Washington, DC [US], November 17 (HBTV): US President Donald Trump has urged House Republicans to vote in favor of releasing the Jeffrey Epstein files, calling the controversy a ‘Democrat hoax’ and accusing his opponents of using the case to distract from Republican policies.
In a detailed statement on his social media platform, Truth Social, Trump said Republicans ‘have nothing to hide’ and should move ahead with the vote expected this week.
He wrote: ‘As I said on Friday night aboard Air Force One to the Fake News Media, 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 perpetrated by Radical Left lunatics in order to deflect from the great success of the Republican Party, including our recent victory on the Democrat “shutdown”.’
This marks a shift from his earlier stance, as Trump had previously criticised calls—including from within his own party—to release all case documents related to Epstein, the convicted sex offender who died in prison in 2019.
Trump said the Department of Justice had already released ‘tens of thousands’ of pages linked to Epstein and argued that Democrats were attempting to target Republican leaders while ignoring figures such as Bill Clinton and others he named.
He urged the party to refocus on issues such as inflation, immigration and the economy instead of what he described as the ‘Epstein trap’.
‘Let's start talking about the Republican Party's record-setting achievements, and not fall into the Epstein “trap”, which is actually a curse on the Democrats, not us,’ Trump wrote.
The US House of Representatives is expected to vote in the coming days on whether to release additional sealed files and investigative documents related to Epstein's network, CNN reported. The upcoming vote follows months of delays and disagreements within the Republican Party, with some members calling for full transparency and others warning against releasing sensitive information. (ANI)