President Donald Trump on Monday stated he would signal a invoice to compel the Justice Division to launch all recordsdata relating intercourse offender Jeffrey Epstein if it reaches his desk.
“I am all for it,” he stated as he took reporter questions throughout an occasion within the Oval Workplace, contending the controversy is deflecting from his administration successes.
Pressed once more moments later if he would signal the invoice that the House is set to take up Tuesday, Trump replied: “Certain I’d.”
“Let the Senate take a look at it. Let anyone take a look at it. However do not speak about it an excessive amount of, as a result of, truthfully, I do not need it to remove from us. It is actually a Democrat downside,” he stated.
President Donald Trump speaks throughout a gathering with the White Home process drive on the 2026 FIFA World Cup within the Oval Workplace of the White Home, Nov. 17, 2025, in Washington.
Evan Vucci/AP
The feedback come after Trump’s sudden reversal on Sunday that Home Republicans ought to vote sure on releasing the recordsdata, after his monthslong opposition to the measure — an effort that lately culminated with what sources stated was an attempt to dissuade GOP Rep. Lauren Boebert within the White Home State of affairs Room from supporting the discharge petition to drive a ground vote.
Kentucky Republican Rep. Thomas Massie, a co-sponsor of the laws, had stated earlier on ABC’s “This Week” that he thinks 100 or extra Republicans may vote in favor of releasing the recordsdata.
After Trump stated on Monday he would signal the measure if it passes the Senate, Massie posted on X: “Wanting ahead to attending this invoice signing.”
Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., seems on ABC Information’ “This Week” on Nov. 16, 2025.
ABC Information
However questions stay as as to whether the complete recordsdata will probably be launched, even with Trump’s public change in place.
If the invoice passes the Home, as is anticipated, it’ll nonetheless should undergo the Senate, the place Majority Chief John Thune has not but publicly dedicated to holding a vote. Senate Majority Whip John Barrasso, on NBC’s “Meet the Press” on Sunday, stated solely that the Senate would “have a look” at what passes the Home.
“I am unsure what proof is on the market,” Barrasso stated. “What I do know is that the Home goes to vote this week, attempt to decide, and we’ll see in the event that they ship one thing to the Senate. And in the event that they do, we’ll check out that. However we wish transparency and accountability. What I additionally know is that Jeffrey Epstein is a convicted intercourse offender and he’s lifeless. And President Trump threw him out of Mar-a-Lago 21 years in the past.”
Plus, a brand new Division of Justice investigation has been began at Trump’s request into ties between Epstein and high-profile Democrats, together with former President Invoice Clinton.
Trump, in his social media put up on Sunday saying Republicans ought to vote to launch the recordsdata, notably added that the Home Oversight Committee “can have no matter they’re legally entitled to.”
The firestorm over the Epstein matter erupted in July when the Division of Justice and FBI launched a memo stating they deliberate to make no future public disclosures associated to their evaluate of Epstein’s case, and no additional costs had been anticipated as they “didn’t uncover proof that would predicate an investigation in opposition to uncharged third events.”
Final week, Home Democrats launched emails from the Epstein property that talked about Trump by title a number of occasions. In a single e-mail, written in 2011, Epstein referred to Trump because the “canine that hasn’t barked” and he informed confederate Ghislaine Maxwell that an alleged sufferer had “spent hours at my home” with Trump.
Trump, who was pleasant with Epstein for years, stated after Epstein’s arrest in 2019 that they hadn’t spoken in additional than a decade after having a falling out. White Home press secretary Karoline Leavitt dismissed the newly launched emails final week, saying they “show completely nothing aside from the truth that President Trump did nothing incorrect.”
Trump on Monday stated his administration’s already given Home committees tens of hundreds of paperwork, and repeated that the Epstein matter is a “hoax.”
“It is only a Russia, Russia, Russia hoax because it pertains to the Republicans. Now, I imagine that lots of the people who we, a number of the people who we talked about are being checked out very severely for his or her relationship to Jeffrey Epstein, however they had been with him on a regular basis. I wasn’t. I wasn’t in any respect, and we’ll see what occurs,” Trump stated.
President Donald Trump speaks throughout a gathering with the White Home process drive on the 2026 FIFA World Cup within the Oval Workplace of the White Home, Nov. 17, 2025, in Washington.
Evelyn Hockstein/Reuters
On Monday, Home Speaker Mike Johnson continued to boost considerations in regards to the laws to drive the discharge of the recordsdata and stated he is spoken to Trump “fairly a bit” on the difficulty.
“His statements communicate for themselves,” Johnson stated. “He has nothing, he has by no means had something to cover. He and I had the identical concern, that we needed to make sure that victims of those heinous crimes had been fully shielded from disclosure. Those that don’t need their names to be on the market, and I’m not positive the discharge petition does that and that’s a part of the issue.”
Democrats on Capitol Hill, after Trump’s reversal on the Home vote, stated he may act now to launch the recordsdata himself.
“He stated for the Home to vote for it, and I hope the home will and do it rapidly, however he may finish all the issues as an alternative of simply telling the Home to vote for it,” Senate Minority Chief Chuck Schumer stated at a information convention in Saratoga, New York. “Launch them. Launch them now.”
ABC Information’ Michelle Stoddart and Lauren Peller contributed to this report.
