https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/nov/17/trump-jeffrey-epstein-files-republicans
President attempts to save face politically after pressuring Republicans to back off their pushes to release files
Donald Trump’s call for Republicans to back the release of the Jeffrey Epstein files, an abrupt reversal, is a rare instance of the president being unable to tame his Maga base and being instead forced to accede to it.
Many Republicans are expected to support a vote in the US House this week to force the justice department to release the files. Once the measure passes, it would still need approval in the US Senate, where 13 Republican senators would need to join with all 47 Democrats to approve it.
Trump spent last week aggressively squeezing allies in the US House, including Lauren Boebert of Colorado and Nancy Mace of South Carolina, to back off in their support of releasing the files. Those efforts were unsuccessful, and when it became apparent the measure was going to pass, Trump backed it in an effort to salvage an embarrassing political loss.
…
The House oversight committee last week released a tranche of documents they obtained from Epstein’s estate, including messages in which Epstein wrote that Trump knew of Epstein’s conduct. The messages also show Trump ally Steve Bannon advising Epstein on how to rehabilitate his image. Epstein further corresponded with other prominent people, including the former treasury secretary and Harvard president Larry Summers; the journalist Michael Wolff; and Kathryn Ruemmler, Barack Obama’s former White House counsel.
The release of those messages has only further increased scrutiny on Trump, and built the pressure to release everything the government still has on Epstein – which could be quite a lot, given the number of federal investigations conducted into him.
…
Original article at https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/nov/17/trump-jeffrey-epstein-files-republicans
