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.
Hopefully a hacker busts in and retrieves the list.
Nothing says “Nothing to see here” like shutting down a portion of the government.
Trump raped kids.
Mike Johnson loves pedophiles
Why else is he spying on his son like that? Creep behavior
He thinks that his son is cheating on him. So insecure.
I just wish the right-wing base held their representatives to a higher standard or at least to the standard they hold Dems.
You mean you wish they made up insane stories from absolute fantasy to make the standard of goodness fluctuate with their whims? I dunno…
What do we pay these people for?
We don’t pay these people, they do.
I mean we do too, but its chump change compared to the kickbacks they get from those who are “too big to fail.”
Talk about entitlement. “I simply can’t be exposed. How would society ever carry on without my generational wealth pulling the strings from the shadows?”
Might want to specify which they, just so people don’t misinterpret it as (((they)))
Pedophiles covering for pedophiles. It’s the GOP way!
So turns out this is the real reason they’re against abortions. I always thought it was the labor they could exploit. I guess it’s both
Labor for the ugly kids, rape for the rest.
Johnson gives dicks a bad name.
The look you get when you run cover for pedos.
Wonder how many of these legislators are on the list.
He’s stalling while republicans think of ways to sanewash pedophilia.
Trying to imagine how my employer would feel if I left my job early without doing the work.
This is him doing their work.
Actually he is doing his job correctly. Protecting pedophiles is his job.
The most damning thing we’re learning from all of this is how unbelievably gullible and stupid Trump sycophants are.
The way Republicans are handling this is actually extremely unpopular with the MAGA crowd too, it’s basically the first time that Trump’s base has been in outright disagreement with him on an issue. Pretty much every political demographic in the country is in agreement re: Epstein disclosures. I think we need to show some critical support to the majority of Republicans who want the full files released, at least on this specific issue, in order to keep the pressure up until congress comes back from their big long vacation. Everybody is angry about this. They want it, we want it, let’s keep the energy up.
How do you even justify NOT releasing the files? Nobody has offered a single believable reason to hide them, other than to protect bad people from responsibility. It’s pretty hard to stand in the spotlight and claim you are doing the right thing.
The only possible justifications are “to protect victims” and “to protect people from baseless accusations” if there really is no proof of anything.
The first can be done with retractions. The latter is the issue for MAGA, as trump and his boosters have been claiming for years that the files are full of vile, evil shit that is being hidden and that they would expose everyone. They claimed this for half a decade, and were saying the truth was about to come out just months ago. They claimed they put 10,000 FBI agents on the case to verify the files, and gave MAGA influencers a “part 1” dossier to splash around.
Suddenly, a few months later there is nothing to see, even as more and more leaks about Trump being a pedophile hit the news.
Now they are playing games about releasing “credible” reports (i.e nothing with Trump in them or any republicans) and releasing everything but the files.
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.
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.
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.
Gaslight. Obstruct. Project (and also pedophilia apparently)
Guardians Of Pedophiles
Waste of human flesh, Mike Johnson.
