House Speaker Mike Johnson has reversed his call for the Justice Department to release information about the dead serial sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein, who was a longtime friend of Donald Trump’s. On Monday, Johnson ruled out any votes on measures related to the Justice Department’s trove of files on Epstein before the House leaves Washington at the end of the week for its planned August recess. Johnson said President Trump and his administration needed “space.”

Speaker Mike Johnson: “My belief is we need the administration to have the space to do what it is doing, and if further congressional action is necessary or appropriate, then we’ll look at that.”

That’s a reversal from Johnson’s statement just days earlier, when he joined calls from Trump’s MAGA base — and House Democrats — for the Justice Department to release “everything” it has on Epstein.

Speaker Mike Johnson: “It’s a very delicate subject, but we should — we should put everything out there and let the people decide it.”

The White House said Monday it would remove The Wall Street Journal from press seats on President Trump’s upcoming trip to Scotland. The move comes after Trump filed a $10 billion lawsuit against the Journal, its parent company and its owner Rupert Murdoch, and the two reporters who broke the story that Trump contributed a sketch drawing of a naked woman to an album for Epstein’s 50th birthday. Accompanying the sketch was Trump’s note to Epstein: “Happy Birthday — and may every day be another wonderful secret.”