Oklahoma's Rep. Hern speaks out on withheld Epstein files, asks for transparency

House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) on Tuesday decided to end legislative business and start a 5-week recess a day earlier than scheduled because of fallout from as-yet-unreleased files from the Jeffrey Epstein sex trafficking case.

During his campaign last year, President Trump promised, once in office, he would make the case files public. Under pressure from some conservative lawmakers and many MAGA followers, Trump last week instructed the Department of Justice to seek to have a judge unseal grand jury testimony from Epstein's criminal case. It's not clear yet if the judge will comply. Either way, that would not be the same as releasing the Epstein 'client list' that AG Pam Bondi told reporters was 'on her desk' back in February. More recently, the administration claimed such a list doesn't exist. Kentucky Republican Thomas Massie, who said, "we're now being told [the client list is] a hoax--it just doesn't wash," joined California Democrat Ro Khanna in filing a motion last week requiring the "complete release of the government's files related to Jeffrey Epstein." The motion includes a discharge petition which, if signed by 218 members, would force a floor vote on the measure. For many Republicans, this might be an uncomfortable vote, as the president opposes the resolution, while many constituents support it. At the same time, Democrats on the House Rules Committee were trying to expose and exploit GOP leadership's discomfort, looking to force votes on amendments calling for the release of the Epstein files during consideration of a rule for debate on unrelated bills. GOP leadership abruptly pulled the rule from consideration Monday night, accusing Democrats of engaging in political theater. "Democrats keep putting all these amendments up. They want to make Epstein — and, you know, we're all for transparency, and we're going to do that, but what they want to do is grandstand," Representative Ralph Norman told reporters. Rep. Jim McGovern (D-MA), the ranking member of the Rules Committee, pushed back in a statement: "Democrats on the Rules Committee gave Republicans a choice — either vote to release the Epstein Files, or keep them a secret. Republicans are so afraid of taking that vote that they are torching their own agenda instead of doing something they promised the voters they would do," he said.

Tuesday morning, Rep. Kevin Hern (R-OK1), in a wide-ranging interview, spoke briefly about the Epstein situation:

HERN: "Well, I’ve always been, since I’ve been in government, and actually before I got into Congress--about transparency. Transparency is huge. The American people are smart enough to see things as they are. The president has pushed this to the judge to ask her to release these, and release the grand jury testimony with the victims and the witnesses redacted so that we won’t have those exposed; we’ll see where that goes. The Speaker of the House, all of us in leadership, have asked that to be done, as well. What’s really amazing about this is how the Democrats have politicized this. Remember, the Biden administration had this their entire time, so if there was anything in there about anybody in Congress, you could be sure they would’ve used it during the election season, but they didn’t...they needed a distraction before we go home for August, and this is that distraction."

On the disappointment many Republicans have expressed over the Trump administration's failure to release files it claimed existed but had been suppressed by previous administrations:

HERN: "Well, we’re getting a little more action on that, too, to see what’s happening at DOJ, to see how that's being brought forth-- what was said that supposedly they had versus what they actually have, and we’ll see what the judge releases on that, and then we’ll do deeper dives if there’s more transparency to be brought. But this is an ongoing—it was an ongoing investigation -- it came to a culmination of a grand jury that came forward, and we also know it's played out in the press. And the Democrats are getting a lot of help from the press right now as we go home. And everybody loves the sensational story, and so they’re doing a great job right now, but the reality is the judge is going to make the final determination on what gets released to the American people. We’re wanting to see it all released, with the exception of the victims (identities)…."