Speaker of the House Mike Johnson on Tuesday announced he was putting an early end to the summer legislative session, denying justice-seeking members the chance to force votes on releasing files relating to accused sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein. While the House was scheduled to stay in session through Thursday, the last action will take place on Wednesday instead, after a Rules Committee standoff on how to handle amendments and resolutions relating to Epstein. 

"The president has said clearly, and he has now ordered his DOJ to do what it is we've all needed DOJ to do for years now, and that is to get everything released," Johnson told reporters. "So they're in the process of that. There's no purpose for Congress to push an administration to do something that they're already doing. And so this is for political games."

However, Johnson and President Trump themselves stand accused of playing political games with the issue. It started when, after long promising to reveal names and facts, Attorney General Pam Bondi triggered a firestorm among Trump's supporters by suddenly attempting to close out the issue with flat declarations that there is no Epstein "client list" nor evidence he was running a blackmail operation.