The US House of Representatives is expected to vote on Tuesday to force the release of investigative files related to pedophile Jeffrey Epstein, the latest move in a scandal that has dogged Donald Trump since he returned to the White House.
In a sharp reversal this weekend, Trump dropped his opposition to the bill that releases documents from the justice department’s criminal investigation into Epstein and said he would sign the measure if it reached his desk.
“Today is the first day of real reckoning for the Epstein class,” Democratic congressman Ro Khanna, a cosponsor of the legislation, said at a press conference.
Calling Epstein and his accomplices’ behavior “one of the most horrific and disgusting corruption scandals in our country’s history”, Khanna said: “Because survivors spoke up because of their courage, the truth is finally going to come out, and when it comes out, this country is really going to have a moral reckoning. How did we allow this to happen?”
Trump’s friendship with Epstein has been a long-running scandal in American politics as the late disgraced financier had links to many other rich and powerful figures in the US and overseas. As a candidate seeking re-election, Trump promised to release the files on Epstein, who, investigators concluded, killed himself in a New York jail cell in 2019. Since resuming office, Trump has failed to follow through.
The president’s dramatic shift came after it became increasingly apparent that the bill will pass the GOP-controlled House, most likely with significant support from Republican lawmakers. Trump in recent days changed his approach from outright opposition to declarations of indifference.
“I DON’T CARE!” the president wrote in a social media post on Sunday. “All I do care about is that Republicans get BACK ON POINT.”
Speaking in the Oval Office on Monday, Trump said he did not want the Epstein scandal to “deflect” from the White House’s successes, and claimed it was a “hoax” and “a Democrat problem”.
“We’ll give them everything,” he told reporters. “Let the Senate look at it, let anybody look at it, but don’t talk about it too much, because honestly, I don’t want to take it away from us.”
Thomas Massie, an iconoclastic Republican congressman who frequently defies Trump and joined with Khanna to pursue the files’ release, noted the president’s reversal on the Epstein issue.
“We fought the president, the attorney general, the FBI director, the speaker of the House and the vice president, to get this win,” he said. “Bu they’re on our side today, though, so let’s give them some credit as well.”
In July, Khanna and Massie turned to a procedural tactic known as a discharge petition to circumvent House leadership and compel a vote on their bill, the Epstein Files Transparency Act, if a majority of the 435-member House signs on.
House speaker Mike Johnson went to extraordinary lengths to avoid a vote on the the measure, which splintered his conference. Democrats accused the speaker of delaying the swearing-in of Arizona Democrat Adelita Grijalva to prevent her from becoming the decisive 218th signatory. She signed her name to the petition moments after officially taking office last week.
Following Trump’s reversal, several House Republicans, including close allies of the president, have publicly stated their intent to vote for the release of the files, raising the possibility that the measure could pass unanimously.
If the House approves the resolution, it would move to the Senate, which would also need to vote on it before sending it to Trump to sign. Republican Senate majority leader John Thune ’s office declined to comment on what he planned to do about the bill.
In an X post directed to Trump, Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer wrote: “Let’s make this easier. Just release the files now.”
Massie encouraged the Senate not to make changes to the bill beyond perhaps strengthening protections for survivors of Epstein’s alleged abuse. Any tweaks to its language would require the House to vote on the measure again.
“Do not muck it up in the Senate,” he said.
As president, Trump has the authority to order the justice department to release the documents in its possession, as he has previously done with the government records related to the assassinations of Martin Luther King and John F Kennedy.
Emails released last week by a House committee that has opened a separate inquiry into the scandal showed Epstein believed Trump “knew about the girls”, though it was not clear what that phrase meant. The White House said the released emails contained no proof of wrongdoing by Trump.
Last week, the president instructed the justice department to investigate prominent Democrats’ ties to Epstein. US attorney general Pam Bondi, who earlier this year said a review of the files revealed no further investigative leads, replied to Trump that she would get on it right away and has appointed a prosecutor to lead the effort.
The Epstein scandal is a core issue for a swathe of Trump’s rightwing base, some of whom believe in conspiracy theories that surround Epstein and his coterie of powerful friends and associates. Unlike many other issues, the Epstein files have prompted rebellions from Trump’s supporters in politics and the media, calling on him to follow through on his campaign promise to release them.
Meanwhile, several Epstein survivors have ramped up pressure on Congress and Trump to advance the measure.
“It’s time that we put the political agendas and party affiliations to the side. This is a human issue. This is about children,” survivor Haley Robson said at the press conference. “There is no place in society for exploitation, sexual crimes or exploitation of women.”
She then addressed her comments to Trump, saying: “While I do understand that your position has changed on the Epstein files, and I’m grateful that you have pledged to sign this bill, I can’t help to be skeptical of what the agenda is.”
On Monday night, activists projected an image of Trump and Epstein on to the justice department building, accompanied by the message: “Release the files now.”