US President Donald Trump announced on Wednesday that he signed a bill ordering the release of all files related to the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
The bill requires the justice department to release all information from its Epstein investigation “in a searchable and downloadable format” within 30 days.
Trump previously opposed releasing the files, but he changed course last week after facing pushback from Epstein’s victims and members of his own Republican Party.
With his support, the legislation overwhelmingly cleared both chambers of Congress, the House of Representatives and Senate, on Tuesday.
In a post on Truth Social on Wednesday, the president accused Democrats of championing the issue to distract attention from the achievements of his administration.
“Perhaps the truth about these Democrats, and their associations with Jeffrey Epstein, will soon be revealed, because I HAVE JUST SIGNED THE BILL TO RELEASE THE EPSTEIN FILES!” he wrote.
Although a congressional vote was not required to release the files – Trump could have ordered the release on his own – lawmakers in the House passed the legislation with a 427-1 vote. The Senate gave unanimous consent to pass it upon its arrival, sending the bill to Trump for his signature.
The Epstein files subject to release under the legislation are documents from criminal investigations into the financier, including transcripts of interviews with victims and witnesses, and items seized in raids of his properties. Those materials include internal justice department communications, flight logs, and people and entities connected to Epstein.
The files are different from the more than 20,000 pages of documents from Epstein’s estate released by Congress last week, including some that directly mention Trump.
Those include 2018 messages from Epstein in which he said of Trump: “I am the one able to take him down” and “I know how dirty donald is”.
Trump was a friend of Epstein’s for years, but the president has said they fell out in the early 2000s, two years before Epstein was first arrested. Trump has consistently denied any wrongdoing in relation to Epstein.
Speaking to reporters on Monday night, Trump said Republicans had “nothing to do with Epstein”.
“It’s really a Democrat problem,” he said. “The Democrats were Epstein’s friends, all of them.”
Getty ImagesEpstein was found dead in 2019 in his New York prison cell in what a coroner ruled was a suicide. He was being held on charges of sex trafficking. He had been convicted previously of soliciting prostitution from a minor in 2008.
The once high-flying financier had ties with a number of high-profile figures, including Andrew Mountbatten Windsor, the brother of King Charles and former prince; Trump; Trump’s former advisor Steve Bannon; and a cast of other characters from the world of media, politics and entertainment.
On Wednesday, former Harvard president Larry Summers took a leave from teaching at the university while the school investigated his links to Epstein, revealed in a series of chummy email exchanges.
Attorney General Pam Bondi is required to release “all unclassified records, documents, communications, and investigative materials” related to Epstein and his co-conspirator Ghislaine Maxwell no later than 30 days after the law is enacted. Maxwell currently is serving a 20-year sentence for sex trafficking.
But based on the law’s text, portions could still be withheld if they are deemed to invade personal privacy or relate to an active investigation.
The bill gives Bondi the power to withhold information that would jeopardise any active federal investigation or identify any victims.
One of the bill’s architects, Republican Congressman Thomas Massie, said he had concerns about some files being withheld.
“I’m concerned that [Trump is] opening a flurry of investigations, and I believe they may be trying to use those investigations as a predicate for not releasing the files. That’s my concern,” he said.
