Johnson begrudgingly backs Epstein files bill but hopes for Senate reckoning

WASHINGTON (CN) — House Speaker Mike Johnson said Tuesday that he would vote for a measure aimed at compelling the Trump administration to release documents related to the government’s investigation into Jeffrey Epstein.

It’s a major reversal for the top House Republican, who has for months panned the so-called Epstein files as a “shiny object” and a Democratic political cudgel against the president. But Johnson said while he was dissatisfied with the proposed Epstein legislation, he and his GOP colleagues would support “maximum transparency” while banking on the Senate to course correct.

The House on Tuesday afternoon is expected to vote to advance the bipartisan measure, forced to the floor last week after a procedural motion known as a discharge petition gained the necessary support.

If made law, it would direct the Justice Department to release all its files on Epstein, the late financier and convicted sex trafficker with connections to several powerful political figures — including President Donald Trump.

Johnson, speaking to reporters during a news conference Tuesday morning, predicted that the legislation could pass the lower chamber unanimously.

“None of us want to go on record and in any way be accused of not being for maximum transparency,” said the House speaker. “The only intellectually consistent position to have right now, the only way to ensure that both those things are true at the same time, is to allow for everyone to vote their conscience.”

Still, Johnson laid out his complaints about the proposed measure. He argued that the legislation, sponsored by Kentucky Representative Thomas Massie and California Representative Ro Khanna, did not go far enough to protect the privacy of Epstein’s victims. He also contended that the legislation would require the Justice Department to publish information that could reveal sources and methods or compromise future investigations.

And the House speaker also claimed that the measure failed to shield against the inadvertent release of child sexual abuse material.

The proposed legislation allows the attorney general to withhold or redact portions of the Epstein documents related to child sexual abuse material, relying on legal definitions laid out in Section 2256, Title 18 of the U.S. Code. But Johnson, a former trial attorney, said that statute was inadequate, contending that “nowhere in this section” was child sexual abuse material adequately defined.

Under the code in question, the law defines “minor” as any person under 18 years of age and lays out specific language for “actual or simulated” sexually explicit conduct and child pornography.

Johnson did not explain what part of the statute he found objectionable.

Though he was concerned about the language of the proposed Epstein measure, the House speaker pointed out the nature of a discharge petition blocked lawmakers from amending the legislation before it heads to a vote, and that its sponsors had told Republican leadership to “jump in the Potomac” when asked about making changes.

But Johnson said he was hopeful the Senate would amend the measure, noting he had shared his “deep concerns” with Senate Majority Leader John Thune.

“I’m very confident that when this moves forward in the process … that they will take the time to methodically do what we have not been allowed to do in the House, to amend this discharge petition and to make sure that these protections are there,” he said.

Johnson also dismissed questions about whether his announced support for the Epstein measure represented a change in his approach to the legislation, which he has long opposed.

“It’s not a reversal,” he said. “I’ve been for maximum transparency for the very beginning. We wanted the process to play out.”

The House is readying a vote on the Epstein files measure days after Trump himself changed course and urged his Republican colleagues to pass it. Before the discharge petition acquired the necessary 218 signatures last week, the White House had leaned on GOP lawmakers to drop their support for the legislation. The president has long framed the Epstein intrigue as a “hoax” perpetuated by Democrats.

But Democrats have argued that Trump is attempting to conceal his own connections to Epstein, with whom the president had a relationship in the 1990s. In recently published emails, the late financier and convicted pedophile claimed that Trump “knew about the girls,” but did not accuse him of any wrongdoing.

Though the president’s name has appeared several times in documents related to Epstein, there is no evidence he was involved in sex trafficking schemes. Trump has long denied any involvement.

On Monday, Larry Summers, the former president of Harvard University who once served as U.S. treasury secretary, said he would step back from public commitments after the release of emails showing he maintained a friendly relationship with Epstein long after the financier pleaded guilty to soliciting prostitution from an underage girl in 2008.

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