President Trump on Friday said he wouldn’t object to the release of all files tied to the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, as requested by the House Oversight Committee.
“I’m in support of them keeping it open. Innocent people shouldn’t be hurt, but I’m in support of keeping it totally open,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office, when asked how he felt about the release of documents. “I couldn’t care less.”
“You’ve got a lot of people that could be mentioned in those files that don’t deserve to be, you know, people, because he knew everybody in Palm Beach,” he added.
His comments came as the Department of Justice (DOJ) released its first batch of Epstein files to Congress. The move came in response to a subpoena from the Oversight Committee seeking transparency around the documents following weeks of turmoil over the Trump administration’s handling of the case.
The Epstein saga came back into light last month after DOJ and the FBI issued a joint memo concluding that the disgraced financier did not keep a “client list” and that additional documents did not need to be released to the public. The findings rivaled what Attorney General Pam Bondi had suggested months prior, which raised questions on both sides of the aisle around the administration’s vow to be transparent with its probe.
Epstein, who died in a jail cell in 2019 while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges, was known to hang out in circles with wealthy businessmen, celebrities and powerful politicians. A Wall Street Journal article earlier this year shed light on Trump’s relationship with the late financier, which the president has brushed off.
Trump said Friday that he’s directed Bondi to provide Congress members with “everything you can give them” amid the narrative that his administration is hiding information.
“The whole Epstein thing is a Democrat hoax,” he added. “So, we had the greatest six months, seven months in the history of the presidency, and the Democrats don’t know what to do, so they keep bringing up that stuff. But it affected them.”
Former President Clinton’s name has also been tied to Epstein, after he allegedly flew more than a dozen times on the convicted sex offender’s plane. Comer said he will be a “prime suspect” in its probe, as lawmakers review the documents.
Polling has shown that most U.S. adults disapprove of the way the Trump administration has handled the Epstein investigation. Many people, including some of the president’s “Make America Great Again” base have pressured Trump’s DOJ to release more files.
The department, at the president’s request, asked the courts to release the grand jury testimonies from Epstein and his convicted co-conspirator Ghislaine Maxwell — who is serving a 20-year sentence. However, all three requests have been rejected.
Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche has met twice with Maxwell, who was moved to a lower-security prison last month, and the transcript from their conversations were also made public on Friday.
The embattled socialite told DOJ officials that she “never witnessed” Trump in an “inappropriate setting,” according to the transcript.
