President Donald Trump on Friday once again lashed out over calls from members of both parties for his administration to release case files associated with probes into the deceased sex offender — his onetime friend — Jeffrey Epstein.
Writing on Truth Social, the president accused Democrats of having “did nothing about Jeffrey Epstein while he was alive except befriend him, socialize with him, travel to his Island, and take his money” and claimed that those calling for transparency in the infamous case are disingenuously “seeming to show such love and heartfelt concern for his victims.”
“The now dying … Epstein case was only brought back to life by the Radical Left Democrats because they are doing so poorly, with the lowest poll numbers in the history of the Party … while the Republicans are doing so well, among the highest approval numbers the Party has ever had,” he said.
Trump then repeated his claim that the entire matter is “merely another Democrat HOAX, just like Russia, Russia, Russia, and all of the others, in order to deflect and distract from the great success of a Republican President, and the record setting failure of the previous Administration, and the Democrat Party” and accused the opposition of not caring about Epstein’s many victims.
His latest rant against the bipartisan demand for the Department of Justice to release files compiled during the investigations and prosecutions of Epstein and his convicted associate Ghislaine Maxwell, comes just two days after he hit out at a group of the deceased predator’s victims during an Oval Office appearance alongside the president of Poland.
At the time, The Independent asked him about allegations that his Department of Justice is slow-walking compliance with a congressional subpoena for the documents and redacting them to protect powerful friends and Republican campaign donors.
In response, he called the entire issue “a Democrat hoax that never ends” and compared it to the decades-long process of releasing files relating to the assassination of the late president John F. Kennedy, noting that “nobody’s ever satisfied” with what the government has produced in either case.
“From what I understand, thousands of pages of documents have been given. But it’s really a Democrat hoax, because they’re trying to get people to talk about something that’s totally irrelevant to the success that we’ve had as a nation since I’ve been President,” Trump said.
“I understand that we were subpoenaed to give files, and I understand we’ve given thousands of pages of files, and I know that no matter what you do, it’s going to keep going.”
Now, Trump claims that the DOJ “has done its job” in response to a bipartisan subpoena from the House Oversight Committee by giving “everything requested of them.”
In reality, members of the committee from both parties have complained that much of what has been produced has been in the public domain for years, and what little is original has been heavily redacted.
Trump’s reaction has drawn condemnation from Epstein’s victims and their families, many of whom rallied for transparency at the Capitol on Wednesday at the same time Trump was dismissing the entire matter as a “hoax.”
Sky Roberts, the brother of the late Epstein victim Virginia Giuffre, told The Independent that Trump’s administration was now running “likely … biggest cover-up in the history of the United States.”
“And I think it’s time for us to stand with the people, it’s time to stand with the survivors, and we need to tell them we believe you,” he said.
Two House members, Reps. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) and Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) have filed a discharge petition to force a vote on legislation that would order the release of all files related to Jeffrey Epstein. The petition would require a majority of members to sign on to circumvent leadership and hold a vote on the House floor.
Even if that effort is successful, the bill would most likely die in the GOP-controlled Senate.
