The Epstein saga continues to affect Washington: From the Politics Desk

Welcome to the online version of From the Politics Desk, an evening newsletter that brings you the NBC News Politics team’s latest reporting and analysis from the White House, Capitol Hill and the campaign trail.

Happy Tuesday! In today’s edition, our Congress team breaks down how the Jeffrey Epstein saga is freezing up the House of Representatives. And speaking of the House, Steve Kornacki analyzes how mid-decade redistricting by Republicans in a few key states could alter the math of the midterms.

— Scott Bland

House cancels last day of votes before summer break as Epstein consumes Capitol Hill

By Scott Wong, Kyle Stewart and Syedah Asghar

The GOP-controlled House is cutting short its last workweek before the summer recess because of a fight on Capitol Hill over the release of the government’s files on the late financier and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

The House was scheduled to hold votes on Thursday before lawmakers departed for their five-week recess.

But Republican leaders informed rank-and-file lawmakers on Tuesday that the final vote of the week would now be a day earlier, on Wednesday afternoon. The shift in schedule occurred because of a standoff on the Rules Committee, which decides how legislation comes to the floor but has been ground to a halt by the Epstein issue.

The panel, which is closely aligned with Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., typically passes a rule for legislation on Monday that sets up debate and allows bills to come to the floor for the week. But Democrats had promised Monday to force the committee to take more votes on whether to require the Trump administration to release all remaining files from the Epstein case.

To avoid embarrassing votes on Epstein, Republicans decided to recess the committee and not attempt to pass a rule for bills this week. Without a rule, Republicans would be left with nothing to vote on after Wednesday.

The Epstein saga has dominated chatter on Capitol Hill for more than a week as many Trump supporters have clamored for the release of all documents related to the convicted sex offender and the president and his administration sought to downplay the issue.

It appeared to be dying down in recent days, but the Trump administration breathed new life into the story Tuesday morning, when the Justice Department announced that Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche will meet with Epstein associate Ghislaine Maxwell in the coming days.

Read more →

How redistricting could change the fight for the House majority

By Steve Kornacki

In the coming weeks, Republicans in Texas and Ohio are expected to redraw their states’ congressional maps. Their intent is transparent: to bolster their party’s chances of protecting its super-slim House majority in next year’s midterm elections.

As it stands now, there are 220 Republican districts, meaning the party can afford a net loss of no more than two seats in 2026 and still keep the House. In theory, the redistricting effort could shift as many as eight seats from the Democratic to the GOP column, although the ultimate yield will depend on how aggressive the GOP gets — and how much the courts and voters will tolerate.

It could also be offset by similar measures from Democrats in blue states like California, where Gov. Gavin Newsom wants to do a redraw of his own but faces a far trickier process.

Yet even if Republicans do emerge from a fresh round of redistricting with a batch of new, safe seats, it may still be woefully insufficient to keep the House, given the dramatic losses that the party in the White House often endures in midterm elections. It was during the first Trump presidency that the GOP coughed up a net 40 House seats in the 2018 midterms, easily losing control of the chamber.

But the structure of the current Republican majority is much different than it was back in ’18. Far fewer GOP seats now are in districts that are politically hostile to Trump and a far greater share are in politically safe Trump landslide districts. Nor are there as many marginal GOP incumbents in districts Trump carried only narrowly in the most recent presidential election.

If successful, the redistricting push would amount to another big difference from 2018: It would give Republicans far more opportunities to play offense this time around.

Read more from Steve here →

That’s all From the Politics Desk for now. Today’s newsletter was compiled by Scott Bland and Dylan Ebs.

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