Speaker Mike Johnson said he would send lawmakers home early for their summer recess in order to head off Democratic demands for votes on calling for the release of files from the investigation into Jeffrey Epstein.

Mr. Johnson implied that his concerns about transparency had been alleviated, for now, by Mr. Trump’s move to authorize Attorney General Pam Bondi to seek the public release of grand jury testimony from the prosecution of Mr. Epstein. That is a far cry from the breadth of information the president’s supporters have demanded, yet it appeared to be enough to persuade the speaker.

Edit

This thread used to link to https://www.nytimes.com/live/2025/07/22/us/trump-news/0d8c9050-dee0-5253-89b2-30e4737090c1, a live thread linked from NYT’s “Breaking news” newsletter, which headlined it “Johnson Shutting Down House Early to Block Epstein Vote”. Now that the NYT has made a standalone article, I’ve replaced this post’s link with that article’s gift link, courtesy of the relevant subcommag.

    • neukenindekeuken@sh.itjust.works
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      22 days ago

      Looks like a pedophile himself. Not doing any favors covering for them.

      Everyone in the GOP looks guilty as fuck.

      Tune in next week as we learn, yet again, that their supporters have literally no bottom they’re not willing to dig past to show the world they can go even lower.

    • samus12345@sh.itjust.works
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      22 days ago

      First thing Democrats should do when they get back is demand the files be released again. Not like Republicans will allow anything that actually benefits the public to be done, might as well just troll them.

      • BarneyPiccolo@lemmy.today
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        22 days ago

        And they should absolutely run on that - “I will release (or support the release of) the Epstein Files on Day One.”

        Every Democratic candidate should say that over and over. Don’t dwell on it, don’t expand on it, just make that statement. Make the MAGAs blather about why it’s good to support child molesters.

        • Ensign_Crab@lemmy.world
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          21 days ago

          And they should absolutely run on that - “I will release (or support the release of) the Epstein Files on Day One.”

          They should have run on that in 2024. Made a big huge issue of it during the campaign.

          Instead we got “Look! dick cheney likes me!”

          • BarneyPiccolo@lemmy.today
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            21 days ago

            It wouldn’t have been as effective back then. Now that they’ve finally come to the moment of release, they refused to do it, after making it one of the center points of the campaign. For many, it WAS the campaign. Now that they’ve finally balked at the finish line, there is no speculation about their position.

            NOW, is when the Dems can finally take real advantage of this situation of the MAGAs making, and they should seize this opportunity and explore it mercilessly. The MAGAs certainly would.

      • Tollana1234567@lemmy.today
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        21 days ago

        unfortunately the BBB tax/medicaid cut time bombs will be in effect when that happens making the dumb magats suddenly forget about the epstein files.

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    22 days ago

    Trying to imagine how my employer would feel if I left my job early without doing the work.

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      While I understand the sentiment, I don’t feel like that’s a particularly fresh revelation… If anything, I was surprised at the handful of dissenting voices on the right. Even before this latest wave of Epstein news, I was willing to bet Trump could just straight up admit to pedophilia and still wouldn’t lose much of his base.

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        22 days ago

        I think the Trump regime is getting push back on Epstein because they made a big deal of it during the campaign. And a bunch of their talking heads piled on the Epstein will out a bunch of Dems fantasy.

  • TommySoda@lemmy.world
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    22 days ago

    He’s an absolutely disgusting excuse for a human being and coincidentally has a terrible poker face. The first thing I noticed is that he’ll have a shit eating grin on his face for the entire duration of an interview while talking about fucking people over (even while not talking) but on all the interviews about Epstein that shit eating grin is completely gone.

  • Basic Glitch@sh.itjust.works
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    22 days ago

    What a weak ass, pedophile protecting, pathetic little man, hiding behind self righteous claims of “family values” and a “strong patriarch.”

    You know what Moses would do in this situation? “Lead his people” by protecting kids from the pedophiles Johnson is unwilling to expose.

    All after going on with that whole BS about going against Trump on this one. Weyrich was right when he said there was no longer a “moral majority.” But not bc they lost a manufactured culture war. Bc the leaders of the movement were never motivated by morality. They were motivated by their desire for power and control.

    This is exactly the outcome you would expect from a bunch of narcissists hell bent on forcing society to “return” to some idealised world that never actually existed, all in the name of “traditional values.”

    Those with power demanding everyone conform to their demands and live their lives by the rules they make up, while using their position of power to manipulate the majority with claims of being “chosen by God to lead.” All while protecting the most evil, despicable scum of the earth. Satan himself couldn’t have come up with a better way to cosplay as an angel of light.