WASHINGTON — Libertarian Rep. Thomas Massie on Sunday warned his Republican colleagues that President Trump can’t shield them for very lengthy in the event that they oppose the entire launch of the Epstein recordsdata.
Massie of Kentucky and Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) have garnered sufficient help to power the Home to vote on their proposed laws this week to compel the Justice Division to launch all of its recordsdata relating to late highly effective pedophile Jeffrey Epstein, with carve-outs to guard his victims’ identities.
“I might remind my Republican colleagues who’re deciding how you can vote: Donald Trump can shield you in purple districts proper now by supplying you with an endorsement, however by 2030, he’s not gonna be the president, and you’ll have voted to guard pedophiles in the event you don’t vote to launch these recordsdata,” Massie warned on ABC’s “This Week.”
“The document of this vote will last more than Donald Trump’s presidency.”
Trump confronted a MAGA-world revolt through the summer time over Epstein, after a controversial July FBI and DOJ memo concluded the heinous financier dedicated suicide and had not maintained an incriminating “consumer checklist,” opposite to hypothesis.
Massie, who has been in Trump’s crosshairs, significantly for his opposition to the One Huge Stunning Invoice Act, joined with Khanna in in search of to bypass GOP management and power a vote on releasing the Epstein recordsdata.
That effort, which was delayed by a authorities shutdown and August recess, has lastly come to fruition.
Home Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) has known as the Massie and Khanna proposal a “moot” level as a result of the GOP-led Home Oversight Committee has been investigating the Epstein ordeal whereas releasing tens of 1000’s of pages value of the paperwork.
However Massie mentioned there have to be a full accounting — and that the time is ripe to push for it.
“I feel we might have a deluge of Republicans. There could possibly be 100 or extra. I’m hoping to get a veto-proof majority on this laws when it comes up for a vote,” he mentioned.
“This president’s been saying it is a hoax. He’s been saying that for months. Effectively, he’s simply now determined to analyze a hoax, if it’s a hoax,” Massie mentioned of the controversy surrounding the data within the recordsdata.
Final week, Trump introduced that he requested the DOJ to analyze former President Invoice Clinton, JP Morgan and Chase, former Treasury Secretary Larry Summers and LinkedIn founder Reid Hoffman in relation to the recordsdata.
Massie fretted that these probes might operate as a “huge smokescreen” to hamper the discharge of the entire Epstein recordsdata.
On Friday, the president acquired significantly private with Massie, attacking him for getting remarried within the wake of the passing of his first spouse final yr.
“Boy, that was fast!” Trump, who’s on his third marriage, wrote on Fact Social. “No marvel the Polls have him at lower than an 8% likelihood of profitable the Election. Anyway, have a fantastic life Thomas and (?). His spouse will quickly discover out that she’s caught with a LOSER!”
The Kentucky Republican shrugged off the president as a “bully” and revealed that his new spouse joked they need to have invited the president to their marriage ceremony to stop his ire. Regardless of Trump’s assaults, Massie burdened that he doesn’t imagine the Epstein recordsdata will implicate the president.
As a substitute, he believes Trump is “attempting to guard a bunch of wealthy and highly effective pals, billionaires, donors to his marketing campaign.”
Ought to the Home cross Massie and Khanna’s effort to launch the Epstein recordsdata, there’s no assure the Senate will even take up that laws.
