US president Donald Trump signed legislation on Wednesday night, ordering the US justice department to release documents from its long-running investigation into sex offender Jeffrey Epstein – files eagerly sought by both his political opponents and members of his own base who have pressed for greater transparency in the case.
The material could shed more light on the activities of Epstein, who socialised with Trump and other notable figures before his 2008 conviction on charges of soliciting a minor for prostitution.
After months of deliberate delays and manoeuvres, the House of Representatives voted by 427 to one in favour of the Epstein Files Transparency Act on Tuesday, legislation which requires the justice department to release all unclassified materials on Epstein. The Senate unanimously approved the Bill and Trump subsequently signed it into law.
When will the Epstein files be released?
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The Bill calls for Pam Bondi, the US attorney general, to release the material no later than 30 days after the law is enacted. This countdown began once Trump signed the bill into law on Wednesday night.
Trump was opposed to releasing the files. Why the change of heart?
Trump’s volte-face followed the failure of intense White House efforts to persuade two female Republican members of Congress, Lauren Boebert and Nancy Mace, to withdraw their names from a discharge petition to force the House speaker, Mike Johnson, to hold a floor vote on releasing the files.
Faced with the prospect of numerous Republicans defying his wishes by voting with Democrats in favour of releasing the files, the president decided to cut his losses by bowing to the inevitable. Before Trump changed his tune on the files, Thomas Massie, the maverick Republican representative from Kentucky – who had co-sponsored the bill along with Democrat Ro Khanna – had predicted that 100 Republicans would vote for release.
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What are the potential hurdles for the release?
The Bill contains significant exceptions, including a provision protecting continuing investigations, which could mean many documents would stay confidential.
Trump’s recent announcement of a justice department investigation into prominent figures (other than himself) mentioned in last week’s trove of Epstein emails released by the House oversight committee have fuelled fears that any version of the files released could be incomplete or selective.
Last Friday, he instructed the US attorney general, Pam Bondi, to open an investigation into links between Epstein and former president Bill Clinton, Larry Summers, a former US treasury secretary and ex-president of Harvard University, Reid Hoffman, a venture capitalist noted for funding Democrats and liberal causes, and the bank JPMorgan Chase. The investigation could enable the justice department to withhold certain documents on the argument that releasing them would be prejudicial.
Under the legislation, the Trump administration may withhold records that identify victims or include images of child sexual abuse, or are otherwise classified.
In the final analysis, Trump could have ended all uncertainty by ordering the files to be released without waiting for Congress to force his hand. – The Guardian
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