On Monday evening, the Republican-led House Oversight Committee released a cache of documents containing a shocking image: a lewd birthday note apparently written by the president of the United States to America’s most notorious sexual predator.

President Donald Trump had previously denied the letter existed and sued the newspaper that first reported its contents. The documents released by House Republicans destroyed the president’s lie.

What does House Speaker Mike Johnson, the leader of House Republicans, think of the letter, which consists of fewer than 100 words on a single page?

“I haven’t had a chance to even look at it,” Johnson told HuffPost on Tuesday morning. “I’ve been a little busy.”

Johnson’s excuse was one of several hard-to-believe responses from Republicans to the revelation of what appears to be a birthday note Trump wrote to Epstein, his former friend, who died in prison in 2019 while awaiting trial on charges of sex trafficking minors. Though their statements varied, Republicans remained united in their desire to deflect blame from Trump.

Dodging questions about the president is a high tradition among Republicans on Capitol Hill, and their skills in topic avoidance may be increasingly needed as the House barrels toward a possible vote on a bill releasing the Justice Department’s full files on Epstein.

The White House’s main response to the letter has been to call it fake, claiming Trump’s signature is different on official documents, even though it’s seemingly identical to other instances of Trump signing only his first name. The White House has provided no other reason to doubt the letter, which the president’s lawyers previously told a court had been “concocted” because “no authentic letter........

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