Speaker Mike Johnson signaled he could support a bipartisan bill to release the Jeffrey Epstein case files if changes were made in the Senate if the legislation heads there next after the House votes.
Speaking to CNN, Johnson said his support was contingent on whether the Senate will make changes to some of its “terrible provisions” — suggesting the measure needs to do a better job of protecting victims’ names.
And despite taking steps to deny the bill a vote for months, he claimed he was simply opposed to the drafting of the discharge petition, a maneuver used to force a vote on the bill over his objections.
“I haven’t tried to kill it,” Johnson said. “We had lots of opposition to the discharge because it’s dangerous in the way it’s drafted. My support will be conditioned upon an agreement in the Senate that if indeed they process it, they’ve got to fix the terrible provisions in it. I also believe it is entirely moot point, because, as you know, the Oversight Committee is doing all their deliberate work,” referring to a probe by the panel.
Johnson’s comments came after Trump, in a major reversal Sunday night, called on Republicans to back the bill, ahead of an anticipated House vote Tuesday with scores of Republicans expected to vote for a bill he has derided for months. Senate GOP leaders have not said how they would handle the bill.
Johnson said he has spoken to Trump “quite a bit” on the topic but declined to comment on the substance of their interactions or whether he advised Trump to change course. He contended that Trump “never had anything to hide.”
“He and I had the same concern – that we wanted to ensure that victims of these heinous crimes were completely protected from disclosure,” Johnson said of the president. “And I’m not sure the discharge does that and that’s part of the problem.”
Supporters of the bill say that it effectively protects the victims, who have voiced their support for the measure.