Trump reverses position on Epstein document disclosure

Donald Trump, the President of the United States, said that Republicans in the House of Representatives should vote to release the files related to Jeffrey Epstein, the American sex offender.

Trump’s request marks a dramatic reversal after previously opposing the proposal, as a growing number of Republican lawmakers had begun supporting it.

After landing at Joint Base Andrews following a weekend in Florida, he wrote on social media: “We have nothing to hide, and it’s time to get past this Democrat hoax carried out by radical left lunatics to distract from the Republican Party’s great success.”

Trump’s statement came after intense infighting within the Republican Party over these documents, including a sharp dispute with Marjorie Taylor Greene, the Georgia representative who had long been one of his most loyal supporters.

This shift in the President’s position is an implicit acknowledgment that supporters of the proposal have enough votes to pass it in the House of Representatives, even though its fate in the Senate remains uncertain.

This marks a rare example of Trump backing down due to internal Republican opposition.

Trump posted on Truth Social: “I don’t care! The only thing that matters to me is that Republicans get back to the main point.”

Lawmakers backing the bill expected a “flood of Republican votes” in support of it this week, predicting a major victory in the House that would override the party leadership and the president.

In his opposition to the proposal, Trump even called two Republican lawmakers who had signed it; one of them, Lauren Boebert of Colorado, met with U.S. government officials in the White House Situation Room last week to discuss the bill.

The legislation would require the U.S. Department of Justice to release all files and communications related to Epstein, as well as any information regarding investigations into his death in federal custody.

Information related to Epstein’s victims or ongoing federal investigations would be permitted to be redacted.

Thomas Massie, a Republican representative from Kentucky involved in discussing the legislation, said: “There may be 100 or more Republican votes; I hope that when the bill comes to the floor, we will have a veto-proof majority.”

Massie and Ro Khanna, a Democratic representative from California, had previously filed a discharge petition to force a vote on their bill—an instrument rarely successful, which allows a majority of House members to bypass the Speaker and compel a floor vote.

Mike Johnson, the Speaker of the House and a Republican from Louisiana, sharply criticized the discharge petition effort and sent members home early for recess after the Republican legislative agenda was derailed by the uproar over the Epstein vote.

Democrats have also claimed that the seat of Democrat Raúl Grijalva of Arizona was being delayed so that he could become the 218th signatory needed to reach the required threshold for the petition.

Recently, thousands of documents from the Epstein case were released, in which the names of Donald Trump and his associates appeared repeatedly.