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The House is leaving Washington a day early for it's five-week August recess after tensions erupted over efforts to force release of the Jeffrey Epstein files. Why it matters: Fallout from the debate over the Epstein files has effectively frozen House business.

The turmoil in Congress over the Jeffrey Epstein probe isn't going away anytime soon after the House Speaker ended the legislative session early before the August break.

The top Republican in the U.S. House of Representatives said on Tuesday he would send lawmakers home a day early for a five-week summer recess to avoid a political fight over files on disgraced financier and sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

The renewed focus on Ghislaine Maxwell comes amid persistent questions over President Trump’s years-long friendship with Jeffrey Epstein.

Trump on Tuesday said “I don’t follow it too much” when asked by reporters about the backlash to his administration’s handling of the Epstein investigatory documents.

Trump has unspooled comments on a litany of controversies, all of which seem designed to distract attention from the Jeffrey Epstein case.

U.S. President Donald Trump on Monday followed up his lawsuit against The Wall Street Journal over last week's Jeffrey Epstein story by banishing one of the newspaper's reporters from Air Force One for an upcoming Scotland trip.