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Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY) claimed House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) and other Republican leaders are “in panic mode” and threatening supporters of his bill to release documents related to child sex predator Jeffrey Epstein.
“They came back and tried to get the four of us to take our names off of the petition,” Massie told Semafor after an event in Kentucky this week. “They asked some of my colleagues who are co-signers. And they actually threatened them politically, not physically.”
Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA), Lauren Boebert (R-CO), and Nancy Mace (R-SC) have all backed Massie’s bipartisan legislation.
Massie believes he can force a vote on the Epstein legislation thanks to Democrat Adelita Grijalva winning a special election in Arizona. Massie already has the support of all House Democrats.
Massie has drawn pushback from President Donald Trump, Johnson, and others over his calls for more Epstein files to be released. Epstein died of an apparent suicide in 2019 while awaiting charges on sex trafficking. His longtime associate Ghislaine Maxwell is currently incarcerated for sex trafficking, which the Department of Justice said she did in cooperation with Epstein. A new memo from DOJ this year, however, claimed that there was no evidence of Epstein sex trafficking for high-profile associates.
Massie told Semafor that Johnson and others are “in full panic right now” over his bill.
“They’re going to have a vote. I think they’re coming to terms with that,” the congressman said. “I’m going to bet the speaker is probably going to hand out hall passes to some congressmen, because this is an 80/20 issue.”
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