House Republican leaders are in full-blown damage control mode this week, scrambling to keep a growing internal rebellion from boiling over as demands intensify for the full release of Jeffrey Epstein-related files.
The chaos erupted again Tuesday when GOP leadership — under pressure from their own members and a restless public — hastily added a last-minute vote to the week’s legislative calendar. The move is a clear attempt to appease rank-and-file Republicans demanding transparency on the late sex offender’s ties to powerful political and business elites.
Speaker Mike Johnson and House Oversight Chair James Comer are leaning hard into optics. Johnson, whose calendar is typically airtight, spent more than two hours in a closed-door meeting on Congress’s first day back in session — an unusually lengthy and emotional gathering with bipartisan lawmakers and Epstein accusers.
This all comes as Reps. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) and Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) are moving to force a floor vote on their own resolution — one that explicitly calls on the Department of Justice to release the Epstein files to the public. Massie formally filed a discharge petition on Tuesday, and if it gathers 218 signatures, it bypasses leadership and gets a vote.
Massie isn’t bluffing.
“There is a pressure campaign from the White House right now on those folks,” Massie told reporters, referring to Republicans who’ve co-sponsored the resolution but haven’t yet signed the petition.
It’s not hard to see why GOP leaders are rattled. If all Democrats sign on — and they almost certainly will — Massie only needs five Republicans to cross the line. Eleven have already co-sponsored the bill. He thinks he can get there.
Among those feeling the squeeze: Rep. Eric Burlison (R-Mo.), who confirmed he’d heard from the White House but stayed vague on his next move. “I want to keep my powder dry,” he said.
Rep. Tim Burchett (R-Tenn.), who attended Tuesday’s private meeting with victims, was more conflicted. “We got to rethink the whole files thing. Apparently, there’s some files that they don’t want out,” he said, citing concerns over redacting sensitive personal information. Still, he believes the files can be released. “We just got to clarify that we can protect what they need protected.”
It’s this tightrope that GOP leadership is desperately trying to walk — projecting an image of action while stopping short of full disclosure.
Comer’s committee on Tuesday night released a limited batch of Epstein-related files, obtained via DOJ subpoena. Johnson now insists the discharge petition is “superfluous” and that recent subpoenas already have “the force of law.”
He called the Massie-Khanna resolution “inartfully drafted” and claimed it doesn’t do enough to protect victims. “We want to bring justice to every single person who is involved in the Epstein evils and the cover-up thereof,” Johnson said, “but we also want to be equally certain we protect the innocent victims.”
That hasn’t stopped the criticism — especially from Democrats, who see the GOP’s sudden burst of activity as more about political cover than actual transparency.
Rep. Jim McGovern (D-Mass.), the top Democrat on the House Rules Committee, didn’t mince words. “It’s mumbo jumbo. It’s not real,” he said of Comer’s resolution. “Read the Comer bill — it’s cover. I mean, this is pretty simple: Release the files.”
McGovern is far from alone in that assessment. The resolution GOP leaders scheduled for a vote this week does not mandate that the DOJ release the files in its possession — a sticking point for both parties and the public alike.
The White House is said to be quietly urging Republicans to avoid signing on to Massie’s petition, and the Trump administration’s DOJ has continued resisting further disclosures, despite widespread outrage over a memo earlier this year saying no more Epstein-related material would be released.
Still, cracks are forming.
Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-Fla.) said she thinks the files will eventually be released — with or without the petition. But she’s still leaning toward signing it. “I’m likely going to,” she said.
For Massie, that’s enough to keep pressing. “Eventually, the people are not going to be satisfied with what’s happening in the Oversight Committee,” he warned. “It’s not going to bring the closure they’re looking for.”
Speaker Johnson doesn’t seem worried. At least, not publicly. “I would describe virtually everything Thomas Massie says as related to this issue as meaningless,” he said Tuesday.
But behind closed doors, Republican leaders are scrambling — because if even a handful more of their members decide that actually releasing the Epstein files is worth the political heat, this rebellion may be just getting started.
