By David Morgan
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -The Republican-controlled U.S. House of Representatives is expected to vote Tuesday to force the release of Justice Department files on the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, moving ahead on a matter that has fractured relations between President Donald Trump and some of his most ardent supporters.
Two days after Trump abruptly dropped his longstanding opposition to the measure, the vote is all but certain to succeed, sending a resolution requiring the release of all unclassified materials on Epstein to the Senate for consideration.
Trump, who has acknowledged he was once a friend of Epstein but said they had a falling out, long fanned the flames of conspiracies about the financier who cultivated many wealthy and powerful friends. Since returning to power, the issue has become a rare weak spot for the president with his supporters. An October Reuters/Ipsos poll found that just four in 10 Republicans approve of Trump’s handling of the matter, well below the nine in 10 who approve of his overall performance.
Trump has said he had no connection to Epstein’s alleged crimes and recently has begun calling the issue a “Democratic hoax.”
SPEAKER JOHNSON RESISTED MASSIE’S MOVE
House Speaker Mike Johnson had for months resisted a drive for disclosure spearheaded by maverick Republican Representative Thomas Massie, who collected signatures from 218 House members for a discharge petition to force a vote on the resolution.
Trump’s opposition soured relations with one of his strongest congressional supporters, Republican Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene, who has repeatedly expressed anger at the Justice Department not releasing more details on Epstein.
That changed with Trump’s sudden Sunday about-face, when he said, “House Republicans should vote to release the Epstein files, because we have nothing to hide.”
Top House Democrat Hakeem Jeffries had a more biting assessment.
“Donald Trump appears to have chickened out on the Epstein scandal,” Jeffries told a press conference on Monday. “He’s caved. It’s a complete and total surrender.”
Trump’s statement was likely to result in a strong showing of support among Republicans, who hold a 219-214 House majority. Democrats have already voiced support for the measure.
It was unclear whether the Republican-led Senate would take up the matter. Senate Majority Leader John Thune’s office declined to comment ahead of the House vote.
Johnson told reporters that he and Trump were concerned about protecting Epstein’s victims from unwanted public exposure. “I’m not sure the discharge does that, and that’s part of the problem,” the Louisiana Republican said in the U.S. Capitol on Monday. Supporters of the legislation say Johnson’s concerns are unfounded.
WORRIES ABOUT FULLNESS OF DISCLOSURE
But even as the House prepared to vote, lawmakers voiced doubts about how full the disclosure would be, given Trump’s instruction to the Justice Department to investigate Epstein’s ties to prominent Democrats and legislative language in the resolution that allows the Justice Department to keep materials subject to a probe under wraps.
“Once there is an investigation, it does sort of put a clause on a lot of things,” said Democratic Representative Adelita Grijalva, whose signature on Massie’s petition last week forced the floor vote.
“I’ve heard all over from both sides of the aisle, wondering how complete that information that’s going to be released is going to be,” she told Reuters.
Epstein pleaded guilty to a Florida state felony prostitution charge in 2008 and served 13 months in jail. The U.S. Justice Department in 2019 charged him with sex trafficking of minors. Epstein pleaded not guilty to those charges and died in what was ruled a suicide later that year before his trial.
Emails released last week by a House committee showed the disgraced financier believed Trump “knew about the girls,” though it was not clear what that phrase meant. The White House said the released emails contained no proof of wrongdoing by Trump. Johnson agreed with that assessment on Monday.
“He has never had anything to hide,” Johnson told reporters.
(Reporting by David Morgan and Jonathan Allen, additional reporting by Richard Cowan; editing by Scott Malone, Rod Nickel)
