President Donald Trump on Wednesday again slammed the bipartisan clamor for release of case files regarding deceased pedophile Jeffrey Epstein as a creation of his political enemies as members of both parties appeared with some of Epstein’s victims at a Capitol Hill press conference to call for transparency in the case.
Trump was addressing reporters in the Oval Office during a media availability alongside Polish president Karol Nawrocki when The Independent asked him about allegations that his Department of Justice is slow-walking compliance with a congressional subpoena for the documents and redacting them to protect powerful friends and Republican campaign donors.
In response, he called the entire issue “a Democrat hoax that never ends” and compared it to the decades-long process of releasing files relating to the assassination of the late president John F. Kennedy, noting that “nobody’s ever satisfied” with what the government has produced in either case.
“From what I understand, thousands of pages of documents have been given. But it's really a Democrat hoax, because they're trying to get people to talk about something that's totally irrelevant to the success that we've had as a nation since I've been President,” Trump said.
“I understand that we were subpoenaed to give files, and I understand we've given thousands of pages of files, and I know that no matter what you do, it's going to keep going.”
Despite promising to release the controversial case files during the 2024 presidential campaign, since returning to the White House Trump has routinely railed against even discussing the matter.
His administration has created uproar among its base after a July memo from the Department of Justice that stated that Epstein had no so-called “client list” and that no more information would be released. That came after Attorney General Pam Bondi had claimed for months that officials were reviewing documents.
The decision not to release more information was met with anger and Democrats and Republicans have called on Trump to release more from the investigation.
While his administration has made large numbers of documents from the case public, critics have noted that those documents have either long been in the public domain or have been so heavily redacted as to be useless.
Sky Roberts, the brother of the late Epstein victim Virginia Giuffre, told The Independent that Trump’s administration was now running “likely ... biggest cover-up in the history of the United States.”
“And I think it's time for us to stand with the people, it's time to stand with the survivors, and we need to tell them we believe you,” he said.
Trump’s remarks come as Reps. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) and Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) filed a discharge petition to force a vote to release files related to Jeffrey Epstein. The petition would require a majority of members to sign on to circumvent leadership and hold a vote on the House floor.
On Thursday, Massie, Khanna and Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) held a press conference with Roberts and a host of other survivors of Epstein’s abuse.
One of the late sex offender’s victims, Chauntae Davies, said at the press conference that Epstein had gotten “a free pass” from his crimes and routinely “bragged about his powerful friends, including our current president Donald Trump.”
Another survivor of Epstein’s abuse, Haley Robson, directly called out Trump’s frequent claim that the matter is a creation of his adversaries and invited the president to meet with her to receive proof of his crimes.
“Mr. President Donald J Trump, I am a registered Republican — not that that matters, because this is not political. However, I cordially invite you to the Capitol to meet me in person so you can understand this is not a hoax,” she said.
On Tuesday, the House Oversight Committee released 30,000 pages worth of documents related to Epstein. But many of Epstein’s survivors said that they want to see more.
“Seeing that release after that meeting, I think was a step in the right direction,” Sigrid McCawley, a survivor of Epstein’s abuse, told The Independent. “But there's so much more to be released and that's what we’re really hoping for.”
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