{"id":290806,"date":"2025-11-18T10:34:08","date_gmt":"2025-11-18T10:34:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/290806\/"},"modified":"2025-11-18T10:34:08","modified_gmt":"2025-11-18T10:34:08","slug":"monday-briefing-how-trump-and-his-allies-flipped-and-flipped-again-on-the-epstein-files-jeffrey-epstein","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/290806\/","title":{"rendered":"Monday briefing: How Trump and his allies flipped and flipped again on the Epstein files | Jeffrey Epstein"},"content":{"rendered":"

Good morning. Leading Republicans were once full-throated in their calls for the release of every single scrap of information the US government might hold on the sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein<\/a> and his ties to the establishment.<\/p>\n

Years of Maga supporters entertaining the QAnon-fuelled frenzy of pizzagate conspiracies seemed to have pushed senior GOP figures in a direction where they believed publication of more information on the Epstein case would expose the Democratic party elite and the \u201cwokerati\u201d of Hollywood as vile sex fiends.<\/p>\n

That tone abruptly changed for some earlier this year, when Donald Trump<\/a> found himself back in the White House. Trump and his allies began to dismiss the files as a Democratic smear campaign, and their handling of the issue has divided his typically loyal Republican party.<\/p>\n

But after months of obfuscation \u2013 and accusations he was attempting to block the files from becoming public<\/a> \u2013 Trump appears to have reversed course, urging Republicans in Congress to vote for the release of the files<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Today\u2019s newsletter is all about how the change in rhetoric from four key figures has become one of the clearest examples of partisan whiplash in modern US politics. But first, your headlines.<\/p>\n

Five big stories<\/p>\n

Immigration | Refugees who have established lives<\/a> with homes and families in the UK \u2013 including Ukrainians \u2013 will face having to return if their home countries become safe, Shabana Mahmood, the home secretary, has said.<\/p>\n

BBC | The BBC should not pay any money to Donald Trump, the former BBC director general Tony Hall has said<\/a>. The US president has said he plans to sue the BBC for up to $5bn (\u00a33.8bn) despite receiving the apology he demanded over a misleading Panorama edit of his 6 January speech.<\/p>\n

Roman Abramovich | The former Chelsea owner is making a claim of \u201cconspiracy\u201d against the government of Jersey<\/a> after the crown dependency launched a criminal investigation into allegations of corruption and money laundering in connection with the original source of the oligarch\u2019s wealth.<\/p>\n

Cop30 | Brazil\u2019s environment minister, Marina Silva, has urged all countries to have the courage<\/a> to address the need for a fossil fuel phase-out, calling the drawing up of a roadmap for it an \u201cethical\u201d response to the climate crisis.<\/p>\n

Labour | Allies of Angela Rayner say the former deputy prime minister would be likely to run in any future leadership contest<\/a> and will seek to renew her public profile in the coming months.<\/p>\n

In depth: From \u2018full transparency\u2019 to shutdownJD Vance previously pushed for the Epstein files to be released \u2013 before reversing his position this year. Photograph: Jim Lo Scalzo\/EPA<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t understand why the Jeffrey Epstein case would be of interest to anybody. It\u2019s pretty boring stuff. It\u2019s sordid, but it\u2019s boring. I don\u2019t understand why it keeps going,\u201d Donald Trump said in July 2025, in one of the clearest signals that the US president was trying to shut down the story. But for something boring, Republicans have spent a lot of time talking about it over the years \u2013 and changed their tune in the process. That tune now looks set to change again.<\/p>\n

Vice-president JD Vance<\/p>\n

Then: \u201cWhat possible interest would the US government have in keeping Epstein\u2019s clients secret? Oh \u2026\u201d \u2013 JD Vance on Twitter in 2021.<\/p>\n

Now: \u201cForgive my language but this story is complete and utter bullshit\u201d \u2013 JD Vance on reports that Trump had contributed to Epstein\u2019s notorious 50th birthday book<\/a>.<\/p>\n

