“Opponents are pushing this with the intention of targeting President Donald Trump, floating all kinds of theories suggesting he was involved. He was not,” House Speaker Mike Johnson said on Fox News on November 16, commenting on the upcoming vote on a bill that would mandate the release of all Epstein-related files.
The “Epstein Records Transparency Act,” introduced in July by Democratic Representative Ro Khanna and Republican Representative Thomas Massie, calls for the publication of all documents related to the investigations into Epstein and his associate Ghislaine Maxwell. This includes flight logs, lists of individuals and organizations connected to the case, and any materials concerning destroyed, missing, or altered data. “Their only remaining tactic is the Epstein issue. We’re going to take that weapon away from them. Let’s get this done quickly and move on. There’s nothing to hide,” Johnson added, referring to House Democrats.
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Trump has appeared in several decades-old photographs with Epstein, but the president has repeatedly insisted that they severed ties long before Epstein’s conviction. Emails released last week by House Democrats show Epstein believed Trump “knew about the girls,” though the context of the phrase remains unclear. Epstein died by suicide in jail in 2019 while awaiting trial on sex-trafficking charges. Recently, President Trump also asked the U.S. Department of Justice to investigate connections between senior Democratic figures and Epstein.
Representative Ro Khanna expects more than 40 Republicans to support the proposal and believes Senate Republicans will also be pressured to approve it. Khanna stressed that releasing the records is not a partisan issue but a matter of ensuring accountability for “every powerful individual” who may be implicated.
The push for greater transparency has created fractures within the Republican Party. Last weekend, President Trump withdrew all political support for Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene — once considered a close ally — after she criticized efforts by some Republicans to delay the release of the Epstein files.