The top story on Memeorandum this morning is a WSJ report titled “Trump Plays Hardball With GOP Lawmakers as Epstein Vote Approaches.” Except that, clicking through, the headline is now “Trump Backs Vote to Release Epstein Files in Sharp Reversal.” (The URL still highlights the original title.)
President Trump threw in the towel on dissuading House Republicans from backing a measure to release files related to sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, saying Sunday night that GOP lawmakers should instead embrace the vote.
The vote set for this week had been shaping up as a major test of GOP loyalty to the president, who has kept an iron grip over the party since starting his second term in January. Dozens of Republicans were expected to potentially break with the president when the measure hit the House floor, and Trump’s announcement avoids a potential embarrassment for the White House.
“House Republicans should vote to release the Epstein files, because we have nothing to hide, and it’s time to move on from this Democrat Hoax,” Trump wrote on social media, calling it a distraction from GOP successes.
It amounted to a sharp reversal for Trump, who had sought for months to deter Republicans from supporting the measure. But a last-minute push wasn’t getting results, officials said, and risked calling even more attention to the matter as Trump seeks to calm voter anxiety over the cost of living. Some people thought in hindsight it would have been best to support the release of files from the beginning.
Last week, Trump failed to stop a House petition from reaching the critical 218th signature—comprising all Democrats plus four Republicans—prompting the House to hold a vote soon mandating that the Justice Department turn over its Epstein-related files.
Trump had been pushing Republicans to stand firm. Democrats “want to waste people’s time, and some of the dumber Republicans like that,” Trump said on Air Force One on Friday. Trump also last week pressed the Justice Department to launch an investigation into Epstein’s relationship with prominent Democrats.
The vote, sought for months by GOP Reps. Thomas Massie of Kentucky and Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia, along with Democratic Rep. Ro Khanna of California, stood to put all House lawmakers on the record. GOP lawmakers have been balancing voters’ outrage over the case against Trump’s claim that the push for more Epstein disclosures is a Democratic effort to hurt Republicans politically.
The move to release the records is surely, first and foremost, about hurting President Trump politically. As Cheryl Rofer rightly notes, “None of the things being pulled out of the latest tranche of many thousand emails is new.” The fight is over politics, with the girls who were victimized as an afterthought.
Oddly, I can not find the above-quoted message from Trump on his Truth Social feed.
Regardless, it’s clear that enough Republicans—indeed, possibly a groundswell—was going to vote to release, regardless. There were enough votes to force a vote, and there is enough demand within the Republican base to release the records to force Republican Members into a Hobson’s choice.
AP (“In reversal, Trump says House Republicans should vote to release Epstein files“):
The president’s shift is an implicit acknowledgement that supporters of the measure have enough votes to pass it the House, although it has an unclear future in the Senate.
It is a rare example of Trump backtracking because of opposition within the GOP. In his return to office and in his second term as president, Trump has largely consolidated power in the Republican Party.
[…]
Lawmakers who support the bill have been predicting a big win in the House this week with a “deluge of Republicans” voting for it, bucking the GOP leadership and the president.
[…]
Lawmakers who support the bill have been predicting a big win in the House this week with a “deluge of Republicans” voting for it, bucking the GOP leadership and the president.
We shall see what happens in the Senate, although I suspect that it will pass that body, which is on the whole considerably more mainstream than the House, as well. Like Rofer, I expect to learn nothing that will change my opinion on Trump.
