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"We should put everything on the table and let the people decide," says Johnson
US House of Representatives Speaker Mike Johnson has called for the justice department to release all its files on sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, in a split with President Donald Trump, who has sought to draw a line under the matter.
"We should put everything out there and let the people decide," Johnson, an ally of the president, said in an interview.
It came as Trump said Attorney General Pam Bondi should release "whatever she thinks is credible" on Epstein. At the weekend, the president urged supporters not to "waste time and energy" on the controversy.
Bondi is under fire after she said last week there was no evidence Epstein kept a "client list" or was blackmailing powerful figures.
Convicted paedophile Epstein's 2019 death in a US prison while awaiting federal trial was ruled to be a suicide, but many in Trump's Make America Great Again (Maga) movement suspect a cover-up.
Asked about the Epstein files on Tuesday by US conservative commentator Benny Johnson, Speaker Johnson said he was in favour of "transparency".
The Republican congressman from Louisiana added that he trusted President Trump and his team, and that the White House was privy to facts that he did not know.
But he said Bondi "needs to come forward and explain it to everybody".
Trump is facing a rare backlash from his staunchly loyal political base over their theories that details of Epstein's crimes are being withheld in order to protect influential figures, or intelligence agencies.
On Tuesday, he praised his attorney general's handling of the matter, saying: "She's handled it very well, and it's going to be up to her. Whatever she thinks is credible, she should release."
Last week the president vented frustration in the Oval Office about his supporters' fixation on Epstein and implored them to move on.
But other Republican allies of the president are not letting go of the matter.
Georgia congresswoman Marjorie Taylor-Greene told Benny Johnson in a separate interview on Tuesday: "I fully support transparency on this issue."
She praised Bondi's work as attorney general, but said that leaders and elected officials should keep their promises to voters. President Trump had previously pledged to release all details of the Epstein investigation.
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Pam Bondi has said the memo released last week on Epstein by the Department of Justice "speaks for itself."
Another conservative Republican, Lauren Boebert of Colorado, said if more Epstein files were not released, a special counsel should be appointed to investigate the financier's crimes.
Senator John Kennedy of Louisiana said the voters expect more accountability.
"I think it's perfectly understandable that the American people would like to know who he [Epstein] trafficked those women to and why they weren't prosecuted," Kennedy told NBC News.
But other influential Republicans – including Senator John Thune and congressman Jim Jordan – deferred to President Trump on the matter.
At an unrelated news conference on fentanyl on Tuesday, Bondi brushed aside questions about the controversy.
"Nothing about Epstein," she told reporters. "I'm not going to talk about Epstein."
She said last week's memo by the Department of Justice, jointly released with the FBI, declining to release any further files on Epstein "speaks for itself".
The government's findings were made, according to the memo, after reviewing more than 300 gigabytes of data.
On Tuesday, House Democratic lawmakers tried unsuccessfully to force a vote on releasing Epstein files.
Republicans pointed out the administration of President Joe Biden, a Democrat, also had access to the files, but did not release them.
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