Trump signs bill authorising release of Epstein files

Attorney-General Pam Bondi now has 30 days to make available – and downloadable – unclassified documents related to the disgraced financier and his associate Ghislaine Maxwell.

Jeffrey Epstein with his private jet in an image made available by the US Department of Justice

Donald Trump has signed into law legislation giving his Attorney-General Pam Bondi 30 days to make publicly available – and downloadable – the release of the Department of Justice files on convicted sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein and his accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell.

The US President revealed the news on his Truth Social platform on Wednesday evening local time and warned the release of the files would “backfire on the Democrats,” accusing his opponents of using the issue to try and distract from his political achievements.

A sudden reversal at the weekend saw Mr Trump shift from opposing the release of the files to encouraging Republicans to pass the Epstein Files Transparency Act, a backflip that saw the bill overwhelmingly pass the House by 427 votes to 1.

Mr Trump said that Epstein, who committed suicide in jail in August 2019 was a “lifelong Democrat” who donated thousands of dollars to Democratic politicians including former president Bill Clinton and his treasury secretary, Larry Summers.

“Democrats have used the ‘Epstein’ issue, which affects them far more than the Republican Party, in order to try and distract from our AMAZING Victories,” he posted on Truth Social. “Perhaps the truth about these Democrats, and their associations with Jeffrey Epstein, will soon be revealed, because I HAVE JUST SIGNED THE BILL TO RELEASE THE EPSTEIN FILES!”

Jeffrey Epstein in an undated photograph made public by the US House Oversight Committee

The US President also took greater ownership of the decision, arguing that he “asked Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, and Senate Majority Leader John Thune, to pass this Bill in the House and Senate, respectively. Because of this request, the votes were almost unanimous in favour of passage.”

“At my direction, the Department of Justice has already turned over close to fifty thousand pages of documents to Congress. Do not forget — The Biden Administration did not turn over a SINGLE file or page related to Democrat Epstein, nor did they ever even speak about him,” he said.

Speaking earlier in the day, Democratic Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer warned: “We are not done,” and argued that it was imperative for the Department of Justice to now release the “full unredacted files.”

“No hiding. No game playing. No covering up,” he said.

Senator Schumer said the Democrats would keep up the “pressure to make sure that the documents are released in their entirety and not warped by a corrupt DoJ who’s hell bent on hiding the truth, bending the law and protecting Trump.”

“What the heck is he hiding and been hiding for so long?” he asked. “It’s time for the truth. This bill is a command for the President to be fully transparent, come fully clean and provide full honesty to the American people.”

Attorney-General Pam Bondi said the administration had already released “over 33,000 Epstein documents to the Hill and we’ll continue to follow the law and to have maximum transparency. Also, we will always encourage all victims to come forward.”

Pressed on whether the files would be published on the Department of Justice website and if they would become available within the next 30 days, Ms Bondi said the administration would “continue to follow the law with maximum transparency while protecting victims.”

Asked again if all the files would be released within the 30-day time frame in the legislation, she replied: “We will follow the law. The law passed both chambers last evening … but we will continue to follow the law again while protecting victims but also providing maximum transparency.”

The vote on the Epstein Files Transparency Act this week was only able to proceed after Republican Thomas Massie of Kentucky and Democrat Ro Khanna of California were able to force the issue after securing the required 218 signatures for their discharge petition.

Mr Massie posted on social media that the Attorney-General now had 30 days to release the files, while Mr Khanna argued that “the survivors stood up to the Epstein class and won.”

Along with Mr Massie, Mr Khanna said that he had “awakened Congress. We shook it up to stand up to Trump. He caved and signed our bill. The survivors won.”

Annie Farmer, a survivor of convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, speaks during a bipartisan vigil hosted by the Democratic Women’s Caucus on Capitol Hill. Picture: Getty Images via AFP.