A Republican congressman who was the last holdout against releasing the Epstein files is now defending a colleague facing calls to resign over allegations he pressured a staffer—who later died by suicide—into an extramarital affair.
Rep. Troy Nehls, 57, of Texas—who had publicly vowed to kill the Epstein files release before flipping only after President Donald Trump reversed course—said on Wednesday that Rep. Tony Gonzales, 45, should not step down because doing so would hand Democrats the House.
While accepting Gonzales has “got a problem” and “the optics are horrible,” when a reporter asked whether some things are bigger than politics, his answer was unambiguous.
“What the heck? No, no, no. Not up here. Not the way we, what we do in the house,” he said.
The remarks, which were filmed by CNN, drew an immediate backlash on social media, where critics pointed to Nehls’ own history with the Epstein files.
Last November, the retiring Texas congressman declared publicly that he would be “voting NO on the Epstein Hoax,” dismissing the push for transparency as a Democratic distraction—making him the last Republican to commit to opposing the measure.
He reversed within days—but only after Trump posted on Truth Social, urging Republicans to back the release.
The sex scandal engulfing Gonzales—a married father-of-six who represents Texas’ 23rd congressional district—has been building since the emergence of text messages that appeared to show him pressuring his then-staffer, Regina Santos-Aviles, to share explicit images of herself. Santos-Aviles responded that his advances were going “too far.”
Santos-Aviles had spent four years working in Gonzales’ district office, most recently as its director. She died in September after setting herself on fire.
Her husband has provided the messages to multiple news outlets, and Gonzales, who faces a tough primary against YouTuber Brandon Herrera on March 3, has denied the allegations while accusing Aviles’ widower of blackmail—a charge his attorney has flatly rejected.
As the Daily Beast reported on Tuesday, at least five House Republicans—Reps. Lauren Boebert of Colorado, Nancy Mace of South Carolina, Anna Paulina Luna of Florida, Thomas Massie of Kentucky, and Tim Burchett of Tennessee—have called for Gonzales’ resignation.
Speaker Mike Johnson, who endorsed Gonzales’ re-election bid before the scandal escalated, has declined to call for him to step down, saying investigations need to run their course. The Office of Congressional Conduct is also probing the matter.
The political stakes driving his calculus are not small. House Republicans currently hold a one-seat majority, and a Gonzales resignation—coming ahead of a special election in a competitive district—could effectively hand Democrats the ability to block legislation for months.
Despite this, Nehls’ position puts him at odds with those colleagues—and carries particular irony given his own record of loyalty to Trump over the Epstein files.
Nehls even begged Trump to sign a tie featuring the president’s face after the State of the Union address on Tuesday. Nehls announced in November that he would not seek re-election in 2026.
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