After more than a week of the Republican Party’s commentariat and very online base expressing their anger at the Trump administration for its handling of the Jeffrey Epstein saga, the House will not take up a measure that would direct Attorney General Bondi to release the “Epstein Files.” Republicans on Monday blocked a measure which would have forced her to do so. 

At a meeting of the House Rules Committee on Monday night, Democrats brought up an amendment to a legislative item. That amendment, authored by Congressman Ro Khanna, stated that Ms. Bondi would be required to “retain, preserve, and compile any records or evidence related to any investigation, prosecution, or incarceration of Jeffrey Epstein.” 

That amendment then states Ms. Bondi must make those records available within 30 days. 

“I wanna know what the hell is in these files,” the top Democrat on the Rules Committee, Congressman Jim McGovern, said at the hearing on Monday. “And I think we all wanna know why Trump is suddenly changing his tune and is so desperate to sweep this under the rug.”

When the bill came up for a vote, all four of the committee’s Democrats plus one Republican — Congressman Ralph Norman — backed the amendment. Seven other GOP lawmakers on the panel voted against it, killing the measure. One Republican did not cast a vote. 

“It’s very disappointing. I had a very simple amendment,” Mr. Khanna told MSNBC after the Rules Committee vote. 

“In a very simple way, we should see whose side are you on. That’s really what this Epstein file issue has become. It’s not just about knowing who’s being protected — the rich and the powerful — in terms of who had interaction with Jeffrey Epstein. It’s the sense that the people have that the government is too beholden to certain interests,” Mr. Khanna said. “We want to make sure that we get full justice here.”

“This may have been the first attempt that was blocked, but I’ll tell you: it’s not going to be the last attempt,” Mr. Khanna warned. He specifically mentioned a resolution from Congressman Marc Veasey that would direct federal law enforcement to release all files related to the Epstein investigation.  

“We can keep introducing these kinds of amendments every week, every month, to force the Republicans to demand the release,” Mr. Khanna said Monday. 

This entire saga — which has nearly broken out into a full-blown civil war among the MAGA base — has, in Democrats eyes, been a win for the opposition party. 

On Monday, the minority leader, Congressman Hakeem Jeffries, talked at length about Epstein and the Trump administration’s decision to backtrack on its promise to release all materials related to Epstein. 

“The American people deserve to know the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth,” Mr. Jeffries said Monday. “Democrats didn’t put the Jeffrey Epstein thing into the public domain. This was a conspiracy that Donald Trump, Pam Bondi, and these MAGA extremists have been fanning the flames of for the last several years, and now the chickens are coming home to roost.”