(Nov 20): US President Donald Trump signed legislation to compel the Department of Justice (DOJ) to release files on the late, disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein.
Trump said in a social media post that he signed the legislation Wednesday (Nov 19), approving a measure he had spent months trying to block in a fight that inflamed tensions in his own party and threatened to undermine his agenda.
The president’s signature marked a stunning about-face for Trump, who had assailed the effort to require the release of the government’s files on Epstein — a convicted sex offender, who was facing federal charges of trafficking underage girls when he died in jail in 2019.
It followed a lopsided 427 to 1 vote in the House — where a lone Republican lawmaker provided the only no vote — and the Senate agreeing unanimously to send the measure to the president’s desk.
And it inflicts another political setback on the president, just two weeks after his party suffered defeats in state and local elections, in which concerns about his economic agenda and affordability were front and centre. The drawn-out fight over the Epstein files left Trump at times struggling to gain control of the political narrative and looking for ways to distract from the controversy.
A recent CNN/SSRS poll found 37% of Americans approve of Trump, a rating that makes it difficult for many incumbent Republicans to run next year on the president’s record and risks creating fissures within the party.
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The Epstein files intensified some of those rifts as a group of dissident Republicans, including some of his staunchest allies, pushed for more transparency, ultimately forcing Trump and Republican leaders to accede to their demands. The president publicly broke with Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia over the matter, withdrawing his support for a lawmaker who had once been one of his most loyal supporters.
Only four in 10 Republicans approved of Trump’s handling of the Epstein files, an October Reuters/Ipsos poll found.
The president has repeatedly said he cut ties with Epstein nearly two decades ago and was not aware of the late financier’s activities. His signature is unlikely to end the controversy.
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The legislation requires the release of all files and records, including investigations, flight logs, travel records, immunity deals, internal DOJ communications, and all records related to Epstein’s 2019 death in prison. But it is still unclear how and when those files may be released.
While Trump holds the power to order the Epstein files released without an act of Congress, he has not done so.
The DOJ has already launched an investigation — at Trump’s urging — into Epstein’s ties to prominent Democrats, including former president Bill Clinton, onetime Treasury secretary Larry Summers, Democratic megadonor Reid Hoffman, as well as JPMorgan Chase & Co — a probe that may complicate efforts to make the files public.
The Epstein case has long drawn interest from Trump allies who have fuelled conspiracy theories about Epstein’s death and his associates, including questions about the nature and history of the president’s own relationship with the late financier.
While Trump pledged to release the Epstein files as a candidate in the 2024 election, the DOJ and Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) concluded in July that no new records from the 300 gigabytes of data that make up the documents would be released. Attorney General Pam Bondi said this year that there was no evidence to support additional chargeable crimes against anyone other than Epstein himself.
That spurred backlash from parts of the president’s own base — a firestorm he tried to tamp down by claiming, without evidence, that the Epstein files were a Democratic “hoax” aimed at distracting from his agenda.
Trump on Sunday, in a stunning reversal said Republicans should vote to require the Justice Department to release the files, saying that “we have nothing to hide, and it’s time to move on”.
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Bondi told reporters Wednesday that the DOJ would “follow the law while providing maximum transparency and protecting victims”. When asked what changed, she said “new information has come forward”.
Clinton has previously denied knowledge of Epstein’s crimes. Summers, a Harvard University professor, has said he regretted his relationship with the notorious financier and that he would step back from public commitments. That includes his role as a paid contributor to Bloomberg Television, a Bloomberg News spokesperson confirmed.
JPMorgan has settled multiple cases related to its ties to the sex offender.
Uploaded by Liza Shireen Koshy
