House Speaker Mike Johnson says the House will vote on a discharge petition next week to seek the release of files related to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. CBS News senior White House correspondent Weijia Jiang has the latest on the Trump administration's response.

Washington

The House of Representatives is preparing to vote on a discharge petition that would seek the release of the full Jeffrey Epstein files, according to House Speaker Mike Johnson. This vote is one step in a broader legislative process that could ultimately require presidential approval, which is considered unlikely at this time. 

The White House has shown reluctance to comment on the matter, with administration officials preferring to focus on other topics. Meanwhile, debate continues between Republicans and Democrats on the House Oversight Committee regarding the release of evidence, and recent document disclosures have intensified public and political scrutiny.

House to vote as early as next week on Epstein files release

Hello everyone, I'm Major Garrett in Washington. Welcome to The Takeout. We have said here before and we will say it again When it comes to Jeffrey Epstein's crimes and those who abetted them, we will remain focused on the victims not the politics there is a political angle, of course, and it will play out in full and Possibly furious view inside the House of Representatives next week That's when House Speaker Mike Johnson says the house will vote on a discharge petition to seek the release of the full Epstein files That house vote would be one part of the legislative process. Many would have to follow including if it came to it President Trump signing that legislation the prospect of that signature seems at this moment dim But Epstein's victims have been at this quest of transparency and accountability for a very long time They do not relish this agonizing quest but appear undeterred in it in the house Republicans and Democrats on the Oversight Committee are on different tracks in terms of evidence. They are pursuing and when they release it Yesterday Democrats released documents and emails and their meaning already the subject of intense debate We will ask one of the foremost journalists in all Epstein matters as well as an Epstein victim About this particular moment in the Epstein saga for its importance and potential political power appear only to be growing not because the victims of Jeffrey Epstein are political but because Possibly for the first time they're simple Persistent calls for visibility clarity and justice have for whatever set of reasons become salient Unsilenceable We begin with Ouija Jain at the White House Ouija the White House appears in its statements to be at sort of a battle stations point of view on this combative and locked in What is it today that the White House is saying? Major the White House would prefer not to be saying anything about this This is a story that the president and his team wants to go away In fact, it's very telling that last night on live television in the Oval Office President Trump signed that funding bill into law to formally reopen the government and it's one of the rare Times he decided not to take a single question from reporters while inside that room doing exactly what he did And so that squares with what we have seen from other administration officials to which you're right They will certainly be the first to defend and the first to Call out Democrats who they say are simply trying to paint a false narrative of the president But again, this is not something that they are actively trying to address Because again, they would rather talk about just about anything except Jeffrey Epstein Ouija, I remember covering the first Trump administration and there were tangles then with Michael Wolf an author who wrote a book about The Trump administration then Michael Wolf is back in this conversation now and the White House has plenty to say Not very much of it complimentary about Michael Wolf Right, this is a longtime reporter who has written extensively even a entire book about Donald Trump President Trump and he is in these emails Which is why he is also at the center of many of these attacks from White House officials. In fact just yesterday He was on a podcast Describing the relationship that he found in his reporting between Epstein and President Trump And essentially said look this wasn't just two guys who happen to know each other who ran in the same circles These were two guys who spent a lot of time together who knew a lot about each other and today the director of White House communications Stephen Chung who is often quite colorful in his Statements issued one about Wolfe to say that he is a lying sack of Expletive and has been proven to be a fraud. He goes on to say that Wolfe routinely fabricates stories and Called him sick and warped and said he has a case of Trump's arrangement syndrome major So, you know, this is not particularly new for Stephen Chung, but it is very telling that he is going directly After Michael Wolfe who again Just spoke out about the emails yesterday getting us started tonight on the North Lawn of the White House. We do Jane Thank you so very much

President Trump's name appears hundreds of times in the newly-released batch of 23,000 pages of records and messages from convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, raising questions about their relationship. Mr. Trump has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing and has called the scandal a "hoax" perpetrated by Democrats.

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