Marjorie Taylor Greene has come out swinging at the White House over the Trump administration’s handling of the Jeffrey Epstein sex trafficking case.
The rift between the MAGA firebrand and White House deepened after a Trump official apparently told her that her support of bipartisan legislation ordering the release of the so-called Epstein files would be viewed as a “very hostile act.”
Greene is one of four Republicans, alongside Reps. Thomas Massie, Nancy Mace and Lauren Boebert to have signed on to a discharge petition to force the release of files related to Epstein. If a discharge petition receives the signature of a majority of members, they can force a vote without the consent of leadership.
“I told them, ‘You didn’t get me elected. I do not work for you; I work for my district,’” the Georgia Republican representative recently told The New York Times.
The right-wing representative says she called a top West Wing aide to push back against that threat, telling the Times, “We aren’t supposed to just be whipping on our votes because they’re telling us what to do with this scary threat, or saying, ‘We’ll primary you,’ or that we won’t get invited to the White House events.”
“Me personally? I don’t care,” Greene continued, noting when she encounters similar tactics from Trump’s team, “I’m like, ‘[Expletive] you’”
That vote is expected as soon as the newest member of Congress, Adelita Grijalva, of Arizona, is sworn in. The vote could come as soon as Monday, Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) told The Independent Friday.
So far, every Democratic member of Congress has signed the petition along with the four Republican representatives, leaving it with 216 votes.
House Speaker Mike Johnson called the House into August recess earlier than expected after Democrats continued to try and force amendments to release files related to Epstein through the House Rules Committee.
Since then, Democratic Rep. James Walkinshaw won a special election in Virginia’s 11th district to replace the late Rep. Gerry Connolly and signed the petition immediately.
While Democrats have hoped to use the Epstein files to their advantage, conservatives have long held out for major Democratic politicians, such as former President Bill Clinton, to be included on Epstein’s so-called list.
Trump, who ran for his second term on the promise to release the “Epstein files,” has since attempted to distance himself from the late financier, with whom he was once close friends.
The Justice Department and FBI caused a firestorm attempting to draw the investigation to a close, releasing a two-page memo saying that no “client list” existed and Epstein died in prison.
Meanwhile, Trump later called the efforts to release the files “total bulls***.” When many of Epstein’s survivors visited Capitol Hill, he called the effort “a Democrat hoax that never ends.”
The Republican-led House committee subpoenaed the Justice Department last month for records related to the criminal cases of Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell, who is serving 20 years in federal prison after she was convicted in 2021 for her role in a scheme to sexually exploit and abuse minors with Epstein.
On Friday, Democrats on the House Oversight Committee released a trove of documents provided by Epstein’s estate that included meeting schedules that showed appointments between Epstein and figures such Trump consigliere Steve Bannon, Prince Andrew and venture capitalist Peter Thiel.
