Republican Thomas Massie gets the ball rolling on release of Epstein files as Congress returns to DC

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A Republican congressman who is spearheading the push on the right for the Trump administration to release the entirety of the federal government’s investigation into Jeffrey Epstein made it clear on Thursday that it will be top on the agenda as Congress returns.

Thomas Massie, a Kentucky representative with a history of clashing with the president and his own party, wrote on X that he planned to file a discharge petition forcing a vote on the matter in the House of Representatives on Tuesday, when the House gavels back into session.

Lawmakers spent the month of August on their yearly summer recess, during which many members returned home to their districts to meet with constituents. That recess was called early, by Speaker Mike Johnson, to block Massie from filing his petition, in late July.

“I am in DC and I will file the discharge petition today, Sept 2nd, at approximately 2pm when Congress officially returns from the August recess,” Massie posted. “At that point we can begin collecting the 218 signatures necessary to force a vote on binding legislation to release the Epstein files.”

Johnson previously called the move by Massie a “charade”.

Thomas Massie says he’s optimistic about collecting further Republican support for a petition that would force the federal government to release the Jeffrey Epstein investigation (Getty Images)

Massie is joined in leading the petition by Ro Khanna, a Democratic congressman from California. As the House called recess in July, the two pledged to relitigate the issue once Congress returned.

GOP leadership is unlikely to escape an embarassing vote on the issue in the days ahead if public interest in the investigation retains any of the same potency it exhibited earlier in the summer.

Johnson was simultaneously facing efforts by Democrats to force votes on Epstein-related amendments in the Rules Committee, as well as efforts by the House Oversight Committee to obtain the files — a rare area where the Speaker has been forced to break from Donald Trump and support calls for the files to be released to the House’s top investigative body.

The Oversight committee, on Tuesday evening, published more than 33,000 files related to the investigation. The vast majority were previously part of the public record.

Massie, in response, told The Independent that he would continue his petition. At least one other Republican, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, signaled that she’d sign on as well.

“Look, if my legislation were redundant, why would the White House be trying to stop it? It’s not redundant. There are things that the White House doesn’t want out there that my legislation would cause to be released,” Massie said on Tuesday.

The president, meanwhile, has furiously labeled the investigation a “hoax” in an attempt to move his base off the issue. Meanwhile, there are countless clips of top members of his administration, including Vice President JD Vance, remarking that the files should be released if and when they entered government.

Trump’s explanation also clashes badly with an effort by his own deputies at the Department of Justice and FBI to publicize the investigation and the Trump administration’s supposed transparency around it. Pam Bondi, the attorney general, invited conservative influencers and MAGAworld operatives like Jack Posobiec to the White House earlier this year, where the group received large, flashy folders declaring the contents to be “phase one” of the Trump administration’s Epstein-related releases.

Interest remains high among Trump’s base for the government to release the Epstein files (AFP/Getty)

Phase two never occurred.

In early July, the DOJ turned speculation around the adminsitration’s delays into full-blown conspiratorial accusations when the agency released a memo with the FBI claiming that the Epstein “client list” of the convicted sex offender’s alleged accomplices did not exist. The agencies further stated that they were closing the book on releasing evidence from the investigation.

The announcement enraged followers of the case, who’ve long speculated that evidence exists tying the billionaire financier’s crimes to some of the many powerful and influential persons and institutions with whom he cultivated relationships over his life — including President Donald Trump, and former President Bill Clinton.

Reporting from the Wall Street Journal subsequently revealed that the DOJ informed the president that his name came up multiple times during a review of the investigation files, though there was no direct assertion of wrongdoing involving Trump. Separately, the outlet reported that the president penned a message for Epstein’s 50th birthday card containing a sexually suggestive drawing and a message suggesting the men shared “secrets.”

The president furiously denied the Journal’s reporting and sued the paper and its owners for $10 billion.