President Donald Trump on Sunday called on House Republicans to support the release of files related to the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, dramatically changing course on a flashpoint issue he has long opposed.
“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,” Trump wrote on Truth Social.
Just last week, Trump had called the efforts to release the files a “hoax,” saying Democrats were bringing them up to “deflect how badly they’ve done on the Shutdown.”
In the post, Trump said the Justice Department has already released “tens of thousands” of pages on Epstein and noted his recent move directing the Justice Department to investigate Epstein’s relationship with notable Democrats such as former President Bill Clinton. Trump’s ask followed a tranche of emails mentioning figures on both sides of the aisle, including the president himself.
A Clinton spokesperson told NBC News on Friday that the released emails “prove Bill Clinton did nothing and knew nothing.”
“The rest is noise meant to distract from election losses, backfiring shutdowns, and who knows what else,” the spokesperson said in a statement Friday evening.
Reps. Ro Khanna, D-Calif., and Thomas Massie, R-Ky., last week reached enough signatures on a discharge petition to force a vote on the measure onto the House floor. They picked up support from Trump allies, including Reps. Nancy Mace, R-S.C., and Lauren Boebert, R-Colo. The petition also got a signature from Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., who over the weekend had a falling-out with Trump, which Greene attributed to her advocacy for releasing the Epstein files.
Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., has opposed the effort — but he said Wednesday he would bring the measure to the floor this week. To become law, the bill would also need to pass the GOP-controlled Senate and gain Trump’s signature.
NBC News has reached out to the White House for comment on Trump’s post.
Trump was friends with Epstein for years but said the two had a "falling-out" — reportedly around 2007. Epstein, who died by suicide in jail in 2019, has been at the heart of conspiracy theories about his death and criminal case — and many in Trump’s base supported greater transparency surrounding Epstein. Trump pledged transparency on the campaign trail and even appointed Kash Patel and Dan Bongino to the top two FBI roles — both of whom, before they joined the administration as FBI director and deputy director, used their media platforms to characterize the Epstein case as part of a cover-up to protect powerful people.
Trump has consistently denied any wrongdoing in connection with Epstein's crimes.
The Epstein files have caused uproar among the MAGA base, with Trump’s supporters this year expressing outrage over the administration’s decision not to release any more files.
The backlash led to the eventual discharge petition led by Khanna and Massie. Trump’s team had previously launched a group to unseat Massie, with the president later endorsing Massie’s challenger in the GOP primary.
CORRECTION (Nov. 17, 2025, 7:02 p.m. ET): An earlier version of this article misstated when Trump allies launched a group to unseat Massie. The group was formed before the Epstein discharge petition was introduced, not after.
