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      House passes bill to release Epstein files with near-unanimous support

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      The US House of Representatives on Tuesday passed a bill with nearly unanimous support that will force the release of investigative files related to the late pedophile Jeffrey Epstein, after Donald Trump and his Republican allies backed down from their opposition amid a scandal that has dogged the president since his return to the White House.The measure now awaits consideration by the Senate, where the Republican majority leader, John Thune, has not said if or when he will put it up for a vote. A spokesperson for Thune did not respond to a request for comment.Chuck Schumer, the top Senate Democrat, announced after the bill’s House passage that he would later on Tuesday ask for the chamber to pass it unanimously.“We have an opportunity to get this bill done today and have it on the president’s desk to be signed into law tonight. We should seize that opportunity,” he said.Though Trump has for months dismissed the uproar over the government’s handling of the Epstein case as a “Democrat hoax”, he signaled his support for the House bill over the weekend, and said he would sign the measure if it reaches his desk. On Tuesday morning, the Republican speaker, Mike Johnson, announced he would vote for it, making its passage certain.Democrats, along with survivors of Epstein and their advocates who were seated in a House gallery, broke into applause after the bill was passed. The sole “no” vote came from Clay Higgins, a Louisiana Republican who said he worried the measure would make public identifying details of witnesses, potential suspects and others caught up in the investigation.Several of the president’s allies who voted for the bill did so only after criticizing it in floor speeches, arguing Democrats were being insincere but that the House could spend no more time on the matter.“As President Trump has stated, we have nothing to hide, nothing to hide here,” said Republican congressman Troy Nehls. “I’m voting to release the files so that we can move on from the [smear] campaign the Democrats have manufactured. God bless Donald J Trump.”Republican judiciary committee chair Jim Jordan argued that Democrats could have pushed for the files’ release during Joe Biden’s presidency. “Why now, after four years of doing nothing? Because going after President Trump is an obsession with these guys.”Even as he announced his support, Johnson criticized the measure for not doing enough to protect victims of Epstein, a financier who died in 2019 by what investigators determined was suicide while he was awaiting trial on sex-trafficking charges.“Everybody here, all the Republicans, want to go on record to show we’re for maximum transparency, but they also want to note that we’re demanding that this stuff get corrected before it is ever moves through the process and is complete,” Johnson said.Any changes to the bill made by the Senate would require it to be approved again by the House, probably delaying its enactment.Chuck Grassley, the Republican chair of the Senate judiciary committee, wrote on X that he had “been calling for full transparency in the Epstein case since 2019” and that the chamber should vote on the bill “ASAP”.The Epstein case returned dramatically to the public eye in July, when the justice department and FBI released a memo saying they had nothing further to disclose about the investigation. That flew in the face of statements made by Trump and his top officials that indicated they would release more information about Epstein’s offenses and ties to global elites once they took office.Shortly after, four dissident Republicans in the House and all Democrats banded together to force a vote on a bill to release the investigative files, over Johnson’s objections.The leaders of that effort cheered the imminent vote, with the Democratic congressman Ro Khanna calling Tuesday “the first day of real reckoning for the Epstein class”.“Because survivors spoke up, because of their courage, the truth is finally going to come out, and when it comes out, this country is really going to have a moral reckoning. How did we allow this to happen?” Khanna said at a press conference, adding that the case was “one of the most horrific and disgusting corruption scandals in our country’s history.”Trump’s friendship with Epstein has had staying power in American politics as the late disgraced financier had links to many other rich and powerful figures in the US and overseas. The president’s dramatic shift came after it became increasingly apparent that the bill would pass the GOP-controlled House, most likely with significant support from Republican lawmakers. Trump in recent days changed his approach from outright opposition to declarations of indifference.“I DON’T CARE!” the president wrote in a social media post on Sunday. “All I do care about is that Republicans get BACK ON POINT.”Speaking in the Oval Office on Monday, Trump said he did not want the Epstein scandal to “deflect” from the White House’s successes, and claimed it was a “hoax” and “a Democrat problem”.skip past newsletter promotionafter newsletter promotion“We’ll give them everything,” he told reporters. “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 to take it away from us.”Thomas Massie, an iconoclastic Republican congressman who frequently defies Trump and joined with Khanna to pursue the files’ release, noted the president’s reversal on the Epstein issue.“We fought the president, the attorney general, the FBI director, the speaker of the House and the vice-president to get this win,” he said. “But they’re on our side today, though, so let’s give them some credit as well.”In July, Khanna and Massie turned to a procedural tactic known as a discharge petition to circumvent House leadership and compel a vote on their bill, the Epstein Files Transparency Act, if a majority of the 435-member House signs on.Johnson went to extraordinary lengths to avoid a vote on the the measure, which splintered his conference. Democrats accused the speaker of delaying the swearing-in of the Arizona Democrat Adelita Grijalva to prevent her from becoming the decisive 218th signatory. She signed her name to the petition moments after officially taking office last week.As president, Trump has the authority to order the justice department to release the documents in its possession, as he has previously done with the government records related to the assassinations of Martin Luther King Jr and John F Kennedy.Emails made public last week by a House committee that has opened a separate inquiry into the scandal showed Epstein believed Trump “knew about the girls”, though it was not clear what that phrase meant. The White House said the released emails contained no proof of wrongdoing by Trump.Last week, the president instructed the justice department to investigate prominent Democrats’ ties to Epstein. The US attorney general, Pam Bondi, who earlier this year said a review of the files revealed no further investigative leads, replied to Trump that she would get on it right away and has appointed a prosecutor to lead the effort.The Epstein scandal is a core issue for a swathe of Trump’s rightwing base, some of whom believe in conspiracy theories that surround Epstein and his coterie of powerful friends and associates. Unlike many other issues, the Epstein files have prompted rebellions from Trump’s supporters in politics and the media, who have called on the president to follow through on his campaign promise to release them.Meanwhile, several Epstein survivors have ramped up pressure on Congress and Trump to advance the measure.“It’s time that we put the political agendas and party affiliations to the side. This is a human issue. This is about children,” survivor Haley Robson said at the press conference. “There is no place in society for exploitation, sexual crimes or exploitation of women.”She then addressed her comments to Trump, saying: “While I do understand that your position has changed on the Epstein files, and I’m grateful that you have pledged to sign this bill, I can’t help to be skeptical of what the agenda is.”On Monday night, activists projected an image of Trump and Epstein on to the justice department building, accompanied by the message: “Release the files now.” More

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      Jon Stewart on Trump’s Epstein files flip-flop: ‘This dude is flailing’

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      Late-night hosts tore into the next chapter of Donald Trump’s never-ending Jeffrey Epstein scandal.Jon StewartJon Stewart ripped into Trump on Monday evening after the president abruptly changed tack and called on House Republicans to authorize the justice department’s release of files related to Epstein, a convicted sex offender – files which Trump himself could order to be released.“If he had nothing to hide, he could have declassified and released these files himself at any time,” the Daily Show host explained. “How do I know this? A legal expert named Donald Jurisprudence Trump said so.”Stewart then played footage of Trump from 2022 in which he insisted that the president can declassify anything, at any time, just by saying so or “even by thinking about it”.“Is it possible that Trump’s whole bullshit facade is crumbling?” Stewart wondered. “I mean, right now, all he can do is distract from one lie with what is clearly another lie.”Stewart then rolled a clip of Trump attempting that move, telling reporters: “All I want is I want for people to recognize a great job that I’ve done on pricing, on affordability.”“What planet do you live on?” Stewart responded. “Great job on affordability? My Taco Bell order is now $72!”“This dude is flailing,” he later added. “The normally reliable Trump is even struggling to deliver on his greatest gift: the cutting nickname.”Over the weekend, he took to Truth Social to call his former ally Marjorie Taylor Greene “Marjorie Taylor Brown”, explaining in parentheses that green grass turns brown when it rots.“You know, I’ve always said that the best nicknames are the ones you have to explain in parentheses,” Stewart joked.Jokes aside, Stewart concluded: “Epstein was a convicted sex offender at the time of these emails. And of course, mentioned in these emails more than anyone else, more than 1,600 times, is Donald Trump.”“Is that evidence of his guilt? No,” he continued. “But it shows that he’s a part of that world and certainly the circumstantial evidence points to his understanding of what was occurring.”Stephen ColbertOn the Late Show, Stephen Colbert homed in on one specific email from Epstein, in which the late pedophile claimed Trump “knew about the girls”. The line prompted Republicans to accuse Democrats of cherrypicking. “Let’s pause there,” said Colbert. “Guys, for this one, let’s maybe go with a different fruit.“So to prove that the Democrats were, let’s say, pineapple-choosing,” he continued, “House Republicans released 20,000-plus pages of other Epstein documents.“They did it to show that they were way more transparent than the Democrats, who they say released just enough to make Trump look bad,” said Colbert. “And they were right because the Republicans’ additional release of documents made him look awful.”In the new batch of documents, Trump’s named appeared more than 1,500 times.“These are not casual mentions, either,” Colbert noted. In one email, Epstein wrote: “i have met some very bad people ,, none as bad as trump. not one decent cell in his body.”“It’s gotta hurt when Jeffrey Epstein calls you a bad guy,” said Colbert. “That’s like an airport muffin accusing you of being dry.”Seth Meyers“This weekend, Trump sought to quell the Maga furor by ordering an investigation, but only into Democrats,” Seth Meyers explained on Monday’s Late Night. “Which even some Republicans fear could be another delay tactic.”As Representative Thomas Massie of Kentucky put it: “If they have ongoing investigations in certain areas, those documents can’t be released. So this might be a big smokescreen, these investigations, to open up a bunch of them as a last-ditch effort to prevent the release of the Epstein files.”“How dare you accuse the president of setting up a smokescreen,” Meyers laughed. “For one thing, I don’t think he’s nimble enough for that. If Trump threw down a smoke pellet, he wouldn’t run away. He would just stand there coughing until the smoke cleared.”Reporters asked Trump about Massie’s statement on Sunday night, and “all Trump had to do was make clear that he was sincerely interested in getting to the truth”, said Meyers.Instead, Trump claimed “fake news” and said the media “kept bringing [Epstein] up to deflect from the tremendous success of the Trump administration”.“Nailed it!” Meyers joked. “Everyone knows the least suspicious thing you can do when someone asks you about a scandal is to say ‘I don’t want to talk about it’ and then immediately insult. Try that next time your spouse asks why you got home so late.”And then Trump flip-flopped again, telling House Republicans to vote for a discharge petition for the justice department’s release of the Epstein files, after he spent months opposing the measure. “But the whole point of the House vote was to force you to release the files, which you can do on your own. So if you’re in favor of releasing the files, then just do it,” said Meyers. “This new position makes even less sense.”Jimmy KimmelAnd in Los Angeles, Jimmy Kimmel looked ahead to a House vote, possibly as early as Tuesday, to authorize the release of the files, with dozens of Republicans expected to break ranks. “Which has forced Trump to now claim that he’s for the files being released,” Kimmel noted. “After almost a year of saying he didn’t want them released, after a year of stalling, hedging, browbeating members of his own party, last night, all of a sudden, Trump reversed course completely.”Trump posted on Truth Social: “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.”“We have nothing to hide?” Kimmel laughed. “There’s no ‘we’. ‘We’ have nothing to hide. It’s just you.“If you have nothing hide, why even have the vote?” he added. “Why not just have the Department of Justice release the files now?“After 10 months of fighting tooth and nail, doing everything he could to keep the files secret, he’s now asking for a full release,” Kimmel continued, “which is what got all these guys in trouble in the first place.“So his plan now is hurry up and release the files so I can start saying they’re fake.”Trump also instructed Pam Bondi, his attorney general, to investigate prominent Democrats’ ties to Epstein. “Which is like Diddy ordering an investigation into why there were so many bottles of baby oil in his house,” Kimmel joked. More

