By KEVIN FREKING and CHRIS MEGERIAN, Related Press
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump stated Home Republicans ought to vote to launch the recordsdata within the Jeffrey Epstein case, a startling reversal after beforehand combating the proposal as a rising variety of these in his personal occasion supported it.
“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,” Trump wrote on social media late Sunday after touchdown at Joint Base Andrews following a weekend in Florida.
Trump’s assertion adopted a fierce struggle throughout the GOP over the recordsdata, together with an more and more nasty cut up with Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, who had lengthy been certainly one of his fiercest supporters.
The president’s shift is an implicit acknowledgement that supporters of the measure have sufficient votes to go it the Home, though it has an unclear future within the Senate.
It’s a uncommon instance of Trump backtracking due to opposition throughout the GOP. In his return to workplace and in his second time period as president, Trump has largely consolidated energy within the Republican Occasion.
“I DON’T CARE!” Trump wrote in his social media submit. “All I do care about is that Republicans get BACK ON POINT.”
Lawmakers who help the invoice have been predicting a giant win within the Home this week with a “deluge of Republicans” voting for it, bucking the GOP management and the president.
In his opposition to the proposal, Trump even reached out to 2 of the Republican lawmakers who signed it. One, Colorado Rep. Lauren Boebert, met final week with administration officers within the White Home Scenario Room to debate it.
The invoice would pressure the Justice Division to launch all recordsdata and communications associated to Epstein, in addition to any details about the investigation into his dying in federal jail. Details about Epstein’s victims or ongoing federal investigations can be allowed to be redacted.
FILE – Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., speaks as FBI Director Kash Patel seems earlier than the Home Judiciary Committee, on Capitol Hill in Washington, Sept. 17, 2025. (AP Photograph/Mark Schiefelbein, File)
Massie and Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Calif., launched a discharge petition in July to pressure a vote on their invoice. That could be a not often profitable software that permits a majority of members to bypass Home management and pressure a flooring vote.
Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., had panned the discharge petition effort and despatched members residence early for his or her August recess when the GOP’s legislative agenda was upended within the clamoring for an Epstein vote. Democrats additionally contend the seating of Rep. Adelita Grijalva, D-Ariz., was stalled to delay her turning into the 218th member to signal the petition and acquire the brink wanted to pressure a vote. She turned the 218th signature moments after taking the oath of workplace final week.
Massie stated Johnson, Trump and others who’ve been important of his efforts can be “taking a big loss this week.”
“I’m not tired of winning yet, but we are winning,” Massie stated.
The view from GOP management
Johnson appears to count on the Home will decisively again the Epstein invoice.
“We’ll just get this done and move it on. There’s nothing to hide,” including that the Home Oversight and Authorities Reform Committee has been releasing “far more information than the discharge petition, their little gambit.”
Johnson stated Trump “has nothing to hide from this.”
“They’re doing this to go after President Trump on this theory that he has something to do with it. He does not,” Johnson stated.
Trump’s affiliation with Epstein is well-established and the president’s title was included in information that his personal Justice Division launched in February as a part of an effort to fulfill public curiosity in info from the sex-trafficking investigation.
Trump has by no means been accused of wrongdoing in reference to Epstein and the mere inclusion of somebody’s title in recordsdata from the investigation doesn’t indicate in any other case. Epstein, who killed himself in jail in 2019 whereas awaiting trial, additionally had many outstanding acquaintances in political and movie star circles moreover Trump.
Khanna voiced extra modest expectations on the vote depend than Massie. Nonetheless, Khanna stated he hoped for 40 or extra Republicans to hitch the trouble.
FILE – U.S. Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA) speaks to the Metropolis Membership of Cleveland, in Cleveland, April 14, 2025. (AP Photograph/Sue Ogrocki, File)
“I don’t even know how involved Trump was,” Khanna stated. “There are a lot of other people involved who have to be held accountable.”
Massie stated Republican lawmakers who worry shedding Trump’s endorsement due to how they vote could have a mark on their file, in the event that they vote “no,” that would damage their political prospects in the long run.
“The record of this vote will last longer than Donald Trump’s presidency,” Massie stated.
A MAGA cut up
On the Republican aspect, three Republicans joined with Massie in signing the discharge petition: Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia, Nancy Mace of South Carolina and Boebert.
Trump publicly known as it quits with Greene final week and stated he would endorse a challenger towards her in 2026 “if the right person runs.”
Greene attributed the fallout with Trump as “unfortunately, it has all come down to the Epstein files.” She stated the nation deserves transparency on the difficulty and that Trump’s criticism of her is complicated as a result of the ladies she has talked to say he did nothing incorrect.
“I have no idea what’s in the files. I can’t even guess. But that is the questions everyone is asking, is, why fight this so hard?” Greene stated.
Trump’s feud with Greene escalated over the weekend, with Trump sending out one final social media submit about her whereas nonetheless sitting in his helicopter on the White Home garden when he arrived residence late Sunday, writing “The fact is, nobody cares about this Traitor to our Country!”
Even when the invoice passes the Home, there isn’t any assure that Senate Republicans will go alongside. Massie stated he simply hopes Senate Majority Chief John Thune, R-S.D., “will do the right thing.”
“The pressure is going to be there if we get a big vote in the House,” Massie stated, who thinks “we could have a deluge of Republicans.”
Related Press author Michelle L. Value contributed to this report.
