House Republicans find themselves cornered by President Trump's MAGA base, their own pledges of "transparency" and by Democrats intent on making the most of the Jeffrey Epstein firestorm.
The result: The House, embroiled in a rebellion, will flee Washington today and won't return until September.
The majority on Tuesday was unable to push past the simmering controversy to take up a pending immigration bill or a rollback of Biden-era regulations because a key House panel customarily loyal to Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) was closing in on a vote on an Epstein-related measure.
Johnson hopes that the upcoming August recess will provide time and "space" for some kind of resolution.
"We're done being lectured on transparency," the Speaker told reporters Tuesday, hitting what he called Democratic "side shows."
Epstein, the disgraced New York financier and convicted sex offender who died in a jail cell while awaiting trial in 2019, remains in the headlines more than two weeks after the Justice Department (DOJ) rocked MAGA World with a memo saying it had no additional Epstein files to share.
The administration is still laboring to tamp down the controversy.
The DOJ and Attorney General Pam Bondi, urged by Trump to release "credible" investigatory information, asked courts to unseal grand jury transcripts in the case. Two federal judges on Tuesday told the DOJ they need more information. "The court intends to resolve this motion expeditiously," they wrote.
Still, the administration's actions have also kept the story front and center.
Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche on Tuesday said he is seeking a meeting with Epstein associate Ghislaine Maxwell, 63, who is serving a 20-year sentence following her 2021 conviction for sex trafficking and other crimes. Blanche said he planned to ask: "What do you know?"
Trump told reporters on Tuesday that the request to interview Maxwell "sounds appropriate."
There was no indication the DOJ sought to speak with Maxwell, who is appealing her sentence to the Supreme Court, before issuing its July 7 memo saying an Epstein "client list" was nonexistent and reaffirming he died by suicide. The DOJ last week urged the court to reject the appeal.
Meanwhile, the White House has for days lashed out at a Wall Street Journal report that said Trump had contributed a "bawdy" letter with his signature for Epstein's 50th birthday in 2003, at the request of Maxwell, for inclusion with notes from other Epstein associates. Trump on Friday sued the Journal and its parent company while the White House banned the outlet from joining its press pool for Trump's trip to Scotland this weekend.
▪ The Hill: Trump fuels Epstein furor he wants to escape.
▪ Politico: Trump's lawsuit against the Journal raises a new constitutional question. The president is wielding lawsuits as both sword and shield.
The president, who socialized with Epstein and Maxwell in the 1990s, has said he had no knowledge of criminal allegations during that period. Epstein's legal troubles began when he was accused of molesting a 15-year-old in Palm Beach, Fla., in 2005. He pleaded guilty in Florida in 2008 to two state felony prostitution charges and received a plea deal that was criticized as too lenient.
Blanche on Tuesday made his announcement about seeking information from Maxwell within hours of a House Oversight and Government Reform subcommittee vote to subpoena her to talk with lawmakers. During an unrelated hearing, Rep. Tim Burchett (R-Tenn.) moved to direct the panel to authorize and issue a subpoena for Maxwell to appear for a deposition. It passed by voice vote.
"I want justice for those thousands of young ladies who were abused, and I want the dirt bags of the world to know that we're not going to tolerate it," Burchett said.
Oversight Committee Chair James Comer (R-Ky.) is expected to seek a subpoena "as expeditiously as possible," a spokesperson said. Comer told reporters he and his team would visit Maxwell in prison for a deposition when details and terms are worked out with her lawyers.
The deputy attorney general, previously retained as one of Trump's personal defense lawyers, and Maxwell's attorney, David Oscar Markus, are friends, The Hill's Zach Schonfeld and Ella Lee report in The Gavel newsletter later today. (Click here to sign up and get it in your inbox.)
"I know a lot of people that have worked with you, I know a lot of people who know you very well," Blanche told Markus last year while appearing on his podcast. "I now consider you a friend and someone who I know pretty well. You are by far the best out there," he said.
There were no indications as of Tuesday, The New York Times reported, that the DOJ's outreach to Maxwell's attorney was tied to a pardon or a possible reduction in her time behind bars.
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