The US is all set to vote on the fate of the Jeffrey Epstein case files next week, Speaker Mike Johnson announced to reporters on Wednesday.“We’re going to put that on the floor for a full vote when we get back next week,” Johnson said. “In the meantime I’ll remind everybody the [House] Oversight Committee has been working around the clock” on its own investigation, the Speaker said, as per CNN.
Johnson was required to put the bill from Democratic Rep. Ro Khanna and GOP Rep. Thomas Massie on the floor once their discharge petition reached 218 signatures. Rep. Adelita Grijalva, D-Ariz., provided the 218th signature needed to approve the so-called discharge petition shortly after she was sworn in as a House member, following a seven-week delay, as per Politico.The Trump administration had faced criticism for reneging on promises to release investigative files related to Epstein, a convicted sex offender who killed himself in 2019 after his arrest on child sex-trafficking charges. Epstein had been a friend of President Donald Trump for years before they had a falling out in the early 2000s. Even if the effort passed in the House, it was unlikely to become law. The bill would have to pass in the Republican-controlled Senate, and Trump could veto it even if it survived a vote in that chamber.The New York Times reported Wednesday that Rep. Lauren Boebert, a Colorado Republican, was summoned to the White House to meet with top Justice Department and FBI officials as Trump tried to head off the House vote, The New York Times reported. Boebert is just one of four GOP House members who signed the discharge petition on the Epstein files. files.
Democrats released over 20,000 documents over Epstein files with Trump’s name on them
Earlier on Wednesday House Democrats released more than 20,000 documents obtained from Epstein’s estate under a subpoena. The documents include emails and text messages in which Epstein talked about Trump. “I know how dirty Donald is,” Epstein wrote in a 2018 email thread for Kathryn Ruemmler, who served as former President Barack Obama’s White House counsel, after she sent Epstein an article about Trump’s ex-personal lawyer and fixer Michael Cohen’s pleading guilty to campaign finance violations and agreeing to cooperate in a federal investigation of the president.In a separate April 2019 email released by Democrats, Epstein told author Michael Wolff that Trump “knew about the girls.” It is unclear what the phrase “knew about the girls” meant. In another newly released email that Epstein wrote to his now-convicted accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell in April 2011, Epstein wrote, “I want you to realize that the dog that hasn’t barked is trump.” Epstein added in that same email that a person whom the Democrats identified as a victim of his, whose name was redacted in the email, “spent hours at my house with” Trump. “He has never once been mentioned,” Epstein added in that message.It is not clear what Epstein was referring to in the email that said “the dog that hasn’t barked.” CNBC has not independently verified the documents released by the Democrats.
What Trump said?
Trump has denied having known about Epstein’s sexual abuse of underage girls and young women when they were socialising with each other. The President has never been charged with wrongdoing in connection with Epstein.Trump blasted the Democrats in a Truth Social post that accused them of using the Epstein documents to distract Americans from the cost of the US govt shutdown. “The Democrats are trying to bring up the Jeffrey Epstein Hoax again because they’ll do anything at all to deflect on how badly they’ve done on the Shutdown, and so many other subjects,” Trump wrote.“Only a very bad, or stupid, Republican would fall into that trap,” he wrote. “The Democrats cost our Country $1.5 Trillion Dollars with their recent antics of viciously closing our Country, while at the same time putting many at risk — and they should pay a fair price,” Trump said. “There should be no deflections to Epstein or anything else, and any Republicans involved should be focused only on opening up our Country, and fixing the massive damage caused by the Democrats!”
