President Trump signed legislation Wednesday that compels his administration to release files on convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, bowing to political pressure from his own party after initially resisting those efforts. Trump could have chosen to release many of the files on his own months ago, the AP notes.
- In a lengthy Truth Social post, Trump wrote: "Jeffrey Epstein, who was charged by the Trump Justice Department in 2019 (Not the Democrats!), was a lifelong Democrat, donated Thousands of Dollars to Democrat Politicians, and was deeply associated with many well-known Democrat figures, such as Bill Clinton (who traveled on his plane 26 times), Larry Summers (who just resigned from many Boards, including Harvard), Sleazebag Political Activist Reid Hoffman, Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (who asked Epstein to donate to his Campaign AFTER Epstein was charged), Democrat Congresswoman Stacey Plaskett, and many more. Perhaps the truth about these Democrats, and their associations with Jeffrey Epstein, will soon be revealed, because I HAVE JUST SIGNED THE BILL TO RELEASE THE EPSTEIN FILES!"
- "As everyone knows, I asked Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, and Senate Majority Leader John Thune, to pass this Bill in the House and Senate, respectively," Trump wrote. "Because of this request, the votes were almost unanimous in favor of passage." He accused Democrats of using the Epstein issue to distract from his administration's "AMAZING Victories" and predicted: "This latest Hoax will backfire on the Democrats just as all of the rest have!"
The bill requires the Justice Department to release all files and communications related to Epstein, as well as any information about the investigation into his death in a federal prison in 2019, within 30 days. It allows for redactions about Epstein's victims for ongoing federal investigations, but DOJ cannot withhold information due to "embarrassment, reputational harm, or political sensitivity."
It was a remarkable turn of events for what was once a farfetched effort to force the disclosure of case files from an odd congressional coalition of Democrats, one GOP antagonist of the president, and a handful of erstwhile Trump loyalists. As recently as last week, the Trump administration even summoned one Republican proponent of releasing the files, Rep. Lauren Boebert of Colorado, to the Situation Room to discuss the matter, though she did not change her mind. But over the weekend, Trump did a sharp U-turn on the files once it became clear that congressional action was inevitable.
It's long been established that Trump had been friends with Epstein, the disgraced financier who was close to the world's elite, the AP reports. But the president has consistently said he did not know of Epstein's crimes and had cut ties with him long ago. Before Trump returned to the White House for a second term, some of his closest political allies helped fuel conspiracy theories about the government's handling of the Epstein case, asserting a cover-up of potentially incriminating information in those files.
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