President Donald Trump has thrown up his hands in the looming House vote to release the Epstein files.
Trump called on GOP lawmakers to vote in favor of a measure to release federal investigation files related to the shadowy pedophile Jeffrey Epstein after several Republicans signaled their intent to support the effort.
“House Republicans should vote to release the Epstein files, because we have nothing to hide, and 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,” he wrote in a Truth Social screed on Sunday.
Kentucky Republican Thomas Massie and California Democrat Ro Khanna secured all 218 signatures they needed last week—only four from Republicans—to force a House vote on the release of the Epstein files.
Several other Republicans have since indicated that they would vote in favor of that measure once it reaches the House floor, which sources told CBS News could come as soon as Tuesday.
“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 wrote, urging GOP lawmakers to shift their focus back to affordability, securing the border, “stopping Transgender for Everyone, and so much more!”
“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. Let’s start talking about the Republican Party’s Record Setting Achievements, and not fall into the Epstein ‘TRAP,’ which is actually a curse on the Democrats, not us.”
Earlier on Sunday, Massie told ABC’s This Week that the Trump-ordered investigation into Epstein’s relationship with former President Bill Clinton, former Harvard President Larry Summers, Democratic megadonor Reid Hoffman, and the bank JPMorgan Chase is only meant to cause a distraction.
“The president has been saying this is a hoax. He’s been saying that for months. Well, he’s just now decided to investigate a hoax,” Massie said. “And I have another concern about these investigations that he’s announced: If they have ongoing investigations in certain areas, those documents can’t be released. So this might be a big smokescreen, these investigations, to open a bunch of them as a last-ditch effort to prevent the release of the Epstein files.”
Massie remained hopeful that “a deluge” of Republicans would throw their weight behind the release of the Epstein files to make the measure “veto-proof.”
The only four Republicans who backed a discharge petition to force a vote on the matter were Massie, Nancy Mace of South Carolina, Lauren Boebert of Colorado, and Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia.
The petition succeeded even after Trump, once a close Epstein pal, reportedly called up the MAGA rebels in a last-ditch attempt to get them to pull their signatures.
Since the petition succeeded, Reps. Warren Davidson of Ohio, Eli Crane of Arizona, Don Bacon of Nebraska, Tim Burchett of Tennessee, and Rob Bresnahan of Pennsylvania have all expressed an intent to vote in favor of the release of the Epstein files.
Speaking to reporters on Sunday night, Trump blasted Massie, who has a long history of clashing with the president on everything from the “Big Beautiful Bill” to the U.S. strikes on nuclear sites in Iran.
“We call him Rand Paul Jr. because he never votes for the Republican Party. So they’re using Jeffrey Epstein as a deflection from the tremendous success that we’re having as a party,” he said.
