Donald Trump has cranked up his intense pressure campaign on congressional Republicans to oppose the full release of the justice department’s files related to Jeffrey Epstein, before a crucial and long-awaited House vote on the matter next week that many Republicans are expected to support.
The bombshell release on Wednesday of scores of Epstein’s emails has shone a spotlight on the president’s long history of involvement with the notorious sex trafficker, including revelations that he knew more about Epstein’s conduct than he previously let on.
On Friday morning, as the uproar continued, Trump declared that he would instead ask the Department of Justice to investigate Epstein’s ties with Democrats, not Republicans, singling out Bill Clinton, Larry Summers and Reid Hoffman. Trump also paradoxically referred to the “Epstein hoax” and called it a “scam”.
It is expected that dozens of Republicans will vote for Republican Thomas Massie and Democrat Ro Khanna’s discharge petition, which demands the Department of Justice release all of its investigative files on Epstein within 30 days.
The legislation had stalled because the House speaker, Mike Johnson, a Republican, had refused for almost two months during the government shutdown to swear in the new Democratic representative Adelita Grijalva, who would be the deciding 218th vote. After the shutdown ended, Johnson could delay no longer, and Grijalva was sworn in on Wednesday. The vote is now likely to happen early next week.
Many House Republicans have constituents who say they want greater transparency about the Epstein affair. Representatives Don Bacon of Nebraska, Tim Burchett of Tennessee and Rob Bresnahan of Pennsylvania have indicated they would vote to release the files.
The Trump administration has put heavy pressure on key Republicans to oppose the legislation. CNN reported that top officials summoned Lauren Boebert – one of four Republicans in the House who have signed the petition – to a meeting in the White House Situation Room with the attorney general, Pam Bondi, and FBI director, Kash Patel, to discuss her demand to release the files. Trump had also telephoned her early on Tuesday morning, a day before Grijalva was due to be sworn in and provide the crucial final signature.
Trump also contacted Nancy Mace, another member of the Republican caucus in the House who has signed the petition, but the two did not connect. Mace instead reportedly wrote the president a long explanation of her own personal experience as a survivor of sexual abuse and rape, and why it was impossible for her to change her position on the matter. She wrote on X that “the Epstein petition is deeply personal”.
Those failed lobbying attempts from the White House came as Democrats on the House oversight committee released three damning new emails that suggest Trump knew about Epstein’s conduct, including one in which the convicted paedophile said “of course [Trump] knew about the girls”. Another email described Trump as a “dog that hasn’t barked” and said he had “spent hours” with one victim at Epstein’s house.
The president’s team struck back, saying those documents had been cherrypicked, and Republican representatives followed up by releasing a much bigger trove of more than 20,000 files.
Among them were documents that revealed that Epstein’s staff kept him apprised of Trump’s air travel as it related to his own transportation – and that the late sex trafficker kept up with news about his former friend years after their relationship soured.
But even if the bill passes the House, it still needs to get through the Senate and be signed by Trump. Senate leaders have shown no indication they will bring it up for a vote, and Trump – who had long promised the release of the files on the campaign trail – has decried the effort as a “Democrat hoax”.
The justice department earlier this year announced it would release no further details about the case, prompting public demand for files related to the investigation into Epstein’s activities to be made public.
