With only six legislative days left on the House calendar for the rest of the year, Democrats on the House Oversight Committee Friday decided to drop a trove of new photos the committee received from the estate of Jeffrey Epstein.
The photos specifically show the late convicted sex offender with such famous faces as Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, Bill Gates, former president Bill Clinton and Donald Trump. In particular, one photo shows Trump, years before his first presidency, surrounded by six women. Trump has distanced himself from Epstein and has not been accused of any wrongdoing.
The selective release of the photos comes a full week before the legally mandated deadline for the Department of Justice to release all files related to Epstein. For those who may not remember, last month, Congress passed legislation to force the department to release the files by next Friday.
Immediately after the votes on Friday, House members bolted for the weekend — and then Oversight Democrats dropped their oddly timed tranche of photos.
It came at a peculiar juncture. At the moment, Republicans are scrambling to try and find an alternative plan as enhanced tax credits for the Affordable Care Act's health insurance marketplace will expire at the end of the month. The Senate voted down a Republican proposal to give Americans money for health savings accounts and a Democratic effort to extend the Obamacare tax credits for three more years.
To boot, a handful of Republicans from swing districts filed a discharge petition – the very same legislative tool used to force a vote to release the Epstein files – to extend the credits for two more years.
But the Epstein photo drop seems to be a deviation from Democrats' larger efforts to hang the impending doubling and tripling in health care premiums around the necks of Republicans.
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