Republican Rep. Thomas Massie, spearheading the congressional initiative to force the release of the Epstein files, called on President Donald Trump to do it despite his longstanding opposition.
"There's still time for him to be the hero," Massie said. However, even though he added that Trump "could release all the files himself," it "seems like they were all scrambling over there to stop this."
Massie is one of four Republicans in the House who are supporting the "discharge petition," which will force a floor vote the compel the Department of Justice to release the files despite opposition from the leadership. The others are Marjorie Taylor Greene, Nancy Mace and Lauren Boebert.
House Speaker Mike Johnson, who has opposed the measure, said he will bring the measure to a vote next week. Even if it passes, the move will have to pass the Senate and be signed into law by Trump, which is unlikely given his opposition.
The initiative got enough support on Wednesday after the swearing in of Democratic Rep. Adelita Grijalva. It came on the same day as Democrats released a new tranche of Epstein documents mentioning Donald Trump by name.
They include a 2011 message in which Epstein told his longtime associate Ghislaine Maxwell that a victim had "spent hours at my house" with Trump, describing him as "the dog that hasn't barked." Maxwell responded: "I have been thinking about that ..." The names of alleged victims were redacted.
In a separate exchange from December 2015, author Michael Wolff told Epstein he heard CNN might question Trump about his relationship with him. Epstein replied: "If we were to craft an answer for him, what do you think it should be?" Wolff said Trump should answer publicly and risk "hanging himself," noting it could create "PR and political currency" for Epstein.
Another email from January 2019 shows Epstein appeared to dispute reports that Trump had barred him from Mar-a-Lago, writing: "Trump said he asked me to resign, never a member ever. Of course he knew about the girls as he asked ghislaine to stop." The full context of the exchange is unclear.
None of the newly released documents contain allegations of criminal conduct by Trump.
The White House has slammed Democrats, calling the effort a "tired CON JOB to smear the President."
Originally published on Latin Times
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