US House Speaker Mike Johnson has called for the release of files related to Jeffrey Epstein in a break with President Donald Trump and the White House.

“I’m for transparency,” Johnson said in an interview with conservative podcaster Benny Johnson.

“It’s a very delicate subject but we should put everything out there and let the people decide.”

With that statement, Johnson has become the highest-ranking Republican to break with Trump on Epstein in a rare fissure between the President and his fiercely loyal base.

“The White House and the White House team are privy to facts that I don’t know. I mean, this isn’t my lane, I haven’t been involved in that. But I agree with the sentiment that we need to put it out there,” Johnson said.

Conspiracy theories over Epstein’s 2019 death in prison and potential evidence in his sex-trafficking case, including an alleged “client list”, have been a fixation for the US right, one egged on by Trump himself.

But Democrats sensed an opening after the US Justice Department said last week no additional evidence will be released. US Attorney General Pam Bondi had pledged as recently as March to release documents, claiming there was “a truckload” of evidence to come.

Conservative influencers from Laura Loomer to Elon Musk have criticised Bondi and FBI director Kash Patel for the findings.

US media, including Fox News and NBC News, have reported that FBI deputy director Dan Bongino has clashed with Bondi over the issue and is considering stepping down.

Patel and Bongino, a former conservative podcaster, both previously made statements before working at the FBI about a so-called client list and often suggested that the government was hiding information about Epstein from the American public.

Trump, however, has tried to quash the issue.

“He’s [been] dead for a long time, he was never a big factor in terms of life,” he said on Tuesday (US time) of Epstein, who was found dead in his Manhattan jail cell in 2019.

“I don’t understand what the interest or what the fascination is — I really don’t.”

Trump said “the credible information has been given”.

“I don’t understand why the Jeffrey Epstein case would be of interest to anybody,” he said.

“It’s pretty boring stuff. It’s sordid, but it’s boring, and I don’t understand why it keeps going.

“I think really only pretty bad people, including fake news, want to keep something like that going.”

He also said there were credibility issues with the documents, suggesting – without offering any evidence – they were “made up” by former FBI director James Comey and former presidents Barack Obama and Joe Biden, both Democrats.

Trump said Bondi had handled the issue “very well”.

On Tuesday, Ro Khanna, a California Democrat and likely 2028 presidential candidate, joined in by trying to put Vice President JD Vance – who has previously called for the Epstein files to be released – in the hot seat.

He shared an X post from 2020 Republican presidential candidate and former UN Ambassador Nikki Haley, who called for the Trump administration to “release the Epstein files and let the chips fall where they may”.

“A 2028 power move, JD Vance,” Khanna wrote on X. “Where do you stand on the Epstein files these days?”

Vance and Haley are both possible 2028 Republican presidential candidates.

1800 RESPECT 1800 737 732

National Sexual Abuse and Redress Support Service 1800 211 028

Lifeline 131 114

beyondblue 1300 224 636

-with AAP