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Jeffrey Epstein saga continues as Congress returns from recess
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Congress wasn’t in session in August. But the Epstein files certainly were.
The Epstein files dominated Congress before the summer recess. But when lawmakers returned to Capitol Hill in recent days, the first thing lawmakers wrestled with were the Epstein files again.
Note: If you want something to go away, do not make it among the first orders of business.
The Epstein issue gurgled through the summer. And House Republicans did little to tamp down the embers by adjourning the body a day early in July – because they struggled to pass unrelated bills without delving into a complicated and sticky discussion of the Epstein files. Then, when the House returned, GOP leaders immediately prepped a resolution to formally bless an Epstein investigation by the Oversight Committee. The panel released some 32,000 pages of Epstein-related documents.
Just hours after returning to session, House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., and others met with Epstein accusers.
‘NOT GOING AWAY’: INSIDE THE EPSTEIN DRAMA THAT’S THROWN HOUSE GOP INTO CHAOS
Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., speaks during a press conference calling for the release of the Jeffrey Epstein files outside the U.S. Capitol on Wednesday Sept. 3, 2025, in Washington, D.C. (Matt McClain/The Washington Post via Getty Images)
That explains why the issue isn’t ebbing any time soon.
«It is very much a possibility that Jeffrey Epstein was an intelligence asset working for our adversaries,» declared Rep. Anna Paulina Luna, R-Fla., after talking to the Epstein victims at the Capitol. «I think this is going to be a criminal investigation for sure. I will say that what’s been released, obviously, the American people have wanted for a long time.»
Before the recess, Reps. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., and Ro Khanna, D-Calif., teamed up to potentially bypass Johnson and compel the House to vote on releasing the Epstein files. The Epstein milieu quickly infected virtually every single legislative effort in Congress, effectively hamstringing the body. So Johnson cut everyone loose a bit early.
But the issue festered over the recess. Massie and Khanna were back with their parliamentary gambit to go over Johnson’s head and force an Epstein vote.
Lawmakers from both sides routinely convene press conferences at a spot just outside the Capitol called the «House Triangle.» Lawmakers often use this venue to feature non-members or people specific to the legislation they’re pushing at the news conference.
Sometimes members bring a throng of people with them. A crowd occasionally gathers, depending on the issue.
But I had never before witnessed the multitude of people who showed up at the House Triangle on Wednesday morning to hear Massie, Khanna and victims talk about their effort to pry open the files. People spilled out onto the walkways and plaza. That forced U.S. Capitol Police to restrict access to the area.
Some of the victims recounted their Epstein stories in harrowing detail.
«When I got into the massage room, Jeffrey Epstein undressed and asked me to do things to him, my eyes welled up with tears. And I have never been more scared in my life,» said Epstein accuser Haley Robson.
«I was even taken on a trip to Africa with former President Bill Clinton and other notable figures. In those moments, I realized how powerless I was,» said Epstein victim Chauntae Davies.
EPSTEIN VICTIMS SET TO BREAK SILENCE AMID BIPARTISAN PUSH TO RELEASE FILES: ‘PEOPLE ARE GOING TO BE OUTRAGED’
Anouska De Georgiou, right, gathers with other Jeffrey Epstein survivors during a press conference calling for the release of the Epstein files outside the U.S. Capitol on Wednesday, Sept. 3, 2025, in Washington, D.C. (Matt McClain/The Washington Post via Getty Images)
Massie and Khanna are deploying what’s called a «discharge petition.» It’s a rarely successful gambit to go over the head of the Speaker and force a debate and vote on your issue – provided one can engineer 218 House signatures. If Massie and Khanna cobble together enough signatories, they may be able to force a vote later this month.
House GOP leaders are concerned about this. That’s why Johnson hoped to intervene with his own measure to formalize the House Oversight Committee’s inquiry into Epstein. But Johnson designed the measure in a way that the House could approve it – without taking a direct vote on it. That way, Republicans could point to angry constituents that they were in fact taking the Epstein files seriously – without an actual roll call vote documenting their position and perhaps infuriating President Donald Trump. Or, they could tell other constituents who wouldn’t want them to cross the President on Epstein to say they never directly voted on it at all. After all, it was buried in an unrelated measure.
