The House will leave for its August recess a day earlier than planned as Republican leaders hope to sap the momentum behind a GOP push by Rep. Thomas Massie to force the chamber to vote on a Jeffrey Epstein-related measure.

Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche said Tuesday that the Department of Justice wants to interview Ghislaine Maxwell, Jeffrey Epstein’s former girlfriend. Maxwell was convicted in 2020 of helping the disgraced financier sexually abuse underage girls and is currently serving a 20-year sentence in federal prison.

Representative Ted Lieu said “Trump is all over the Epstein files.” He called the Republican lawmakers’ move “a coverup of epic proportions.”

The move comes after The Journal reported that the president sent Jeffrey Epstein a birthday card in 2003 with a drawing of a naked woman.

The House is heading into the August recess early after the committee that dictates what legislation reaches the floor has been in a two-week stalemate over Democratic efforts to force politically

He—the president, their leader, the martyr who had endured scandals and prosecution and an assassin’s bullet on their behalf—had repeatedly told them it was time to move on, and that alone should suffice. Why, he groused, would the White House add fuel to the fire, would it play into the media’s narrative?

Speaker Mike Johnson expressed unusual frustration with fellow Republican Rep. Thomas Massie, who is working with Democrats to force the release of the Epstein files.

Ranking Member of the House Intelligence Committee joins Nicolle Wallace on Deadline White House with reaction to the baseless claims made by Donald Trump and his Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard,