Epstein emails: Trump backs release of all files—live updates

President Donald Trump has told House Republicans to vote to release the Jeffrey Epstein files, saying they have “nothing to hide.”

“It’s time to move on from this Democrat Hoax perpetrated by Radical Left Lunatics in order to deflect from the Great Success of the Republican Party, including our recent Victory on the Democrat ‘Shutdown,'” he wrote on Truth Social on Sunday.

“The Department of Justice has already turned over tens of thousands of pages to the Public on ‘Epstein,’ are looking at various Democrat operatives (Bill Clinton, Reid Hoffman, Larry Summers, etc.) and their relationship to Epstein, and the House Oversight Committee can have whatever they are legally entitled to, I DON’T CARE! All I do care about is that Republicans get BACK ON POINT.”

Trump previously criticized House Republicans who announced their intention to vote for the release of the files as “very bad, or stupid.”

Newsweek contacted the White House for comment by email outside of normal business hours on Sunday evening.

What To Know

• Trump has been pulled deeper into the scandal since the release of several Epstein emails by the House Oversight Committee Democrats that mentioned the president, including a reference to him as the “dog that hasn’t barked.” The White House has said the emails were “selectively leaked” to “liberal media to create a fake narrative to smear President Trump.”
• Representatives Thomas Massie of Kentucky, a Republican, and Ro Khanna of California, a Democrat, introduced a bill over the summer that would require the Department of Justice (DOJ) to release all unclassified files related to the investigation into Epstein. When the bill did not receive a vote, Massie submitted the bill as a discharge petition in order to force a vote after it received 218 signatures.
• The matter came to a head last week as the government shutdown ended, requiring the House of Representatives to hold a session to consider and pass the Senate spending bills. To do so, House Speaker Mike Johnson swore in newly-elected Representative Adelita Grijalva of Arizona, a Democrat, who immediately provided the 218th signature on Massie’s discharge petition.
• The House intends to hold a vote on Massie’s bill on Tuesday, after which it would move to the Senate and then the president’s desk

Follow Newsweek’s live blog for the latest on Epstein’s emails.