Dem
47
GOP
53
Jeffrey Epstein has been pretty absent from the news for the past week or two, which is undoubtedly a relief for Donald Trump. And while we do have this Epstein item today, it's going to be very brief. The House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform has laid hands on some portion of the Epstein files, and has signaled its plans, pending a vote from the House of representatives. Let us highlight two brief passages from the CNN write-up of the news:
The House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform intends to make public some files it subpoenaed related to the Jeffrey Epstein caseAnd:
Speaker Mike Johnson took steps to delay until September a vote of the full House to publicly release the DOJ's Epstein files. The Louisiana Republican has said he supports transparency in the case but wants to give the administration room to handle the matter.
Emphasis is ours.
Obviously, "some" files is not "all" files. And does anyone really doubt that anything that might be even slightly incriminating to Trump will be put in the "do not release" pile? Especially when the Speaker himself openly says that his primary concern is accommodating the needs of the Trump administration?
It certainly looks to us like the other shoe has (quietly) fallen. The Republicans need to release something, because the base is clamoring for it. On the other hand, most Republicans don't want to bring Trump down. A carefully curated release from the Oversight Committee could potentially: (1) feed the ravenous QAnon wolves, (2) protect Trump, and (3) keep the White House from being directly involved in the "what files to release?" process, giving the whole thing a veneer of fairness and impartiality.
We cannot claim to understand the conspiratorial Republican mindset, so we have no idea if this will be enough to put Epsteinpot Dome in the rear-view mirror. But it could. (Z)