Only a small fraction of Americans believe President Donald Trump knew nothing about Jeffrey Epstein’s long record of sexual abuse, according to a new poll.
The survey, conducted by Morning Consult, was released just hours before the House voted on Thursday to force the Department of Justice to release its files on the late sex offender.
The Republican president has maintained he did nothing wrong and that he was unaware of Epstein’s criminal conduct, often claiming he severed ties with him years ago. A White House spokesperson previously told The Independent that the newly released emails “prove literally nothing.”
In the poll, just 15 percent of respondents said Trump did not know about the abuse perpetrated by Epstein — who died while awaiting trial on child sex trafficking charges in 2019.
Meanwhile, 60 percent said Trump knew about the abuse, including 38 percent who said the former real estate tycoon participated in the criminal behavior.
The results come one week after a House committee released a trove of 20,000 documents obtained from Epstein’s estate, including emails in which Epstein said Trump “knew about the girls” and “spent hours” with a victim.
Views among respondents were sharply divided along partisan lines. The overwhelming majority of Democrats, 80 percent, said Trump was aware of Epstein’s misdeeds, while 60 percent of independents and 42 percent of Republicans said the same.
The survey was conducted November 14-16 with 2,201 registered voters, and it has a margin of error of 2 percentage points.
Thursday’s House vote now makes it increasingly likely that the Justice Department will be compelled to release all its files on the pedophile financier.
Over the weekend, Trump called for Republicans to support the measure, reversing his longstanding opposition. “We have nothing to hide,” he wrote on Truth Social. “And it’s time to move on from this Democrat Hoax.”
Nearly all 435 members of the House voted in favor of the bill mandating that the DOJ files be made public, with one Republican, Rep. Clay Higgins of Louisiana, casting the sole vote in opposition. Five other members abstained.
The vote was triggered by a House discharge petition which, last week, garnered enough signatures to require a full floor vote.
In response to the bill passing, dozens of House members quickly released statements on social media.
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, a Georgia Republican who has become a vocal critic of Trump, called the outcome “a major victory for the survivors who’ve waited decades for the truth.”
“I voted YES to release the Epstein files,” Rep. Ilhan Omar, a Minnesota Democrat, wrote on X. “Survivors of Epstein’s abuse—and all survivors of abuse and sex trafficking—deserve justice. Today is an important step in getting the truth and holding some of the most powerful institutions and people accountable.”
Speaker Mike Johnson, whose hand was forced in bringing the bill to a vote, framed the vote as a partisan measure.
“Democrats oversaw the Epstein files for FOUR YEARS,” Johnson wrote on X. “They DIDN’T LIFT A FINGER for the victims. So why now? Because Democrats don’t have a platform or a principle left to defend — so they’ve defaulted to the one thing they know how to do: attack President Trump.”
Shortly after the vote, Senate Majority Leader John Thune told reporters that he believes the bill will move “fairly quickly” through the Senate.
Trump previously said he will sign the legislation into law it if it lands on his desk.
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