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      ‘Deeply ashamed’ Larry Summers steps back from public life over Epstein links

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      The Harvard professor and economist Larry Summers said he would be stepping back from public life after documents released by the House oversight committee revealed email exchanges between Summers and the convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, who called himself Summers’ “wing man”.Politico reported on Monday that Summers, a former treasury secretary, expressed deep regret for past messages with Epstein.“I am deeply ashamed of my actions and recognize the pain they have caused,” he told Politico in a statement.“I take full responsibility for my misguided decision to continue communicating with Mr Epstein. While continuing to fulfill my teaching obligations, I will be stepping back from public commitments as one part of my broader effort to rebuild trust and repair relationships with the people closest to me.”The left-leaning thinktank Center for American Progress told the Guardian that Summers is ending his position as “distinguished senior fellow”.His comments come after lawmakers on both sides of the aisle urged companies and institutions to cut ties with Summers. Democratic senator Elizabeth Warren told CNN that Summers should be held accountable for his years-long relationship with Epstein.Besides Summers, the emails released last week revealed how Epstein maintained contact with other business executives, reporters, academics and political players despite his 2008 guilty plea for soliciting prostitution from an underage girl.“For decades, Larry Summers has demonstrated his attraction to serving the wealthy and well-connected, but his willingness to cozy up to a convicted sex offender demonstrates monumentally bad judgment,” Warren said to CNN.“If he had so little ability to distance himself from Jeffrey Epstein even after all that was publicly known about Epstein’s sex offenses involving underage girls, then Summers cannot be trusted to advise our nation’s politicians, policymakers and institutions – or teach a generation of students at Harvard or anywhere else.”A senior Trump administration official told Politico that institutions should end their association with Summers, given the relationship he had with Epstein, who referred to himself in one November 2018 message as Summers’ “wing man”.“It’s shocking that Larry Summers remains a paid contributor to Bloomberg News, on the board of OpenAI and tenured at Harvard,” the anonymous source told Politico. “What more revelations about him and his “wing man” will it take for institutions to cut him loose? The British government immediately sacked their ambassador to the US over much less.”Summers did not immediately respond to a request for comment from the Guardian.Summers is now the subject of a new investigation that Donald Trump started last week. The US president instructed attorney general Pam Bondi to launch an inquiry into several Democrats and institutions after their names appeared in the latest tranche of documents, which included emails that seemed to suggest Trump himself might have known about Epstein’s conduct.The exchanges, from 2013 to early 2019, showed Summers and Epstein sharing personal views about politics and relationships. Summers lost his position as president at Harvard in 2006 after making sexist comments about female academics, and the emails released last week have reignited debates about his relationship with the late sex offender.“I’m trying to figure why [the] American elite think if u murder your baby by beating and abandonment it must be irrelevant to your admission to Harvard,” Summers wrote to Epstein in a 2017 email. “But hit on a few women 10 years ago and can’t work at a network or think tank. DO NOT REPEAT THIS INSIGHT.”skip past newsletter promotionafter newsletter promotionSummers added: “I observed that half of the IQ In [the] world was possessed by women without mentioning they are more than 51% of population.”Other emails reveal Summers approached Epstein for romantic advice. In November 2018, Summers seemed to forward an email from a woman to ask for Epstein’s advice on when to write back.“Think no response for a while probably appropriate,” Summers wrote. Epstein replied: “she’s already beginning to sound needy 🙂 nice.”Summers reiterated his regret to the Harvard Crimson last week.“I have great regrets in my life,” he wrote. “As I have said before, my association with Jeffrey Epstein was a major error of judgment.”The college newspaper also reported that Harvard professors were outraged by the revelations made by the trove of emails released last week.“The cozy friendship between Epstein and Summers on display in the emails is disgusting and disgraceful,” statistics professor Joseph K Blitzstein told the Crimson.The relationship between Summers and Epstein was previously reported by the Wall Street Journal in 2023. According to the outlet, in 2014, Summers had asked Epstein for advice on getting $1m in funding for his wife’s poetry project. More

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      Trump news at a glance: in a U-turn, president tells Republicans to vote to release Epstein files

