Women who say they were abused by disgraced financier and sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein raise their hands as attorney Bradley Edwards speaks at a news conference outside the U.S. Capitol on September 3, 2025 in Washington. (Photo: Andrew Harnik/Getty Images)
WASHINGTON – President Donald Trump abruptly changed his mind Sunday evening, ordering House Republicans to vote on a bill requiring the Justice Department to release all records related to its investigation of sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, who died in prison in 2019 while awaiting federal trial.
In a post on his social media platform Truth Social, Trump wrote: “House Republicans should vote to release the Epstein files because we have nothing to hide, and it’s time to move on from this Democrat scam perpetrated by radical leftist lunatics to divert attention from the great success of the Republican Party, including our recent victory to ‘shut down’ the Democratic Party.”
Trump continued, using his trademark arbitrary all-caps style: “The Department of Justice has already released tens of thousands of pages on ‘Epstein’ to the public, is looking into various Democratic operatives (Bill Clinton, Reid Hoffman, Larry Summers, etc.) and their connections to Epstein, and the House Oversight Committee can have whatever it is legally entitled to, I DON’T CARE!”
The House is expected to vote on Tuesday after a bipartisan vote application for dismissal collected 218 signatures last week, prompting House Speaker Mike Johnson of Louisiana to file a motion Bill to the floor, which would force the Justice Department to release materials from the Epstein investigation.
It’s unclear whether Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-D., would bring the bill to a vote in the GOP-controlled chamber.
Thomas Massie of Kentucky co-sponsored the petition with Representative Ro Khanna of California. Three other House Republicans, Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia, Nancy Mace of South Carolina and Lauren Boebert of Colorado, joined in on all Democrats’ signatures.
The newest House Democrat, Adelita Grijalva of Arizona, submitted her 218th signature after being elected sworn in Wednesday by Johnson, after weeks in which the chamber was out of session. Johnson refused to take the oath of office in Grijalva until the government shutdown, breaking precedent for up-to-date members to be sworn in after the chamber closed.
Johnson was not in favor of the vote, but rather pointed to the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform’s ongoing investigation into the Epstein documents.
On Wednesday, committee Republicans released more than 20,000 pages of Epstein’s emails, many of which included Trump’s name.
The committee, headed by Rep. James Comer, R-Ky., released a massive collection of emails from Epstein’s estate after Democrats on the panel released a selection of correspondence alleging that Trump “knew about the girls because he asked Ghislaine to stop.”
Epstein was referring to Ghislaine Maxwell, his co-conspirator who was later convicted on federal sex trafficking charges.
Emails and calls
Trump denies any connection to Epstein’s alleged crimes and has stated that he did he fired Epstein his private club Mar-a-Lago in Florida because Epstein extorted youthful female employees from the club. Epstein was convicted in Florida for soliciting sex from a minor in 2008.
Trump had a well-documented friendship with Epstein, who surrounded himself with the wealthy and powerful.
Committee Republicans did not respond Wednesday to States Newsroom’s request for comment on how long the committee has had the emails and the timing of their data dump.
The Commission has garden under the shop several people associated with the investigation, including Maxwell, several former U.S. attorneys general and former President Bill Clinton and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
In July, Trump sent Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche, who is also the president’s former personal attorney, to interrogate Maxwell in a Florida prison.
According to transcriptionsMaxwell told Blanche that she “never witnessed the president being in an inappropriate environment. The president never acted inappropriately towards anyone. During the time I was with him, he was a gentleman in every respect.”
It wasn’t long before Maxwell was there moved to a minimum security prison in Texas, and House Democrats claimed this month that he was a whistleblower revealed a convicted sex offender was “pampered” by the warden. House Democrats also claimed that a whistleblower revealed that Maxwell was preparing a leniency request for Trump to be released from his 20-year sentence.
FBI memo
The FBI released its July report note stating that the Justice Department would not release any further information about the government’s sex trafficking investigation into Epstein.
The statement sparked a firestorm of demands this summer for all investigative materials, even among Trump supporters in Congress and influential members of the far-right media. including Megyn Kelly and the slow Charlie Kirk.
Trump promised during the campaign that he would release the files.
Since the FBI memo, Trump’s past relationship with Epstein has come under a microscope.
The president sued The Wall Street Journal for reporting on the 50th anniversary birthday card Trump allegedly gave to Epstein. The card included a cryptic message and a doodle of a naked woman with Trump’s signature imitating pubic hair. Trump denies creating and signing the birthday doodle.
The diary too reported that Attorney General Pam Bondi informed the president in May that his name was in the Epstein case file. The context in which his name appeared is unclear.
Trump denied all reports.
AND number In the Miami Herald in 2018, journalist Julie K. Brown drew extensive attention to Epstein’s crimes and Trump’s 2017 appointment of former Miami federal prosecutor Alex Acosta, who in 2008 reached an agreement ending the federal investigation into Epstein, as labor secretary.
