Rather than get steamrolled by a House vote scheduled today to compel the Department of Justice to release the files related to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, President Donald Trump is acting like he teed it all up himself. The vote passed easily, after Trump tried everything to stop it from happening.
It is a reversal that was forced on him by his allies, particularly three GOP women (Representatives Nancy Mace, Lauren Boebert and Marjorie Taylor Greene) who refused to cave to Trump. In trying to forestall the vote, he has looked weak and error-prone, and sounded like a man who has something to hide. He is now acting like he needs the power of Congress — a branch of government he has largely ignored all year — to release more information on Epstein, the well-connected financier who committed suicide in 2019 as he awaited trial in prison on federal sex trafficking charges.
In fact, Trump — who hasn’t been accused of any crimes in connection with Epstein — could simply order Attorney General Pam Bondi to release the files, just as he has ordered her to investigate his political opponents.
Tuesday’s vote does, however, mark a new chapter in this MAGA-manufactured conspiracy theory.
“He got tired of us winning and he decided to join us. They could have done this four months ago, and instead, they fought us every bit of the way,” Representative Thomas Massie of Kentucky, who led the effort to get a floor vote for the release of the files, told CNN’s Anderson Cooper. “Now they want to be on our side. We’ll accept their support. But we’re … a little bit suspicious of this sudden turn of events, so we’ll keep an eye on things. We’re worried that maybe they’ll try to muck it up in the Senate.”
Suspicion is certainly in order, given Trump’s broken promises on the Epstein documents. As a candidate, he said he would release the files. FBI Director Kash Patel called for transparency back when he was a podcaster. Bondi echoed these demands after she became attorney general.
Now Trump is acting like it’s all up to Congress.
In the House, the majority of Republicans were expected to back the measure, with some predicting that the bill would get unanimous support. It almost did, passing 427-1.
That marks a defeat not only for Trump, but also for Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, who also tried to prevent a floor vote by keeping the House in recess for weeks. Rather than buck Trump, Johnson proved again how small a speaker he is.
Asked if he would sign a bill if it came out of the Senate, Trump said, “sure I would.”
“Let the Senate look at it, let anybody look at it. But don’t talk about it too much because honestly, I don’t want it taking away from us,” Trump said Monday in the Oval Office. “It’s really a Democrat problem. The Democrats were Epstein friends, all of them, and it’s a hoax. The whole thing is a hoax.”
It is not a hoax, but it is clearly a problem for Trump, and one that he hasn’t been able to solve.
An October poll by Reuters/Ipsos found that just 4 in 10 Republicans approve of Trump’s handling of the Epstein files.
After the House Oversight Committee released 23,000 pages from Epstein’s estate last week, Trump, who was mentioned several times in those documents, took to Truth Social and asked Bondi to investigate Democrats mentioned in the files. Bondi ordered an investigation hours later, including into former President Bill Clinton, who denied any wrongdoing through a spokesperson. An active investigation could give Trump and the Department of Justice an excuse not to release any additional files.
There’s also the problem of Ghislaine Maxwell, Epstein’s co-conspirator, who is serving a 20-year sentence and is reportedly set to seek a commutation from the Trump administration. The president hasn’t ruled out granting her a pardon.
Democrats have claimed that she is getting special treatment in jail and have framed Epstein’s crimes as an example of a two-tiered system of justice, where the rich and powerful cover for each other and get away with wrongdoing. This is a message likely to resonate in these populist times.
Survivors of Epstein released a PSA urging the release of the files relating to Epstein’s crimes, which go back three decades. Trump was a close associate of Epstein for many years — until, according to Trump, they had a falling out because Epstein “stole people” who worked for Trump.
“This is me when I met Jeffrey Epstein. There are about a thousand of us,” the women say as they hold photographs of themselves when they were teenagers in the PSA produced by the group World Without Exploitation. “It’s time to bring the secrets out of the shadows. It’s time to shine a light into the darkness.”
Several survivors are in Washington for the House vote, a moment that comes after survivors of Epstein’s crimes and their allies have spent years pushing for justice and transparency.
“This is enormous for every woman and underaged girl, child who has been abused in this country,” said Mace, who is a survivor of sexual assault, according to CNN’s Erin Burnett. “These women have never seen justice, just like most women in this country who never get to have their day in court, who never get to face their abuser and see them put in prison. … This is really bigger than Jeffrey Epstein.”
In his efforts to contain the fallout and distance himself from the disgraced financier, Trump has tied his political fortunes to a man he once considered his close friend. He has also revealed the increasingly fragile hold he has over the base he created and the stories he fed them.
This column reflects the personal views of the author and does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners.
Nia-Malika Henderson is a politics and policy columnist for Bloomberg Opinion. A former senior political reporter for CNN and the Washington Post, she has covered politics and campaigns for almost two decades.
Disclaimer: This report is auto generated from the Bloomberg news service. ThePrint holds no responsibility for its content.
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