Trump Backs Vote to Release Epstein Files

President Trump on Sunday night called on House Republicans to vote to release files linked to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, reversing his previous position.

Trump’s announcement came amid signs that a vote this week on a measure forced by a discharge petition might have won dozens of Republican votes over the president’s opposition.

“As I said on Friday night aboard Air Force One to the Fake News Media, 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,’” the president wrote in the Sunday night post on his Truth Social platform.

A discharge petition to force a vote on a measure to release the government files secured its 218th signature Wednesday when Rep. Adelita Grijalva (D-Ariz.) was sworn into Congress. Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) had refused to swear in Grijalva for weeks amid the government shutdown.

Discharge petitions are a way for the minority to force a vote on legislation the majority in the House does not want to hold. In this case, a handful of House Republicans, including Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (Ga.), who has been in a feud with Trump over the Epstein files and other issues, joined with Democrats on the discharge petition.

Johnson said the House would vote on the underlying measure forced by the petition this week. Several of the petition’s sponsors, including Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.), predicted dozens of Republicans would vote for it on the floor. Massie specifically predicted 100 GOP members could back it.

Such an outcome would have potentially been embarrassing for Trump and the White House. Calling for the GOP to back the release of the files ahead of the vote saves the president from the harshness of that scenario.

If the measure is approved by the House, it would still need to be passed by the Senate and signed by Trump to force the release. Last week, those two steps still seemed in doubt, but Trump’s statement Sunday suggests they could become reality.

At least 13 GOP senators would likely need to support the measure in the Senate to overcome the filibuster.

In recent months, the Trump administration has faced scrutiny from both sides of the aisle over its handling of information related to Epstein.

In the hours before Grijalva was sworn into the House last week, Trump and allies reached out to some Republicans who had signed in the discharge petition in what appeared to be an effort to get them to back down.

NewsNation had previously reported Trump had called House Republicans in an attempt to have them remove their signatures from the petition, according to a Republican source.

Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.), who has been leading the discharge petition push with Massie, said in an interview Sunday on NBC News’s “Meet the Press” that he wanted Trump to “release all these files,” noting doing so could improve his public perception.

“Someone was saying that his numbers would go up — I don’t care if he gets the political win. There is a group of rich and powerful men who abused young girls,” Khanna added. “It’s the one thing this country agrees was horrible.”