As renewed attention on Jeffrey Epstein’s sex trafficking network dominates public discourse, Nebraska Rep. Mike Flood (R) weighed in Wednesday, speaking during an online press conference with local reporters.
Earlier in the day, Flood appeared on CNN, saying that while some constituents had contacted him about the Epstein case, most were focused on President Donald Trump’s hallmark budget reconciliation package—dubbed the “One Big Beautiful Bill”—which Flood and his Republican colleagues in the House voted to send to the President’s desk.
When asked how many people had reached his office with comments/questions about the Epstein case, Flood said, “I would say, I’m getting several calls. [I’ve] certainly got more calls on different issues recently, but I would say yes, there are some folks that are chiming in.”
Flood went on to offer his full take on the issue. The case has recaptured the attention of the public and media in recent weeks, but the controversy had been simmering since Trump’s Attorney General Pam Bondi said on Fox in February that an Epstein client list was “sitting on my desk, right now, to review,” however the administration has since claimed she was referring to other documents.
But things seemed to explode in June when Trump’s affluent donor and then-confidant Elon Musk posted on his social media platform ‘X’ that the “real reason” the president is not releasing the Epstein files is because Trump is within the files. He provided no evidence for the claim and later deleted the post.
After publicly discouraging reporters from asking questions on the case, Trump was asked in July whether Bondi had told him his name appeared in the files. “No, no, she’s given us just a very quick briefing and – in terms of the credibility of the different things that they’ve seen,” Trump said.
Just yesterday, July 23, the Wall Street Journal reported that Bondi and her deputy informed the president during a May meeting that his name was in the Epstein files, according to officials. Trump was also told that many other high-profile figures were named. As the Journal noted, being mentioned in the records isn’t necessarily a sign of wrongdoing.
“If you’re a sex predator, if you are sexually assaulting children, you should be charged, you should be prosecuted, and you should be put in jail, and in some cases you probably should get the death penalty if it applies,” Rep. Flood told reporters. “This is horrific, it’s terrible, and not one person in the United States Congress would say otherwise. I said this morning on CNN, for the better part of four years, Merrick Garland had all the information that Bondi has, and they charged Ms. [Ghislaine] Maxwell. She’s sitting in prison right now. She’s been convicted. Jeffrey Epstein committed suicide in the Metropolitan Detention Center. If somebody has committed these crimes, or if we have probable cause to believe so, then by all means charge them.”
“If it’s up to me, yes, put the report out,” Flood continued. “I don’t know what’s in the report, but I don’t want a report going out that has victims’ names in it. I don’t want to re-traumatize people. I support the resolution Speaker Mike Johnson is working on, to get a resolution done. I support House Oversight Chair James Comer subpoenaing Ms. Maxwell and having her come in and testify under oath about what she knows. I support the president asking the Justice Department to get a court order to see the grand jury testimony. I support all those things. I have never supported a discharge petition, which essentially reroutes the entire House majority around our elected leadership. I was Speaker of the Nebraska Legislature for six years. If you don’t buy into your leadership, then you don’t have a majority. This is the issue of today, but if this is still the issue in September [after our five-week recess]—and I hope it’s not—then we have wasted time. Get the information out there, get it to the people, protect the victims, charge those that we have probable cause to believe did that. But remember, nothing happened for the better part of four years with an administration that was actively charging and prosecuting these kind of crimes day in day out.”
A reporter followed up and asked if he would support the release of a version of the files in which the victims names redacted/censored.
“Well, I do support the house resolution that the speaker is working on. I also think we’ll get better information if we go through the route of subpoenaing Ms. Maxwell because she was at the center of this. She could always plead the Fifth, I suppose. But I think the best route to get to the bottom of this is to stick the pros on our side on this, and that’s James Comer from Kentucky. He has demonstrated an acumen and an ability to get to the bottom of issues like this for the better part of a decade. My money is on him to get the best answers and get the grand jury testimony,” Flood said.
He then spoke to the intricacy of the case.
“This is the complex part of this issue, I don’t even know what we’re talking about,” Flood said. “Are these written statements? Are they witness statements? Is this an investigative report? I practiced law for the better part of 20 years. I know that county attorneys don’t hand out their investigations to the public, in order to avoid undue prejudice or harm to somebody that they don’t have probable cause to believe committed the crime. This is a complex issue. It’s an issue that is now the talk of every one of these TV stations, when we should be talking about ‘Hey, are we passing budget bills?’ We should be talking about what’s the plan on the farm bill. How are we gonna meet the funding deadline of October 1st? We’ve got 60 days. Let’s not turn this into a fire-drill at the last minute.”
This was Flood’s complete statement to reporters during that conference. Quotes are verbatim; only minor edits made for readability.