Topline
President Donald Trump on Sunday night said House Republicans should vote to release the government’s files on convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, marking a shift in tone after the president repeatedly dismissed the issue, claiming it was a “hoax” perpetrated by Democrats, and publicly attacked Republican lawmakers pushing for their release.
President Donald Trump speaks to reporters before boarding Air Force One at Palm Beach International Airport in West Palm Beach, Florida.
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Key Facts
In a post on Truth Social, Trump wrote: “House Republicans should vote to release the Epstein files, because we have nothing to hide.”
Reiterating his “hoax” claims, Trump added: “It’s time to move on from this Democrat Hoax perpetrated by Radical Left Lunatics in order to deflect from the Great Success of the Republican Party, including our recent Victory on the Democrat ‘Shutdown.’”
The president said the Justice Department is looking at “various Democrat operatives (Bill Clinton, Reid Hoffman, Larry Summers, etc.) and their relationship to Epstein,” and the House Oversight Committee can have access to “whatever they are legally entitled to, I DON’T CARE!”
Trump wrote: “Nobody cared about Jeffrey Epstein when he was alive and, if the Democrats had anything, they would have released it before our Landslide Election Victory.”
Tangent
The Epstein files issue has triggered fissures in the MAGA movement and several Republican lawmakers have publicly broken with Trump on the matter, triggering the president’s ire. Trump’s post took a swipe at these GOP leaders, saying: “Some ‘members’ of the Republican Party are being ‘used,’ and we can’t let that happen. Let’s start talking about the Republican Party’s Record Setting Achievements, and not fall into the Epstein ‘TRAP,’ which is actually a curse on the Democrats, not us.”