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“I don’t know why it should be politically painful to be transparent,” Representative Thomas Massie, a Kentucky Republican, said on Sunday, referring to comments by Speaker Mike Johnson.
July 27, 2025, 1:41 p.m. ET
Representative Thomas Massie, Republican of Kentucky, lashed out at Speaker Mike Johnson on Sunday for sending the House home early for its six-week summer recess to avoid having to hold votes on releasing files related to Jeffrey Epstein, who was accused of sex trafficking.
“I don’t know why it should be politically painful to be transparent,” Mr. Massie said on “Meet The Press” on Sunday. At a news conference this week, Mr. Johnson accused Mr. Massie of inflicting political pain on his own party by teaming with Democrats to try to circumvent leadership and force a floor vote on releasing the files.
Mr. Johnson, for his part, has deferred to President Trump and the Justice Department on the matter, while continuing to say that he is calling for transparency. But sending members home to their districts did not succeed in quieting Mr. Massie, who predicted on Sunday that the pressure to hold a vote would only increase during the summer break.
“Is the pain he’s talking about that they’ll, somebody in our party, will be embarrassed by those files? Then that’s not a good excuse,” Mr. Massie said of the speaker. “Is the pain he’s talking about is that the legislators, when they vote, have to pick between protecting embarrassment of the rich and powerful versus getting justice for victims? I don’t really understand what he means by that.”
He added: “Why is it painful for Mike Johnson to call a vote on this? The American people deserve this, regardless of what the political ramifications are for the speaker.”
Mr. Massie, the lone House Republican who routinely breaks with the Trump administration despite the president’s threats to find a primary challenger to unseat him, predicted that he would not be the one to suffer politically for pressing the issue. Instead, he said, Republicans would lose their slim majority in the midterm elections next year if they did not take a vote on releasing the files.