Make sense?
But there was another motive behind the leadership’s unique parliamentary maneuver on Epstein: They wanted to give Republicans cover to say that the House was in fact addressing the Epstein issue. The move might coax fewer members to support the Massie/Khanna effort. That would prevent the House from taking a concrete vote tied to Epstein. But otherwise, the House may need to directly wrestle with it.
Massie called this a «political cover» to block his plan with Khanna to release the files.
Johnson fired back at Massie.
«I would not put much stock into what Thomas Massie says. The House Republicans have been very consistent about maximum disclosure and maximum transparency,» said Johnson.
Trump long promised to release the files. But Trump’s position this week was to blame Democrats.
«This is a Democrat hoax that never ends. You know, it reminds me a little of the [President John F.] Kennedy situation. We gave them everything over and over again. More and more and more and nobody’s ever satisfied,» said Trump. «But it’s really a Democrat hoax because they’re trying to get people to talk about something that’s totally irrelevant to the success that we’ve had as a nation since I’ve been president.»
Massie suggested that Johnson is just trying to stay on Trump’s good side by walking a political tightrope.
HOUSE OVERSIGHT COMMITTEE RELEASES THOUSANDS OF EPSTEIN DOCUMENTS
House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., left, and President Donald Trump shake hands during an Invest America roundtable in the State Dining Room of the White House in Washington, D.C., on June 9, 2025. (Yuri Gripas/Abaca/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
«The Speaker is wrestling with [whether] he’s going to have to choose between supporting Donald Trump’s new position that the files shouldn’t be released, or finding justice for these victims and survivors. The Speaker probably doesn’t appreciate that he’s going to have to choose one,» said Massie. «The Speaker’s position depends on him not just rubber-stamping but reinforcing anything Donald Trump wants, even if Donald Trump is wrong. So the Speaker is in a tough spot.»
The materials coughed up by the Oversight panel did include a new video of the so-called «missing minute.» It fills in absent footage from Epstein’s New York jail cell on the night he died.
But Massie insists on the release of more material.
«What’s clear is they’re not redacting, just to protect victims. They are redacting to protect the reputations of people,» said Massie.
One Republican aligned with the President threatened to out those linked to Epstein.
«I’m not afraid to name names,» said Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., at the press conference. «So if they want to give me a list, I will walk into that Capitol on the House floor, and I’ll say every damn name that abused these women.»
Khanna was buoyed by the support of Greene.
«I’ve never done a press conference with Marjorie Taylor Greene before,» said the progressive Khanna. «I don’t think Marjorie Taylor Greene would be part of a stunt against President Trump.»
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We’ll know soon if the House has the votes to thwart the GOP leadership and consider the Massie/Khanna resolution. And tangling with the Epstein matter could even start to impact the ability of the House to wrestle with routine legislation again.
And so, the Epstein saga continues. The same as it was before the August recess.
jeffrey epstein,congress,republicans,democrats,house of representatives politics
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Rick Scott says Prince Andrew ‘absolutely’ must face US trial in Epstein case if American laws were broken
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A top Senate Republican demanded that if former Prince Andrew is found to have broken American laws with his ties to Jeffrey Epstein, he should stand trial in the U.S.
«If he’s violated American law, absolutely,» Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla., told Fox News Digital.
Scott’s comments came after the news that the former prince, now Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, who is linked to the late pedophile Jeffrey Epstein, was arrested on suspicion of misconduct in public office in the United Kingdom on Thursday.
EPSTEIN PROBE LEADER COMER SAYS ‘NO ONE IS ABOVE THE LAW’ AFTER EX-PRINCE ANDREW ARREST
Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla., said that former Prince Andrew, who was arrested under suspicion of misconduct in public office in the United Kingdom on Thursday, should «absolutely» stand trial in the U.S. if he was found to have broken any American laws with his ties to Jeffrey Epstein. (Aaron Schwartz/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
British authorities were reportedly investigating whether Mountbatten-Windsor had shared confidential trade information with Epstein while acting as Britain’s special envoy for trade over a decade ago, the Associated Press reported.
