine needle to thread.
It’s a change in tone from what we heard from the House speaker last week, when he broke with the White House and aggressively advocated for more “transparency.”
“I’m for transparency,” Johnson told right-wing influencer Benny Johnson. “It’s a very delicate subject but we should put everything out there and let the people decide it.”
MAGA Not Satisfied
Despite Trump’s attempt to quiet discontent within his political movement — by directing Bondi to find a way to release grand jury materials on Epstein and having his personal lawyer-turned-Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche meet with jailed Epstein associate Ghislaine Maxwell — some of the more hardcore MAGA conspiracy theorists are not buying it.
The ongoing frustration spans from longtime allies in Congress like Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) to far-right influencer and (newfound Trump confidante) like Laura Loomer.
Who Asked For This
As if there were not more pressing matters before the House of Representatives, House Republicans are apparently trying to rename the Kennedy Center Opera House in honor of First Lady Melania Trump. Per WaPo:
A Republican proposal would rename the second-largest theater in the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts after the first lady, if legislation considered Tuesday by the House Appropriations Committee becomes law.
…
Rep. Mike Simpson (R-Idaho) proposed the amendment during a committee markup of the bill funding the Interior Department, the Environmental Protection Agency and related agencies for fiscal 2026. The committee adopted the measure by a vote of 33-25.
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