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      Donald Trump has told his fellow Republicans in Congress to vote for the release of files related to the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, in a sudden reversal of his earlier position.The US president’s post on his Truth Social website came after the House speaker, Mike Johnson, said previously that he believed a vote on releasing justice department documents in the Epstein case should help put to rest allegations “that he [Trump] has something to do with it”.Late on Sunday, Trump wrote on his social media platform: “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,” he added.Trump’s surprise reversal on releasing Epstein filesThe White House has struggled to contain suspicion within Trump’s usually loyal Make America Great Again (Maga) base that the administration is hiding details of Epstein’s crimes to protect the rich elite with whom the financier associated, including Trump.Despite continued releases of files by Republicans this year, including a cache of more than 20,000 pages that were published last week, pressure has grown to disclose more information from Epstein’s estate, as well as FBI investigation documents.The US House of Representatives is expected to vote on the legislation regarding the release of more Epstein files this week, possibly as soon as Tuesday.Read the full storyUN security council votes to endorse Trump’s Gaza planThe resolution, passed by a vote of 13-0 with abstentions by China and Russia, charted “a new course in the Middle East for Israelis and Palestinians and all the people of the region alike”, the US envoy to the UN, Mike Waltz, told the council chamber.The price of passing a resolution was vague language which left many issues uncertain. It gives overall oversight authority to a “board of peace” chaired by Trump, but of uncertain membership.Read the full storyUS will label supposed Venezuelan drug cartel ‘headed by Maduro’ as terrorist organizationThe US has said it will designate a putative Venezuelan drug cartel allegedly led by Nicolás Maduro as a foreign terrorist organization, as the Trump administration sent more mixed messages over its crusade against Venezuela’s authoritarian leader.The move to target the already proscribed group, the Cartel de los Soles (Cartel of the Suns), was announced by Marco Rubio on Sunday.Read the full storyUS judge finds evidence of ‘government misconduct’ in federal case against ComeyA US judge on Monday found evidence of “government misconduct” in how a prosecutor aligned with Donald Trump secured criminal charges against former FBI director James Comey and ordered that grand jury materials be turned over to Comey’s defense team.Last week, prosecutors were ordered to produce a trove of materials from the investigation, with the court saying it was concerned that the US justice department’s position on Comey had been to “indict first and investigate later”.Read the full storyTrump has ‘blurred’ line between military and politics, ex-officers warnWith months of escalation between US cities and the Trump administration amid the deployment of national guard troops, former military officials released a report on Monday about the risks of politicizing the country’s armed forces.The report warns that increasing domestic military deployments, such as using national guard troops for immigration enforcement in the US, and removing senior military officers and legal advisers have made the armed forces appear to serve partisan agendas.Read the full storyCharlotte, North Carolina, reels as 81 people arrested in immigration raidsMany communities in Charlotte, North Carolina, were reeling after federal Customs and Border Protection teams descended on the city at the weekend and arrested at least 81 people – while normally-thriving immigrant enclaves and business districts came to a standstill. Federal agents were deployed in what the Department of Homeland Security, the parent agency of Customs and Border Protection and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), calls Operation Charlotte’s Web, sparking protests.Read the full storyTrump signals he may soon meet with Zohran MamdaniThe president told reporters that New York City’s mayor-elect “would like to meet with us”, adding, “we’ll work something out” despite trading sharp words for each other previously.“He would like to come to Washington and meet, and we’ll work something out,” Trump said late on Sunday, referring to Mamdani, the 34-year-old Democratic socialist and former state assemblymember who won the New York City mayoral election earlier this month. “We want to see everything work out well for New York.”Read the full storyNew international student enrollments in US plunge this year, data showsThe number of international students enrolling in US colleges and universities plunged this year as the Trump administration’s aggressive immigration crackdown on higher education began to bite, data released on Monday reveals.Read the full storySupreme court to review Trump policy of limiting asylum claims at borderThe US supreme court agreed on Monday to hear a defense by the Trump administration of the government’s authority to limit the processing of asylum claims at ports of entry along the US-Mexico border.The court took up the administration’s appeal of a lower court’s determination that the “metering” policy, under which US immigration officials could stop asylum seekers at the border and decline to process their claims, violated federal law.Read the full storyWhat else happened today:

