US President Donald Trump has signed a bill requiring the Justice Department to release investigative files related to disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein, marking a significant shift from his earlier resistance to the measure. Initially, Trump had claimed that Democrats were weaponizing the Epstein case to damage his political career, but he eventually endorsed the release, accusing Democrats of using the issue to distract from his administration’s achievements.
Jeffrey Epstein, a financier convicted of sex crimes in 2008 and charged again in 2019 with trafficking minors and running an underage sex ring, was found dead in a Manhattan jail cell in 2019. Officials ruled the death a suicide, though speculation has persisted that he was killed to prevent him from providing testimony about numerous wealthy and influential figures.
In a statement on his social media platform, Trump labeled Epstein as a lifelong Democrat and highlighted the connections between Democratic figures and Epstein. He accused Democrats of using the Epstein issue as a distraction from his administration’s successes, claiming the Biden administration had not turned over a single file or page related to Epstein. The Justice Department had already provided Congress with tens of thousands of documents at his direction, according to Trump. He warned that the latest developments would backfire on the Democrats, as they did with all previous efforts.
The bill’s passage followed a contentious debate, with the House approving the measure 427-1 and the Senate passing it unanimously. Trump had initially urged House Republicans to block the measure, but after the bill passed, he endorsed the release, arguing that the documents would provide the truth about these Democrats and their associations with Epstein.