ReutersUS President Donald Trump has urged lawmakers in his own party to vote to release files relating to the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
Trump wrote on Sunday night that Republicans in the House of Representatives should do so “because we have nothing to hide”.
The reversal of his recent position follows a slow drip feed of documents concerning the disgraced financier by House Democrats, some of which reference Trump, who has always denied any link to Epstein’s sex abuse and trafficking.
But details of his and other prominent figures’ past relationship with Epstein have fuelled speculation and led to a public spat with one of Trump’s staunchest supporters.
Potentially dozens of Republicans have now signalled they are willing to break ranks and vote in favour of a bill that would compel the US government to publish all the documents on Epstein and the criminal investigations into him that it holds.
Supporters of the bill appear to have enough votes for it to pass the House this week, though it is unclear whether it would pass in the Senate, the other chamber of the US Congress.
Epstein, a financier, was found dead in his New York prison cell in 2019, in what a coroner later ruled a suicide. He was being held on charges of sex trafficking, having previously been convicted of soliciting prostitution from a minor in 2008.
Trump repeated White House dismissals of the attention over the Epstein files as a Democrat-led “hoax” to “deflect” attention away from his party’s work.
“The Department of Justice has already turned over tens of thousands of pages to the Public on ‘Epstein,’ are looking at various Democrat operatives (Bill Clinton, Reid Hoffman, Larry Summers, etc.) and their relationship to Epstein, and the House Oversight Committee can have whatever they are legally entitled to, I DON’T CARE!,” he wrote on his Truth social platform.
He added that he wanted Republicans to “get BACK ON POINT”.
Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson made a similar point on Sunday, saying calls to release the files were the “entire game plan” for opposition Democrats.
“Trump has clean hands,” Johnson told Fox News. “He’s not worried about it. I talk to him all the time. He has nothing to do with this. He’s frustrated that they’re turning it into a political issue.”
Since returning to the White House, Trump has dismissed the need to release more documents, despite this being a key demand of many of his supporters and some of his key allies.
Trump was historically photographed at social gatherings with Epstein, but has repeatedly said he severed contact with the financier years before Epstein’s 2008 conviction, and was unaware of his criminal activity.
The US president’s change of position on the matter comes after Democrats on the House Oversight Committee published three email exchanges, including correspondence between Epstein and his long-time associate Ghislaine Maxwell, who is currently serving a 20-year prison sentence for sex trafficking.
Some of those exchanges make references to Trump. In one email, sent in 2011, Epstein writes to Maxwell: “I want you to realize that that dog that hasn’t barked is Trump.. [VICTIM] spent hours at my house with him.”
The White House said on Wednesday that the victim referenced in the email was prominent Epstein accuser Virginia Giuffre.
There is no implication of any wrongdoing by Trump in the emails.
Hours after the release, House Republicans published a far larger tranche of 20,000 files to counter what they said was a Democratic effort to “cherry-pick” documents in an attempt to “create a fake narrative to slander” Trump.
Both Democrats and some Republicans have been backing legislation to release all the documents. Republican Representative Thomas Massie, a co-sponsor of the bill, said in an interview with ABC News on Sunday that as many as 100 Republicans could vote in favour.
Known as the Epstein Files Transparency Act, the bill aims to force the Justice Department to release all unclassified records, documents, communications and investigative materials linked to paedophile financier Jeffrey Epstein.
Trump would also have to sign off on the release of the documents if it passes both legislative chambers.
In a letter addressed to Congress, Epstein survivors and Giuffre’s family called for US lawmakers to vote in favour of releasing the files.
“Remember that your primary duty is to your constituents. Look into the eyes of your children, your sisters, your mothers, and your aunts,” the letter reads.
“Imagine if they had been preyed upon. Imagine if you yourself were a survivor. What would you want for them? What would you want for yourself? When you vote, we will remember your decision at the ballot box.”
Trump’s handling of the issue has led in recent days to a public feud with Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene, traditionally one of his fiercest proponents.
The US president attacked her on Friday, calling her “wacky” and a “traitor”, and suggesting that she should be unseated in next year’s elections.
Greene in turn questioned whether Trump was still putting “America First” and said he was “making an example” of her to scare other Republicans away from voting in favour of the bill.
Meanwhile, the US Justice Department has confirmed it will investigate Epstein’s alleged links to major banks and several prominent Democrats, including former President Clinton. He has strongly denied he had any knowledge of Epstein’s crimes.
The names of Hoffman, the founder of LinkedIn and a prominent Democratic donor, and Summers, Clinton’s treasury secretary, both appeared in the most recent release.
Summers has previously expressed regret over being in contact with Epstein following his conviction, while Hoffman has said the extent of his involvement with the broker was to fundraise for the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Follow the twists and turns of Trump’s second term with North America correspondent Anthony Zurcher’s weekly US Politics Unspun newsletter. Readers in the UK can sign up here. Those outside the UK can sign up here.
