US President was opposed to the idea of releasing the documents; however, he changed his stance when the project seemed to advance among congressmen
The president of , , sanctioned on Wednesday night (19) a law that requires his government to make public the files on the deceased financier . Approved the day before by Congress, the text gives the Department of Justice one month to release all unclassified files on Epstein, who died in prison in 2019.
Trump, who was opposed to the law, but changed his stance when the project seemed to advance among congressmen, published on the Truth Social platform that he had just “SIGNED THE LAW TO RELEASE THE EPSTEIN FILES”.
Epstein’s suicide in his cell fueled conspiracy theories according to which the financier, with vast connections in political, business and entertainment circles, was murdered to avoid embarrassing revelations.
After promising shocking revelations during the 2024 presidential campaign, Trump is now asking his supporters to turn the page, and calls the case a “hoax” by the Democratic opposition. He recently reiterated that he has “nothing to do with Jeffrey Epstein” and that he “kicked him out” of Mar-a-Lago, his luxurious club in Florida, because he was “a sick pervert”.
‘Nothing to hide’
Trump and Epstein, both figures from the New York elite, remained close since the late 1980s, until they grew apart in the early 2000s. This occurred years before the start of legal proceedings against the financier, accused of having organized a network of sexual exploitation of underage girls.
The President of the United States, who was never charged in court in this case, opposed the “Epstein transparency” bill and exerted strong pressure on Republican legislators who supported it.
Last Sunday (16), when it became clear that the text would be approved by Republicans and Democrats in Congress, Trump publicly changed his stance. He said he now supported the initiative, although he stressed that this legislation should not “divert attention” from his government’s “unprecedented results”.
The bill was approved this Wednesday by 427 votes to 1 in the House of Representatives, and the Senate used a special procedure to approve it without debate and unanimously.
In addition to the records about Epstein, the official files include documents about his accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell, who is serving a 20-year prison sentence, and about all the people involved in the related legal proceedings.
‘Smokescreen’
Last week, Trump ordered his Justice Secretary, Pam Bondi, to open an investigation into the relationship between the financier and some Democratic figures, including former President Bill Clinton.
The Justice Department and the FBI announced in July that they had “found no evidence to support an investigation of hitherto unprosecuted individuals” in the case.
Asked about the reason for the new investigations, Bondi said this Wednesday that they were justified by “new information”, without specifying what. “We will continue to provide maximum transparency in accordance with the law”, he assured.
Legislation passed by Congress authorizes the Justice Department to withhold or censor the documents in question under certain conditions, especially to preserve victims’ privacy or due to “an ongoing federal investigation or legal proceedings.”
Republican lawmaker Thomas Massie, one of the bill’s authors and a frequent Trump critic, expressed fear that these investigations are “a smokescreen” and a “last-ditch attempt to prevent publication of the Epstein dossier.”
Massie highlighted this Wednesday, on the X network, that, under the terms of the legislation, the Department of Justice could stop disclosing documents “as long as this retention is specific and temporary”.
*With information from AFP
Published by Nícolas Robert
