Trump puts intense pressure on Republicans to block release of Epstein files

Donald Trump has cranked up his intense pressure campaign on congressional Republicans to oppose the full release of the justice department’s files related to Jeffrey Epstein, before a crucial and long-awaited House vote on the matter next week that scores of Republicans are slated to support.

The belated swearing-in on Wednesday of the Democratic representative Adelita Grijalva – which the House speaker, Mike Johnson, had refused for almost two months during the government shutdown – brought the number of signatures on Republican Thomas Massie and Democrat Ro Khanna’s discharge petition to the 218 needed to force a floor vote on legislation demanding the Department of Justice release all of its investigative files on Epstein within 30 days.

It is expected that dozens of Republicans will vote for it, with the knowledge that their constituents want greater transparency about the affair and want them to hold the line. Representatives Don Bacon of Nebraska, Tim Burchett of Tennessee and Rob Bresnahan of Pennsylvania have expressed they would do so.

CNN reported that top officials summoned representative Lauren Boebert – one of four Republicans in the House who have signed the petition – to a meeting in the White House Situation Room with the attorney general, Pam Bondi, and FBI director, Kash Patel, to discuss her demand to release the files. Trump had also telephoned her early on Tuesday morning, a day before Grijalva was due to be sworn in and provide the crucial final signature.

Trump also reached out to Representative Nancy Mace, another of the Republican caucus in the House who have signed the petition, but the two did not connect. Mace instead reportedly wrote the president a long explanation of her own personal experience as a survivor of sexual abuse and rape, and why it was impossible for her to change her position on the matter. She wrote on X that “the Epstein petition is deeply personal.”

Those failed lobbying attempts from the White House came as Democrats on the House oversight committee released three damning new emails that suggest Trump knew about Epstein’s conduct, including one in which the convicted paedophile said “of course [Trump] knew about the girls”. Another email described Trump as a “dog that hasn’t barked” and said he had “spent hours” with one victim at Epstein’s house.

The president’s team struck back, saying those documents had been cherrypicked, and Republican representatives followed up by releasing a much bigger trove of more than 20,000 files.

Among them were documents that revealed that Epstein’s staff kept him apprised of Trump’s air travel as it related to his own transportation – and that the late sex trafficker kept up with news about his former friend years after their relationship soured.

But even if the bill passes the House, it still needs to get through the Senate and be signed by Trump. Senate leaders have shown no indication they will bring it up for a vote, and Trump – who had long promised the release of the files on the campaign trail – has decried the effort as a “Democrat hoax”.

The justice department earlier this year announced it would release no further details about the case, prompting public demand for files related to the investigation into Epstein’s activities to be made public.