CNN host Jake Tapper and Rep. Mike Flood

One House Republican was caught off-guard by CNN host Jake Tapper when the journalist pointed out that there's nothing stopping President Donald Trump from publishing all of the unreleased files concerning convicted child predator Jeffrey Epstein.

During a Tuesday segment, Rep. Mike Flood (R-Neb.) joined Tapper's CNN show "The Lead" to discuss ongoing efforts in Congress to provide more transparency on the Epstein case. He began by reiterating that while he supported efforts to provide transparency, he opposed the bipartisan discharge petition — in which 218 members of the House of Representatives can effectively end-run the House speaker and put an issue up for a vote – by Reps. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) and Thomas Massie (R-Ky.).

"What Thomas Massie and the Democrats are doing is just all-out reckless. They do not have victim protection in their bill. It was written in a very sloppy way," Flood said. "... The House Republican leadership, together with the Rules Committee, we're going to be putting together a bill that will be voted on this week that will handle this, and I think it will meet with the favor of almost all Republicans, maybe not Tom Massie. And if you're a Democrat, this is what you've been asking for. I'm sure they're going to vote for it as well. At least I hope."

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"I don't support discharge petitions. I support regular order," he continued. "I don't believe that a discharge petition is any way to govern when you're in the majority. We have a plan. It's going to get implemented, and it's going to happen this week."

However, Tapper pointed out during the interview that the Department of Justice is currently sitting on a trove of unreleased Epstein documents (the New York Times estimated that more than 100,000 pages of documents remain secret) and that they could be released without any action from Congress. The CNN host added that Attorney General Pam Bondi could redact victims' names and release all of the remaining evidence at any time.

"You don't need to have this legislation if Attorney General Bondi and President Trump just released all the information with the victims' identifications redacted," Tapper said. "Of course, there's the grand jury stuff. that's obviously up to a judge. And judges have said, no, we're not releasing it. But everything else in the U.S. Attorney's Office is in New York, in Fllorida, the FBI, the Justice Department, internal communications ... all of that stuff could be released, and the administration isn't. Do you know why? Do you have any understanding as to why that is?"

"Well, I don't work at the Department of Justice, and I'm not at the White House on this issue," Flood responded. "I do know that this landed in Congress's lap. We listened to our constituents. We want transparency, and now we're acting."

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Watch the exchange below, or by clicking this link.

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