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A major fight broke out in the U.S. House of Representatives this week. Several Republican lawmakers turned against their own party leaders. They were angry about how the government is handling the Jeffrey Epstein documents. The issue became so serious that it shut down the House Rules Committee. This caused important votes to be cancelled just before the August break.
The trouble started when two Republican lawmakers, Virginia Foxx and Erin Houchin, said they wouldn’t help move any bills forward until the Epstein issue was addressed properly. This stopped the House from working normally.
Even Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, who usually supports Donald Trump, said people deserve the truth and don’t want the Epstein case covered up. This shows that frustration is growing, even among Trump’s closest allies.
The White House and top Republican leaders were surprised by this rebellion. Speaker Mike Johnson made things more confusing by saying in a podcast that he wants full transparency from the Justice Department. This seemed different from Trump’s position, causing more tension.
Many Republicans have been asking for the Epstein documents to be made public for years. When Attorney General Pam Bondi said no more files would be released, it upset them. They didn’t want to look like they were backing down.
The pressure grew when House Oversight Chair James Comer told Republican leaders that his committee would vote to subpoena Epstein-related documents. He was right, Republicans even voted with Democrats to get Ghislaine Maxwell and the full Epstein file subpoenaed.
Speaker Johnson tried to calm things down by stopping a vote on the Epstein files. But this decision meant two major immigration bills had to be dropped, too. He said Republicans shouldn’t play into what he called “Democratic political games.”
Now, the House is taking its August break, but the fight isn’t over. Representatives Thomas Massie and Ro Khanna are getting ready to force a vote in September that would demand the release of the Epstein files. Republican leaders are hoping the Justice Department does something soon to avoid more problems.
The pressure increased even more after a Wall Street Journal report said the Justice Department told Trump in May that his name appears in some of the Epstein documents. If nothing changes during the break, House leaders fear the same crisis will return in September.