JD Vance has been put under pressure on the issue after online users resurfaced a tweet from 2021, which, as they say online, has aged like milk. Back in 2021, as his career was building momentum before becoming a senator in 2023 and vice-president in 2025, Vance was scathing about the Joe Biden administration\u2019s refusal to release documents.<\/p>\n

Fast forward to July 2025, when Republican lawmakers moved to block a Democratic effort to force the release of the Epstein files and, a month later, Vance was on the attack again \u2026 blaming the Democratic party for the failure to release information during the Biden administration.<\/p>\n

He told Fox News \u201cI laugh at the Democrats who are now all of a sudden so interested in the Epstein files. For four years, Joe Biden and the Democrats did absolutely nothing about this story. Now President Trump has demanded full transparency on this, and yet somehow the Democrats are attacking him.\u201d<\/p>\n

That \u201cfull transparency\u201d has not, however, led to the release of all the documentation being held.<\/p>\n

Attorney general Pam Bondi<\/p>\n

Then: \u201cIt\u2019s sitting on my desk right now to review\u201d \u2013 when asked in a Fox News interview<\/a> whether Epstein\u2019s client list would be released in February 2025.<\/p>\n

Now: \u201cThis systematic review revealed no incriminating \u2018client list\u2019\u201d \u2013 unsigned memo<\/a> from Bondi\u2019s DoJ, July 2025.<\/p>\n

Pam Bondi, Trump\u2019s attorney general, has endured a torrid year dealing with Epstein-related queries. In February she brazenly claimed she had Epstein\u2019s fabled \u201cclient list\u201d on her desk for review, implying it would be made public. When she did authorise the release of a cache of Epstein files, they mostly consisted of material that was already in the public domain, dismaying rightwing influencers. Then in July came the DoJ memo that, after an exhaustive review, it would not be releasing further documents.<\/p>\n

Bondi was hauled before a Senate judiciary committee hearing in October, where she leaned into a familiar Republican playbook. If in doubt, blame the Biden administration. She specifically accused 80-year-old Illinois senator Dick Durbin of taking money from Epstein\u2019s friends, and as he tried to probe what might be in the files that the DoJ and FBI have kept secret and whether they might mention the president, Bondi said \u201cYou sit here and make salacious remarks, once again, trying to slander President Trump left and right, when you\u2019re the one who was taking money from one of Epstein\u2019s closest confidantes.\u201d<\/p>\n

President Donald Trump<\/p>\n

2024: \u201cYeah, yeah, I would\u201d \u2013 Trump, when asked on Fox News<\/a> if he would declassify the Epstein files.<\/p>\n

July 2025: \u201c[The Democrats] new SCAM is what we will forever call the Jeffrey Epstein Hoax, and my PAST supporters have bought into this \u2018bullshit,\u2019 hook, line, and sinker.\u201d \u2013 Trump, on TruthSocial<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Today: \u201cHouse Republicans should vote to release the Epstein files, because we have nothing to hide.\u201d \u2013 Trump, on TruthSocial<\/a><\/p>\n

Perhaps the ultimate Damascene conversion has been that of Trump himself. In the 80s and 90s the pair were friends. They were caught on camera partying at Mar-a-Lago, Epstein attended Trump\u2019s wedding, and flight logs released as evidence in Ghislaine Maxwell\u2019s trial place Trump on Epstein\u2019s private jet. As Virginia Giuffre painfully outlined in her memoir<\/a>, Epstein met her at Trump\u2019s Mar-a-Lago, where she was working. She would go on to be trafficked by Epstein and Maxwell, and accused both Epstein and the then Prince Andrew of sexual assault. \u201cTerrific guy,\u201d Trump said in 2002. Epstein died in prison in August 2019, during Trump\u2019s first presidency, while Andrew denies the allegations.<\/p>\n

