\n Speaker Mike Johnson announced Wednesday that he would put a \ufeffcontentious bill compelling the release of all of the Justice Department\u2019s Jeffrey Epstein case files to a vote on the House floor next week \u2013 earlier than expected.\n <\/p>\n
\n \u201cWe\u2019re going to put that on the floor for a full vote when we get back next week,\u201d Johnson said, adding, \u201cin the meantime I\u2019ll remind everybody the [House] Oversight Committee has been working around the clock\u201d on its own investigation.\n <\/p>\n
\n Johnson was required to soon put the bill from Reps. Thomas Massie, a Kentucky Republican, and Ro Khanna, a California Democrat, on the floor after the pair successfully deployed an arcane tool<\/a> in the chamber known as a discharge petition. But he had some leeway to do so.\n <\/p>\n \n The Republican leaders\u2019 suggestion that he would move more quickly than expected to put the bill before the full House is a reflection of the growing sense of agitation among members of his party on Capitol Hill. The House GOP \u2013 which is fiercely loyal to Trump \u2013 is not eager to take the vote, which goes against the president\u2019s own wishes. But many members of the party are also sick of the months of growing pressure from some vocal members of their own party, including Massie and Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, and feel they need to vote in favor of releasing the files or risk being accused of protecting pedophiles.\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cJust get it to the daggum floor and let the people decide,\u201d a frustrated Rep. Tim Burchett, a Tennessee Republican, told reporters after he went rogue earlier in the day, taking to the House floor to try to force an expedited vote on the bill.\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cI\u2019m tired of messing around. The Democrats have had the Epstein files for four years, and now we\u2019ve got it for nine months, and it\u2019s going to be dragged into a bunch of nonsense. Let\u2019s just take it to the floor. Let\u2019s vote on it. Let\u2019s get on with it,\u201d he said.\n <\/p>\n \n The congressman\u2019s push was denied because it did not follow the proper parliamentary procedure.\n <\/p>\n \n Political pressure over that high-profile Epstein vote roared back to life on the Hill Wednesday, with House members return to Washington after more than a month away.\n <\/p>\n \n Democratic Rep. Adelita Grijalva\u2019s afternoon swearing in as the House\u2019s newest member delivered the decisive vote to the discharge petition to force a vote, despite GOP leadership\u2019s opposition and an apparent eleventh-hour pressure campaign<\/a> by the White House to avoid it altogether.\n <\/p>\n \n As speaker of the House, Johnson can bring any bill up on the floor at any time, regardless of what the rules require. But Massie and Khanna used the discharge petition because House GOP leadership did not want the bill to get a vote \u2013 leaving many expecting they would have to wait seven legislative days to circumvent leadership and come to the floor.\n <\/p>\n \n While the floor schedule for next week has not yet been set, Johnson said leadership wants to bring up the measure \u201cas soon as possible.\u201d\n <\/p>\n \n \u201cIt\u2019s a totally pointless exercise. It\u2019s completely moot now. We might as well just do it. I mean, they have 218 signatures, that\u2019s fine, we\u2019ll do it,\u201d he said.\n <\/p>\n \n The House Committee on Oversight Committee on Wednesday released an additional 20,000 pages of documents the GOP-led panel had received from the late convicted sex offender\u2019s estate.\n <\/p>\n \n In emails released as part of the tranche, Epstein, whose death by suicide has spawned intense scrutiny of the high-profile people he knew, mentioned Donald Trump by name multiple times in private correspondence over the last 15 years with an associate and an author in Trump\u2019s orbit \u2013 details seized on by Democrats.\n <\/p>\n