      In the underworld of accelerationist neo-Nazis, where talk of attacks against western governments are commonplace, the spread of illegal weapons manuals and tradecraft on drone warfare are proliferating. Experts say, in some cases, that classes are being taught online with the input of leadership from proscribed terrorist groups with links to Russian intelligence.

      A powerful atmospheric river weather system has mostly moved through California but not before causing at least six deaths and dousing much of the state.

      Eswatini has confirmed for the first time that it had received more than $5m from the United Statesto accept dozens of people expelled under Washington’s aggressive mass deportation drive.

      Lawyers for Lisa Cook, the Federal Reserve governor, called Trump administration allegations of mortgage fraud against her “baseless” on Monday and accused the administration of “cherry-picking” discrepancies to bolster their claims.
      Catching up? Here’s what happened Sunday 16 November.skip past newsletter promotionafter newsletter promotion More

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      What are the Jeffrey Epstein files, and will more be released?

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      Tens of thousands of documents have been released by members of Congress related to Jeffrey Epstein, the child sexual abuser, that shed light on his communications with and about powerful people, including the president.Last week, Democratic members of Congress released three emails pertaining to Trump and Epstein, then Republican members released more than 20,000 emails.But the issue is not over – and more documents could be coming soon.Trump has now reversed course on releasing the files, calling on the US House to vote on Tuesday to force the justice department to release more Epstein documents. He has previously fought against the idea and referred to the issue as the “Epstein hoax”.While campaigning, Trump said he would release the so-called “Epstein files”, the documents about criminal investigations into his former friend, who died in jail by hanging in 2019. But since taking office, Trump has appeared to have broken that promise, rankling ardent Maga allies who have spent years calling for the documents’ release.Epstein knew powerful people of all political persuasions and counted them as friends. Releasing the documents has become a rallying cry to reveal more details about Epstein, including how he made his money, and the extent of involvement by those who supported him in his criminal activity, especially those with wealth and political sway.Earlier in July, the US justice department said it would not be releasing more documents, saying it could harm victims and insisting there was not a “client list”.The refusal to release documents has roiled the right, with some Republicans pushing strongly to compel the files to be public as others downplayed the issue or sided with Trump. Democrats have seized on the schism, calling for Congress to compel the release of the documents and calling out Trump’s hypocrisy.What are the ‘files’? What kinds of documents?The federal government has a “truckload” of documents from and about Epstein related to his criminal cases, according to reported comments of Pam Bondi, the US attorney general. This includes his flight logs for private planes and contacts, which is sometimes referred to as his “black book” – which has already been publicly posted online.A memo released by the justice department in July said the agency searched through its databases, hard drives and physical areas to find Epstein-related information, locating “more than 300 gigabytes of data and physical evidence”.Within those files were images and videos of Epstein and his victims, some of whom are minors, and more than 10,000 downloaded videos and images of “illegal child sex abuse material and other pornography”.Some documents related to Epstein are under court-ordered seals. For instance, a federal judge this week denied a request from the justice department to unseal grand jury transcripts in a south Florida criminal investigation. Some of those that were once sealed have been unsealed, including some unsealed in early 2024 that identified names of people included in depositions and motions who previously were listed as John Does.“Much of the material is subject to court-ordered sealing,” the justice department memo said. “Only a fraction of this material would have been aired publicly had Epstein gone to trial, as the seal served only to protect victims and did not expose any additional third parties to allegations of illegal wrongdoing.”There are also serious concerns about identifying victims if some documents are released. The department said Epstein had harmed more than 1,000 victims, some minors, all of whom “suffered unique trauma”.“Sensitive information relating to these victims is intertwined throughout the materials. This includes specific details such as victim names and likenesses, physical descriptions, places of birth, associates, and employment history,” the memo said.Is there a ‘client list’?In its memo, the department says there was no “client list”, despite it being a longtime claim and rallying call for those embedded in the Epstein case, especially on the right.