Trump
tells Republicans to vote to release Epstein files, in a reversal of his
previous stance
The US
president has said he backs US lawmakers efforts to release the files, ahead of
an expected House vote this week
Guardian
staff and agencies
Mon 17
Nov 2025 04.32 GMT
US
president Donald Trump has urged his fellow Republicans in Congress to vote for
the release of files related to the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey
Epstein, reversing his earlier resistance to such a move.
Trump’s
post on his Truth Social came after House speaker Mike Johnson said earlier
that he believed a vote on releasing justice department documents in the
Epstein case should help put to rest allegations “that he [Trump] has something
to do with it”.
Trump
wrote on his Truth Social platform on Sunday: “House Republicans should vote to
release the Epstein files, because we have nothing to hide.
“And 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’” he said.
Although
Trump and Epstein were photographed together decades ago, the president has
said the two men fell out before Epstein’s convictions. Emails released last
week by a House committee showed the disgraced financier, who died by suicide
in jail in 2019, believed Trump “knew about the girls,” though it was not clear
what that phrase meant.
Trump,
who has recently dismissed the Epstein files as a Democratic smear campaign,
has since instructed the justice department to investigate prominent Democrats’
ties to Epstein.
Some
critics have accused Trump of trying to conceal details – something the
president denies – by looking to block the vote, which has divided his
typically loyal Republican party.
“The
House Oversight Committee can have whatever they are legally entitled to, I
DON’T CARE! All I do care about is that Republicans get BACK ON POINT, which is
the Economy, “Affordability”, Trump wrote on Truth Social.
On Sunday
Republican congressman Thomas Massie challenged Trump over whether the
president was making a “last-ditch effort” to keep the full files on Epstein
from becoming public by ordering a fresh investigation.
Massie
and Democratic congressman Ro Khanna, the two US representatives leading the
bipartisan push to make all the files held by the government public both raised
concerns about the latest actions by the White House.
Speaking
on ABC’s This Week, Massie criticised Trump for ordering attorney general Pam
Bondi on Friday to examine Democrats with ties to Epstein.
Trump
late on Friday withdrew his support for US representative Marjorie Taylor
Greene of Georgia, long one of his staunchest supporters in Congress, following
her criticism of Republicans on certain issues, including the handling of the
Epstein files.
Khanna,
an original sponsor of the petition calling for a vote on the files’ release,
said on Sunday that he expected more than 40 Republicans to vote in favor.
Republicans
hold the majority in the House, with 219 seats, versus 214 for Democrats.
With
Agence France-Presse
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