Analysis: 'Epstein recess': Trump, GOP leaders try to distract and delay as scandal simmers

WASHINGTON — Deflect, distract, delay. Then depart.

President Donald Trump and congressional Republican leaders have been forced to pivot from celebrating a string of legislative and foreign policy wins to doing anything possible to distract angry “Make American Great Again” loyalists. On both ends of Pennsylvania Avenue, there appears to be an eagerness to run out the summer clock on the Jeffrey Epstein scandal, with Trump heading to Scotland, the House already on recess and the Senate likely not far behind.

At the White House, the strategy has been threefold: one part business as usual, one part deflection and another part distraction as officials on Wednesday did not deny reports that Trump was told in May that his name was on a contacts list associated with the late disgraced financier and convicted sex offender. Over in the House, it was time to depart — early, on Wednesday, rather than Thursday as initially planned.

Trump and GOP leaders appear to believe time is on their side — for now, although Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer, D-N.Y., quipped Thursday that the House was on an “Epstein recess.”

“The House Rules resolution sets a good standard and requires all credible evidence to be released. And that’s exactly where the White House is,” Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., told reporters, referring to a measure crafted by Republicans on the Rules panel to facilitate the release of Epstein-related documents. “As I’ve said many times, there’s no daylight between the White House and the House.”

“You have to allow the legislation to ripen, and you also have to allow the administration the space to do what it is doing. The president has said clearly, and he has now ordered his DOJ to do what it is we’ve all needed DOJ to do for years now, and that is to get everything released.”

Johnson’s remarks obscured what Trump has directed his Justice Department to do: request that courts release grand jury transcripts from the Epstein investigation. (On Wednesday, a federal judge in Florida denied that request.)

‘It’s all connected’

House Democratic leaders intend to keep the GOP’s internal feud raging during recess.

Conference Chairman Pete Aguilar of California contended during a Wednesday news conference that Republicans’ early exit for recess showed they are “fighting amongst themselves about how they should hide President Trump’s involvement in the Epstein files.”

Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, at the same news conference, said, “The reality is that it’s all connected from the standpoint of Donald Trump, his administration and House Republicans. (They) have delivered nothing more than a government of the billionaires, by the billionaires, and for the billionaires.

“They’ve passed massive tax breaks for their billionaire donors. And in the context of this Jeffrey Epstein scandal and their refusal to share information to the American people despite promising to do so, one must ponder the question, what are they hiding from the American people? … What elite people are they trying to protect?” the New York Democrat added. “It’s reasonable to conclude that Republicans are continuing to protect the lifestyles of the rich and shameless, even if that includes pedophiles.”

After spending last weekend out of range of reporters while golfing at his Virginia course, Trump did not appear in public Monday. On Tuesday, he was asked about his administration’s next moves on the Epstein scandal. He tried to dodge by floating uncorroborated allegations that former President Barack Obama had manipulated intelligence to hurt Trump’s 2016 campaign.

“After what they did to me, and whether it’s right or wrong, it’s time to go after people. Obama’s been caught directly. So people say, ‘Oh, you know, a group.’ It’s not a group. It’s Obama. His orders are on the paper. The papers are signed. The papers came right out of their office,” Trump said, even though no Obama administration official has been charged with any wrongdoing to date.

“They (set) everything to be highly classified. Well, the highly classified has been released. And what they did in 2016 and in 2020 is very criminal. It’s criminal at the highest level,” Trump said. “I know nothing about the other.”

Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard was a surprise guest at Wednesday’s White House news briefing to walk through a previously unreleased House Intelligence Committee report compiled when Republicans were in the majority. The former Democratic congresswoman, who left the party in 2022, contended that it showed Obama led an effort to alter intelligence about Russia’s preference in the 2016 U.S. presidential election.

Those allegations contradict the findings of a 2019 special counsel report and a bipartisan 2020 Senate Intelligence Committee report. Justice Department officials will decide on charging Obama or any of his former top national security officials, Gabbard said.

Senate Intelligence Vice Chair Mark Warner, D-Va., in a statement called the move “irresponsible” and “desperate.”

‘Hide the truth’

Meanwhile, the Trump administration also spent part of this week essentially firing flares at the scandal like a fighter jet crew discharging countermeasures to distract enemy missiles.

Trump made an attention-garnering visit to the Federal Reserve on Thursday afternoon amid his feud with Chair Jerome Powell, whom he first appointed in 2018. That followed policy announcements seemingly timed to assuage the segment of the president’s MAGA movement that has been angered by his attempts to quash the Epstein scandal after his campaign-trail vows to release the documents.

One move was to dismantle a top EPA scientific research office. Another was to fire the pick of a three-judge panel to replace interim U.S. Attorney for New Jersey Alina Habba, a Trump ally. Another was a rule to end the EPA’s greenhouse gas regulation. Then came the release of documents about Martin Luther King Jr. over the objections of the slain civil rights leader’s family.

On the trade front, Trump on Tuesday announced a pact with the Philippines. Hours later came another, with Japan. The next morning came a social media barrage.

“Remember, Japan is, for the first time ever, OPENING ITS MAKET TO THE USA, even to cars, SUV’s, Trucks, – and everything else, even agriculture and RICE, which was always a complete NO, NO,” the president wrote. “The Open Market Japan may be as big a profit factor as the Tariffs themselves, but was only gotten because of the Tariff Power. They also agreed to buy BILLIONS OF DOLLARS WORTH OF MILITARY AND OTHER EQUIPMENT, and give us 90% of 550 BILLION DOLLARS – AND MORE!!! MAGA!!!”

In another post, Trump said, “I will always give up Tariff points if I can get major countries to OPEN THEIR MARKETS TO THE USA.”

But with House spending measures awaiting lawmakers when they return in September, Trump and GOP leaders can likely delay only so much.

“From the JFK files to the Russian collusion hoax, it’s clear the deep state likes to hide the truth from the American people,” Missouri Republican Eric Burlison, a member of the House Oversight panel and the hard-line Freedom Caucus, said on social media Monday. “Uncovering the truth about Epstein needs to be a priority as well.”

Conservative podcaster Michael Knowles said this week that “the reason that the base isn’t moving on from this is it’s a symbol of the corruption of the political establishment. And a lot of the motivation to elect President Trump, going back to 2016, was to give that corrupt establishment its comeuppance.

“We need a better answer than this,” Knowles added. “I don’t really see people totally moving on from this. The crimes are just too egregious … and the people involved are just too powerful and rich and famous.”

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(Isha Raj-Silverman contributed to this report.)

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