“There was also no credible evidence found that Epstein blackmailed prominent individuals as part of his actions,” the memo says. “We did not uncover evidence that could predicate an investigation against uncharged third parties.”Julie K Brown, an investigative journalist with the Miami Herald who has been uncovering the Epstein case for years, said earlier this year that there was “no Jeffrey Epstein client list. Period. It’s a figment of the internet’s imagination – and a means to just slander people.”In an interview with the Atlantic, Brown said the list idea was a “red herring” that seems to have been born out of a phone directory Epstein’s girlfriend, Ghislaine Maxwell, compiled, often referred to as the “black book”. People such as Trump and other celebrities were in the directory, but so were Epstein’s gardeners, barbers and others, Brown said.What has Trump said about the files?After Epstein’s death by suicide, Trump shared a tweet that claimed the Clintons were involved in his death. He also told reporters at the time that he had questions about whether Bill Clinton went to Epstein’s infamous island.While campaigning for the 2024 election, Trump said, when asked, that he would declassify the Epstein files, though he prioritized them below files about September 11 and the John F Kennedy assassination. “You don’t want to affect people’s lives if there’s phoney stuff in there, because there’s a lot of phoney stuff with that whole world,” he said then.Bondi said earlier this year that the justice department would be releasing a list of Epstein’s clients, telling Fox News that it was “sitting on my desk right now to review” – though she later said she was talking about case files and not a client list. The department released some information, dubbed a “first phase of files”, to rightwing influencers, though those files did not contain much new information.Trump has grown increasingly angry at those calling for the files to be released, and dismissed the entire controversy as “boring” and a “hoax”, something that “nobody cares about”.“I have had more success in 6 months than perhaps any President in our Country’s history, and all these people want to talk about, with strong prodding by the Fake News and the success starved Dems, is the Jeffrey Epstein Hoax,” he wrote on Truth Social on 16 July.On 16 November, Trump said the files should be released.“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,’” he wrote on Truth Social.Is Trump named in the files?Yes. Trump is known to be a one-time friend of Epstein’s. His name’s inclusion in the documents does not mean he was a party to any of Epstein’s criminal activity.Documents released by Democratic members of the House oversight committee included an email from Epstein to Trump biographer Michael Wolff in which Epstein said of Trump: “Of course, he knew about the girls as he asked Ghislaine to stop.” In another, he called Trump the “dog that hasn’t barked”.Epstein emailed people about Trump regularly, usually derogatorily. “I have met some very bad people,” he wrote in one email. “None as bad as Trump. Not one decent cell in his body.”What questions could these files help answer?There are many legitimate questions that the files could shed light on about Epstein and his circle.How Epstein made his money is still of much interest, as is how he financed his extensive sex-trafficking operation. Often referred to as a financier, he had vast wealth, owning expensive real-estate including two private islands, and a private jet.Ron Wyden, the Democratic senator from Oregon who is the ranking Democrat on the Senate finance committee, told the New York Times that four major banks had “flagged more than $1.5bn in transactions – including thousands of wire transfers for the purchase and sale of artwork for rich friends, fees paid to Mr Epstein by wealthy individuals, and payments to numerous women”.Questions still swirl over potential ties to the intelligence community. Bondi told reporters: “To him being an agent, I have no knowledge about that. We can get back to you on that.” The former Israeli prime minister Naftali Bennett denied Epstein was an Israeli agent, a frequent claim made without evidence. “The accusation that Jeffrey Epstein somehow worked for Israel or the Mossad running a blackmail ring is categorically and totally false,” Bennett said.And suspicion over the manner of Epstein’s death is still in the mix. The justice department released an 11-hour video of jail footage in the hours before and after his death, though there seems to be almost three minutes of footage missing, leading to further scrutiny. Bondi has said that missing footage is because the Bureau of Prisons was resetting video.There is also much to be discovered on how Epstein was able to evade justice for so long. Brown, the Miami Herald reporter, told the Atlantic her “one nagging question” goes back to 2008, when the justice department decided not to fully go after Epstein after local and state authorities first were looking into his crimes.“Who were the people behind that in the beginning?” Brown said. “Because if they had done their jobs, of all these people in 2006, 2007, and 2008 – if all those people working for us, the American public, had done their jobs, we wouldn’t be sitting here right now. A lot of those victims would’ve never been victimized.” More

