President Trump’s sudden shift and show of support for a coming House vote to release the Epstein files has been met with skepticism from his critics on both sides of the aisle.
On the left, Sen. Chris Coons said he suspects Trump is bluffing. The Delaware Democrat argued Monday that the president will ultimately lean on the Justice Department’s ongoing investigation into the late Jeffrey Epstein’s ties to Democrats as a reason to keep the records sealed.
“My hunch is that Attorney General [Pam] Bondi, having just been ordered on social media by the president to open an investigation into a series of high-profile Democrats, will promptly say, ’No, there’s an ongoing investigation, we can’t disclose any of this,’ and the president will back that up,” Mr. Coons said on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe.”
On the right, Rep. Thomas Massie, the Kentucky Republican and frequent Trump foe who helped force House Speaker Mike Johnson to schedule the vote, also warned that Trump may be using investigations into Democrats to stall the release.
“So, this might be a big smokescreen, these investigations, to open a bunch of them to — as a last-ditch effort to prevent the release of the Epstein files,” Mr. Massie said Sunday on ABC’s “This Week.”
Others insist that Mr. Trump could end all the drama by ordering the Department of Justice to immediately release the files related to Epstein, the wealthy financier who was convicted of trafficking underage girls for sex, and who died in a New York jail awaiting trial in 2019.
SEE ALSO: Trump shifts stance and now tells House Republicans to vote to release Epstein files
Epstein’s death was ruled a suicide.
Mr. Trump instead recently called on Ms. Bondi to investigate Epstein’s connections to prominent Democrats, after House Democrats circulated Epstein emails that mentioned Mr. Trump.
Asked about the “smokescreen” skepticism, Mr Trump told reporters Sunday that “I don’t want to talk about it because fake news like you, you’re a terrible reporter. … They just keep bringing it up to deflect from the tremendous success of the Trump administration.”
Mr. Trump politically attacked Mr. Massie, saying his poll numbers are in the tank and that “we call him Rand Paul, Jr. because he never votes for the Republican Party.”
Mr. Trump is backing Mr. Massie’s primary challenger.
Democrats continue to highlight Mr. Trump’s past friendship with Epstein in the 1990s — a relationship that ended in the early 2000s. Mr. Trump has denied any wrongdoing and dismissed the accusations as a hoax, after signaling on the campaign trail last year that he supported releasing the files.
SEE ALSO: House Speaker Johnson insists Trump has ‘clean hands’ in Epstein case
For months, Mr. Trump and his allies resisted efforts to bring the House vote forward.
He shifted his stance on Sunday, declaring that lawmakers “should vote to release the Epstein files, because we have nothing to hide.”
He added that the Justice Department has already turned over tens of thousands of pages and that the House Oversight Committee can access whatever it is legally entitled to.
“The Department of Justice has already turned over tens of thousands of pages to the Public on ‘Epstein,’ are looking at various Democrat operatives (Bill Clinton, Reid Hoffman, Larry Summers, etc.) and their relationship to Epstein, and the House Oversight Committee can have whatever they are legally entitled to, I don’t care!” Mr. Trump said.
