How Trump could still keep Epstein files secret, despite House and Senate votes
CBC
Despite overwhelming votes in the U.S. House of Representatives and Senate to pass a bill forcing the release of files about Jeffrey Epstein, some lawmakers believe President Donald Trump could still skirt the bill's intent and avoid disclosing material about the late sex trafficker's activities.
Their concern is the Department of Justice (DOJ) may withhold key documents related to its investigations into Epstein's sexual abuse of underage girls through a legal loophole that Trump opened last Friday.
The president ordered Attorney General Pam Bondi to open an investigation into Epstein's connections to three prominent Democrats: former president Bill Clinton, former treasury secretary Larry Summers and the billionaire founder of LinkedIn, Reid Hoffman.
The text of the the Epstein Files Transparency Act passed Tuesday by Congress allows the DOJ to withhold or redact any records that "would jeopardize an active federal investigation or ongoing prosecution."
Republican Thomas Massie, who co-sponsored the bill in the House, said he's concerned about Trump's move to open what he called "a flurry of investigations" after months of the White House downplaying the Epstein case.
"I believe they may be trying to use those investigations as a predicate for not releasing the files. That’s my concern,” Massie told reporters outside the Capitol on Monday evening.
"These files implicate billionaires and friends of [Trump] and political donors that he's trying to protect," Massie said. "That's why there's so much effort in trying to stop this."
Once Trump signs the bill, which is expected to happen Wednesday, the DOJ has 30 days to release all unclassified materials that relate to its investigations into Epstein’s crimes.
That's something the Trump administration could have done on its own, without an act of Congress, but has been resisting since July.
That's when the DOJ announced it would release no more files related to the Epstein investigation and declared it had no list of his clients.
Trump then began telling Republicans to stop talking about Epstein and dismissing calls for transparency as a Democrat hoax.
The Republican Speaker Mike Johnson also kept the House on a lengthy recess since summer, delaying Massie's push to get the Epstein bill on the floor.
On Sunday, when Trump finally threw in the towel and gave Republicans his permission to approve the bill, he continued to dismiss the content of the Epstein files as insignificant.
"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 on social media.