Mountbatten-Windsor has denied any wrongdoing in relation to Epstein, despite being one of his most well-known associates. He was also accused by the late Virginia Giuffre — one of Epstein’s most prominent accusers — in her memoir of having sex with her when she was a minor.
The list of co-conspirators and those connected to Epstein continues to grow, following Congress’ move to force the Department of Justice (DOJ) to release millions of documents related to him, known as the «Epstein Files.»
MASSIE, TOP OVERSIGHT DEMOCRAT CALL FOR SECRETARY LUTNICK TO RESIGN FOR ‘LYING’ ABOUT ALLEGED EPSTEIN TIES
The former Prince Andrew, Duke of York attends the Easter service at St. George’s Chapel on April 20, 2025, in Windsor, England. He lost his princely title in October of that year. (Samir Hussein/WireImage/Getty Images)
But criminal action against those alleged to have ties with Epstein has remained scarce, given that appearing in the files doesn’t directly translate to criminal charges. Scott argued that if people «violate the law, you should be prosecuted to the full extent of the law.»
«It’s as simple as that. It’s despicable what Epstein did,» Scott said. «I can’t imagine these people who had relationships with Epstein, especially after he was convicted the first time, and they kept their relationship.»
«If they’ve done anything wrong, they should be held accountable,» he continued. «I don’t know if Prince Andrew has done anything wrong, but everybody who has should be held accountable. What you read that happened to these young girls is just like — I’ve got two daughters, I’ve got a granddaughter, and I can’t imagine, you know, the position that Epstein and, it seems like, some other people put these young women in.»
The Senate voted unanimously last year in favor of legislation that President Donald Trump signed into law that required the DOJ to release all unclassified records, documents, communications and investigative materials «publicly available in a searchable and downloadable format» related to the late financier and his accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell.
STARMER CALLS ON EX-PRINCE ANDREW TO TESTIFY BEFORE CONGRESS AFTER LATEST EPSTEIN RELEASE
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., speaks during a news conference at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C., on Feb. 12, 2026. (Graeme Sloan/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
Several names of prominent Americans, including Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, were revealed in the trove of unredacted documents.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., when asked if Lutnick or others should face consequences, said earlier this month that «transparency is something we all ought to aspire to here.»
«And if there are folks who are, you know, named in there or discussed in there in some way, they’re going to have to answer for that,» Thune said.
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Millions of files and a handful of months later, Attorney General Pam Bondi announced earlier this week that the DOJ had unloaded all the documents. But lawmakers have said it’s not enough.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., charged that the DOJ’s handling of the Epstein files «is a travesty.»
«But in France, the Paris prosecutor’s office just opened two investigations based on new leads from the released files,» Schumer said on X. «And in Britain, former Prince Andrew has been arrested over ties to Epstein. When will there be justice in America?»
politics,senate,jeffrey epstein,british royals,crime world
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Iraq War flashbacks? Experts say Trump’s Iran buildup signals pressure campaign, not regime change
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As U.S. forces surge into the Middle East amid escalating tensions with Iran, the military posture is drawing comparisons to the 2003 Iraq War buildup. But military experts and former officials say that while the scale of visible force may look similar, the design and intent are fundamentally different.
In early 2003, the United States assembled more than 300,000 U.S. personnel in the region, backed by roughly 1,800 coalition aircraft and multiple Army and Marine divisions staged in Kuwait and Saudi Arabia ahead of Operation Iraqi Freedom. The force was built for invasion, regime removal and occupation.
Today’s deployment tells a different story, as the absence of massed ground forces remains the clearest contrast with 2003.
«I believe there is absolutely no intention to put ground forces into Iran. So the buildup is very different,» retired Gen. Philip Breedlove, former NATO Supreme Allied Commander Europe, told Fox News Digital.
IRAN DRAWS MISSILE RED LINE AS ANALYSTS WARN TEHRAN IS STALLING US TALKS
The world’s largest aircraft carrier USS Gerald R. Ford is seen in the North Sea during Exercise Neptune Strike 2025. The photo was taken in the North Sea in September 2025. (Jonathan Klein/AFP via Getty Images)
«What is happening is that both firepower and supplies are being moved to the right places … Amateurs talk tactics; professionals talk logistics. And right now we are getting logistics right, not only in the form of shooters but supplies to sustain an effort,» he said.
