In a reversal of political rhetoric, President Trump, who had once called the Epstein issue a hoax and attacked those for the files release, signed a bill on November 17 directing the Justice Department to release the files relating to the investigation into the late sex offender, Jeffrey Epstein. The bill, known as the Epstein Files Transparency Act, was unanimously passed in the Senate and almost unanimously passed in the House of Representatives, with the exception of one vote against its passage, Louisiana Republican Clay Higgins. The bill demands that all Epstein files be released within 30 days of its passage, December 19. All Epstein files must be released, with the bill making exceptions to information regarding personal information about victims, explicit depictions of child abuse, anything jeopardizing a federal investigation, depictions of death or injury, and information properly classified to protect national security. Within 15 days of the Epstein files being released, the Department of Justice must give Congress a complete list of all materials released and withheld, a report on all redactions, and a list of all government officials and “politically exposed” people named in any of the materials.
While the Department of Justice is required to release materials, it may delay the release of many materials under the exception of anything that jeopardizes a federal investigation. This exception seems reasonable, and at the time of writing the bill, there was no known Epstein investigation, but on November 14, Donald Trump called for an investigation into many Democratic individuals and organizations, including former President Bill Clinton, who are believed to have ties to Epstein. This has caused some to worry that the DOJ will cite this as a reason to withhold large amounts of material in order to avoid jeopardizing these new investigations. While the files have not been released yet, materials that have caused much discussion are emails that were released by the House of Representatives.
On November 12, emails from Epstein and his social circle were released, with these emails mentioning Trump thousands of times, though none are to him, and he is not currently being legally accused of any wrongdoing. Within these emails, Epstein described Trump as a dog that hasn’t barked about his victims, told author Michael Wolff that Trump knew about his victims, offered New York Times reporter Landon Thomas pictures of Trump posing with girls in bikinis, and said he knew how dirty Trump was, calling him crazy and evil beyond belief. Particularly, a 2018 email exchange from Epstein’s brother, Mark Epstein, has gone viral, sparking memes and imagery of President Trump, former President Clinton, and a horse. Mark Epstein has denied Clinton’s involvement in the email, with him saying to anchor Chris Cuomo, “This is a private email between Jeffrey and myself, two brothers talking. It’s nobody’s business what we wrote.” Trump and many other celebrities and influential people have been implicated in Epstein’s crimes in these emails, and with the release of the Epstein files, many others could be implicated as well.
