US Speaker Orders Early Recess to Avoid Fight Over Epstein Files

The top Republican in the US House of Representatives said on July 22 that he would send lawmakers home a day early for a five-week summer recess to avoid a political fight over files on disgraced financier and sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

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WASHINGTON - The top Republican in the US House of Representatives said on July 22 that he would send lawmakers home a day early for a five-week summer recess to avoid a political fight over files on disgraced financier and sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

The move averts a push by Democrats and some Republicans for a vote on a bipartisan resolution to require the Justice Department and Federal Bureau of Investigation to release all government documents on Epstein, who died by suicide in prison in 2019.

"What we refuse to do is participate in another one of the Democrats' political games. This is a serious matter. We are not going to let them use this as a political battering ram," House Speaker Mike Johnson told reporters.