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President Donald Trump’s top House GOP critic admitted in a recent interview that he once offered Republican leaders his vote in exchange for a public expression of gratitude for his role in forcing the disclosure of the federal government’s Jeffrey Epstein files.
It’s a move that has drawn backlash from at least one of his fellow House Republicans and others in the right-wing sphere.
“Anyone who uses the victims of Epstein’s horrific sexual abuse to advance a political agenda or chase public recognition should seriously reconsider their line of work,” said Rep. Derrick Van Orden, R-Wis.
In an interview with Politico earlier this week, Massie said he had made the offer when the speaker had approached him for his support on a key vote.
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Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., arrives for a House vote on Feb. 3, 2026, in Washington, D.C. (Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images)
“One day, they needed my vote, and I offered to give them my vote if [Johnson] would issue a press release thanking me for my good work on the Epstein Files Transparency Act. That’s all I required to get my vote. And I think he probably went and gave somebody else a bill to pass instead of doing the public statement,” Massie said.
He told Fox News Digital that it was a test of whether Johnson would take responsibility for opposing his effort to force the vote — but said Johnson refused.
“I wanted to see if the speaker would admit that it was a mistake to oppose the [bill], but even with all the new revelations about depraved and illegal activity of rich and powerful men, the speaker refused to acknowledge the success of the Epstein Files Transparency Act,” Massie said in a statement to Fox News Digital.
But the move also caught blowback from others in the Republican social media sphere, which has erupted into a civil war of sorts between Massie and Trump’s supporters.
“Coming soon to a campaign ad: Thomas Massie requires that he be praised publicly in order to secure his vote in Congress,” right-wing influencer Ryan Saavedra wrote on X.
Sean Davis, who founded conservative outlet “The Federalist,” wrote on social media, “Good grief. It really is all ego-driven.”
Some defended him, however, like an X account tied to someone only identified as “Jeremy”: “You really can’t blame the guy who’s constantly getting crapped on my conservatives for wanting the speaker of the house to say something positive about the Epstein files coming out and giving him the credit. It is childish on the surface, but this is also how their games work.”
Massie last year led a handful of Republicans to join with Democrats to force consideration of the Epstein Files Transparency Act over the objections of House leadership and Trump, who argued the legislation did not come with sufficient protections for the identities of Epstein’s sex-trafficking victims.
The bill was aimed at forcing the Department of Justice (DOJ) to release nearly all information on Epstein’s case, and Massie maintained its language did provide for sufficient coverage for the late pedophile’s victims.
But Johnson and Trump both affirmed they supported efforts for government transparency but maintained they could not support Massie’s bill.
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House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., walks with staff and his security detail. (Kent Nishimura/Getty Images)
Notably, however, all House members except for Rep. Clay Higgins, R-La., wound up voting for the bill.
In the view of Matthew Green, professor of politics at The Catholic University of America, Massie’s ask — and its denial — underscores how reliant Johnson is on the president for support.
Republicans currently hold just a one-vote majority in the chamber amid the recent resignation of Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., and the sudden death of Rep. Doug LaMalfa, R-Calif, both of which happened in January. Republicans will likely win back a seat in March when Georgia holds a special election to fill Greene’s vacancy.
But until then, Johnson has battled against a vanishingly small margin of error to pass GOP-led priorities, a margin Massie has made consistently smaller.
In this case, Green believes Massie was asking for something that would threaten one of the key things holding the party together: Trump’s support.
“What he was actually asking for, to my mind, was illustrating how closely Republican leadership is or has to be aligned with President Trump,” Green said.
“You know, to just say ‘I support a bill’ or ‘I think this bill is a good idea,’ you’d think would be a relatively harmless ask, but with the Epstein files, you had the president, until the very end, saying, ‘Do not vote to release these,’ and the speaker agreeing.”
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President Donald Trump pictured on Feb. 5, 2026. (Aaron Schwartz/CNP/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
In the lead-up to a vote on the Epstein Files Transparency Act, Trump slammed the effort, calling on Massie to abandon his push and condemning the “Democrat Epstein Hoax” in a post to Truth Social.
It’s the president’s opposition to Massie’s Epstein transparency push that makes Green think the Kentucky lawmaker knew his request would go unfulfilled.
“He knew the answer would be no,” Green said. “If Johnson said yes, it would be not only going against what he had said about the bill himself, but also potentially upsetting President Trump.”
Despite the improbable nature of the request, Green thinks it’s noteworthy Massie was willing to negotiate at all.
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“What is interesting, though, is that he suggests that he actually was willing to vote yes in exchange for something,” Green said.
Massie’s office did not address Van Orden’s statement about his vote offer.
