U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson said Sunday he believed the upcoming vote on the release of Justice Department files related to Jeffrey Epstein should help put an end to allegations that President Donald Trump had some connection to the late sex offender’s abuse and trafficking of underage girls.
“They’re doing this to go after President Trump on the theory that he has something to do with it. He doesn’t,” Johnson, the House Republican leader, said on Fox News Sunday.
“Epstein is their entire game plan, so we are going to take that weapon out of their hands,” Johnson said of the Democrats. “Let’s do this and move on. There’s nothing to hide.”
Although Trump and Epstein were photographed together decades ago, the president has said the two men quarreled before Epstein’s convictions. Emails released last week by a House committee showed that Epstein believed Trump “knew about the girls,” although it was unclear what that phrase meant.
Trump has since ordered the Justice Department to investigate prominent Democrats’ ties to Epstein.
The battle over the release of more documents related to Epstein, an issue on which Trump himself campaigned, has driven a wedge with some of his allies in Congress.
Late Friday, Trump withdrew his support for U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia, one of his staunchest supporters in Congress, following her criticism of Republicans on certain issues, including their handling of the Epstein files.
In an appearance in cnn On Sunday’s State of the Union, Greene said she did not believe yet-unreleased files implicated the president, but renewed her call for greater transparency.
“I don’t think the rich and powerful should be protected if they’ve done something wrong,” he said.
