President Donald Trump has called for the Epstein files to be released in a stunning reversal that runs against his previously ordered political investigation.
Trump took to Truth Social Sunday night, urging House Republicans to vote to release the files, and called the ever-worsening scandal a “Democrat Hoax perpetrated by Radical Left Lunatics.”
“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,” Trump wrote.
The announcement may interfere with his marching orders from Friday, when he directed the Justice Department to conduct an investigation into prominent Democrats found in the Epstein files.
Trump ordered Attorney General Pam Bondi on Friday “to investigate Jeffrey Epstein’s involvement and relationship” with former President Bill Clinton and former Treasury Secretary Larry Summers . Trump previously said that “Democrats, not Republicans,” were in league with Epstein, and claimed that “all arrows [are] pointing to the Democrats.”
Speaking with reporters on Air Force One later that day, Trump defended the move. “I’m the chief law enforcement officer of the country,” he said. “I’m allowed to do it.”
Bondi said the Justice Department would “pursue” the investigation with “urgency and integrity,” in a post on X. “Thank you, Mr. President,” Bondi wrote.
Trump’s about-face seems to undermine his former strategy of refocusing attention on Democrats . It comes after months of refusing to address the Epstein files as anything other than “a hoax.”
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Following a widely-panned memo from the DOJ this past summer, Trump came under intense scrutiny for his administration’s handling of the Epstein files. Trump grew increasingly incredulous over being questioned about Epstein, referring to members of his base demanding answers as “selfish people” and “weaklings.”
Trump continued to refer to the scandal as a hoax and blamed “Radical Left Democrats” and “just plain troublemakers” for his administration’s woes, at one point pivoting to unfounded conspiracy theories about former President Barack Obama, which resulted in a short-lived grand jury probe.
After a September press conference conducted by Epstein survivors and politicians, Trump called the scandal “irrelevant” and “a Democrat hoax that never ends.” Even after a flurry of emails were released last week involving him and Epstein, Trump called them a “deflection” by Democrats, saying the emails were part of “the Jeffrey Epstein Hoax.”
House Speaker Mike Johnson has said that the House will vote this week on a bill to release the Epstein files. Many House Republicans planning to vote in favor of the bill drew the ire of Trump, who referred to them as “soft and foolish.”
