US President Donald Trump said he will sign a new bill that forces the Justice Department to release all files linked to Jeffrey Epstein, but only if the bill clears both the House and the Senate. Speaking to reporters in the Oval Office, Trump said, “We have nothing to do with Epstein. The Democrats do, all of his friends were Democrats.” The House is expected to vote tomorrow, according to Speaker Mike Johnson.
A day before, Trump took the biggest U-turn on the Epstein file release, posting on Truth Social shortly after reports suggested he might have been holding up the vote. In his long post, Trump said Republicans should vote to release the files because “we have nothing to hide.”
‘Sure I would’: Trump says he would sign bill to release Epstein files
Interacting with the press on Monday, Trump repeated that the Republican Party has been unfairly dragged into the Epstein conversation. He reminded reporters that the Justice Department has already released 50,000 pages of documents. “We have nothing to do with Epstein. The Democrats do, all of his friends were Democrats,” he told reporters, according to NBC.
He called the new fixation on Epstein a “Russia, Russia, Russia hoax” aimed at Republicans, and said several Democrats were now being “looked at very seriously” over their ties to Epstein. “It’s just a Russia, Russia, Russia hoax as it pertains to the Republicans. Now, I believe that many of the people that we, some of the people that we mentioned are being looked at very seriously for their relationship to Jeffrey Epstein, but they were with him all the time. I wasn’t. I wasn’t at all, and we’ll see what happens.” He continued, “I wasn’t with him,” Trump said. “They were with him all the time.”
When asked directly if he would sign the bill, Trump finally said, “Sure, I would. Let the Senate look at it. Let anybody look at it.”
Trump doesn’t want Epstein story to ‘distract’ Republicans
Trump made it clear he doesn’t want the Epstein issue to overshadow the Republican Party’s recent successes. The POTUS claimed he wants the public to “recognise a great job that I’ve done on pricing, on affordability, because we brought prices way down, but they’re going way lower on energy, on ending eight wars and another one coming pretty soon.”
“I don’t want Epstein to take away from us,” he said. “It’s really a Democrat problem.”
Mike Johnson confirms: Epstein vote is happening
House Speaker Mike Johnson said the vote to compel the Justice Department to release the Epstein files will take place “tomorrow afternoon.” He did not say what time. When asked whether he personally supports the bill, Johnson replied, “You’ll know tomorrow.”
On whether Trump should release the files himself, Johnson said, “He’s for maximum transparency and full release. I’m not sure what else he could say.”
Earlier, in his long post, Trump said Republicans should vote to release and that the entire issue is a “Democrat hoax” designed to distract from Republican victories. He listed several top Democrats he believes are being investigated over their ties to Epstein, including Bill Clinton, Reid Hoffman and Larry Summers. He added that the House Oversight Committee could access all documents they are “legally entitled” to.
He wrote, “All I care about is that Republicans get back on point… we are winning big on affordability, bringing down prices, rebuilding our military, securing our border, deporting criminal illegal aliens, ending men in women’s sports, and more.”
He also suggested Democrats would have released any damaging material before the “landslide election victory,” and warned that some Republican lawmakers were being “used.”
