Recently, as the U.S. House of Representatives neared a vote on releasing the Epstein files, President Donald Trump shifted his focus to hot-button issues.
President Trump and his administration officials sought to undermine efforts to release files on convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. And President Trump has called the incident “pretty boring” in July, repeatedly referred to it as a “hoax” by Democrats and denied pushing for the files to be released.
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And on November 16, he directed House Republicans to vote in favor of his release.
His replacement comes after lawmakers cleared a key hurdle on Nov. 12, gathering 218 signatures on a petition calling for a forced vote on a bill to release the files within 30 days. The House is scheduled to vote on the bill this week. Previously, it was thought the bill was unlikely to pass the Senate. It remains to be seen whether President Trump’s latest statement will prompt senators to reconsider.
Mr. Epstein shared Mr. Trump’s social circle in the 1990s, attending parties at Mr. Trump’s private club Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach, Florida. The two were photographed together numerous times at social gatherings. They then had a falling out, with some reporters recording a rift that lasted until the end of 2007.
Palm Beach County prosecutors investigated Epstein after reports that a 14-year-old girl was sexually abused at his residence. In 2008, Epstein pleaded guilty to state charges of soliciting prostitution from persons under 18. He received preferential treatment in the criminal investigation and served about a year, mostly on release.
In 2018, the Miami Herald published an extensive investigation into the case, and the following year, Epstein was arrested on federal charges that he recruited dozens of underage girls to his New York City mansion and Palm Beach estate between 2002 and 2005 and forced them to perform sex acts for money. He was found dead in his Manhattan jail cell on August 10, 2019, and investigators concluded he died by suicide.
We asked the White House why President Trump changed his stance on releasing the files. “President Trump has consistently called for transparency regarding Mr. Epstein’s file over the years, including releasing tens of thousands of pages of documents and cooperating with the House Oversight Committee’s subpoena requests,” White House press secretary Abigail Jackson said in a statement, calling for an investigation into “Mr. Epstein’s Democratic friends.”
Here’s what President Trump said in 2024 and 2025 about releasing the Epstein files:
President Trump said he would release the files during the 2024 campaign.
In June 2024, Fox & Friends co-host Rachel Campos-Duffy asked President Trump whether he would declassify various files, including those related to 9/11 and former President John F. Kennedy.
“Would you please declassify the Epstein files?” Campos-Duffy said.
President Trump said, “Yes, yes, we will.”
The clip went viral on social media, with Trump’s campaign account also sharing it.
🚨 President Trump says 9/11 files, JFK files, Epstein files will not be classified pic.twitter.com/JalLWFkRDZ
— Trump War Room (@TrumpWarRoom) June 3, 2024
In the same interview, Trump also said, “I would do that.” He added: “There’s a lot of fake stuff out there, so if it’s fake you don’t want it to affect people’s lives, but I think it will.”
On a September 2024 episode of the Lex Fridman Podcast, during a discussion about releasing some of the Epstein documents, Trump said, “Yeah, we’re certainly going to take a look at it.” “I don’t think it’s a problem,” he said, adding that he was “inclined” to do so.
In 2025, President Trump was denying the Epstein file.
Early in the second Trump administration, Trump officials, including Attorney General Pam Bondi and FBI Director Kash Patel, said they supported releasing the files.
In late February, at a White House event, Mr. Bondi released what he called the “first phase” of the “declassified Epstein files” to conservative influencers. Most of it consisted of documents that were already publicly available.
In a post on Truth Social on July 12, Trump expressed his dissatisfaction with the Epstein file. President Trump told reporters on the White House lawn on July 15 that the files were “made up by Mr. Comey. Mr. Obama made them up. Biden made them up.” We rated the claim “Pants on Fire.”
Trump said the FBI should focus on investigating other issues, such as voter fraud, and that the administration “shouldn’t waste time and energy on Jeffrey Epstein, who no one cares about.”
In a July 16 interview with conservative media outlet Real America’s Voice, President Trump said, “In the case of Epstein, I think they’ve already investigated it and they’re investigating it. I think all they have to do is come out with something that’s credible. But, you know, it’s something that was run for four years by the Biden administration.”
On August 22nd, a reporter asked President Trump if he supported releasing the files.
“I support keeping it open,” he said. “No innocent people should be hurt, but I support staying completely open. I couldn’t care less about it. There’s a lot of people who don’t deserve to be on the file, folks, because he knew everyone in Palm Beach. I don’t know anything about it, but I told Pam (Bondi) and everyone else to give them everything they can because this is a Democratic hoax.”
On September 3, reporters asked President Trump about his efforts to release the Epstein files and whether the Justice Department was protecting his friends and donors.
President Trump said it was “an endless Democratic hoax” and that “we provided thousands of pages of files.”
This month, President Trump asked for the files to be released.
After it became clear the House was moving in that direction, Trump voiced support for releasing the files.
On November 12, the House Oversight Committee released approximately 20,000 pages of documents from Epstein’s estate.
President Trump directed prosecutors to investigate Democrats and told Republicans to vote in favor of releasing the files.
President Trump has frequently pointed out the ties between Epstein and former President Bill Clinton. In a Nov. 14 post on Truth Social, Trump called on the Justice Department to investigate Epstein’s involvement with Clinton.
Prosecutors typically do not release files during ongoing investigations, so President Trump’s announcement raised questions about whether the Justice Department would withhold certain files even if Congress voted to release them.
On November 14, when a reporter asked President Trump about releasing the files, Trump replied, “I don’t care if they’re released or not.”
Two days later, in a post on Nov. 16, President Trump said, “House Republicans should vote to release the Epstein files because we have nothing to hide. It’s time to move on from this Democratic hoax perpetrated by radical left-wing lunatics to distract from the Republican Party’s great successes, including the recent Democratic ‘shutdown’ victory.” ” he said.