Throughout his first term and again on the 2024 campaign trail, Trump leaned hard into the conspiratorial fervour around Epstein\u2019s death \u2013 musing aloud that he might have been killed, amplifying theories implicating Bill Clinton, and repeatedly suggesting that \u201cthe truth\u201d would emerge once he was back in the Oval Office.<\/p>\n

That swagger evaporated the moment the justice department informed him that his own name appeared in the government\u2019s material. Promises of declassification gave way to furious attempts to shut the story down, culminating in Trump branding the entire saga a \u201cDemocratic hoax\u201d and lashing out at supporters still pressing for answers. It was a spectacular pivot: from the man urging radical transparency to the president insisting everyone stop looking as there was nothing to see.<\/p>\n

And then on Sunday he flipped again, writing on his Truth Social platform: \u201cHouse Republicans should vote to release the Epstein files, because we have nothing to hide. And it\u2019s time to move on from this Democrat Hoax perpetrated by Radical Left Lunatics.\u201d<\/p>\n

Republican congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene<\/p>\n

Then: \u201cI want to see the Epstein list\u201d \u2013 MTG<\/a> in December 2024.<\/p>\n

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Now: \u201cIf they want to give me a list, I will walk in the Capitol on the House floor, and I\u2019ll say every damn name that abused these women\u201d \u2013 MTG<\/a> in September 2025.<\/p>\n

It is rare for prominent Maga voices to break with Trump. The exception that proves the rule is Marjorie Taylor Greene. One of Maga\u2019s most outspoken figures, she has stuck to her guns. Alongside Lauren Boebert and Nancy Mace, she has joined with Democratic representatives in the house to try to force further document releases, and pledged to say the names of anyone the documents claim abused women under Epstein\u2019s control. Trump and Greene exchanged barbs across social media<\/a> over the weekend \u2013 a spat that looks even odder now that Trump has re-adopted her position.<\/p>\n

Whether it is Clinton<\/a>, Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor<\/a>, or the extremely litigious Trump<\/a>, all the men linked to the Epstein case strongly deny any wrongdoing.<\/p>\n

What else we\u2019ve been readingSeeing the Upside \u2026 Stranger Things. Photograph: Netflix<\/p>\n

A three-year wait for a season of television \u2013 it better be worth it. The creators and stars of Stranger Things talk to Rebecca Nicholson<\/a> and weigh in on the making of the final episodes of the blockbuster Netflix series. Toby, newsletters team<\/p>\n

I sometimes ponder what it would have been like being in my 20s in the 1990s if social media existed then, and shudder. In Dazed, Laura Pitcher writes<\/a> about the horror of suddenly going viral in your 20s for looking \u201cold\u201d, and how it plays into longstanding brutal stereotypes about ageing in women. Martin<\/p>\n

Simon Tisdall lays out the case<\/a> for considering the US a rogue state, pointing to the Trump administration\u2019s extra-judicial killing of those it accuses of drug smuggling in the Caribbean. Toby<\/p>\n

There is no Doctor Who Christmas special this year \u2013 booooooo! \u2013 but there is a spin-off show featuring Russell Tovey coming in December. Tovey is the subject of Michael Cragg\u2019s big interview<\/a>, talking about pride, sexual power and politics. Martin<\/p>\n

Jenny Kleeman\u2019s remarkable story<\/a> about the female prison officers who get into sexual relationships with prisoners is both illuminating and depressing portrait of Britain\u2019s rundown penal system. Toby<\/p>\n

SportHarry Kane scores for England. Photograph: Michael Regan\/The FA\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

Football | Harry Kane, pictured above, scored two<\/a> as England secured a 100% record in their qualification for next year\u2019s World Cup with a 2-0 win over Albania. Elsewhere, Troy Parrott\u2019s hat-trick<\/a>, the last scored deep in injury time, gave Ireland a 3-2 win in Hungary to give them a place the play-offs.<\/p>\n

