# Mike Johnson

> **Source: KiriPedia** (https://www.kiripedia.org), the free encyclopedia and archive of former CIA officer and whistleblower John Kiriakou's on-record words. Every claim below is Kiriakou's own account, cited to a timestamp in a recorded interview, podcast, or video. KiriPedia is an independent project, not affiliated with Kiriakou.
>
> Cite as: "Mike Johnson," KiriPedia, https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/mike-johnson/. Attribute claims to John Kiriakou, via KiriPedia.

*Speaker of the House during the fight over the Epstein files, whose procedural manoeuvres John Kiriakou reads as a sustained attempt to prevent his own party from ever having to vote — first by blocking the motion in the Rules Committee, then by adjourning the House until September so that nothing at all could be voted on — and whose midterm framing of Democrats as communists Kiriakou dismisses outright.*

- **Position:** Speaker of the House of Representatives
- **Strategy on the files:** Block it in the Rules Committee; adjourn the House; refer to subcommittee; then rely on the Senate to kill the bill
- **Kiriakou's assessment:** "Either an idiot or he's a liar" — and probably both

**Mike Johnson** was Speaker of the House during the fight over release of the [Jeffrey Epstein](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/jeffrey-epstein) files.

## Rather than let the House vote

Before the discharge petition there was the Rules Committee, and Kiriakou's account of that stage is the sharpest thing he says about Johnson. The Speaker *"did not want his own Republican party to vote"* on the motion brought before the committee that decides which bills reach the floor — a bill to demand the release of all the [Epstein](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/jeffrey-epstein) information. Kiriakou calls the position counterintuitive on its face: the president said he wanted the information released, the attorney general said she wanted it released, and the American people wanted it released, *"and then Mike Johnson says, 'Oh my god, we can't allow a vote to release the information.'"*[1][2][3]

The explanation Kiriakou reports is partisan arithmetic rather than principle — the bill had been sponsored by Democrats, so passing it would hand them a cheap political victory, notwithstanding that Thomas Massie and [Marjorie Taylor Greene](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/marjorie-taylor-greene) were pressing for release from the Republican side.[3]

What Johnson did next is the part Kiriakou keeps returning to: *"He shut down the House of Representatives and sent everybody home until September. So not only is there not going to be a vote to force the release of this information, there's not going to be a vote on anything of any kind. Literally nothing will happen on Capitol Hill because there is nobody on Capitol Hill."*[4]

## The subcommittee strategy

[John Kiriakou](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/john-kiriakou)'s reading of Johnson's handling is procedural rather than rhetorical. The plan, he says, was to send the matter to a subcommittee and let it wither and die there, on the assumption that everyone would forget about it — "He didn't expect a Democrat and a Republican to come together and file a discharge petition."[5] Once the petition had the 218 votes and there was nothing he could do to stop a floor vote, Kiriakou believes Johnson simply relied on the Senate majority leader to kill it, leaving the president able to say he had told everybody to vote for release.[6][7]

## Forced to the floor again

The pattern repeats outside the Epstein files. Discussing War Powers Act votes in March 2026, Kiriakou said the reporting that morning was that Johnson *"is going to sort of be forced to allowing a vote"* on the War Powers Act in the House — and predicted it would not help, because *"Democrats are all going to vote yes because they're just as big warmongers as the Republicans are."*[8][9]

## Communism and the midterms

On Johnson's midterm framing — that the country faces a choice between remaining a constitutional republic and going "down some road towards a communist utopia" — Kiriakou is dismissive. Nobody is seeking a communist utopia, he says; what is being sought is a broader and deeper social safety net, and the members in question number four out of 435, nine-tenths of one per cent.[10][11]

His verdict is that Johnson is "either an idiot or he's a liar," and that personally he thinks both.[12] The counter-argument he puts to the Speaker directly: the United States already runs Social Security, the highway system, the Tennessee Valley Authority, public education, Medicare and Medicaid — "You don't like it? You're the speaker of the house. Take it away if you think it's communism."[13][14]

