Massie criticizes Johnson on recess as he tries to force Epstein files vote

WASHINGTON – Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., lashed out at Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., on Sunday for sending the House home early for its six-week summer recess to avoid having to hold votes on releasing files related to Jeffrey Epstein, who was accused of sex trafficking.

“I don’t know why it should be politically painful to be transparent,” Massie said on “Meet The Press” Sunday. At a news conference last week, Johnson accused Massie of inflicting political pain on his party by teaming with Democrats to try to circumvent leadership and force a floor vote on releasing the files.

Johnson, for his part, has deferred to President Donald Trump and the Justice Department on the matter, while continuing to say that he is calling for transparency. But sending members home to their districts did not succeed in quieting Massie, who predicted Sunday that the pressure to hold a vote would only increase during the summer break.

“Is the pain he’s talking about that they’ll, somebody in our party, will be embarrassed by those files? Then that’s not a good excuse,” Massie said of the speaker. “Is the pain he’s talking about is that the legislators, when they vote, have to pick between protecting embarrassment of the rich and powerful versus getting justice for victims? I don’t really understand what he means by that.

“Why is it painful for Mike Johnson to call a vote on this? The American people deserve this, regardless of what the political ramifications are for the speaker.”

Massie, the lone House Republican who routinely breaks with the Trump administration despite the president’s threats to find a primary challenger to unseat him, predicted that he would not be the one to suffer politically for pressing the issue. Instead, he said, Republicans would lose their slim majority in the midterm elections next year if they did not take a vote on releasing the files.

“This is going to hurt Republicans in the midterms,” Massie said. “The voters will be apathetic if we don’t hold the rich and powerful accountable.”

Johnson, who appeared later on the same program, said Sunday that he was opposed to Massie’s maneuver, known as a discharge petition, because it did not have “adequate protections” for innocent victims.

“It is not the right approach,” Johnson said. “We have to protect the innocent. We’ll do it at all cost.”

(Massie has said that it does, in fact, protect victims, implying that Johnson is just looking for an excuse to block it.)

Johnson also said he was wary of granting a pardon to Ghislaine Maxwell, the longtime partner of Epstein who is serving a 20-year sentence on a sex-trafficking conviction. Maxwell was interviewed by top Justice Department officials last week.

“I think she should have a life sentence at least,” Johnson said. While Trump has not ruled out pardoning her, Johnson said he would “have great pause about that, as any reasonable person would.”

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.