John Spencer, executive director of the Urban Warfare Institute, told Fox News Digital that «the strategic objective in both cases is coercion, shaping an adversary’s decision calculus through visible military power, but while the scale of the buildup may appear comparable, what is being mobilized and threatened is fundamentally different.»
«In 2003, the United States assembled a ground-centric force built for regime removal, territorial seizure and occupation,» he said. «Today’s posture is maritime and air-heavy, centered on carrier strike groups, long-range precision strike and layered air defense, signaling clear readiness to act while also sending an equally clear message that there are no boots on the ground planned.»
«The recent U.S. military buildup against Iran — which now includes two aircraft carrier battle groups, in addition to dozens of other U.S. planes that have been sent to bases in the region and air and missile defense systems — provides President Trump with a significant amount of military capability should he authorize military operations against Iran,» said Javed Ali, associate professor at the University of Michigan’s Ford School and former senior counterterrorism official.
Ali noted that U.S. capabilities already in the region at Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar, Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean and other locations give Washington multiple strike options.
If ordered, he said, operations «would very likely be broad in scope against a range of targets like the ruling clerical establishment, senior officials in the IRGC, key ballistic missile and drone production, storage and launch facilities, and elements of Iran’s nuclear infrastructure, and last for days if not longer.»
IRAN RAMPS UP REGIONAL THREATS AS TRUMP CONSIDERS TALKS, EYEWITNESS ACCOUNTS OF REGIME VIOLENCE EMERGE
Soldiers of the British Light Infantry distribute aid packages to locals at Zubayr near Basra, southern Iraq. Britain, a key ally in the U.S.-coalition, was in charge of security in Iraq’s southern region until its withdrawal in 2007.
Breedlove said the incremental deployment of carriers and air assets appears designed to increase pressure, not trigger immediate war.
«We brought in one carrier battle group that did not change the rhetoric in Iran… so now the president has started sailing a second carrier battle group to the area. I think all of these things are increasing the pressure slowly on Iran to help them come to the right decision… Let’s sit down at the table and figure this out.»
Ali emphasized another major difference: legal authority and coalition structure. The 2003 Iraq War was authorized by a congressional Authorization for Use of Military Force and backed by a large international coalition, including tens of thousands of British troops. «Currently, no similar AUMF has been approved by Congress for military operations against Iran, which might mean President Trump may invoke his standing authority under Article II of the US Constitution as Commander in Chief as a substitute legal basis, given the threats Iran poses to the United States,» he said.
The aircraft carrier Pre-Commissioning Unit (PCU) Gerald R. Ford (CVN 78) pulls into Naval Station Norfolk for the first time. The first-of-class ship — the first new U.S. aircraft carrier design in 40 years — spent several days conducting builder’s sea trials, a comprehensive test of many of the ship’s key systems and technologies. (U.S. Navy photo by Matt Hildreth courtesy of Huntington Ingalls Industries/Released) (©Newport News Shipbuilding 2017)
That does not mean escalation is risk-free. Ali warned Iran could respond with «ballistic missile attacks» in far greater frequency than past strikes, along with drones, cyber operations and maritime disruption in the Persian Gulf.
Breedlove pointed to lessons learned from Iraq. «We want to have a clear set of objectives… we do not want to enter an endless sort of battle with Iran… we need to have a plan for what’s day plus one,» he said, warning against repeating past mistakes where military success was not matched by post-conflict planning.
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The world’s largest aircraft carrier, the U.S. Navy nuclear-powered Ford-class aircraft carrier USS Gerald R. Ford (CVN 78) arrives in St. Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands, Dec. 1, 2025. (Seaman Abigail Reyes/U.S. Navy/Handout via Reuters)
The central military distinction, analysts say, is this: 2003 was an invasion architecture. Today is a deterrence and strike architecture.
The force now in place is optimized for air superiority, long-range precision strikes and sustained naval operations — not for seizing and holding territory. Whether that posture succeeds in compelling Iran back to negotiations without crossing into open conflict may depend less on numbers than on how each side calculates the cost of escalation.
iran,iraq,military,pentagon,national security,wars,middle east
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