 "A newly released email from disgraced late financier and sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, referencing his former companion Ghislaine Maxwell and US President Donald Trump, is seen in this handout image released by Democrats on the House Oversight Committee in Washington, DC, US, on November 12, 2025.")
New disclosures released in recent days — including emails in which Jeffrey Epstein repeatedly references United States President Donald Trump — have triggered a rare bipartisan revolt.
Members of both parties are now pushing to force the full release of the Epstein files, a move the White House has worked aggressively to prevent.
Frustration among lawmakers and voters alike within Republican circles has grown over the handling of information related to Epstein’s crimes and associates.
What the latest disclosures reveal in the Epstein controversy
The latest political upheaval began on Wednesday when House Democrats unveiled a series of emails involving Epstein, Ghislaine Maxwell, and author Michael Wolff.
These communications, written years before Epstein’s 2019 death in federal custody, contain repeated mentions of Trump’s interactions with Epstein and remarks by the disgraced financier regarding what Trump may have known.
One of the messages released by Democrats contains a 2019 note from Epstein to Wolff in which he claimed that Trump “knew about the girls,” though no additional explanation was provided and the context remains uncertain.
Another email from the same year features Epstein writing that the president “came to my house many times” and “never got a massage.”
Also included among the materials was a 2011 message Epstein sent to Maxwell. In that email, he referred to Trump as “that dog that hasn’t barked,” adding that Trump had “spent hours at my house” with one of Epstein’s victims, whose name was withheld.
Democrats on the House Oversight Committee argued that these messages “raise serious questions about Donald Trump and his knowledge of Epstein’s horrific crimes.”
Later that same day, House Republicans released a much larger cache — approximately 20,000 documents — which referenced Trump in several instances. In one exchange, Epstein described a 20-year-old woman he “gave to Donald” in 1993.
In another message, he commented on photos of “Donald and girls in bikinis in my kitchen,” though there was no indication as to whether he was speaking literally or sarcastically.
Trump has previously described Epstein as a one-time acquaintance with whom he fell out years ago, and he has repeatedly insisted that he had no knowledge of Epstein’s criminal activities.
The US president also issued a public statement online, declaring, “The Democrats are trying to bring up the Jeffrey Epstein Hoax again because they’ll do anything at all to deflect on how badly they’ve done on the Shutdown, and so many other subjects.”
Despite his dismissal of the disclosures as partisan manoeuvring, frustrations among Republicans — including those who have long demanded the release of the full Epstein file archive — quickly resurfaced.
How a bipartisan petition is forcing Congressional action
For months, Republican leadership had resisted calls to advance a vote on legislation requiring the release of all Epstein-related documents held by federal agencies.
That resistance collapsed when a discharge petition — filed months earlier by Reps. Ro Khanna and Thomas Massie — finally reached the required 218 signatures needed to compel a House vote.
The turning point occurred immediately after the swearing-in of Democratic Representative Adelita Grijalva, who added her signature within minutes of taking the oath of office, giving supporters of the bill a House majority.
Grijalva framed the moment as necessary for reasserting congressional oversight, saying, “It’s past time for Congress to restore its role as a check and balance on this administration.”
This sudden shift forced House Speaker Mike Johnson, who had cited concerns about victim privacy and disagreements over the bill’s language, to announce that the vote would proceed early next week.
Johnson has rejected accusations that his earlier reluctance was motivated by efforts to shield Trump or others, pointing instead toward the ongoing Oversight Committee investigation, which has already produced tens of thousands of pages of material.
But the political momentum behind the petition had become impossible for leadership to contain. Initially, only a small number of Republicans — Massie, Lauren Boebert, Marjorie Taylor Greene, and Nancy Mace — publicly aligned themselves with Democrats on the issue.
Yet as public pressure intensified and more documents emerged, expectations of a broader Republican break from the leadership’s position began to grow.
US Rep. Don Bacon, who did not sign the petition, announced that he would vote in favour of the bill when it reached the floor. Other Republicans — some quietly, others more openly — suggested that support for full transparency was now a political necessity.
Outside sources cited by Politico indicated that “at least 100 or more Republicans” might vote in favour of making the remaining files public, a scenario that would constitute a sizable rebellion against the president’s wishes.
How White House is going above and beyond to suppress the petition
The White House, aware of the growing risk of a large-scale Republican defection, reportedly undertook direct efforts to suppress the petition.
One of the more notable incidents involved hard-right Representative Lauren Boebert, who was brought to the White House Situation Room, where senior officials urged her not to back the measure. She declined, and her continued support helped maintain momentum behind the push for transparency.
Numerous Trump supporters — both inside and outside Congress — have become increasingly critical of the administration’s handling of the Epstein records.
Some allege that the federal government has failed to disclose crucial information about Epstein’s dealings with affluent and influential individuals.
A Reuters/Ipsos poll from October highlighted this shift: only four in ten Republicans approved of Trump’s handling of the Epstein files, a striking contrast with the overwhelming majority of Republican voters who generally support his presidency.
Amid this backdrop, Trump continued to attack Democrats over the disclosures. On Truth Social, he repeated his position that the controversy was engineered to distract from other political issues, including the federal government shutdown.
What the Epstein Files Transparency Act seeks to accomplish
The legislation that will come to the House floor — the Epstein Files Transparency Act — would obligate the Justice Department to publish all remaining documents related to Epstein, his network, and the circumstances of his death in federal custody in 2019.
Epstein was awaiting trial on federal sex trafficking charges at the time.
The bill would allow certain information to be withheld, such as details that could identify victims or jeopardise active investigations.
However, the legislation explicitly prohibits the government from redacting information due to “embarrassment, reputational harm, or political sensitivity, including to any government official, public figure, or foreign dignitary.”
Supporters argue that this clause is essential given public scepticism about whether past decisions to withhold Epstein-related information have been aimed at protecting powerful individuals.
Democratic and Republican supporters also point out that what has been publicly released so far represents only a tiny portion of the government’s total archive, with one estimate stating that less than one per cent of the files have been made available.
The legislation has gained traction among lawmakers who believe that only comprehensive disclosure can address years of public doubt surrounding everything from Epstein’s social circle to the circumstances of his death.
What happens next in the House and Senate
The House is poised to approve the bill if all lawmakers who signed the petition support it during the floor vote. This threshold has already been met, and it is expected that more Republicans will also join the effort.
The real challenge lies in the Senate. Republicans currently maintain a narrow majority, and the bill would require at least 60 votes to move forward.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune has not committed to bringing the legislation to a vote, saying earlier this year, “I can’t comment on that at this point.”
He noted, however, that the Justice Department “has already released tons of files related to this matter,” and expressed confidence that existing processes were adequate to protect victims’ rights while releasing information.
If the Senate were to approve the bill, the final decision would fall to Trump. Given his consistent opposition, a veto appears almost guaranteed.
Overriding a veto requires a two-thirds majority in both chambers — a political outcome that is historically rare.
Massie, one of the bill’s sponsors, argued that Trump could avoid a legislative confrontation by authorising the release of the files himself. “There’s still time for him to be the hero,” he said.
With inputs from agencies