In a significant change of direction, President Donald Trump has indicated to House Republicans that they may vote for the disclosure of the so-called “Epstein files.” This comes as an impending vote, which previously risked forcing GOP lawmakers to choose between their party leader and their constituents, now appears almost certain to pass regardless.
Following Republicans last week to prevent a House vote to release all of the Epstein files, Trump on Sunday night stated that “House Republicans should vote to release the Epstein files, because we have nothing to hide.”
Nonetheless, Trump maintained that the focus on Jeffrey Epstein—the deceased, well-connected financier and convicted sex offender who died by suicide in federal prison in 2019 during a sex trafficking investigation—serves as a distraction manufactured by Trump’s opponents. This position is held despite many of his allies having for years propagated theories that Epstein’s death and the limited public details about his associates were part of a cover-up by prominent Democratic figures.
“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 added in his post. “The House Oversight Committee can have whatever they are legally entitled to, I DON’T CARE! All I do care about is that Republicans get BACK ON POINT, which is the Economy, “Affordability” (where we are winning BIG!)”
Lawmakers are preparing to cast votes on a bill that would compel the Justice Department to fully release all documents and communications related to Epstein’s sex trafficking investigation and demise. The bill enjoys overwhelming support from Democrats, and Representative Thomas Massie (R, Ky.), who, in July, introduced a discharge petition alongside Representative Ro Khanna (D, Calif.) to force the vote despite Republican leadership’s opposition, anticipated a “deluge of Republicans” would also break with their party and vote for the files’ release.
The discharge petition was stalled during the government shutdown when Representative Adelita Grijalva (D, Ariz.)’s swearing-in was delayed by Speaker Mike Johnson (R, La.), a move Democrats claimed was intended to block the petition effort. Grijalva became the 218th member to sign the petition, meeting the threshold to compel a vote, immediately after taking the oath of office last week when Johnson recalled the House to session to pass the funding bill to end the government shutdown.
The Epstein files disclosure vote is anticipated on Tuesday and follows the House Oversight Committee last week , including . In one , Epstein penned that Trump “knew about the girls.” was already known, and he appears to have been in records released by the DOJ earlier this year.
The White House, which maintains that Trump has never been accused of wrongdoing in connection with Epstein, said Democrats “selectively leaked emails” to “smear President Donald Trump.”
The names of victims were redacted from the files released last week, although the White House asserted that one of them was the late Virginia Giuffre, who Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, who was of his British royal title of prince due to his connection to Epstein, of her. Giuffre, who previously worked at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago and was among the most prominent of Epstein’s victims, died by suicide in April. She previously told authorities that Trump was a “good friend” of Epstein’s but that to her knowledge he had never partaken in “any sex with any” of Epstein’s victims.
Speaker Johnson likewise stated on Sunday that Republicans and Trump possess “nothing to hide.”
“We’ll just get this done and move it on,” he stated on Fox News.
Whether Trump’s supporters in the House interpret the President’s latest message as permission, however, remains to be seen. Trump also warned in his post about Epstein that “Some ‘members’ of the Republican Party are being ‘used,’ and we can’t let that happen.”
The disclosure of the Epstein files has been a . Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene (R, Ga.) was , besides Massie, to sign the discharge petition amidst Trump’s directives for Republicans to obstruct the predominantly Democratic initiative to make the files public.
The President his “support and endorsement” of Greene on Friday, labeling her a “traitor.” The public disagreement between Trump and Greene, a longstanding ally of the President, has , she stated.
During the previous week, Trump published multiple posts that appeared aimed at keeping Republicans in line and accused Democrats of promoting an “Epstein Hoax.”
“Some Weak Republicans have fallen into their clutches because they are soft and foolish,” he stated on Friday. “Only a very bad, or stupid, Republican would fall into that trap,” he added in another post. “This is another Russia, Russia, Russia Scam, with all arrows pointing to the Democrats,” he further posted on Friday.
The President also declared he had instructed Attorney General Pam Bondi to investigate Epstein’s ties with several prominent Democrats, despite the Justice Department and no further uncharged third parties would be investigated.
“Let’s,” Trump concluded in his Sunday night post, “not fall into the Epstein ‘TRAP,’ which is actually a curse on the Democrats, not us.”
