Trump could have chosen to release many of the files on his own months ago.
“Democrats have used the ‘Epstein’ issue, which affects them far more than the Republican Party, in order to try and distract from our AMAZING Victories,” Trump said in a social media post as he announced he had signed the bill.
Now, the bill requires the Justice Department to release all files and communications related to Epstein, as well as any information about the investigation into his death in a federal prison in 2019, within 30 days.
It allows for redactions about Epstein’s victims for ongoing federal investigations, but DOJ cannot withhold information due to “embarrassment, reputational harm, or political sensitivity.”
It was a remarkable turn of events for what was once a far-fetched effort to force the disclosure of case files from an odd congressional coalition of Democrats, one GOP antagonist of the president, and a handful of erstwhile Trump loyalists.
As recently as last week, the Trump administration even summoned one Republican proponent of releasing the files, Representative Lauren Boebert of Colorado, to the Situation Room to discuss the matter, although she did not change her mind.
“I just don’t want Republicans to take their eyes off all of the Victories that we’ve had,” Trump said in a social media post on Wednesday afternoon, explaining the rationale for his abrupt about-face.
It’s long been established that Trump had been friends with Epstein, the disgraced financier who was close to the world’s elite. But the president has consistently said he did not know of Epstein’s crimes and had cut ties with him long ago.
Before Trump returned to the White House for a second term, some of his closest political allies helped fuel conspiracy theories about the government’s handling of the Epstein case, asserting a cover-up of potentially incriminating information in those files.
