WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump signed a bill Wednesday to compel the Justice Department to release files related to Jeffrey Epstein, capping off a monthslong bipartisan push in Congress that initially met resistance from the president and sparked sharp divisions within the Republican Party.
Trump, who announced the bill signing in a Truth Social post, had previously said he would sign the bill into law, even as he continued calling the largely Democrat-led push to release the files a “hoax.”
The House overwhelmingly supported passing the bill on Tuesday, with only Rep. Clay Higgins, R-La., voting against the legislation. Later in the day, the Senate agreed to send the measure to Trump by unanimous consent, which it did on Wednesday.
The bill requires Attorney General Pam Bondi to release all unclassified records related to Epstein within 30 days. The law permits Bondi to withhold or redact information that could jeopardize a federal investigation.
Last week, Bondi agreed to the president’s request for her department to investigate Epstein’s connections to Democrats and others, despite the Justice Department having previously said that it “did not uncover evidence that could predicate an investigation against uncharged third parties.” Asked during a Wednesday news conference what had changed, she said “new information, additional information,” but did not elaborate.
The Epstein files and the president’s handling of the controversy have sparked rare disunity among Republicans in Congress and Trump’s supporters. The legislation was co-led by Reps. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., and Ro Khanna, D-Calif., and garnered vocal support from Democrats and several Republican lawmakers including Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, who had a public falling-out with Trump.
On Sunday, Trump reversed his longstanding opposition to the legislative effort and called on House Republicans to support the bill, saying, “we have nothing to hide.” Still, he continued referring to the scandal as a “hoax” perpetrated by Democrats.
On Tuesday, backers of the legislation and survivors of Epstein held news conference on Capitol Hill to urge lawmakers to support the release of the files. Some of the survivors directly criticized the president, with one, Jena-Lisa Jones, urging him to “please stop making this political.”
The Epstein files surged into the spotlight last week when Republicans on the House Oversight Committee released more than 20,000 pages of documents from Epstein’s estate after Democratic lawmakers released emails from Epstein that referred to Trump.
In one of the emails, Epstein claimed in 2019 that Trump “knew about the girls,” but he didn’t accuse Trump of any wrongdoing. In another email from 2011, Epstein referred to Trump as “that dog that hasn’t barked” and said that the now-president “spent hours” at Epstein’s home with a redacted name labeled as a “victim.”
Trump has consistently denied involvement in any of Epstein’s crimes.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt responded to the emails during a press briefing, saying that the emailed “prove absolutely nothing other than the fact that President Trump did nothing wrong.”
Trump was friends with Epstein in the 1980s and ’90s, but had a falling-out with him in the early 2000s, accusing Epstein of hiring away young female employees from his resort’s spa. Trump has said he banned Epstein from Mar-a-Lago. The White House has maintained that Trump threw Epstein out of his club “for being a creep.”
Epstein pleaded guilty in 2008 to Florida state charges of soliciting prostitution with a minor. He died by suicide in jail in 2019 as he waited to go to trial on federal sex-trafficking charges.
Scott Wong, Melanie Zanona, Kyle Stewart and Brennan Leach contributed.