US House speaker Mike Johnson calls for release of Epstein files amid backlash

Trump has faced growing resentment over the decision of his attorney general, Pam Bondi, to withhold information

Speaker of the House Mike Johnson at the Capitol in Washington. File picture: Mariam Zuhaib/AP

Mike Johnson, speaker of the House, called for the justice department to make public documents related to the disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein, breaking with Donald Trump over an issue that has roiled the president’s rightwing base.

It was a rare moment of friction between Trump and the speaker, a top ally on Capitol Hill, and came as the president faces growing backlash from conservatives who had expected him to make public everything known about Epstein, who killed himself in 2019 while in federal custody as he faced sex-trafficking charges.