Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., reversed course on Tuesday and announced he would support a House measure forcing the release of files related to the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
The speaker raised concerns about the legislation and railed against the referendum as a “political show vote” driven by Democrats. Yet, he said he would vote in favor of compelling the Department of Justice to release the Epstein case files.
His comments represented a stunning turnaround after spending months trying to prevent the House from voting on the bill. But not to himself.
“It’s not a reversal,” Johnson told reporters on Tuesday at a news conference where he stood alongside a poster board listing five “dangers of the discharge petition” — including victim privacy worries.
He called the legislation “dangerously flawed” and said he asked its sponsors to make changes, but was rebuffed.
Johnson’s about-face followed President Donald Trump’s 180-turn when he told House Republicans to support the resolution on the floor, after railing against the effort and even privately encouraging some GOP supporters to remove their name from the discharge petition.
“House Republicans should vote to release the Epstein files, because we have nothing to hide, and it’s time to move on from this Democrat Hoax,” Trump wrote on social media.
Asked by MS NOW if he was only supporting the legislation because Trump encouraged GOP lawmakers to do so, Johnson pointed back to transparency.
Having now forced the vote, none of us want to go on record and in any way be accused of not being for maximum transparency. So 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 and to go on record to say, of course, of course, we’re for maximum transparency.”
House Speaker Mike Johnson
“Having now forced the vote, none of us want to go on record and in any way be accused of not being for maximum transparency,” the Speaker said. “So 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 and to go on record to say, of course, of course, we’re for maximum transparency.”
The speaker announced his decision hours before the House voted on a highly anticipated resolution, a measure that has been the source of controversy in Washington for months.
He predicted the vote would be overwhelming.
“I’m gonna vote to move this forward,” Johnson said. “I think it could be close to a unanimous vote because everybody here, all the Republicans, want to go on record to show they’re for maximum transparency, but they also want to note that we’re demanding that this stuff get corrected.”
The speaker said he would back the measure on the floor despite harboring serious concerns about the legislation’s language, including victim privacy.
The bill, to be sure, explicitly authorizes Attorney General Pam Bondi to withhold information that would identify the victims or depicts child sex abuse
Johnson’s comments were a stark turnaround for the speaker, who for weeks urged his members to steer clear of the discharge petition that forced a vote on the Epstein resolution, labeled the effort “moot” because the House Oversight Committee was already investigating the matter, and even sent the House home for August recess early in a move that many saw as a way to stave off movement on the Epstein matter.
“It’s a massive distraction by the Democrats,” Johnson said of the Epstein files effort less than a week ago.
He said he tried to address his concerns with the discharge petition before it hit the 218 signatures needed to trigger a vote, but once it was headed to the floor, he decided to vote “yes” in the name of transparency.
“We had big problems with the discharge from the moment it was filed. We talked with the authors. There was lots of people that went and pleaded with them to fix it so that everybody could be together because we’ve been for maximum transparency,” Johnson said. “But again, there’s a reason that you have rules and processes here to ensure that this is not done haphazardly, and I was not satisfied with that. But I’ve been for maximum transparency from the very beginning. We wanted the process to play out.”
Scores of House Republicans were already expected to support the resolution before Trump’s endorsement, but his support has opened the floodgates in GOP circles on Capitol Hill, with some lawmakers saying they will now vote “yes” after staking their opposition.
Johnson’s backing of the legislation all but ensures the measure is headed for passage in the House, where it will need at least two-thirds support to overcome the inflated threshold that is required under the fast-track process the legislation is being considered.
Its fate in the Senate, however, remains an open question.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., has not said how he plans to handle the resolution should it land in the upper chamber. Leadership is expected to evaluate the situation once the resolution is officially passed.
Communications, however, are already underway. Johnson told reporters on Tuesday that he has been in touch with Thune about his concerns, hopeful that they could be addressed in the upper chamber.
“All the people of good conscience here say we’ve registered our concerns, we stated our opposition as long as possible, but we’re also for maximum transparency,” Johnson said. “So what am I to do as a leader in a situation like this? I called my counterpart in the Senate, Leader Thune, and I talked him through this with him, and shared our deep concerns. And of course, they share those concerns as well.”
Mychael Schnell is a reporter for MS NOW.