Trump says he would sign bill to release Epstein files if it reaches his desk

President Donald Trump on Monday stated he would signal a invoice to compel the Justice Division to launch all information relating intercourse offender Jeffrey Epstein if it reaches his desk.

“I am all for it,” he stated as he took reporter questions throughout an occasion within the Oval Workplace, contending the controversy is deflecting from his administration successes.

Pressed once more moments later if he would signal the invoice that the House is set to take up Tuesday, Trump replied: “Positive I’d.”

“Let the Senate take a look at it. Let anyone take a look at it. However do not discuss it an excessive amount of, as a result of, truthfully, I do not need it to remove from us. It is actually a Democrat downside,” he stated.

The feedback come after Trump’s sudden reversal on Sunday that Home Republicans ought to vote sure on releasing the information, after his monthslong opposition to the measure — an effort that lately culminated with what sources stated was an attempt to dissuade GOP Rep. Lauren Boebert within the White Home State of affairs Room from supporting the discharge petition to drive a flooring vote.

Kentucky Republican Rep. Thomas Massie, a co-sponsor of the laws, had stated earlier on ABC’s “This Week” that he thinks 100 or extra Republicans may vote in favor of releasing the information.

After Trump stated on Monday he would signal the measure if it passes the Senate, Massie posted on X: “Trying ahead to attending this invoice signing.”

However questions stay as as to whether the total information can be launched, even with Trump’s public change in place.

If the invoice passes the Home, as is anticipated, it would nonetheless must undergo the Senate, the place Majority Chief John Thune has not but publicly dedicated to holding a vote. Senate Majority Whip John Barrasso, on NBC’s “Meet the Press” on Sunday, stated solely that the Senate would “have a look” at what passes the Home.

“I am undecided what proof is on the market,” Barrasso stated. “What I do know is that the Home goes to vote this week, attempt to decide, and we’ll see in the event that they ship one thing to the Senate. And in the event that they do, we’ll check out that. However we would like transparency and accountability. What I additionally know is that Jeffrey Epstein is a convicted intercourse offender and he’s useless. And President Trump threw him out of Mar-a-Lago 21 years in the past.”

Plus, a brand new Division of Justice investigation has been began at Trump’s request into ties between Epstein and high-profile Democrats, together with former President Invoice Clinton.

Trump, in his social media publish on Sunday saying Republicans ought to vote to launch the information, notably added that the Home Oversight Committee “can have no matter they’re legally entitled to.”

The firestorm over the Epstein matter erupted in July when the Division of Justice and FBI launched a memo stating they deliberate to make no future public disclosures associated to their overview of Epstein’s case, and no additional costs have been anticipated as they “didn’t uncover proof that might predicate an investigation in opposition to uncharged third events.”

Final week, Home Democrats launched emails from the Epstein property that talked about Trump by title a number of occasions. In a single e mail, written in 2011, Epstein referred to Trump because the “canine that hasn’t barked” and he advised confederate Ghislaine Maxwell that an alleged sufferer had “spent hours at my home” with Trump. 

Trump, who was pleasant with Epstein for years, stated after Epstein’s arrest in 2019 that they hadn’t spoken in additional than a decade after having a falling out. White Home press secretary Karoline Leavitt dismissed the newly launched emails final week, saying they “show completely nothing aside from the truth that President Trump did nothing fallacious.”

Trump on Monday stated his administration’s already given Home committees tens of 1000’s of paperwork, and repeated that the Epstein matter is a “hoax.”

“It is only a Russia, Russia, Russia hoax because it pertains to the Republicans. Now, I imagine that lots of the those who we, among the those who we talked about are being checked out very critically for his or her relationship to Jeffrey Epstein, however they have been with him on a regular basis. I wasn’t. I wasn’t in any respect, and we’ll see what occurs,” Trump stated.

On Monday, Home Speaker Mike Johnson continued to lift considerations concerning the laws to drive the discharge of the information and stated he is spoken to Trump “fairly a bit” on the difficulty. 

“His statements converse for themselves,” Johnson stated. “He has nothing, he has by no means had something to cover. He and I had the identical concern, that we wished to make sure that victims of those heinous crimes have been utterly protected against disclosure. Those that don’t need their names to be on the market, and I’m not certain the discharge petition does that and that’s a part of the issue.”

Johnson stated later that he expects a “massive vote tally” to again the measure within the Home.

Requested by ABC Information’ Rachel Scott why the president should not get forward of the vote and launch the information himself, Johnson insisted that Trump is for “most transparency” on the matter.

“He is telling the Congress to do it. I am undecided what extra he may do by means of transparency,” Johnson stated.

Democrats on Capitol Hill, after Trump’s reversal on the Home vote, stated he may act now to launch the information himself.

“He stated for the Home to vote for it, and I hope the home will and do it shortly, however he may finish all the issues as an alternative of simply telling the Home to vote for it,” Senate Minority Chief Chuck Schumer stated at a information convention in Saratoga, New York. “Launch them. Launch them now.”

ABC Information’ Michelle Stoddart and Lauren Peller contributed to this report.