The Jeffrey Epstein scandal has hit a temporary lull — but rest assured it’s coming back, and it’s going to be ugly for the Trump administration. Major issues remain unresolved and will play out over the coming weeks and months, whether Donald Trump and his Congressional supporters like it or not. And they’ve mostly got themselves to blame.

House Republicans have run for the hills, but they can’t escape the fire they started. Speaker Mike Johnson courageously adjourned the House early for summer recess to avoid a vote on a measure seeking public release of the Epstein files. But days later, the House Oversight Committee, under the leadership of Representative James Comer — who’s perpetually on the brink of uncovering some massive scandal but never quite gets there — issued a series of subpoenas calling for broad release of documents by DOJ and a series of in-person testimonial depositions.

Comer got the cheap thrill of announcing his roll call of boldface subpoena recipients: Bill and Hillary Clinton, Robert Mueller, James Comey, and Eric Holder, among others. It’s every right-wing conspiracy theorist’s fantasy realized: finally a chance to grill the standard cast of characters featured and accused in countless online fever dreams.

But now Comer must actually fight the battles he picked. Few if any of Comer’s subpoena recipients appear to have actionable information relevant to Epstein, and all are likely to resist or ignore his demand for testimony. Will Comer take them to court and show that he means business? He

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