House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., said Friday that he and House Republicans want “maximum transparency” on notorious sex offender Jeffrey Epstein and called for more information to be made public.
“Everybody wants the Epstein files, which is the real documents related to Jeffrey Epstein, Ghislaine Maxwell and anybody associated with that. We want the American people to see it,” Johnson said on CNBC’s “Squawk Box.”
The speaker also insisted that President Donald Trump shares this view. “What I believe in is maximum transparency, and so does President Trump,” said Johnson.
The comments came after the Wall Street Journal revealed the existence on Thursday of an album of what it called “bawdy” letters compiled for Epstein’s 50th birthday in 2003. The album reportedly included a letter from Trump that bore his signature and a drawing of a naked woman.
Johnson said he discussed the report with Trump on Friday morning before appearing on CNBC.
“The president and I talked about that ridiculous allegation this morning. He said it’s patently absurd, he’s never drawn such a picture, he’s never thought of drawing such a picture,” the speaker said.
“He’s so frustrated by it, and he’s going to wind up, I think, suing some of the media outlets that have put all this out there because [the White House] informed them that it was totally contrived,” Johnson added.
Yet just as the White House mounted a full-scale messaging campaign to discredit the Journal’s reporting, Trump also bowed to some of the pressure he is under from Republicans to reveal more about the case against Epstein.
Late Thursday evening, Trump announced that he has asked Attorney General Pam Bondi to release “any and all pertinent Grand Jury testimony, subject to Court approval” on Epstein.
Grand jury transcripts are generally kept tightly sealed under federal judicial rules, however, raising questions about why Trump’s order to Bondi was limited to these records and not evidence uncovered during the investigation.
Johnson told CNBC the rules about grand jury testimony are intended to protect the identities of innocent victims, and to guard against the airing of “bogus allegations that would be made against people that can’t be authenticated.”
Aside from records that would be “held back from a court of law,” said Johnson, “I say put it out there, and I think the president believes the same.”
The remarks underscore the dilemma that Johnson and Republicans in Congress face as they seek to satisfy their base’s demands and suspicions about Epstein, without crossing a president who insists the theories are a hoax perpetuated by Democrats.
The wealthy financier died by suicide in 2019, shortly after he was arrested on federal charges of child sex trafficking.
The circumstances of Epstein’s death and his connections in life to wealthy and powerful men — some of whom allegedly abused young women on Epstein’s properties — have fueled conspiracy theories about what the Justice Department might have uncovered during their years long investigation of him.
Democrats have seized on the discord within the pro-Trump ranks, putting forth legislation that would force the DOJ to release the Epstein files. Some Republicans in Congress have sided with those efforts.
The Republican-led House Rules Committee voted Thursday night to advance a resolution calling on the DOJ to release Epstein-related information. Democrats slammed the measure as toothless, since it would not require the DOJ to comply.
On Friday morning, Trump wrote, “If there was a ‘smoking gun’ on Epstein, why didn’t the Dems, who controlled the ‘files’ for four years, and had Garland and Comey in charge, use it? BECAUSE THEY HAD NOTHING!!!”
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