Johnson Loses the Epstein Caucus

Mike Johnson
It appears that Johnson’s balmy six-month honeymoon with this Congress, thanks largely to Trump’s support, is over. He’s struggling to control his conference and lacks a coherent strategy to turn the page. Photo: Graeme Sloan/Bloomberg/Getty Images
Leigh Ann Caldwell
July 27, 2025

When a House Oversight subcommittee voted to subpoena the Justice Department to release the so-called Epstein files last week, Georgia Rep. Brian Jack made a surprising decision. The freshman congressman and Trump loyalist, who served as the president’s political director during his first term and remains close with him and White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles, was one of three Republicans to vote with Democrats. House Republicans generally rely on Jack for insight into the president’s thinking, and he’s been given plum assignments, including candidate recruitment for House Republicans and a seat on the powerful Steering and Rules committees. And yet here he was openly defying Trump in support of a Democratic amendment that would force the D.O.J.’s hand and metastasize a fomenting political scandal.