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      Trump tells Republicans to vote to release Epstein files, in a reversal of his previous stance

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      US president Donald Trump has urged his fellow Republicans in Congress to vote for the release of files related to the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, reversing his earlier resistance to such a move.Trump’s post on his Truth Social came after House speaker Mike Johnson said earlier that he believed a vote on releasing justice department documents in the Epstein case should help put to rest allegations “that he [Trump] has something to do with it”.Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform on Sunday: “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’,” he said.Although Trump and Epstein were photographed together decades ago, the president has said the two men fell out before Epstein’s convictions. Emails released last week by a House committee showed the disgraced financier, who died by suicide in jail in 2019, believed Trump “knew about the girls,” though it was not clear what that phrase meant.Trump, who has recently dismissed the Epstein files as a Democratic smear campaign, has since instructed the justice department to investigate prominent Democrats’ ties to Epstein.Some critics have accused Trump of trying to conceal details – something the president denies – by looking to block the vote, which has divided his typically loyal Republican party.“The House Oversight Committee can have whatever they are legally entitled to, I DON’T CARE! All I do care about is that Republicans get BACK ON POINT, which is the Economy, “Affordability”, Trump wrote on Truth Social.On Sunday Republican congressman Thomas Massie challenged Trump over whether the president was making a “last-ditch effort” to keep the full files on Epstein from becoming public by ordering a fresh investigation.Massie and Democratic congressman Ro Khanna, the two US representatives leading the bipartisan push to make all the files held by the government public both raised concerns about the latest actions by the White House.Speaking on ABC’s This Week, Massie criticised Trump for ordering attorney general Pam Bondi on Friday to examine Democrats with ties to Epstein.Trump late on Friday withdrew his support for US representative Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia, long one of his staunchest supporters in Congress, following her criticism of Republicans on certain issues, including the handling of the Epstein files.Khanna, an original sponsor of the petition calling for a vote on the files’ release, said on Sunday that he expected more than 40 Republicans to vote in favor.Republicans hold the majority in the House, with 219 seats, versus 214 for Democrats.With Agence France-Presse More

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      Trump’s investigation into Epstein ties to political foes might be ‘smokescreen’, Republican says

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      Republican congressman Thomas Massie challenged Donald Trump on Sunday over whether the US president is making a “last-ditch effort” to keep the full files on the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein from becoming public by ordering a fresh investigation.Massie and Democratic congressman Ro Khanna, the two US representatives leading the bipartisan push to make all the files held by the government public both raised fresh concerns about the latest actions by the White House.Speaking on ABC’s This Week, Massie criticized Trump for ordering attorney general Pam Bondi on Friday to examine Democrats with ties to Epstein.This despite emails released last week by the House of Representatives’ oversight committee that suggest Trump was aware of Epstein’s conduct and that Epstein had also advised Steve Bannon, a key figure in Trump’s Make America Great Again (Maga) base.“The president’s been saying this is a hoax,” Massie said, referring to several claims Trump has made in reaction to repeated calls for full disclosure of the files. “He’s been saying that for months. Well, he’s just now decided to investigate a hoax, if it’s a hoax. And I have another concern about these investigations that he’s announced. If they have ongoing investigations in certain areas, those documents can’t be released.“So, this might be a big smokescreen, these investigations, to open a bunch of them, as a last-ditch effort to prevent the release of the Epstein files,” he added.ABC anchor Jonathan Karl asked Massie about what the Epstein records might contain and why Trump appears afraid of what they might reveal.“You know, I’ve never said that these files will implicate Donald Trump,” Massie replied. “And I really don’t think that they will. I think he’s trying to protect a bunch of rich and powerful friends, billionaires, donors to his campaign, friends in his social circles. That’s my operating theory on why he’s trying so hard to keep these files closed.”Massie also said it was possible that more than 100 House Republicans may vote in favor of releasing the Epstein files, documents currently held by the justice department related to the alleged crimes and alleged clientele of the late financier and sex offender, when the measure reaches the House floor for a vote this week. He urged skeptics to rethink their position.“I would remind my Republican colleagues who are deciding how to vote: Donald Trump can protect you in red districts right now by giving you an endorsement. But in 2030, he’s not going to be the president, and you will have voted to protect pedophiles if you don’t vote to release these files, and the president can’t protect you then. This vote, the record of this vote, will last longer than Donald Trump’s presidency,” Massie said.Meanwhile, Khanna of California said moments later on NBC News’ Meet the Press that the effort was “not about Donald Trump” and encouraged the president to meet with the victims who have survived Epstein’s alleged sex-trafficking ring and have since spoken out.“What we’re asking for is justice for the survivors,” Khanna said. “So, it’s not about Donald Trump. I don’t even know how involved Trump was. There are a lot of other people who are involved who have to be held accountable.”He also noted that many survivors who have spoken publicly about their abuse will be in Washington on Tuesday, where they plan to request a meeting with Trump.Epstein killed himself in prison in 2019 while awaiting federal trial in New York on sex crimes, having previously served time in Florida for sex offenses after negotiating a plea deal there in 2008. His associate, Ghislaine Maxwell, is currently in prison.Mike Johnson, the Republican speaker of the House, said on Sunday he believed the approaching vote would help put an end to allegations that the president had any ties to Epstein’s abuse and trafficking of underage girls.“They’re doing this to go after President Trump on this theory that he has something to do with it. He does not,” Johnson said of critics, on the Fox News Sunday program.“Epstein is their [Democrats] entire game plan, so we’re going to take that weapon out of their hands,” Johnson said. “Let’s just get this done and move it on. There’s nothing to hide.”The Senate is thought unlikely to produce the necessary support to advance the legislation, however, and Senate majority whip John Barrasso, speaking on NBC on Sunday, declined to commit to holding a vote even if the pending bill passes in the House.Georgia Republican congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene has also demanded the release of all the Epstein documents, despite it causing a rift with Trump. More

