WASHINGTON, D.C. – After pressuring Republicans for months to oppose any mass release of government records on convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, President Donald Trump changed course just days before lawmakers will vote on a bill to release the Epstein files.
The U.S. House will vote Tuesday on Rep. Thomas Massie’s, R-Ky., resolution ordering the Department of Justice to “publicly disclose all unclassified records, documents, communications, and investigative materials in its possession that relate to Epstein or [his associate Ghislaine] Maxwell.”
The bill allows DOJ to redact or withhold material only if the material contains victims’ personally identifiable information; child sexual abuse materials; images of death, physical abuse, or injury; information which would jeopardize an active federal investigation or prosecution; or classified information.
Long claimed to be a Republican “conspiracy theory,” the existence of “the Epstein files” – which supposedly contain incriminating information about major political figures’ associations with the now-deceased Epstein – is now pushed by Democratic lawmakers.
The shift happened after U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi said that Epstein’s client list was “sitting on [her] desk,” only for the administration to backtrack and say that no such list existed.
Trump then began calling the files “a Democratic hoax,” causing most Republicans to shy away from the issue and spurring Democrats to accuse him of hiding information.
But the president abruptly reversed his demands that Republicans tank the resolution in a Truth Social post Sunday.
“House Republicans should vote to release the Epstein files, because we have nothing to hide, and it’s time to move on from this Democrat Hoax perpetrated by Radical Left Lunatics in order to deflect from the Great Success of the Republican Party,” Trump wrote.
“Nobody cared about Jeffrey Epstein when he was alive and, if the Democrats had anything, they would have released it before our Landslide Election Victory,” he added. “Some ‘members’ of the Republican Party are being ‘used,’ and we can’t let that happen. Let’s start talking about the Republican Party’s Record Setting Achievements, and not fall into the Epstein ‘TRAP,’ which is actually a curse on the Democrats, not us.”
The president was presumably referring to Reps. Lauren Boebert, R-Colo.; Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga.; and Nancy Mace, R-S.C.; who were the only Republicans besides Massie to have signed the discharge petition.
Now, with Trump’s begrudging go-ahead, dozens of other House Republicans will likely vote in favor of the actual bill.
Republicans on the House Oversight Committee have already launched an official investigation into Epstein’s contacts, issuing subpoenas to the DOJ and many high-profile Democrats with connections to Epstein. The committee has declassified tens of thousands of Epstein-related documents since September, but the troves contained heavy redactions and revealed almost no new information.
The newest batch released last week contained emails which appear to suggest that Trump spent time with a victim at Epstein’s house. The White House said the three emails “prove absolutely nothing other than the fact that President Trump did nothing wrong.”
