Thomas Massie, a libertarian Republican representative from Kentucky, says he is facing an “immense pressure campaign” for spearheading a bipartisan bill for transparency on the notorious late sex criminal Jeffrey Epstein.
Massie has garnered 11 other Republican co-sponsors on his and Democratic Representative Ro Khanna’s bill to force the DOJ to release the so-called Epstein files in full. They have garnered just three Republicans, plus Massie, on a discharge petition to force the bill to a vote—which President Donald Trump deemed a “hostile act.”
Meanwhile, Massie has vowed to use immunity afforded to members of Congress under the Speech and Debate Clause to publicly read a list of Epstein’s clients being privately compiled by his victims.
Appearing on CNN Wednesday evening, the Kentucky Republican described the pressure he and the handful of other GOP lawmakers are facing by taking Trump to task on Epstein.
“There’s an immense pressure campaign from the White House on Republican members right now,” he said. In his own district, he explained, “there’s been $2.5 million of ads run against me by three billionaires who are mega-donors to the Republican Party. And one of them is actually, I’m not going to say on Epstein’s list, but he’s in Epstein’s black book.”
Massie believes the powers that be are hoping to make an example of him to dissuade any other potential Republican dissenters on Epstein.
“I think what’s being run against me is a threat to other Republicans to try to keep them from doing what I’m doing,” he said.
But he remains unfazed—citing his resounding win in his 2020 Republican primary despite Trump then calling to “Throw Massie out of Republican party!” during one of their many spats. “So in some sense, I have the Trump antibodies,” Massie said. “But I’m definitely going to get a booster shot here.”
In a conversation with a White House official, Massie said, he confessed it was a mistake to announce there were 12 Republican co-sponsors on the bill to force DOJ disclosure of the files before seeking signatures on the discharge petition, “because I just telegraphed to you the 12 people that you needed to whip.” In response, Massie said, the official “kind of laughed, and he said, ‘Yeah.’”
But he expressed confidence that he and Khanna would secure the 218 votes to force a floor vote nonetheless.
The post Massie Exposes White House Threats Against Him Over Epstein Petition appeared first on New Republic.
