Republican rebels on Wednesday ramped up the pressure on their party to force the Trump administration to release its files on Jeffrey Epstein, hosting victims of the convicted sex offender at the Capitol, where they delivered harrowing pleas for Congress to act.

The dramatic demonstration seemed to leave most Republicans unmoved, however, and GOP leaders stepped up their own efforts to defuse the Epstein controversy by approving an alternative bill designed to bolster an ongoing investigation by the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee.

The competing maneuvers have created a kind of stalemate — at least for now — between the clashing GOP factions in a debate that’s ruptured their party and infuriated the MAGA loyalists who helped propel President Trump into the White House fo

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