Donald Trump Scolds “Weak Republicans” For Backing Release Of Jeffrey Epstein Files

Donald Trump went after what he called “weak Republicans” for backing an effort to compel the Justice Department to release files on convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

Trump posted on Truth Social on Friday, “The Democrats are doing everything in their withering power to push the Epstein Hoax again, despite the DOJ releasing 50,000 pages of documents, in order to deflect from all of their bad policies and losses, especially the SHUTDOWN EMBARRASSMENT, where their party is in total disarray, and has no idea what to do. Some Weak Republicans have fallen into their clutches because they are soft and foolish.”

Earlier this week, backers of the effort to release the files secured the 218 votes needed to force a House vote. The petition has the support of four Republicans and all Democrats, with the House expected to take it up next week. That will put pressure on other House Republicans to vote in favor of the files release, with the expectation that there will be a number of defections.

Trump has labeled the focus on the Epstein files a hoax orchestrated by the Democrats, while the White House has maintained that the president did nothing wrong. But Trump advocated for the release of the files during his presidential campaign last year.

Earlier this week, Democrats released a series of emails from Epstein’s estate that were obtained by the House Oversight Committee. The emails included one that Epstein wrote to Ghislaine Maxwell on April 2, 2011: “I want you to realize that that dog that hasn’t barked is trump.. [Victim] spent hours at my house with him ,, he has never once been mentioned.  Police chief. etc.     im 75 % there.”

In another email, from Jan. 31, 2019, Epstein wrote to journalist Michael Wolff: “[Victim] mara lago. [identifier]. Trump said he asked me to resign, never a member ever. Of course he knew about the girls as he asked ghislaine to stop.”

Republicans on the Oversight Committee responded by releasing 20,000 emails from the Espstein estate. They pointed to the redaction of the victims’ name from the April 2, 2011 email. “Why did Democrats cover up the name when the Estate didn’t redact it in the redacted documents provided to the committee? It’s because this victim, Virginia Giuffre, publicly said that she never witnessed wrongdoing by President Trump.”

Since the email release, Trump has avoided answering reporters’ questions about Epstein. In his Truth Social post, Trump tried to shift attention to Democrats who have been associated with Epstein and said he was “not the Republicans’ problem!”