US President Donald Trump has called on House Republicans to vote to release the Epstein files, in a reversal from his previous position.
“House Republicans should vote to release the Epstein files, because we have nothing to hide,” Trump wrote on Truth Social on Sunday night.
The major shift in Trump’s stance comes as potentially dozens of Republicans signalled they were willing to break ranks, and vote for the release of the documents.
The House is expected to vote this week on legislation that would compel the justice department to publicly release the files. Supporters of the bill appear to have enough votes for it to pass the House, though it is unclear whether it would pass the Senate.
Trump would also have to sign off on the release of the documents if it passes both chambers.
Both Democrats and some Republicans have been backing the legislation. Republican Representative Thomas Massie, a co-sponsor of the bill, said in an interview with ABC News on Sunday that as many as 100 Republicans could vote in favour.
Known as the Epstein Files Transparency Act, the aim of the bill is to make the justice department release all unclassified records, documents, communications, and investigative materials linked to paedophile financier Jeffrey Epstein.
Trump posted the statement shortly after landing at Joint Base Andrews following a weekend in Florida.
“The Department of Justice has already turned over tens of thousands of pages to the Public on “Epstein,” are looking at various Democrat operatives (Bill Clinton, Reid Hoffman, Larry Summers, etc.) and their relationship to Epstein, and the House Oversight Committee can have whatever they are legally entitled to, I DON’T CARE!,” Trump wrote, adding that he wanted Republicans to get “BACK ON POINT”.
Trump’s reference to Clinton comes after the US justice department confirmed it will investigate Epstein’s alleged links to major banks and several prominent Democrats, including former US President Bill Clinton.
Trump said he would ask Attorney General Pam Bondi and the FBI to look into Epstein’s “involvement and relationship” with Clinton and others.
Clinton has strongly denied he had any knowledge of Epstein’s crimes.
Trump’s reversal comes after Democrats on the House Oversight Committee last week published three email exchanges, including correspondence between Epstein, who died in 2019 in prison, and his long-time associate Ghislaine Maxwell, who is currently serving a 20-year prison sentence for sex trafficking.
Some of those exchanges make references to Trump. In one email, sent in 2011, Epstein writes to Maxwell: “I want you to realize that that dog that hasn’t barked is Trump.. [VICTIM] spent hours at my house with him.”
Hours after the release of those exchanges, House Republicans released a far larger tranche of 20,000 files to counter what they said was a Democratic effort to “cherry-pick” documents. They also said it was an attempt to “create a fake narrative to slander President Trump”.
The House of Representatives then announced there would be a vote next week on a much wider release of Epstein material.
In his comments on Sunday night, Trump repeated White House dismissals of the Epstein files as a Democrat-led “hoax”. His post came after House Speaker Mike Johnson suggested in comments to Fox News that a vote on releasing the documents would put to rest allegations that Trump had any connection to Epstein’s abuse and trafficking of teenage children.
Trump and Republican congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene, traditionally one of his fiercest defenders, have been feuding publicly over the files.
On Friday, Trump called Greene “wacky” in social media posts and said she should be unseated in next year’s elections. On Saturday, he called her a “traitor”.
Greene in turn questioned whether Trump was still putting “America First” and criticised his handling of the Epstein files.
In a letter addressed to Congress, Epstein survivors and the family of Virginia Giuffre – a prominent Epstein accuser – called for US lawmakers to vote in favour of releasing the files.
“Remember that your primary duty is to your constituents. Look into the eyes of your children, your sisters, your mothers, and your aunts,” the letter reads.
“Imagine if they had been preyed upon. Imagine if you yourself were a survivor. What would you want for them? What would you want for yourself? When you vote, we will remember your decision at the ballot box.”