Senate Republicans are not happy with House conservatives they view as hijacking the congressional agenda to make the disclosure of Jeffrey Epstein-related files their burning focus.
GOP senators say the matter should be left to President Trump and the Department of Justice and want House lawmakers to pay more attention to finding a way to avoid a government shutdown at the end of September.
Instead, House Republicans on the Rules Committee have brought their chamber to a partial standstill by refusing to vote down Democratic amendments to force the publication of Epstein-related files.
The House is about to leave town for a five-week recess despite having passed only two of the regular appropriations bills for fiscal 2026.
“You can’t do anything because of Epstein,” one senior GOP senator fumed. “Wow, what a way to shut it down. … How does it happen?
“We’re supposed to be focusing on governing the country. Let’s not get caught up in the tabloid exposé stuff. Let’s keep the government open. Let’s pass appropriations bills. Let’s do the boring stuff of governing and let other people get all ginned up about who’s sleeping with who,” the lawmaker said.
Senate Republicans are second-guessing Johnson’s effort to quell the controversy by sending his members away from Washington early to begin the August recess.
“I think that’s a silly reason to go home,” said Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.), who has called on the Trump administration to “just release the damn files.”
Tillis suggested Johnson is deluding himself if he thinks that the problem will simply go away by sending lawmakers away from Washington for an extended recess.
“I’ve got to believe that there has to be more to it, because that almost seems to suggest if they go away or four or five — or how many weeks they’re going to go away — that that problem is going to go away,” he said of the decision to put the House in recess starting Thursday.
“Do you guys really think you’re going to take your eyes off this issue come Labor Day?” Tillis asked a group of reporters. “The answer is ‘no.’ So, I think it’s a false premise assuming if they just walk away and avoid this vote, that it’s not going to continue to be an issue.” he said, referring to a push to vote on a resolution to demand the release of all Epstein-related files.
If anything, some GOP senators worry Johnson’s move will sharpen the ardor to press Attorney General Pam Bondi to release all of the Epstein-related files held by her department.
So far, at least 11 House Republicans are backing the bipartisan legislation led by Reps. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) and Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) that calls for the complete release of government files related to Epstein.
Another bombshell dropped Wednesday afternoon when The Wall Street Journal reported the Justice Department told Trump in May that his name is in the Epstein files. NewsNation, The Hill’s partner network, has confirmed the news.
The paper also reported Bondi told Trump at a meeting that the Justice Department would not release additional Epstein documents because they included child sexual abuse material.
Just a few days ago, Republicans in Washington were riding high.
They passed a rescissions package for the first time since 1992, defunding PBS and NPR and global aid programs— a longtime goal — and GOP senators celebrated the passage of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act with a lavish dinner with Trump at the White House on Friday.
But they’re now finding their party plunged into a controversy over alleged sex-trafficking acts that may have happened years or decades ago.
Republican senators want the storm clouds of scandal to blow away, but they fear they’re going to continue to hang over Washington as long as some of their House colleagues hammer away at Trump’s Justice Department and the FBI over Epstein.
“How does it ever go away?” asked a second Republican senator who requested anonymity to comment on Johnson’s handling of the debate over the Epstein files.
That senator predicted Republican lawmakers will resume fighting over Epstein and what information the Department of Justice may have when they return to Washington in September.
“How do you leave? When you come back, the issue is still here,” the senator remarked. “It’s not something that goes away.”
Johnson got into a testy back-and-forth Wednesday when a reporter asked him about pulling down a vote on a rule because of “fear of Epstein votes.”
“No, we don’t have any fear. No, hold on. … There’s no fear. We’re not going to allow the Democrats to use this as a political cudgel,” Johnson insisted, arguing Democrats didn’t make any move to make the Epstein-related files public when they controlled the White House and Department of Justice.
Sen. Eric Schmitt (R-Mo.) noted the call for more information about Epstein’s illicit activities is a potent issue that has gripped the public’s attention.
“I think people are kind of curious and want more information, whether it’s potentially testimony [from longtime Epstein partner Ghislaine Maxwell] … or the release of credible information,” he said. “ A lot of people support that.”
“It also probably speaks to a larger issue: People feel like the government has lied to them for so long on certain things,” he added. “People would like to land on the side of more transparency.”
Senate Republicans say they’re not particularly interested in efforts to subpoena Maxwell to testify.
Nor are they pushing to compel Bondi to answer questions about a claim that she instructed 1,000 FBI personnel to comb through 100,000 Epstein-related documents to search for references to Trump.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) pointed out Wednesday that all the Republican clamor for more information about Epstein is happening in the House, not the Senate.
“It’s clearly a bigger issue there than it is here,” he said. “You’re not hearing it here.”
“I try and stay out of the House’s businesses. That’s an issue that they’re going to have to manage, and hopefully they’ll come up with a path forward that they can all unite behind,” he added.
