President Donald Trump is no longer fighting the release of the Epstein files. But that doesn’t mean he’s happy about it.
Trump threw his support behind a congressional effort to release all the files tied to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein after it became clear that he could not halt its momentum and that he risked suffering an embarrassing blow on the House floor, people familiar with the matter told CNN.
The stark reality, which was conveyed to Trump by allies and advisers in recent days, drove the president’s abrupt reversal Sunday evening and his comments Monday that he’ll sign the measure if it comes to his desk. It’s a decision he came to reluctantly, but one that is now likely to clear the way for the measure’s overwhelming passage in the House on Tuesday and for the Senate to take it up after that.
“Sure, I would,” Trump said from the Oval Office on Monday when asked whether he’d sign the measure.
It was a rare moment of retreat for a president who has made a habit of bending Washington to his will since returning to office. And it came after the White House privately tried and failed last week to pressure a handful of Republican lawmakers to abandon their support for the measure, and days after Trump attacked those defectors as “soft and foolish.”
“The Democrats are trying to bring up the Jeffrey Epstein Hoax again,” the president wrote in one post on Truth Social. “Only a very bad, or stupid, Republicans would fall into that trap.”
Trump remains personally frustrated by the continuing focus on the Epstein files, the people familiar with the matter said, viewing them as a distraction from his agenda that Democrats have since co-opted as fodder for political attacks. The president resents being tied to Epstein, who he has said he cut ties with well before Epstein was charged with any crimes, and has been irritated at the central role some of his close allies have played in the campaign for the files, those people said.
Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene speaks at a press conference at the US Capitol in Washington, DC, on September 3, announcing the Epstein Files Transparency Act, which calls for the release of all unclassified documents in the Jeffrey Epstein case. – Bryan Dozier/AFP/Getty Images
Just 48 hours before flipping his stance on the Epstein files, Trump attacked Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene in bitterly personal terms over her strident support for the House measure, withdrawing his endorsement and labeling the Georgia Republican a “traitor.”
Still, Trump ultimately shifted his own position after advisers and allies convinced him that the House measure’s passage was inevitable despite his best efforts — and that fighting it was only fueling more attention.
Now, in what one of the people familiar with the matter characterized as a tactical move, Trump and his allies are hoping that backing the speedy passage of the measure will allow Republicans to move past the issue more quickly and give the administration an opening to refocus attention on policy efforts that Trump has complained are going ignored.
House Speaker Mike Johnson is interviewed by Shannon Bream on FOX News Sunday on Sunday, November 16, in Washington, DC. – Paul Morigi/Getty Images
“We’ll just get this done and move it on,” House Speaker Mike Johnson said on “Fox News Sunday” over the weekend. “There’s nothing to hide.”
Johnson on Monday suggested he may vote for the measure after months of siding with Trump against it, citing new optimism that the Senate will “be able to correct” some of his concerns over its language.
Trump has since adopted that attitude, encouraging Republicans on Monday to shift their focus to areas that are viewed as far more crucial to next year’s midterm elections.
“All I want is I want for people to recognize a great job that I’ve done on pricing, on affordability,” he said. “I don’t want to take it away from really the greatness of what the Republican Party has accomplished.”
Trump in the meantime has also sought to turn the Epstein issue against Democrats, ordering a Justice Department investigation of the former financier’s ties to a range of people including former President Bill Clinton and prominent economic adviser Larry Summers. (Neither has been accused by law enforcement of any wrongdoing in connection with Epstein, and nor has Trump.)
White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson cited the probe as evidence that Trump has wanted “transparency related to the Epstein files.”
“The Trump Administration has done more for the victims than Democrats ever have,” she said in a statement.
Friday’s announcement has sparked fresh questions about whether the Justice Department could then cite the open investigation in refusing to turn over documents to Congress.
A White House official told CNN that Trump has not ordered the department to stand in the way of any congressional requests, but it’s unclear how it will respond if the House measure is ultimately signed into law.
That consideration, though, is likely weeks away. The Senate is due to break for a Thanksgiving recess at the end of the week, meaning it likely could not take up the measure until December at the earliest. And despite the broad bipartisan support in the House, Senate Majority Leader John Thune remains uncommitted on bringing the Epstein measure to the floor quickly, or even at all, a GOP leadership aide said.
That provides the White House with an opening that allies hope Trump can take advantage of to refocus voters and elevate the far more advantageous elements of his agenda, the people familiar with the matter said — for at least as long as they can keep the Epstein issue at bay.
“It never fully gets tamped … and part of that is just the sheer fact that a conspiracy theory never goes away,” said Doug Heye, a longtime GOP strategist. “Trump has ways of distracting and turning our attention away, but what’s to say it doesn’t pop up two months down the road or six months down the road?”
Trump himself alluded to that on Monday when voicing his support for releasing the files.
“No matter what we give, it’s never enough,” he said.
CNN’s Kristen Holmes and Ted Barrett contributed to this report.
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