US House of Congress Republicans were grasping late on Thursday to formulate a response to US President Donald Trump’s administration’s handling of records in the Jeffrey Epstein sex trafficking case, ultimately putting forward a resolution that carries no legal weight, but nods to the growing demand for greater transparency.
The House resolution, which could potentially be voted on next week, would do practically nothing to force the US Department of Justice to release more records in the case. Still, it showed how backlash from the Republican base is putting pressure on the Trump administration and roiling Republican lawmakers.
The House was held up for hours on Thursday from final consideration of Trump’s request for about US$9 billion in government funding cuts because Republican leaders were trying to respond to demands from their own ranks that they weigh in on the Epstein files.
Photo: AFP
In the late evening, they settled on the resolution as an attempt to simultaneously placate calls from the far-right for greater transparency and satisfy Trump, who has called the issue a “hoax” that his supporters should forget about.
Yet the House resolution was the latest demonstration of how practically no one is moving on from US Attorney General Pam Bondi’s promises to publicly release documents related to Epstein.
Since he was found dead in his New York jail cell in August 2019 following his arrest on sex trafficking charges, the well-connected financier has loomed large among conservatives and conspiracy theorists who have now lashed out at Trump and Bondi for declining to release more files in the case.
“The House Republicans are for transparency, and they’re looking for a way to say that they agree with the White House. We agree with the president. Everything he said about that, all the credible evidence should come out,” US House Speaker Mike Johnson said on Thursday afternoon.
Democrats decried the resolution’s lack of force. They have advanced their own legislation, with support from nine Republicans, that would require the US Justice Department to release more information on the case.
US Representative Jim McGovern, who led the Democrats’ debate against the Republican resolution on Thursday night, called it a “glorified press release” and “a fig leaf so they can move on from this issue.”
Under pressure from Republican members, Johnson had to demonstrate action or risk having Republicans support the Democratic measures that would force the release of nearly all documents.
“The American people simply need to know the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth,” House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries said at a news conference.
“Democrats didn’t put this into the public domain. The conspiracy theory provocateur-in-chief, Donald Trump, is the one, along with his extreme MAGA [Make America great Again] Republican associates, who put this whole thing into the public domain for years, and now they are reaping what they have sown,” he said.
Democrats, who hold minorities in both chambers, have relished the opportunity to make Republicans repeatedly block their attempts to force the Justice Department to release the documents.
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