House Speaker Mike Johnson delivered pointed remarks during the heated House debate over releasing additional files tied to the Jeffrey Epstein case, accusing Democrats of turning the effort into a “political exercise.” Johnson said he took “no pleasure” in making the accusation but insisted it was “undeniable.”
00:00For 43 long days, the Democrats held this house and the entire country hostage.
00:06Finally, with the lights back on, this body is returning to our regular legislative session.
00:10We have a lot of work to do.
00:12My colleagues on this side of the chamber are ready and eager to get back to our urgent legislative work
00:18that we promised the American people we would do.
00:20We've got to continue lowering the cost of health care.
00:22We've got to bring down prices for American families,
00:24and we've got to finish the regular appropriations process, just to name a few of those priorities.
00:30And I wish I could say that our first order of business would be to get to those urgent priorities,
00:34but, of course, we're here spending time on the floor about something else.
00:37This is something we could have resolved last week when we brought a unanimous consent
00:41to pass this discharge with the full support of the body.
00:45But our friends over here who are arguing today stalled that.
00:49They objected to it, and they wanted to have this exercise instead.
00:52And that's why we say that this is a show vote.
00:55That's what this is.
00:56They're making a show of it.
00:57And it really is a shame.
00:59We have some heroic women in the chamber today.
01:02I met with many of them a while back.
01:04They're in the gallery here.
01:05They have come forward.
01:07They have shown their faces.
01:08They've used their names to share the unspeakable tragedies that many of them were subjected to,
01:13some of them when they were very young.
01:15And it is a heroic service to the country.
01:17They are seeking justice, and the justice has been delayed for too long.
01:20The Department of Justice, many years ago, should have brought these charges.
01:25It took too long to do it.
01:27And now we're in this process of making sure all the American people get the information.
01:33But we have to do it in the right way, the right way.
01:36After four years of Democrat control under President Biden, they were not truthful with us about a lot of things.
01:41The Democrats insisted the border was secure.
01:43We knew it wasn't.
01:44They insisted that inflation was transitory.
01:48We knew it wouldn't be.
01:49They misled the American people about the obvious mental and physical decline of the previous commander-in-chief.
01:56And now those same Democrats are demanding transparency.
01:59Suddenly, transparency is their new word.
02:01Out of nowhere, they've taken a curious concern in the Epstein investigation, all in the name of that, in the name of transparency.
02:08But the question has been asked here many times during the debate on the floor.
02:12And everybody questioning why it is that Democrats have done this right now have to look at the obvious facts.
02:20The Democrats had all the Epstein files in their possession for four long years under the Biden presidency.
02:27The Biden Department of Justice had these files.
02:29And no one on this side who is breathless today about the urgency of this release ever said a word about it.
02:34And it was the Democrats who could have urged President Biden's Department of Justice to go beyond prosecuting just Epstein and Jelaine Maxwell.
02:44But they didn't do it.
02:46And so it's a fair question to ask today, why now?
02:49Why the sudden, urgent interest in Jeffrey Epstein?
02:52Look, we know why.
02:54It's because the Democrats were never interested in transparency or executing justice or protecting the victims of this unspeakable tragedy before.
03:01Therefore, the simple truth is obvious for everybody to see.
03:04This is a political exercise for Democrats.
03:07And it pains me to say it.
03:08I wish that was not the truth.
03:09But it is.
03:10And it's undeniable.
03:12This is as deceitful and dishonest as their pointless stunt was to shut the government down.
03:18Democrats are using the Epstein tragedy, the unspeakable evils that this guy committed with his trafficking ring
03:25and all of the abuses that they made these young women go through.
03:30They're using that as a political weapon to try to distract from their failures as a party
03:34and to try their best to try to tie President Trump somehow into this wretched scandal.
03:41The president had nothing to do with it.
03:42He's been very clear.
03:43And he has nothing to hide.
03:44And that's why he's endorsed the vote today.
03:46I suspect this vote will be probably unanimous.
03:49But here's the important point that everybody needs to understand.
03:51We have been advocates of maximum transparency, but we have also insisted that the victims be carefully protected.
04:00The Oversight Committee has been doing extraordinary work.
04:02And we've got some of the most vigorous advocates on the Republican and Democrat side on the Oversight Committee.
04:09They've been working in earnest to deliver transparency for the American people and to do it in a responsible manner.
04:15What do we mean by that?
