The battle over the Jeffrey Epstein files that’s severed the MAGA faithful is also surfacing on Capitol Hill, where GOP lawmakers are torn over President Trump’s refusal to release government records related to the deceased financier and sex offender.

The debate is fracturing the House GOP conference, with hardline conservatives — ardent MAGA allies — echoing the base’s demands to make the documents public, while other Republicans are joining Trump’s calls to “not waste Time and Energy on Jeffrey Epstein, somebody that nobody cares about.”

Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) stunned Washington on Tuesday when — after initially deferring to the administration — he sided squarely with the first group, urging the Justice Department to release all the files related to Epstein in its possession.

“It’s a very delicate subject, but we should put everything out there and let the people decide,” Johnson said in an interview with the conservative podcaster Benny Johnson.

But his remarks have only thrown a brighter spotlight on the administration’s refusal to release the files, and the conservative frustrations that followed. By defying Trump, Johnson also risks a backlash from the president, who was crucial to Johnson’s rise to the Speakership and has helped him survive tough internal battles since then.

Just a few hours later, Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.), who has seemingly delighted in being a thorn on the president's side, said he would try to use a long-shot procedural gambit known as a discharge petition to force a vote on requiring the Department of Justice to release the........

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