US Senate Majority Chief John Thune, Republican from South Dakota, speaks with reporters outdoors his workplace on day 41 of the federal authorities shutdown, on the US Capitol in Washington, DC, November 10, 2025.
Saul Loeb | Afp | Getty Photos
President Donald Trump on Wednesday night time stated he signed a invoice ordering the Division of Justice to launch its information on intercourse offender Jeffrey Epstein.
The announcement in a prolonged Fact Social submit adopted the invoice’s near-unanimous passage in Congress.
“I HAVE JUST SIGNED THE BILL TO RELEASE THE EPSTEIN FILES!” Trump wrote within the 390-word submit, which painted the infamous financier as a “lifelong Democrat” who “was deeply related to many well-known Democrat figures.”
Trump, a former good friend of Epstein’s, additionally careworn that he had requested Republican leaders within the Home and Senate to go the invoice — though his administration had reportedly opposed the push to launch the information. After the vote on the invoice was scheduled within the Home, Trump on Sunday night time abruptly urged Republicans to again it.
“Due to this request, the votes had been nearly unanimous in favor of passage,” Trump wrote Wednesday night time.
The invoice instructs Legal professional Common Pam Bondi to publicly launch unclassified information regarding Epstein and his convicted confederate Ghislaine Maxwell, amongst different data, inside 30 days of its signing.
However the laws accommodates exceptions, together with for data containing victims’ personally identifiable data or baby intercourse abuse supplies.
It additionally features a carve-out for information that “would jeopardize an lively federal investigation or ongoing prosecution.” Bondi, acquiescing to a request from Trump, stated final week that she had assigned Manhattan U.S. Legal professional Jay Clayton to analyze Epstein’s ties to a number of of the president’s perceived foes.
The laws obtained overwhelming assist within the Home, with all however one lawmaker, Republican Rep. Clay Higgins of Louisiana, voting for it on Tuesday.
It handed instantly when it was despatched to the Senate on Wednesday morning. Senate Minority Chief Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., had secured a unanimous consent settlement, which allowed the laws to sail via the higher chamber as quickly because it was obtained.
Regardless of his sudden shift in stance on the invoice, Trump has continued to fume in regards to the concentrate on Epstein, calling it a “hoax” being pushed by Democrats to distract from his administration’s achievements.
He has repeatedly lashed out at reporters when requested about his connections to Epstein, who died by suicide in jail in 2019 whereas dealing with federal intercourse trafficking fees. Trump and Epstein had been buddies till the early 2000s, however the two had a falling out years earlier than Epstein’s loss of life.
When an ABC Information reporter requested Trump on Tuesday why he has not launched the Epstein information on his personal — as he has the facility to do — the president insulted her and known as for ABC’s broadcast license to be revoked.
The White Home didn’t instantly reply to CNBC’s request for remark.
Trump on the 2024 marketing campaign path steered he would launch information associated to Epstein. Within the early months of his second time period, officers in his administration signaled they had been pushing to reveal these information.
Legal professional Common Pam Bondi stated in February, for example, that Epstein’s rumored “shopper record” was “sitting on my desk proper now to evaluate.” The identical month, a gaggle of pro-Trump influencers obtained binders labeled “The Epstein Recordsdata: Section 1” on the White Home.
However these binders contained little new data. And the DOJ, in an unsigned memo in July, stated {that a} evaluate of its Epstein-related supplies “revealed no incriminating ‘shopper record.'” The memo additionally included the company’s conclusion that “no additional disclosure can be applicable or warranted.”
The announcement enraged each Democrats and a few distinguished voices in Trump’s base.
In subsequent months, scrutiny elevated over Trump’s previous affiliation with Epstein.
In July, The Wall Road Journal reported the existence of a “bawdy” and cryptic notice to Epstein bearing Trump’s signature, which was a part of a set of letters gathered for Epstein’s fiftieth birthday in 2003. Trump has denied writing the letter and filed a defamation lawsuit towards the Journal’s writer and media mogul Rupert Murdoch.
The Home Oversight Committee final week launched hundreds of paperwork it had obtained from Epstein’s property via a subpoena, together with emails exhibiting Epstein discussing Trump.
In a single e mail thread in 2018, Epstein wrote of Trump, “I understand how soiled donald is.” In an April 2019 e mail to creator Michael Wolff, Epstein wrote that Trump “knew in regards to the ladies.” CNBC has not independently verified the emails, and it’s unclear what Epstein was referring to.
Home Democrats and a handful of Republicans sought to approve a discharge petition that might pressure a vote within the GOP-majority chamber on the invoice to launch the Epstein information. That effort was delayed for weeks by the federal government shutdown, which postponed the swearing-in of a Democratic lawmaker who would offer the final wanted signature.