Speaker Mike Johnson said he would send lawmakers home early for their summer recess in order to head off Democratic demands for votes on calling for the release of files from the investigation into Jeffrey Epstein.

Mr. Johnson implied that his concerns about transparency had been alleviated, for now, by Mr. Trump’s move to authorize Attorney General Pam Bondi to seek the public release of grand jury testimony from the prosecution of Mr. Epstein. That is a far cry from the breadth of information the president’s supporters have demanded, yet it appeared to be enough to persuade the speaker.

Edit

This thread used to link to https://www.nytimes.com/live/2025/07/22/us/trump-news/0d8c9050-dee0-5253-89b2-30e4737090c1?smid=url-share, a live thread linked from NYT’s “Breaking news” newsletter, which headlined it “Johnson Shutting Down House Early to Block Epstein Vote”. Now that the NYT has made a standalone article, I’ve replaced this post’s link with that article’s gift link, courtesy of the relevant subcommag.

      • Basic Glitch
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        97 days ago

        I mean we do too, but its chump change compared to the kickbacks they get from those who are “too big to fail.”

        Talk about entitlement. “I simply can’t be exposed. How would society ever carry on without my generational wealth pulling the strings from the shadows?”

        • @[email protected]
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          27 days ago

          They still make a lot from us. And it increases yearly for inflation, and lifetime benefits for Healthcare… all those things they vote against for us.

  • Rhaedas
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    357 days ago

    Trying to imagine how my employer would feel if I left my job early without doing the work.

  • Canaconda
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    297 days ago

    The most damning thing we’re learning from all of this is how unbelievably gullible and stupid Trump sycophants are.

    • @[email protected]
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      7 days ago

      The way Republicans are handling this is actually extremely unpopular with the MAGA crowd too, it’s basically the first time that Trump’s base has been in outright disagreement with him on an issue. Pretty much every political demographic in the country is in agreement re: Epstein disclosures. I think we need to show some critical support to the majority of Republicans who want the full files released, at least on this specific issue, in order to keep the pressure up until congress comes back from their big long vacation. Everybody is angry about this. They want it, we want it, let’s keep the energy up.

      • @[email protected]
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        77 days ago

        How do you even justify NOT releasing the files? Nobody has offered a single believable reason to hide them, other than to protect bad people from responsibility. It’s pretty hard to stand in the spotlight and claim you are doing the right thing.

        • rainwall
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          7 days ago

          The only possible justifications are “to protect victims” and “to protect people from baseless accusations” if there really is no proof of anything.

          The first can be done with retractions. The latter is the issue for MAGA, as trump and his boosters have been claiming for years that the files are full of vile, evil shit that is being hidden and that they would expose everyone. They claimed this for half a decade, and were saying the truth was about to come out just months ago. They claimed they put 10,000 FBI agents on the case to verify the files, and gave MAGA influencers a “part 1” dossier to splash around.

          Suddenly, a few months later there is nothing to see, even as more and more leaks about Trump being a pedophile hit the news.

          Now they are playing games about releasing “credible” reports (i.e nothing with Trump in them or any republicans) and releasing everything but the files.

    • @[email protected]
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      37 days ago

      Once you have faith in a Sky Daddy, evidence doesn’t matter and Truth is whatever you “feel in your heart”

    • @[email protected]
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      37 days ago

      While I understand the sentiment, I don’t feel like that’s a particularly fresh revelation… If anything, I was surprised at the handful of dissenting voices on the right. Even before this latest wave of Epstein news, I was willing to bet Trump could just straight up admit to pedophilia and still wouldn’t lose much of his base.

      • @[email protected]
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        57 days ago

        I think the Trump regime is getting push back on Epstein because they made a big deal of it during the campaign. And a bunch of their talking heads piled on the Epstein will out a bunch of Dems fantasy.

    • @[email protected]
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      137 days ago

      Looks like a pedophile himself. Not doing any favors covering for them.

      Everyone in the GOP looks guilty as fuck.

      Tune in next week as we learn, yet again, that their supporters have literally no bottom they’re not willing to dig past to show the world they can go even lower.

  • teft
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    127 days ago

    Gaslight Obstruction Projection Pedophilia

    • AatubeOP
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      16 days ago

      as a master in parts of speech from the holy aatubey school of hypercorrection i demand you gerundify “gaslight” into “gaslighting”

  • Tempus Fugit
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    287 days ago

    I just wish the right-wing base held their representatives to a higher standard or at least to the standard they hold Dems.

    • @[email protected]
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      47 days ago

      You mean you wish they made up insane stories from absolute fantasy to make the standard of goodness fluctuate with their whims? I dunno…