House GOP leaders returning to Capitol Hill this week from the long summer break will be immediately confronted with the radioactive subject of Jeffrey Epstein.

Top Republicans had accelerated their July exit from Washington in part to avoid the thorny Epstein saga and were hoping the attention swirling around the convicted sex offender would dissolve over the five-week recess, allowing Congress to move on to other things in September.

Instead, the focus on Epstein is poised to erupt beginning in the earliest days of Congress’s return, creating challenges for Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) and GOP leaders just as they’re racing to prevent a government shutdown on Sept. 30.

The issue will come at them from various angles — and quickly.

On Wednesday, a pair of bipartisan lawmakers will host a press event at the Capitol to advance their efforts to force the Trump administration to release all of the government’s Epstein files. To ramp up the pressure, the lawmakers — Reps. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) and Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) — will be joined by several survivors of Epstein's abuse.

Republicans on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee have subpoenaed the Epstein estate for a slew of sensitive documents, including anything resembling a “client list” and Epstein’s “birthday book” — a 2003 volume, compiled by his former girlfriend Ghislaine Maxwell, that reportedly includes a lewd letter written by President Trump when he was a private citizen in New York. Those materials are slated for delivery to Capitol Hill by Sept. 8.

And the House Rules Committee, which Republicans shut down in late........

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