US House Speaker Mike Johnson at the US Capitol in Washington, DC, on Wednesday. Graeme Sloan/BloombergGetty Images

This coming week is expected to deliver the moment that House Speaker Mike Johnson has been forestalling in one form or another for nearly four months: when the House votes on whether to release the Jeffrey Epstein files.

It was way back in late July that Johnson sent the House off on a five-week recess a day early to quell a growing Republican revolt . He later kept the House out of session for an extraordinarily long time during the shutdown. This carried the benefit – whether it was the express purpose or not – of giving him an excuse not to swear in the decisive 218th member to force the vote.

President Donald Trump, too, clearly did not want this vote. He waged an

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