In a reversal, President Trump says Home Republicans ought to vote to launch the Jeffrey Epstein recordsdata.
In a put up on his Fact Social platform late Sunday evening, Mr. Trump wrote, “As I stated on Friday evening aboard Air Drive One to the Pretend Information Media, Home Republicans ought to vote to launch the Epstein recordsdata, as a result of we now have nothing to cover, and it is time to transfer on from this Democrat Hoax perpetrated by Radical Left Lunatics with a view to deflect from the Nice Success of the Republican Celebration, together with our current Victory on the Democrat “Shutdown.”
The president had been opposing the discharge of the recordsdata.
He has beforehand stated he minimize ties with Epstein years in the past, and he has not been accused of wrongdoing.
Home GOP leaders are aiming to carry a vote Tuesday on laws to drive the complete launch of the Justice Division’s recordsdata on Epstein, sources conversant in the vote inform CBS.
All Democrats and 4 Republican Home members final week efficiently introduced a petition to the ground to drive a vote to launch the complete Justice Division recordsdata on Epstein, circumventing GOP leaders. Home Speaker Mike Johnson stated the vote will occur this week.
The invoice, titled the Epstein Recordsdata Transparency Act, was first launched in July by Democratic Rep. Ro Khanna of California and Republican Rep. Thomas Massie of Kentucky as strain intensified on the Trump administration to launch extra Epstein-related recordsdata.
The bipartisan laws requires the discharge of paperwork referring to all investigations into Epstein and his affiliate Ghislaine Maxwell, who was convicted of intercourse trafficking in 2021. The invoice would compel the discharge of flight logs, journey data, names of people and entities referenced in any Epstein case and inside Justice Division communications inside 30 days of the laws’s passage. It could additionally make public any data “in regards to the destruction, deletion, alteration, misplacement, or concealment of paperwork, recordings, or digital information” associated to Epstein and his associates, in addition to documentation about his demise.
Epstein died by suicide in 2019 at a Manhattan correctional facility whereas awaiting trial on intercourse trafficking expenses.
“I consider we’ll get 40, 50 Republicans voting with us on the discharge,” Khanna informed reporters Wednesday. “And if we get that type of overwhelming vote, that is going to push the Senate, and it is going to push for a launch of the recordsdata from the Justice Division.”
It is unclear if the Senate would take it up if it clears the Home.
Final week, the Home Oversight Committee launched greater than 20,000 pages of paperwork from Epstein’s property. They included emails exchanged between Epstein and others about President Trump, who on Friday referred to as on the Justice Division and the FBI to analyze Epstein’s involvement with outstanding Democrats, together with former President Invoice Clinton and main monetary establishments.
