As lawmakers leave Washington, Democrats declare an ‘Epstein recess’: From the Politics Desk

Welcome to the online version of From the Politics Desk, an evening newsletter that brings you the NBC News Politics team’s latest reporting and analysis from the White House, Capitol Hill and the campaign trail.

In today’s edition, we dive into how Democrats are continuing to put Republicans on Capitol Hill in a tough spot on the Epstein files. Plus, Jonathan Allen explores the potential power shift the saga has revealed in the GOP-led House.

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— Adam Wollner

As lawmakers leave town, Democrats declare an ‘Epstein recess’

As the House prepared to leave Washington for its summer recess, Democrats were united around one goal: forcing Republicans over and over again to confront the Epstein issue.

Kyle Stewart and Syedah Asghar report that across several committees Wednesday, Democrats brought up amendments on whether the government’s files on the late financier and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein should be released.

It’s part of a broader effort by Democrats to capitalize on a pain point for Republicans, a rare moment when President Donald Trump appears to be out of step with his base. Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., ultimately canceled the House’s final day of votes before recess after Democrats ground a key organizing committee to a halt with Epstein amendments. (More on that below.)

Members now head home to their districts for what Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., called “the Epstein recess.”

The flurry of Democratic amendment offerings in the House succeeded in one case Wednesday. A motion by Rep. Summer Lee, D-Pa., to compel the Justice Department to release files tied to Epstein was approved in a House Oversight subcommittee hearing. A committee spokesperson later said the subpoena will be issued but did not provide timing.

Lee’s motion attracted the votes of three Republicans, who joined with five Democrats to pass it.

In the Senate: Sens. Ruben Gallego, D-Ariz., and Markwayne Mullin, R-Okla., sparred over competing Epstein-related resolutions on the Senate floor this afternoon, Brennan Leach reports.

Gallego accused House Republicans of “fleeing” D.C. to punt on accountability on Epstein.

“What we’re simply wanting to do here is give [Trump] cover,” Mullin said, accusing Democrats of using the Epstein files to “go after” the president.

And in the Senate Judiciary Committee, Sens. John Cornyn, R-Texas, and Cory Booker, D-N.J., argued over a resolution to force the release of the Epstein files, which Booker ultimately withdrew, Frank Thorp V notes.

At the White House: Meanwhile, Trump and his aides have settled on silence as a strategy to stamp out criticism of his refusal to release files detailing the federal government’s investigation of Epstein, according to a senior administration official and Republicans familiar with the White House’s thinking.

Jonathan Allen, Matt Dixon, Henry J. Gomez, Allan Smith and Natasha Korecki report that in a break from Trump’s usual crisis communications template — which emphasizes an all-hands-on-deck approach to defending him on television and on social media — the Epstein case has been met with more restraint from the White House.

Trump himself has signaled that he doesn’t want members of his administration talking about the matter nonstop, a person close to the White House told NBC News. And White House aides have made it clear that no one in the administration is allowed to talk about Epstein without high-level vetting, according to a senior administration official who spoke on the condition of anonymity.

The latest: Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche, Ghislaine Maxwell and Maxwell’s attorneys met in a conference room inside the U.S. attorney’s office in the federal courthouse in Tallahassee, Michael Kosnar reports.

Read more: Trump foe Thomas Massie wins over MAGA allies with his push for Epstein files, by Scott Wong and Sahil Kapur

The Epstein saga reveals a potential power shift in the House

Analysis by Jonathan Allen

House Speaker Mike Johnson is getting battered by his own right arm — the Rules Committee.

The panel, which controls which measures receive votes on the House floor, rebelled against the Louisiana Republican this week as GOP leaders tried to stop lawmakers from demanding the release of the Justice Department’s Jeffrey Epstein files.

At an impasse, and unable to move forward with any legislation, Johnson sent the House home early for its August recess. It seems like the Epstein matter has been delayed rather than killed.

But on a broader level, the Rules Committee revolt represents a significant potential power shift in the chamber. For more than 60 years, the panel has been considered an arm of the speakership — with the majority-party’s leader handpicking its chair and members.

In 1961, the committee, then dominated by the chamber’s bipartisan conservative bloc, was its own rogue source of power. The chairman, Rep. Howard Smith, D-Va., opposed newly elected President John F. Kennedy’s New Frontier agenda — especially its civil rights plank.

Then-Speaker Sam Rayburn, a Texan, wanted to help Kennedy and forced a crucial vote on the House floor to pack the committee with three additional members — two Democrats and Illinois Republican Elmer Hoffman — who were amenable to civil rights.

In a nail-biter that consumed the Capitol and national news pages at the time, Rayburn beat Smith on the floor, 217-212, and broke the committee’s stranglehold. Over decades, the committee not only lost its independence, it became the speaker’s tool.

But conservative Republicans in recent years have forced GOP leaders to appoint more of their own to the ranks of the committee’s roster, and the seeds of that play for power are now blooming.

History suggests that the less power the speaker has, the more likely the House is to pass bills — or kill them — based on the sentiments of the majority of House members, rather than the diktats of the majority party’s leadership.

It’s too early to say that the pendulum is swinging back toward independence for the committee, but this week’s activity shows that it is stirring.

That’s all From the Politics Desk for now. Today’s newsletter was compiled by Adam Wollner and Dylan Ebs.

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