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      Marjorie Taylor Greene says Trump’s remarks hurtful but hopes they can make up

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      Georgia congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene on Sunday called Donald Trump’s remarks labeling her a traitor and a lunatic “hurtful” but said she hopes she and the US president can “make up”, despite stark differences over policy and the release of documents about Jeffrey Epstein.Greene, a longtime ally and fierce defender of Trump and the “Make America great again” (Maga) base, pushed back against his name-calling in her first interview since Trump withdrew his support for her on Friday.She told CNN’s State of the Union show: “His remarks, of course, have been hurtful … the most hurtful thing he said, which is absolutely untrue, is he called me a traitor and that is so extremely wrong.”Greene said on Saturday she had been contacted by private security firms “with warnings for my safety” since Trump said he was withdrawing his endorsement of her as a Republican member of Congress, following several days of remarks and posts criticizing her.Greene had said in an X post that “a hot bed of threats against me are being fueled and egged on by the most powerful man in the world”, without referring to Trump by name, adding it was “the man I supported and helped get elected”.She did not go into further detail on Sunday morning about the nature and sources of such threats.But she added in her TV interview about Trump’s attacks, especially the label traitor: “Those are the types of words used that can radicalize people against me and put my life in danger.”“It has all come down to the ‘Epstein files’ and that is shocking and, you know, I stand with these women, I stand with rape victims … and survivors of trafficking … I believe the country deserves transparency in these files,” she said.Greene plans to join a vote in the House of Representatives later this week to demand the release of all files held by the US government on Epstein, the late financier and sex offender who killed himself in prison while awaiting trial on sex offenses in New York in 2019.Even though the Senate is expected to kill any such bill, the upcoming vote and last week’s release of thousands of documents with revelations about Epstein’s ties to Trump, Steve Bannon and other powerful figures, is putting huge pressure on the administration, including from victims of Epstein.Greene’s falling out with Trump was months in the making but matters escalated dramatically in recent weeks.Greene also called on Sunday for an end to “toxic infighting” in politics. CNN anchor Dana Bash challenged Greene on her track record of past violent rhetoric towards Democrats, including Nancy Pelosi, Barack Obama and posts such as an image of herself posing with a gun alongside pictures of the “Squad” group of congressional leftwingers, including Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.“I’m sorry for taking part in the toxic politics … put down the knives, be kind to one another … I never wanted to cause any harm,” Greene said.Greene has also diverged from Trump’s focus on foreign policy issues, arguing he should be concentrating on bringing down inflation in the US and take an even harder line on immigration.“I would like to see Air Force One parked and staying at home,” she said.But she ended the interview with CNN, when asked if there could be reconciliation with Trump, by saying: “Well, I certainly hope that we can make up. I can only speak for myself. I’m a Christian and one of the most important parts of our faith is forgiveness, and that’s something I’m committed to.” More