US President Donald Trump on Sunday called on his Republican colleagues in Congress to vote on releasing files related to the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, retreating from the resistance he himself had previously shown.
Trump’s demonstration at Truth Social came after House Speaker Mike Johnson said he believed a vote on Justice Department documents related to the Epstein case would help put an end to allegations that Trump had any connection to Epstein’s abuse and trafficking of minors.
“House Republicans must vote to release the Epstein files because we have nothing to hide,” Trump wrote Sunday night. “It is time to move past this Democratic hoax, perpetrated by lunatics on the radical left to distract from the great success of the Republican Party, including our recent victory over the shutdown of Democratic government.”
Although Trump and Epstein have been photographed together for decades, the president claims the two had a falling out before Epstein’s conviction. Emails released by a House committee last week showed that the disgraced financier believed Trump “knew about the girls,” although the exact meaning of that phrase remains unclear.
Trump, who recently dismissed the Epstein files as part of a smear campaign by Democrats, ordered the Justice Department to investigate prominent Democrats’ ties to Epstein.
The dispute over the release of more documents — an issue that Trump himself has highlighted in his campaign — has led to a rift with some of his allies in Congress. Many of his most loyal supporters believe the government is withholding secret documents about Epstein, who died by suicide in prison in 2019, and that such records would expose the financier’s ties to powerful public figures.
Last Friday (14), Trump withdrew his support for Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene, from the state of Georgia, one of his closest allies, after she criticized Republicans on several issues, including the conduct of the process related to the Epstein files.
Rep. Ro Khanna, a California Democrat and one of the original authors of the ballot proposal, said Sunday that he expected more than 40 Republicans to support the measure.
Republicans control the majority in the House of Representatives, with 219 seats, compared to 214 for Democrats.
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