Trump has been cornered. The “scandal of the century” put him against the wall. “Democrats win”
Trump administration officials fear that even if Congress votes to release all Epstein files, the controversy surrounding the convicted sex offender will not subside — quite the contrary. they will only continue to get worse.
— Will people ever be satisfied? – says one White House official who asked to remain anonymous in an interview with POLITICO. “No, because people in this country truly believe that the federal government has a list of pedophiles working with Jeffrey Epstein.”
In the whole case, one factor is particularly dangerous for Trump.
Namely, Democrats now want to reveal potentially incriminating materials against the president as quickly as possible. The House of Representatives may, as early as Tuesday, November 18, accelerate work on a bill forcing the Department of Justice to make public the Epstein files. A White House official expects the Senate to also pass the bill, and the president has indicated he will sign it.
— It's simply not true, says one White House official in an interview with POLITICO, denying the existence of an alleged list of pedophiles collaborating with Jeffrey Epstein that was allegedly held by the US federal government.
The rapid pace of action in the House follows months of delays by Republican leaders and enormous pressure from the White House to prevent a vote.
The president reversed course on Sunday, November 16, after talks with a number of Republicans. He then realized that dozens of members of the House of Representatives were planning to ignore him. “The current strategy is to give Republicans the appearance of victory,” a White House official told POLITCO. “This will allow them to go back to their constituencies and say, 'I voted to release the Epstein files.'
The president remains frustrated that members of his own party have essentially set a trap for him that he cannot avoid, in part because administration officials say he has nothing substantive left to reveal.
“Democrats win”
Among the materials Epstein's heirs turned over to congressional investigators and released to the public last week was a 2018 email in which Epstein wrote that Trump “knew about the girls,” apparently referring to the underage girls Epstein was accused of trafficking.
Trump has denied Epstein's allegations. There is no evidence to suggest that he was involved in the pedophile's crimes. The president also said he and Epstein had a falling out years ago.
Some Trump allies in the House, even those who plan to vote in favor of the bill, agreed that the expected vote would not end the matter.
House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer, whose committee issued a subpoena for Epstein's estate to turn over the documents, called Congress' further action a “show vote,” adding that “the Department of Justice handed over everything it could legally turn over.”
Donald Trump and Jeffrey Epstein in 1997Davidoff Studios Photography / Contributor / Getty Images
A White House representative told POLITICO he echoed Comer's words: “The idea that the federal government has documents relating to Jeffrey Epstein that it can lawfully hand over and that we are withholding them from the public is not true.”
“Yet Trump still believes that the Democrats outsmarted the Republican Party, which is one of the reasons he is so angry with his party and has tried so hard to prevent the House from voting,” a person close to the White House, who asked not to be identified discussing the Epstein case, told POLITICO.
“The president doesn't like being told what to do or seeing Democrats win, so he fought it,” this person said.
But the knowledge that he would be on the wrong side of the vote left Trump no choice but to acquiesce.
“House Republicans should vote to release the Epstein files because we have nothing to hide and it's time to move on from this Democrat hoax,” he wrote on Truth Social on Sunday night, adding: “I DON'T CARE! All I care about is for Republicans to GET BACK TO THE SUBJECT” (and address the economic issues).
The move allowed the administration to maintain its position that Trump was never opposed to releasing the records and was merely unhappy that Republicans allowed themselves to be exploited by Democrats.
“He hasn't actually changed his mind,” said a senior White House official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the administration's internal position. “He just expressed what he really thought.”
However, the problem lies partly with the Trump administration. In February, Attorney General Pam Bondi raised the issue of the existence of such an alleged list of Epstein clients, telling Fox News that it was “sitting on my desk” waiting to be reviewed.
Republican leaders in the House of Representatives may put the disclosure bill to a vote as early as Tuesday or Wednesday (November 18-19) as part of the so-called suspension of the rules of procedure, i.e. an accelerated procedure requiring a two-thirds majority for adoption. Senate Majority Leader John Thune is not expected to announce whether he will introduce an Epstein bill until it has been passed by the House of Representatives.
