As Congress returns this week, so does the investigation into Jeffrey Epstein as well as President Donald Trump’s inevitable pushback.
For those who might have forgotten, in July, the Department of Justice released a two-page memo stating that the convicted sex offender and disgraced financier had no “client list” and likely killed himself in prison. That set off a firestorm among both critics of the president and even some of his biggest fans.
Democrats sought to make hay of the matter and proceeded to try and include amendments related to the investigation in the House Rules Committee, which forced House Speaker Mike Johnson to send the House of Representatives home early for the August recess.
Trump for his part has hoped that the whole thing would just go away. But now that Congress is back, both the House and Senate can take actions on Epstein.
Here are four things to watch for as Congress takes up the Epstein investigation:
1. The discharge petition – and who joins it
Typically, the only way to get a bill to the floor for a vote is to have it go through the House Rules Committee. House leadership and the majority also tightly controls what goes on the floor. But rank-and-file members have one tool to get around leadership: the discharge petition.
If a member gets a majority of their colleagues to sign onto a petition, it can have an automatic vote on the matter in the House of Representatives.
Reps. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) and Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) introduced one before Congress left. Now Massie says he will file his discharge petition on Tuesday. Expect every Democrat to sign onto it. But even some arch-conservatives like Reps. Nancy Mace (R-S.C.) and Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) have signed onto it.
2. Chuck Schumer’s “Rule of Five”
Democratic voters have not been happy with Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer ever since he voted for a continuing resolution to keep the government open in May. Some have hoped he will either retire or that Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez will run in a primary against him in 2028.
But Schumer still understands the rules and procedures of the upper chamber and he invoked what’s called “the Rule of Five.” Put simply, if five members of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee requests information, an executive agency must comply.
In this case, Schumer joined with other members of the Homeland Security Committee to release information related to Epstein from the Justice Department. It’s unclear how much information Democrats can get and certainly the White House will try to resist a release. But it tees up a huge fight right ahead of a potential government shutdown and gives Democrats some hint of leverage.
3. The Oversight Committee
While the fireworks will happen on the House floor, most of the activities surrounding the Epstein investigation will take place in the House Oversight and Accountability Committee.
Typically seen as an irascible and highly partisan committee, it will serve as the battleground for the narrative around the Epstein investigation. The committee already subpoenaed information from the Justice Department.
Robert Garcia, the top Democrat on the committee, have said it will receive the leatherbound book Epstein’s collaborator and facilitator Ghislaine Maxwell curated for him, which reportedly also included a bawdy letter with a drawing of a naked woman.
But James Comer, the committee chairman, also said Bill and Hillary Clinton will testify before the committee. Other Democrats like Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts have said that not only should Maxwell testify, but Epstein’s victims should have an opportunity to do so as well. Oversight has plenty of the most hardcore partisans on both sides such as Reps. Jasmine Crockett (D-Texas), Jared Moskowitz (D-Fla.) and Maxwell Frost (D-Fla.) on the Democratic side and Reps. Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.), Anna Paulina Luna (R-Fla.), Mace and Greene.
Expect Democrats to emphasize any ties between Trump and Epstein as well as any coverup by the Department of Justice while Republicans emphasize the disgraced financier’s ties to Democrats like Clinton.
4. The GOP response
All of this could be rendered moot depending on Trump and Johnson’s response to it.
A discharge petition is not fool-proof and Johnson could try to jam it the same way he tried to jam a separate discharge petition that Luna tried to force to allow the parents of newborns to take proxy votes. Attorney General Pam Bondi might also resist efforts from Senate Democrats or the House to turn over information.
But the more resistance Trump puts up, the more suspicion he might face. And Johnson running interference might lead to the more squirrelly members of his conference revolting against him in the way that they have revolted against previous speakers like Kevin McCarthy, John Boehner and Paul Ryan.
