Trump's White House Tried To Slow-Walk A Vote On The Epstein Files. It Failed.

The White House quietly lobbied senators to slow-walk a vote to force the release of investigative files on Jeffrey Epstein according to two sources with direct knowledge of the matter.

WASHINGTON, Nov 19 (Reuters) - The White House quietly lobbied senators to slow-walk a vote to force the release of investigative files on Jeffrey Epstein even as President Donald Trump publicly insisted his administration had nothing to hide and urged Congress to act, according to two sources with direct knowledge of the matter.

The effort unraveled on Tuesday when senators approved the measure passed by the Republican-controlled House of Representatives without the changes Trump aides had pressed for, exposing the limits of the president’s sway over his party on an issue that has bedeviled him since he returned to power this year. Trump announced in a social media post on Wednesday that he had signed the measure. His signature capped an extraordinary week that began with Trump reversing course Sunday night to urge House passage of a bill his administration had been trying to stall or head off for months. The measure compels the release of U.S. Justice Department files on Epstein, the late convicted sex offender and New York financier who fraternized with some of the most influential men in the country.

PIVOT TO DAMAGE CONTROL

By late Sunday afternoon, top White House aides and the president had concluded their campaign to prevent the vote was failing, and they tried to pivot from prevention to damage control, said the sources, who were not authorized to speak publicly.

White House aides ramped up their outreach to Senate leadership for amendments to the House bill, including redactions to protect victims, as a final effort to influence the measure, the two sources said.