Tennis | Jannik Sinner closed out his immense season with a statement victory<\/a> over Carlos Alcaraz, putting together a supreme performance to defeat the Spaniard 7-6 (4), 7-5 and successfully defend his title at the ATP Finals in Turin.<\/p>\n

Rugby union | George Ford has called on England<\/a> to make sure their 33-19 victory against the All Blacks is not a false dawn after Steve Borthwick\u2019s side extended their winning run to 10 matches.<\/p>\n

The front pages Photograph: The Guardian<\/p>\n

\u201cMost sweeping reforms to asylum rules in a generation to be unveiled\u201d says the Guardian. The Times leads with \u201cFirst states face visa ban in migrant returns push\u201d while the i paper has \u201cAsylum seekers face 20-year wait to settle in UK \u2013 as new protests held at migrant site\u201d. \u201cLawyers and Labour MPs to torpedo Mahmood\u2019s asylum plan\u201d \u2013 is the Mail\u2019s take, and the Telegraph has \u201cTake back migrants or face visa ban\u201d. The Mirror splashes on \u201cGet him off our islands\u201d, detailing Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor\u2019s PR slide in the Falklands. The FT has \u201cTrump trade negotiator lashes out at Europe over delays in reducing tariffs\u201d and the Sun runs with \u201cNowhere to hide\u201d in reference to the German man Christian B and Madeleine McCann.<\/p>\n

Today in FocusUK prime minister Keir Starmer and Denmark\u2019s prime minister Mette Frederiksen. Photograph: Henry Nicholls\/AFP\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

Why Labour is going Danish on immigration<\/p>\n

The home secretary, Shabana Mahmood, is expected to announce a radical overhaul<\/a> of the UK\u2019s asylum and immigration system, modelled in part on what Denmark has done over the past decade. Danish journalist Nilas Heinskou explains what these policies have entailed, why they have proved popular, and whether they could be replicated in the UK. Helen Pidd reports.<\/p>\n

Cartoon of the day | Ella Baron Illustration: Ella Baron\/The GuardianThe Upside<\/p>\n

A bit of good news to remind you that the world\u2019s not all bad<\/p>\n

Hurricane Melissa at category 2 strength on 30 October 2025 in the Atlantic Ocean. Photograph: Goes-19\/Cira\/Noaa\/Planet Pix\/ZUMA Press Wire\/Shutterstock<\/p>\n

As the climate crisis continues unabated, extreme weather is becoming an increasingly every day part of life. The death and destruction caused by Hurricane Melissa in Jamaica was one such example. But it could have been so much worse. When then Tropical Storm Melissa was churning south of Haiti, Philippe Papin, a National Hurricane Center (NHC) meteorologist, predicted that in just 24 hours the storm would become a category 4 hurricane and begin a turn towards the coast of Jamaica. He was able to make such a bold prediction thanks to Google\u2019s DeepMind AI, and it likely gave people precious time to prepare and get safe<\/a>. \u201cI\u2019m impressed,\u201d said James Franklin, a retired NHC forecaster. \u201cThe sample is now large enough that it\u2019s pretty clear [the success of AI forecasts] is not a case of beginner\u2019s luck.\u201d It could provide a vital tool to protect vulnerable populations.<\/p>\n

Sign up here<\/a> for a weekly roundup of The Upside, sent to you every Sunday<\/p>\n

Bored at work?<\/p>\n

And finally, the Guardian\u2019s puzzles are here to keep you entertained throughout the day. Until tomorrow.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Good morning. Leading Republicans were once full-throated in their calls for the release of every single scrap of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":290807,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[43,44,41,39,42,40],"class_list":{"0":"post-290806","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-headlines","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-top-news","11":"tag-top-stories","12":"tag-topnews","13":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/290806","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=290806"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/290806\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/290807"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=290806"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=290806"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=290806"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}