WASHINGTON (Reuters) -U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Mike Johnson said on Sunday he believed the approaching vote on releasing Justice Department files related to Jeffrey Epstein should help put to rest allegations that President Donald Trump had any connection to the late sex offender’s abuse and trafficking of underage girls.
“They’re doing this to go after President Trump on this theory that he has something to do with it. He does not,” Johnson, the Republican leader in the House, said on the “Fox News Sunday” program.
“Epstein is their entire game plan, so we’re going to take that weapon out of their hands,” Johnson said of Democrats. “Let’s just get this done and move it on. There’s nothing to hide.”
Though Trump and Epstein were photographed together decades ago, the president has said the two men fell out prior to Epstein’s convictions. Emails released last week by a House committee showed Epstein believed Trump “knew about the girls,” though it was not clear what that phrase meant.
Trump has since instructed the Department of Justice to investigate prominent Democrats’ ties to Epstein.
The battle over disclosure of more Epstein-related documents, a subject Trump himself campaigned on, has opened a rift with some of his allies in Congress. Trump late on Friday withdrew his support for U.S. Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia, long one of his staunchest supporters in Congress, following her criticism of Republicans on certain issues, including the handling of the Epstein files.
In an appearance on CNN’s ”State of the Union” program on Sunday, Greene said she did not believe as-yet-unreleased files would implicate the president but she renewed her call for further transparency.
“I don’t believe that rich, powerful people should be protected if they have done anything wrong,” she said.
(Reporting by Douglas Gillison and Andrew Goudsward in Washington; Editing by Sergio Non and Paul Simao)