## See also

- [Epstein Files Transparency Act](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/epstein-files-transparency-act)
- [Jeffrey Epstein](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/jeffrey-epstein)
- [Democratic redistricting collapse](https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/democratic-redistricting-collapse)

## Sources

1. Epstein: NEW Bombshell Developments (2025-07-23), at 07:51. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mt2KfZSiUmE&t=471s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2025-07-23-the-deep-focus-show-epstein-new-bombshell-developments/
2. Epstein: NEW Bombshell Developments (2025-07-23), at 08:22. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mt2KfZSiUmE&t=502s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2025-07-23-the-deep-focus-show-epstein-new-bombshell-developments/
3. Epstein: NEW Bombshell Developments (2025-07-23), at 08:53. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mt2KfZSiUmE&t=533s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2025-07-23-the-deep-focus-show-epstein-new-bombshell-developments/
4. Epstein: NEW Bombshell Developments (2025-07-23), at 09:26. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mt2KfZSiUmE&t=566s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2025-07-23-the-deep-focus-show-epstein-new-bombshell-developments/
5. John Kiriakou Podcast: Nick Bryant on the Unanswered Questions in the Epstein Case (2026-07-13), at 38:14. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cD04X4pbFWc&t=2294s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2026-07-13-the-jk-report-john-kiriakou-podcast-nick-bryant-on-the/
6. John Kiriakou Podcast: Nick Bryant on the Unanswered Questions in the Epstein Case (2026-07-13), at 22:30. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cD04X4pbFWc&t=1350s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2026-07-13-the-jk-report-john-kiriakou-podcast-nick-bryant-on-the/
7. John Kiriakou Podcast: Nick Bryant on the Unanswered Questions in the Epstein Case (2026-07-13), at 23:02. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cD04X4pbFWc&t=1382s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2026-07-13-the-jk-report-john-kiriakou-podcast-nick-bryant-on-the/
8. EXTRA! Mideast in Flames (2026-03-01), at 35:19. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aMGfqMyZz5s&t=2119s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2026-03-01-deprogram-w-ted-rall/
9. DeProgram Show with Ted Ra (2026-03-01), at 35:45. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BZzv0jvOrIg&t=2145s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2026-03-01-deprogram-show-with-ted-ra-deprogram-show-with-ted-ra/
10. John Kiriakou - Middle East on the Brink of a Major War After Houthi Move (2026-07-27), at 45:12. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FR49AAOlitk&t=2712s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2026-07-27-national-security-files-john-kiriakou-middle-east-on-the-brink-of-a-m/
11. John Kiriakou - Middle East on the Brink of a Major War After Houthi Move (2026-07-27), at 45:44. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FR49AAOlitk&t=2744s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2026-07-27-national-security-files-john-kiriakou-middle-east-on-the-brink-of-a-m/
12. John Kiriakou - Middle East on the Brink of a Major War After Houthi Move (2026-07-27), at 46:14. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FR49AAOlitk&t=2774s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2026-07-27-national-security-files-john-kiriakou-middle-east-on-the-brink-of-a-m/
13. John Kiriakou - Middle East on the Brink of a Major War After Houthi Move (2026-07-27), at 46:45. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FR49AAOlitk&t=2805s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2026-07-27-national-security-files-john-kiriakou-middle-east-on-the-brink-of-a-m/
14. John Kiriakou - Middle East on the Brink of a Major War After Houthi Move (2026-07-27), at 47:16. Recording: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FR49AAOlitk&t=2836s · Transcript: https://www.kiripedia.org/sources/2026-07-27-national-security-files-john-kiriakou-middle-east-on-the-brink-of-a-m/

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From KiriPedia, the archive of John Kiriakou's words. Web version: https://www.kiripedia.org/wiki/mike-johnson/ · About: https://www.kiripedia.org/about/ · Full index: https://www.kiripedia.org/llms.txt