'MAGA voters are furious': GOP lawmakers pelted with Epstein questions at town halls

Despite House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) sending the House of Representatives home early to head off a bipartisan resolution to release the DOJ's evidence on convicted pedophile Jeffrey Epstein, lawmakers are unable to avoid questions about the issue from their own constituents.

NPR reported Thursday that since returning back to their home districts, Republican lawmakers have been inundated with so many questions about the Epstein controversy that they've since taken steps to restrict access to their town hall meetings. According to NPR, Rep. Scott Perry (R-Pa.) "changed the logistics of his own telephone town hall" earlier this week, saying on his X account that "we now have individuals from outside of our district (and even State) flooding the Tele-Town Hall RSVP page and my office lines."

During that town hall, one caller expressed his outrage with Perry, accusing the Pennsylvania Republican of helping President Donald Trump sidestep the conversation about Epstein. But Perry pushed back, insisting that he had been pushing for more transparency from the administration.

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"I have requested that the DOJ – and you can see the letter publicly -- that the DOJ release the files [and] not only that, [that] they also provide a special prosecutor for the Epstein circumstances as well as other things – abuses of government where information is being hidden from the American people," Perry told the caller.

Perry is one of a handful of Republican supporters of an effort by Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) to compel the Department of Justice (DOJ) to release all of the remaining Epstein files that have yet to see the light of day. Shortly after Massie introduced the legislation — which is a "discharge petition" that will force a vote if 218 members sign it — Johnson announced the House would be starting its month-long August recess a week early. Rep. Eli Crane (R-Ariz.) also supports the discharge petition, telling constituents in a recent tele-town hall that "transparency should be the hallmark of every administration whether they're Democrat or Republican."

Earlier this week, Republican strategist Rina Shah warned her party that the Epstein controversy is an issue that "won't go away" anytime soon without a serious show of transparency from the administration. She added that "MAGA voters are furious" about the government's continued refusal to release Epstein-related evidence.

"Come September, if they hit 218 signatures, the House will vote, and it'll be a defining moment: Is the Republican Party going to double down on transparency and risk embarrassing elites, or will it protect the establishment?" Shah told NPR. "That's a question here. And this fight could reshape the party, deciding whether it's truly the party of the people or one that still plays by old Washington rules."

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Click here to read NPR's full report.