In a shocking flip from his earlier opposition to the proposal, US President Donald Trump said that House Republicans should vote to release the files in the Jeffrey Epstein case as more members of his own party began to back it.
After arriving at Joint Base Andrews late on Sunday, following the weekend in Florida, Trump posted on Truth Social, saying, “We have nothing to hide, and it’s time to move on from this Democrat Hoax perpetrated by Radical Left Lunatics in order to deflect from the Great Success of the Republican Party.”
The US president’s remarks came after a heated dispute over the Epstein files inside the GOP, which included a growing rift with Georgia Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene, who had long been one of his most ardent supporters.
Despite the measure’s uncertain future in the Senate, Trump’s change in stance is an implied acknowledgement that its supporters have enough votes to pass the House.
This is a rare instance of Trump reversing course due to opposition within the Republican Party. He has essentially solidified his hold on power within the Republican Party since taking office for the second term.
“I DON’T CARE! All I do care about is that Republicans get BACK ON POINT,” Trump wrote.
A “deluge of Republicans” are expected to vote in favour of the bill in the House this week, defying the president and the GOP leadership, according to lawmakers who support it.
Trump even contacted two of the Republican lawmakers who signed the proposal to express his disapproval. Rep. Lauren Boebert of Colorado met with administration officials in the White House Situation Room last week for discussion.
The bill would compel the Justice Department to release all correspondence and files pertaining to Epstein as well as any details regarding the inquiry into his death while incarcerated in a federal prison. Redacting information concerning Epstein’s victims or current federal investigations would be permitted.
Among the lawmakers debating the plan on Sunday news show appearances, Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., stated that “there could be 100 or more” votes from Republicans. “I’m hoping to get a veto-proof majority on this legislation when it comes up for a vote.”
To get a vote on their bill, Massie and Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Calif., filed a discharge petition in July. This allows majority of lawmakers to circumvent House leadership and compel a floor vote using this less effective tool.
When the GOP’s legislative schedule was upended by the demand for an Epstein vote, Speaker Mike Johnson, a Republican from Louisiana, dismissed the discharge petition campaign and sent members home early for their August recess. Democrats also claim that Rep. Adelita Grijalva, a Democrat from Arizona, had her seat delayed preventing her from signing the petition and reaching the level required to compel a vote. Shortly after taking the oath of office last week, she became the 218th member to sign the petition.
Johnson, Trump, and others who have criticised Massie’s efforts, would be “taking a big loss this week.”
“I’m not tired of winning yet, but we are winning,” Massie said.
Johnson seemed to anticipate that the Epstein bill would be firmly supported by the House.
“We’ll just get this done and move it on. There’s nothing to hide,” he said, adding that the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee has been releasing “far more information than the discharge petition, their little gambit.”
The vote comes at a time when new documents, including an email Epstein sent to a journalist in 2019 claiming that Trump “knew about the girls,” are casting aspersions on Epstein and his associates. The White House has accused Democrats of selectively disclosing the emails to discredit the president.
Trump “has nothing to hide from this,” Johnson said.
“They’re doing this to go after President Trump on this theory that he has something to do with it. He does not,” he added.
To satiate public interest in the sex-trafficking probe, Trump’s name was included in documents that his own Justice Department disclosed in February. His relationship with Epstein is well established.
In addition to Trump, Epstein had other well-known connections in the political and celebrity spheres. The sex offender died by suicide in prison in 2019 while awaiting prosecution.