House Speaker Mike Johnson railed against legislation to release the Jeffrey Epstein files for more than a month but eventually caved to pressure Tuesday and joined the other 426 representatives who voted for the bill.
Now it appears Johnson is furious with the Senate for approving the Epstein Transparency Act, despite voting for it himself.
“I am deeply disappointed in this outcome,” Johnson told MSNOW on his way out of Tuesday evening’s glitzy state dinner with the Saudi crown prince Mohammad bin Salman.
President Donald Trump is expected to sign the bill into law, though the timetable remains unclear.
Johnson’s hand was forced after the president made a U-turn at the 1 hour Sunday, urging Republicans to pass the measure. Johnson voted for it despite what he said were “serious deficiencies” and previously blasted the bill as a “shiny object.”
“I was just told that Chuck Schumer rushed it to the floor and put it out there preemptively,” Johnson told the reporter. “It needed amendments. I just spoke to the president about that. We’ll see what happens.”
Johnson added that both he and Trump “have concerns” about the bill as it stands and was asked whether the president could veto it when it lands on his desk.
“I’m not saying that. I don’t know,” said a frustrated Johnson, who said he opposed releasing the files on the grounds that it could reveal the identities of many of the victims.
Many survivors of Epstein and his accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell lobbied Congress to declassify files related to Epstein.
Ahead of Tuesday’s House vote, Johnson oozed confidence that the Senate would amend the bill but it sailed through the upper chamber without any amendments.
Prior to the House vote, the speaker said he had spoken with Senate Majority Leader John Thune and he expected senators to amend the bill if it got to the upper chamber.
“I’m very confident that when this moves forward in process, if and when it is processed in the Senate — which is no certainty, that that will be — that they will take the time methodically to do what we have not been allowed to do in the House,” Johnson said. “Amend this discharge petition and to make sure these protections are there.”
But after the House held the vote, Thune poured cold water on that idea.
“When a bill passes the House 427 to one and the president said he’ll sign it into law, I’m not sure that there’s going to be a need for an amendment or desire for an amendment process,” Thune told The Independent.
Thune told reporters he had spoken with the speaker “a bit” and had been in consultation with the White House “for some time.”
“The conclusion was when it came out of the House 427 to one that, you know, it was going to pass in the Senate,” Thune added.
Johnson spent more than a month swerving the vote after Trump labeled it a “hoax.” He kept the chamber in recess through the entire month of October and avoided swearing in Rep. Adelita Grijalva, the 218th signature on the discharge petition, in an attempt to stave it off.
That was until Trump changed his tune, and days later Johnson voted to approve the measure.
John Bowden contributed reporting
