Washington (AFP) – US President Donald Trump said Sunday he backed lawmakers’ efforts to release more files related to sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, despite previous opposition to the measure.
“House Republicans should vote to release the Epstein files, because we have nothing to hide,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform.
The 79-year-old Republican has accused Democrats of pushing an “Epstein hoax” after emails emerged in which the disgraced financier suggested Trump “knew about the girls.”
Some critics have accused Trump of trying to conceal details about his own alleged wrongdoing – something the president denies – by looking to block the vote.
The issue has divided his typically loyal Republican party and driven a rift between Trump and some of his closest allies within his Make America Great Again (MAGA) movement.
Over the weekend, Trump withdrew his endorsement for Congresswoman and MAGA stalwart Marjorie Taylor Greene’s 2026 re-election bid.
Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson has said he would hold a vote this week on a bid to force the Justice Department to release the remaining files relating to the Epstein probe.
“Some ‘members’ of the Republican Party are being ‘used,’ and we can’t let that happen,” Trump said in his post, in reference to lawmakers who backed a call by Democrats to release the files.
After the longest-ever US government shutdown ended last week, lawmakers in the US House of Representatives released a trove of emails obtained from Epstein’s estate.
In one, Epstein wrote that Trump “spent hours” with one of the victims at his house, and another referred to the president as “dirty.”
Democrats on the House Oversight Committee said the messages “raise serious questions about Donald Trump and his knowledge of Epstein’s horrific crimes.”
After the email trove’s release, Trump demanded Attorney General Pam Bondi and the FBI investigate links between Epstein and ex-president Bill Clinton, a Democrat, along with former Harvard president Larry Summers, who served as Clinton’s treasury secretary.
The order for a probe comes even though the FBI and Justice Department said in a memo in July that they had not uncovered evidence that would justify an investigation of uncharged third parties.
With the help of Ghislaine Maxwell, who acted as a recruiter, Epstein brought underage girls to his residences – notably in New York and Florida – where they were sexually abused, often under the guise of providing erotic massages.
Before Epstein died in prison in 2019 while awaiting trial in a pedophile trafficking case, he had been required to register as a sex offender in Florida after pleading guilty in 2008 to solicitation of prostitution, including from a minor.
Trump’s conspiracy-minded supporters have been obsessed with the Epstein case for years and have been furious since the FBI and Justice Department said on July 7 that Epstein had killed himself while in jail, did not blackmail any prominent figures and did not keep a “client list.”
No he’s not. He ordered new Justice Department investigation days before that by law blocks release of the files related to the investigation. It’s a typical politcal grift.
This means they finally finished scrubbing his name in the documents they are going to release.
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/11/14/us/politics/trump-epstein-inquiry-democrats.html
The files are now part of a new investigation. The release will be blocked because of it and he knows it.
and half the shit is probably full on redacted with ±5% not being blacked out.
which is funny because I didn’t think republican’ts liked black.
Still can’t believe we lost Al Franken meanwhile shit like this was going on. Are you fucking kidding.
It’s because some Democrat politicians still have ethics. No republican politician does.
Ah! He’s still alive. Got it! I had to search to see if he had passed away. I totally had forgotten that he was accused of groping.
Sorry for my poor wording lol.
High odds he’s ok with it now because what will be released is a “cleaned” version. We can’t trust much of anything from this admin.
Correct. There wont be an R on the list. Just black lines and Dems.
Either that or he uses his one single vote FOR to make headlines while telling all his BJ buddies to vote AGAINST
This
You kill bills quietly in the Senate not the Houe
Still surprising to see people are not yet used to and fully expecting this. It’s so common practice everywhere in the world… Because mainstream media reporting is dogshit pretty much universally…
I’m now a bit worried of the controversy with those who have witnessed them doing a he-said/she-said.
I doubt the witnesses were allowed to make copies; so they could potentially blame people’s memory.
The other possibility is it implicates a LOT of people, and with his scandal out Trump needs ammo on opponents.
The victims got together and made their own list.
There’s also dozens of copies across multiple law firms at this point.
You should be very certain that he will support any efforts by Mike Johnson to block anything incriminating about him. It’s fake support.
i.e. his cronies stayed up all weekend with black sharpie markers and gave him the thumbs up.
At this point I’m not even thinking black sharpie, I’m thinking full on altered fraudulent documents, is he miraculously flips
I think this is a desperate Hail Mary. That fucker has been banging the “democrat hoax” line and hopes this bolsters his case. Because the criminal occupying office is going to be all over the files and he’s desperately hoping he can convince his base the entire thing is made up by dems. It will absolutely work for the cult so it really just depends on how many true believers are left in positions of power.
Nah, he’s on board because his cronies have removed him from the files.
Why not both? And also he will be prevented from releasing them while there’s an “active investigation”
Way too late. The estate documents will likely reveal a huge coverup.
“Wait! I know! I’ll say I want them released and then everyone will think I’m not in them and not release them. It’s genius! Genius I tell you!”
That or he’s formed concepts of a plan to deflect
Not “in reversal”, it’s “in denial”.
