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In a surprising turn of events, President Donald Trump announced on Sunday that members of the US House of Representatives should vote to disclose all government documents concerning disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein.
This follows months during which Trump actively campaigned against Republican lawmakers to prevent the release of the documents, collectively referred to as the Epstein files.
“We have nothing to hide, and it’s time to move on from this Democrat hoax perpetrated by radical left Lunatics to deflect from the great success of the Republican Party, including our recent Victory on the Democrat ‘Shutdown,'” he said on his Truth Social platform.
The shift in position occurred after Trump severed ties with longtime ally Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene on Friday, following her refusal to agree to his request to oppose the release of the Epstein files.
In brief comments to the media on Sunday, Trump labelled Greene a “traitor”, reflecting the growing distance between them amid the controversy surrounding Epstein.
Trump’s decision to shift from his longstanding opposition to the House Republicans’ efforts to release the documents suggests the House is likely to vote in favour of the release as early as Tuesday, following the prior support of four Republicans and all Democrats last week to initiate a vote on the matter.
“Nobody cared about Jeffrey Epstein when he was alive, and if the Democrats had anything, they would have released it before our landslide election victory. Some ‘members’ of the Republican Party are being ‘used,’ and we can’t let that happen,” he added.
Epstein was discovered dead in his New York City jail cell in 2019 while awaiting trial; he had previously admitted guilt and been convicted in 2008 for soliciting a minor for prostitution.
