Epstein files release – Artifex.News

Trump administration officials race to meet Dec. 17 deadline for Epstein files

admin — Fri, 19 Dec 2025 14:00:00 +0000

A person holds a sign before a news conference on the Epstein files in front of the Capitol, on November 18, 2025, in Washington.
| Photo Credit: AP

President Donald Trump’s Justice Department faces a Friday (December 17, 2025) deadline to release a massive trove of documents from its investigations into the late financier and convicted sex offender Jeffrey ‌Epstein, after Congress overwhelmingly approved a new law forcing their disclosure last month.

That legislation followed months of political wrangling as well as rebellion by some of Mr. Trump’s staunchest supporters over his administration’s months-long reluctance to make the records public.

It remains unclear how, or when, the files will be released on Friday (December 17), but they will likely not represent all unclassified records held by the agency. The law allowed the Justice Department to withhold personal information about Epstein’s victims as well as any material that would jeopardize an active investigation.

Attorneys in the Justice Department’s National Security Division were ordered to review the materials and redact them in preparation for their release, two sources briefed on the matter said.

They have been working on the task since ⁠after the Thanksgiving holiday and were ordered to prioritize it over other casework. But due to the quick turnaround time, some are nervous about potential mistakes and the chance that some personally identifiable information could accidentally remain, the sources said.

Mr. Trump had initially urged Republicans, who control both chambers of Congress, to oppose the law, ⁠arguing that releasing potentially sensitive internal investigative records could set a dangerous precedent. He publicly reversed course just before the vote, even as the White House quietly lobbied senators to slow-walk passage of the Bill.

But many Mr. Trump voters accused his administration of covering up Epstein’s ties to powerful figures and obscuring details surrounding his ‌2019 death in a Manhattan jail, where he was awaiting trial on charges of abusing and ‌trafficking underage girls. While Epstein’s death was ruled a suicide, it sparked years of conspiracy theories, some amplified by Trump himself to his supporters when he was a presidential candidate.

If ‍the Justice Department does not release all of its files, it is likely that many Trump supporters will still not be satisfied. That could mean the issue remains a political headache for the president and his Republican Party ‍heading into tough midterm congressional elections next year.

Trumps gets poor ratings on Epstein issue

Just 44% of American adults who identify as Republicans approve of Mr. Trump’s handling of the Epstein issue, compared to his 82% overall approval rating among the group, according to a recent Reuters/Ipsos poll.

Last month, Democrats in the House of Representatives released thousands of emails obtained from Epstein’s estate, including one in which Epstein wrote that Mr. Trump “knew about the girls,” without clarifying what that meant. Trump, in response, accused Democrats of promoting the “Epstein Hoax” as a distraction.

House Republicans released more emails the same day, including one saying Trump visited Epstein’s house many times but “never got a massage.” Mr. Trump was once friendly with Epstein ⁠until they had a falling out in the mid-2000s, before Epstein’s first conviction in 2008. Trump has not been accused of wrongdoing and has denied knowing about Epstein’s sex trafficking.

But he reneged on a 2024 campaign promise to declassify the government’s Epstein files if elected, prompting some lawmakers to launch what ⁠at first was seen as a long-shot effort to force a vote on disclosure. Two days after Congress’ email releases, Trump ordered the Justice Department to investigate Epstein’s connections to Democratic former President Bill Clinton and J.P. Morgan, in what critics viewed as an effort to shift the focus away from himself.

The following week, despite White House pressure to delay the vote, U.S. lawmakers passed a bill forcing the ⁠release of the Justice Department records, which Mr. Trump then signed into law.

Published – December 19, 2025 07:30 pm IST

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Trump’s White House tried to slow-walk a vote on the Epstein files. It failed

admin — Thu, 20 Nov 2025 02:42:00 +0000

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 (November 18, 2025) 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.

Mr. Trump announced in a social media post on Wednesday that he had signed the measure.

His signature capped an extraordinary week that began with Mr. 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 authorised 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.

They prepared for a period of “messaging and management” to slow the bill, encouraging senators to portray any delay as responsible oversight. They also circulated talking points tailored to vulnerable Republicans, urging them to frame the vote around transparency while quickly steering the conversation back to affordability issues that are expected to loom large in next year’s midterm congressional elections.

White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson said Trump had worried the focus on Epstein would distract from his other priorities.

“President Trump has never been against releasing the Epstein files – rather, he has always been against Republicans falling into the Democrat trap of talking about this rather than focusing on the historic tax cuts signed into law, the fact that zero illegal aliens have entered our country in five months, and the many other accomplishments of the Trump Administration on behalf of the American people,” Mr. Jackson said.

Limit to Trump’s power

Despite weeks of strategizing and direct pressure on lawmakers — including a long delay in swearing in a newly elected Democratic lawmaker — congressional Republicans moved ahead against Mr. Trump’s wishes.

The fight has taken a toll on Trump’s public approval, which fell to its lowest point this year in a Reuters/Ipsos poll concluded on Monday. It found that just 44% of Republicans thought Mr. Trump was handling the Epstein situation well.

Another 60% of Americans believed the federal government was hiding information about Epstein’s death, and 70% believed it was hiding information about people involved in his sex crimes.

A majority of Mr. Trump’s Republicans shared those suspicions.

The saga also soured relations with one of his strongest Republican supporters in Congress, Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia.

Trump socialised and partied with Epstein in the 1990s and 2000s before what he calls a rift, and later amplified conspiracy theories about Epstein to his own supporters. Now, many Trump voters believe his administration has covered up Epstein’s ties to powerful figures and obscured details surrounding his death in a Manhattan jail, which was ruled a suicide while Mr. Trump was President in 2019.

Epstein pleaded guilty to a Florida state felony prostitution charge in 2008 and served 13 months in jail. The U.S. Justice Department charged him with sex trafficking of minors in 2019. Epstein had pleaded not guilty to those charges before his death.

Mr. Trump has denied any wrongdoing and the investigative material to date has yet to reveal any specific compromising details, though House Democrats last week released a 2019 email from Epstein that cryptically contended Mr. Trump “knew about the girls.”

The intense focus on the Epstein files has fueled frustration within the White House and for Mr. Trump personally. The President this week lashed out at female reporters who pressed him on Epstein, calling one “a terrible person” and saying, “Quiet, quiet piggy” to another. Aides expressed exasperation over what they see as the Republican Party’s fixation on the issue – one, they fear, might persist no matter what files are released.

“There is a misconception, embraced by many in the Republican Party, that the federal government is hiding information about Epstein,” a senior White House official said. “But that theory is simply not true … the President has nothing to hide.”

Published – November 20, 2025 08:12 am IST

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