04:15The bipartisan effort over there is already producing all the results that the discharge petition seeks and much, much more.
04:24Chairman Comer and all of these advocates over there have been releasing thousands of documents, for example, from the Epstein estate.
04:31By the way, in my view, that's been the greatest treasure trove of information because it's yielded for us Epstein's own personal flight logs,
04:38his financial records, his daily calendars, and so much more.
04:41But importantly, none of that was addressed or is addressed in the legislation that's being voted on today.
04:48The estate files wouldn't even have been encompassed in that.
04:51And so it goes to show that the Oversight Committee is doing it the right way.
04:54From the very beginning, we've been insistent that this matter be handled carefully and with the utmost caution and care for the people who have been harmed.
05:02They should not be made to suffer any longer.
05:05We're talking about real people's lives at stake here and young victims who don't want to be dragged into this political game that could get hurt further.
05:14But the Democrats are rushing the release of thousands of unsubstantiated documents that may be included in this that are going to be in the public domain with the passage of this bill.
05:21And there are serious deficiencies in the legislation that I have noted at length, and Republicans have to work to address those deficiencies in the Senate if and when this legislation is advanced.
05:33I stood before the American public today at our press conference, and I explained in detail the dangers of the discharge petition.
05:41We have posted at my website, speaker.gov, a summary that the legal counsel, a small army of lawyers put this together.
05:48I used to be a federal court litigator.
05:49Many of my colleagues who have spoken today were.
05:51However, we understand the dangers of how this was haphazardly drawn up.
05:55And among them, by the way, Mr. Speaker, before I forget, I seek unanimous consent to enter this document into the record.
06:00It is that.
06:01It's on the website.
06:03It's entitled, How the Flaws of H.R. 4405 Could Re-Victimize Epstein's Victims, Create New Victims, and Damage the Judicial System.
06:11It is dated today.
06:14And it summarizes just five or six of the major concerns.
06:17Among them, it fails to fully protect victim privacy.
06:21It could create new categories of victims.
06:24It potentially jeopardizes grand jury secrecy.
06:26It fails to prohibit release of child sexual abuse materials that are not appropriately defined in the legislation.
06:32It jeopardizes future federal investigations, and we have national security concerns regarding classified information.
06:38We'll put this in the record because we need the legislative record to reflect what is the legislative intent behind this vote.
06:45I used to litigate cases.
06:46We would litigate federal statutes and whether or not they could survive, and legislative intent is important.
06:51And we need to say clearly for the record, as a Speaker of the House, I'm saying to you, this legislation that will pass today is flawed, and it must be amended.
06:58The question is, why didn't we amend it here before we passed it?
07:01Because the authors won't allow it.
07:03Because under the rules of the House, under a discharge petition, they have to agree to consent for the legislation to be amended, and they are not doing that.
07:09So now we rely upon our partners in the other chamber to get that done, and they need to do that.
07:14The victims deserve our utmost respect.
07:16In fact, they should be saluted for their courage.
07:19And the young women who have not come forward, who are now, some of them are middle-aged women, who have not come forward, also deserve our respect, and they deserve to be protected.
07:27Republicans support transparency.
07:29We want maximum transparency, especially when it comes to disclosing the names of anybody who had anything to do with these evils, anybody who conspired with or aided in any way Jeffrey Epstein.
07:41They must be brought to justice.
07:42We want the bill to be amended so it doesn't, at the same time, violate victim privacy, create new victims, disclose the names of any whistleblower or informant, cause the release of grand jury materials or child sexual abuse materials, or undermine our national security.
07:56And if and when the Senate takes this up, we will work with our colleagues over there to make sure that these things are corrected.
08:03I'll just close with this simple thought.
08:08We've been at this a while.
08:10It's drug on for a while.
08:12But it's time for this to come to light.
08:15I expect that this will be a unanimous vote, and it will reflect what I think every member in this chamber, and I'll say this, now, at least in recent days, every member of the chamber on the Democrat side, they didn't say anything for four years, but they're for maximum transparency now, and so is this side.
08:31But we want to do it in a respectful and careful manner so that we don't subject innocent people to further harm.
08:38And that has been the whole thing.
08:39I told all my members today, I'll be voting yes on this, and I suspect almost everyone will.
08:44We'll send it to the Senate, and we hope it's corrected.
08:47Thank you for the time, Mr. Speaker, and I'll yield back.
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