Donald Trump is facing the prospect of a politically damaging congressional vote on releasing the Jeffery Epstein files after attempts to press two female members of Congress to withdraw their backing for it appeared to have failed.
The reported refusal of Lauren Boebert, a Republican representative from Colorado, and Nancy Mace, from South Carolina, to remove their names from a discharge petition to force a vote leaves Trump exposed on an issue that carries the possibility of turning segments of his Maga base against him.
Boebert reportedly stood firm on supporting the petition after being invited by Trump to the White House in an effort to persuade her to withdraw her signature, according to the New York Times.
The outlet reported that the meeting happened hours after Democrats on the House of Representatives’ oversight committee released a trove of emails from the files that suggested that Trump may have known more about Epstein’s underage sex trafficking activities than he previously acknowledged.
The disgraced late financier – who committed suicide in prison in 2019 while awaiting trial – wrote in one email that Trump, his former close friend, “knew about the girls”.
The New York Times reported that the White House sought to persuade Boebert to change her mind – enlisting Pam Bondi, the attorney general, and the FBI director, Kash Patel – before issuing “vague threats” when the tactic did not work.
The paper, citing people “familiar with her thinking”, reported that the hardline approach had the counterproductive effect of persuading Boebert that there may be a conspiracy to conceal the contents of the files and caused her to dig in.
Trump was reported to have unsuccessfully tried to contact Mace, who is running for governor of South Carolina, by phone. She subsequently wrote him a letter explaining her history of sexual abuse and rape, and explaining that she could not change her mind on the petition.
She later wrote in a social media post that “the Epstein petition is deeply personal.”
Two other Republican representatives, the formerly fiercely-reliable Trump loyalist and Georgia representative, Marjorie Taylor Greene, and Thomas Massie of Kentucky, have signed the petition.
The necessary 218 votes to pass it and allow a House of Representatives vote was achieved this week with the swearing-in of the Democratic member, Adelita Grijalva, more than two months after she won a special election in Arizona following the death of her father, who had been the sitting representative.
Democrats have accused Mike Johnson, the House speaker, of deliberately delaying Grijalva’s oath-taking in an attempt to deny the petition enough votes to pass and stall the possibility of a vote. Trump has lobbied behind the scenes to stop a vote reaching the floor of the House.
Ro Khanna, a Democratic representative from California, forecast that between 40 and 50 Republicans could vote to release the files in a final vote, allying themselves with Democrats who will vote in favor. The legislation would still have to go to the Senate, where it is unlikely to pass. Trump, who was equivocal on whether he would release the files on the campaign trail last year, could veto a final bill even if it passed both houses.
However, the very prospect of a vote in favor by the Republican-controlled House could spell serious political trouble for Trump, as it could fuel the clamor among his political base for the files to be unsealed and undermine their support for him.
Politico quoted a Trump ally as saying that the latest email releases had taken “things that are already complicated for the president and [brought] them to the surface”.
“It’s like adding salt to a dish – the flavors are already there, it just accentuates all of them,” the unnamed ally said.
Karoline Leavitt, the White House press secretary, labelled the email releases as “a distraction campaign by the Democrats and the liberal media”.
“It’s why I’m being asked questions about Epstein instead of the government reopening because of Republicans and President Trump,” she said.
The renewed speculation over Epstein coincided with Trump signing into law a congressionally-approved spending package that officially ended a federal government shutdown which, lasting 43 days, was the longest in US history. It also comes after the supreme court has signaled that it may strike down his signature tariffs policy.
