President Donald Trump has a ten-day window to approve the bill mandating the disclosure of the Epstein files following its passage by Congress late last night. Initially, Trump had resisted calls for the files to be made public, actively urging House members to distance themselves from the petition advocating for their release.
However, his stance shifted earlier this week when he expressed support for House Republicans to push through the measure, which demands the files to be accessible in a searchable format within 30 days. Trump’s rationale is that he is indifferent to the release of the files, citing that Jeffrey Epstein’s associates were predominantly Democrats.
Assuring that he would sign the bill upon its arrival at his desk, Trump stated yesterday, “We have nothing to do with Epstein. The Democrats do. All of his friends were Democrats.” He emphasized, “Let the Senate review it. Let anyone scrutinize it. But let’s not dwell on it too much because, frankly… it’s primarily a Democratic issue. Epstein’s social circle consisted of Democrats, all of them. It’s a charade. The whole thing is a charade, and I don’t want it to overshadow the significant accomplishments of the Republican Party in recent times.”
The implication is that Trump could not possibly feature in the files since he identifies as a Republican. However, there is a flaw in that argument.
Donald Trump maintained a friendship with Jeffrey Epstein from the late 80s until approximately 2007 when he claims to have barred the notorious sex offender from his Mar A Lago club in Palm Beach, Florida. Besides being associated with Epstein, Trump was a registered Democrat for most of that period.
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During the period covered by Epstein’s federal indictment from 2002 to 2005, Trump was both a friend of Epstein and a Democrat, overlapping with the timeframe of the Justice Department’s inquiry and the Epstein files.
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