The House speaker doesn’t want Republicans to be around when the deadline comes.

House Speaker Mike Johnson is conveniently sending Congress home the day before the Justice Department is supposed to release the Epstein files in full. The announcement came Wednesday night.

This looks like yet another instance of Johnson doing every little thing he can either to delay the release of the files or to make it so that his fellow GOPers don’t have to be in town to answer to their complicity in this monthslong campaign to avoid their release—as he did by egregiously delaying the swearing-in of Democratic Representative Adelita Grijalva for weeks.

“Like I said: view all political developments for the rest of the week in light of the fact that the Epstein Files are supposed to be released on Friday,” Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez wrote Wednesday evening on X. “House Republicans just suddenly canceled Congressional session Friday and are sending everyone home Thursday evening.”

  • Lucky_777@lemmy.world
    13·
    2 months ago

    He sent everyone home because of the discharge petition for ACA. Epstein was coming anyway, this is about ripping healthcare away from millions. Which in Mike’s own words…“It’s only 7% of the country”

  • aarch0x40@piefed.socialEnglish
    28·
    2 months ago

    It may also effectively kill the discharge petition for the 3-year extension of ACA subsidies vote.

  • danc4498@lemmy.worldEnglish
    14·
    2 months ago

    Is the idea that he knows the justice dept is going to delay, and if the house isn’t in session, they can’t do anything?

    I wonder if the Republican voters recognize this is literally protecting pedophiles. There’s no way around it.

      • orgrinrt@lemmy.world
        1·
        2 months ago

        This has to be a joke, right? But the .gov domains are reserved in us for actual government agencies, right? So what the fuck

        • Doomsider@lemmy.world
          11·
          2 months ago

          I am sure they have some good “rationale” for redacting what looks to be a significant portion of grand jury testimony. Of course the administration did say they would release them, but probably back tracked or they are “protecting” the victims.

          I personally think it is bullshit. They are handling it like top secret stuff. The President clearly has the authority to release this considering his current MO. It is a giant middle finger to the public.

          • phutatorius@lemmy.zip
            2·
            2 months ago

            or they are “protecting” the victims

            Yeah, sure, that’s likely, that they suddenly care about them now after all these years.

        • Madison420@lemmy.world
          22·
          2 months ago

          Pension for them is like 5 years or something absurd like that.

          A pension is available to members 62 years of age with 5 years of service; 50 years or older with 20 years of service; or 25 years of service at any age. A reduced pension is available depending upon which of several different age/service options is chosen. If Members leave Congress before reaching retirement age, they may leave their contributions behind and receive a deferred pension later.[1]

          • chiliedogg@lemmy.world
            3·
            2 months ago

            That’s actually a pretty standard public service pension schedule.

            Mine had me vesting in 5 years, but the contributions at that point aren’t high enough to mean much. It just means that if if I didn’t make it 5 years the city wouldn’t contribute to my retirement ( I put in 7 and the coty double-matches, so I get 21%). When I hit 5 years, I retroactively got the 14% from the city for my previous 5 years added to my pension. If I had quit before the 5 years, I’d have been given my 7% back as a cash payment after 5 years away from public service.

            But I can’t collect until I reach retirement age or have 20 years of service.

  • bampop@lemmy.world
    10·
    2 months ago

    Wow, I don’t know about you guys, but I’ve come to the end of my attention span. I guess there was never anything to see there after all, right?

  • FatVegan@leminal.space
    27·
    2 months ago

    I guess it’s the land of the free after all if you can fuck a bunch of children and still be president

  • PNW clouds@infosec.pub
    5·
    2 months ago

    When he sends everyone home, they just aren’t doing committees and votes?

    Can’t they stay and still do things that help their districts or prep for when they are back in session? They can still work. They are still getting paid.