The Retreat – How Mike Johnson Bowed to Trump’s Pressure and Postponed the Release of the Epstein Files

It was a moment of rare tension between the Republican Congress and the White House: When the Speaker of the House, Mike Johnson, said in an interview last week that the public had a right to full transparency in the case of Jeffrey Epstein, it sounded like a first, tentative awakening. “We should put everything out there and let the people decide,” Johnson said on the podcast “The Benny Show.” The words stood in sharp contrast to Donald Trump, who in his second term had done everything possible to shut down the public debate about his former friend and party host as quickly as possible. But Johnson’s stance lasted only a few days. On Monday this week, the Speaker announced that there would be no vote in the House of Representatives this summer on the release of the Epstein files. Johnson explained the surprising reversal by saying the executive branch needed “space to do its work.” It was simply “not the right time yet,” said the Republican. This also puts on hold the resolution draft that was already approved last week by the House Rules Committee, which was supposed to push the Justice Department toward disclosure - and Johnson returns to the role in which he secured his political career: as Trump’s loyal enforcer.

The fact that Johnson even briefly deviated from the president’s official line had caused many in Washington to take notice. It was a visible symptom of the unrest among the Republican base, where anger and mistrust had been building for weeks. The suspicion: the administration might be deliberately withholding material in order to protect powerful allies - including Trump himself. The flood of online posts from right-wing influencers, MAGA activists, and conspiracy theorists filled with dark insinuations had clearly had an effect. Even Marjorie Taylor Greene, Trump’s vocal ally from Georgia, openly questioned her leadership’s loyalty on Monday: “If you tell the people about treason, election interference, blackmail, and elite child-abuse cabals, then you have to deliver. The base wants no more excuses - they want the whole steak.” Donald Trump, however, continues to talk about everything - except Epstein. On his platform Truth Social, the president instead spent the weekend spreading an absurd hodgepodge of hate, distraction, and escapism: a fake Obama arrest, a video of a woman catching an attacking cobra with her bare hands, and a threat to block stadium funding for the Washington Commanders unless the team reinstated its old name, “Redskins.” On the anniversary of his re-election, Trump wrote: “One year ago our country was dead. Today we are once again the hottest country in the world.”

The strategy is transparent: distract, delay, deflect. And it works - at least within the Republican leadership circle. Johnson’s reversal makes it clear that Trump’s team has apparently succeeded in slowing down the public outrage. Instead of allowing an open vote, Johnson now points to Trump’s move to have Attorney General Pam Bondi review the release of the Epstein-specific grand jury transcripts. But that is legally complicated and limited in scope. Grand jury testimony in the US is particularly protected, and its release is only approved in exceptional cases. Even if a court in Manhattan agrees to the release - which could take months - only a fraction of the material will be made public. The bulk, including allegedly incriminating documents on networks, videos, and witness statements, remains sealed. At the same time, bipartisan pressure is growing: Republican Representative Thomas Massie announced that after a seven-day waiting period, he would begin collecting signatures to force a vote on the files - a rare parliamentary maneuver in the US, but one meant to send a signal to the public. According to current polls, 79 percent of Americans support full release of the Epstein files. Yet so far only 16 members of Congress have signed on to the proposed legislation. The Epstein case has become a litmus test for transparency, credibility, and political independence. Trump was connected to Epstein for nearly 15 years before publicly distancing himself in 2009. Photos, guest lists, flight logs, and testimonies point to a long-standing closeness. During his first term, Trump’s Justice Department did not initiate any Epstein-specific investigations. Now, in his second term, he has promised to “shine light into the darkness” - but that light seems selective and politically filtered. So far, Attorney General Bondi has only released portions of the flight logs. Other materials - including those that authorities have categorized as child sexual abuse material (CSAM) - have been withheld. It is legally clear that such material cannot simply be released. But the question remains: What names, what structures, what statements are still being kept in the dark? The real significance lies not only in what the files contain - but in what their release would say about the political system of the United States. Who decides what is made public? Who protects whom? And how far does a president’s loyalty go - not to the people, but to his own circle? With his retreat, Mike Johnson has given a first answer to these questions. And it is: Not now. Not like this. Perhaps not at all. But the issue will remain - in people’s minds, in the archives, in the shadows of a power that Jeffrey Epstein never possessed alone.

Investigative journalism requires courage, conviction, and means.