The Situation Room is for national security emergencies, not for protecting a president from a scandal. A new book by two New York Times reporters describes Vice President JD Vance leading meetings there in the summer of 2025 to manage the fallout from the Jeffrey Epstein files, joined by the White House chief of staff, the FBI director, and the deputy attorney general.
According to that reporting, the options discussed included having a friendly host interview Ghislaine Maxwell from prison and even a possible pardon for her. Survivors of Epstein's abuse deserve answers. They do not deserve a White House strategy session about how to make their story go away.
Congress already has the tools. The Oversight Committee voted 24 to 19, with Republican support, to subpoena the attorney general over these same files. The committee's chairman can issue a subpoena on his own, without another vote.
I am asking you to publicly demand that the Oversight Committee subpoena Vice President Vance and the officials named in the reporting, and hold a public hearing. It takes courage to investigate your own party's White House. That is the job.
We need more of that courage in Congress, for the survivors and for the truth.