Live updates: RFK Jr. hearing, Epstein files and latest Trump administration news

House Speaker Mike Johnson defended President Donald Trump’s comments calling the efforts to release the Jeffrey Epstein files a “hoax,” arguing that the president is being “misrepresented.”

“What Trump is referring to is the hoax that the Democrats are using to try to attack him,” he said.

“It’s been misrepresented. He’s not saying that what Epstein did is a hoax. It’s a terrible, unspeakable evil. He believes that himself,” he added.

Democrats, Johnson said, are “doing it for political purposes. Not everybody, but a lot of them, and that’s what the president’s frustrated about.”

Echoing the president, Johnson said that the Democrats are “creating a hoax” and that Trump “has clean hands. He wants all the records out.”

Asked whether Trump should meet with Epstein abuse victims, Johnson said, “I suspect he probably will.”

Johnson also said he doesn’t expect that GOP Rep. Thomas Massie will succeed in obtaining enough signatures for his discharge petition, the mechanism Massie is using to force a House vote on his bill to release all the Epstein files. That push, he said, “has been mooted.”

“He is actively working against his team almost daily now and, and seems to enjoy that role. So he is, you know, deciding his own fate,” Johnson said when asked if he’d support Massie’s reelection bid.