The yearslong political battle over the Epstein files has evolved from conspiracy theories about the Clintons masterminding Jeffrey Epstein’s death in a New York jail cell to unproven accusations that President Trump secretly participated in Epstein’s sex trafficking and is now trying to hide the evidence.
The wild speculation could be put to rest now that the House is planning to vote Tuesday to force the release of the files with Mr. Trump’s blessing.
Over the past several months, Mr. Trump has been battling unproven Democratic claims that the president is purposely concealing the release of the Epstein files to hide his own wrongdoing.
“Our oversight investigation has Donald Trump panicked and desperate,” Rep. Robert Garcia, the top Democrat on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, said Friday. “He is trying to deflect from serious new questions we have about his relationship with Jeffrey Epstein.”
Mr. Trump called the accusations against him a “Democratic hoax perpetrated by radical left lunatics” and told House Republicans to vote to release all the files. If the measure clears Congress, Mr. Trump said, he will sign it into law.
Republicans have published 65,000 pages from the files and posted them online in batches they obtained under subpoenas from the Justice Department and Epstein’s estate.
SEE ALSO: Trump says he will sign Epstein bill if legislation lands on his desk
Republicans say Democrats are selectively leaking documents with redactions to falsely implicate Mr. Trump in Epstein’s sex crimes.
“After whipping their Democrat base into a frenzy with absurd promises of finally ‘getting’ President Trump, Committee Democrats have now turned to concocting narratives from out-of-context documents, salacious innuendo, and outright lies regarding testimony and the evidentiary record to distract the American people from their own lack of ideas and leadership,” Republican staff on the oversight panel wrote to the Republican members in a memo obtained by The Washington Times.
Like the Democrats, Mr. Trump, who said he ended his friendship with Epstein around 2007, has used the Epstein scandal as a political weapon.
After Mr. Trump launched his first presidential campaign, he told Bloomberg News that former President Bill Clinton’s friendship with Epstein “could be a problem” for Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton. Reports had emerged of multiple women who said they were abused by Epstein and some of his powerful, unidentified friends.
“That island was really a cesspool,” said Mr. Trump, suggesting that Mr. Clinton had visited Little St. James Island, the site of many of Epstein’s sex crimes, authorities say.
During his first term in the White House, Mr. Trump reposted a conspiracy theory that the Clintons played a role in Epstein’s 2019 jailhouse death to protect the former president.
Epstein’s death was ruled a suicide.
Mr. Trump also accused Mr. Clinton of taking far more trips on Epstein’s private plane than he has publicly acknowledged.
Unsealed flight logs show both men have taken trips on Epstein’s plane.
Mr. Clinton is documented to have taken at least 26 trips. Much of it, he said, was for travel associated with the Clinton Foundation. Some of Epstein’s victims said they saw Mr. Clinton on Little St. James, but none said he engaged in wrongdoing. Mr. Clinton denied ever visiting the island.
Mr. Trump flew on Epstein’s plane seven times from 1993 to 1997, sometimes accompanied by his family. Most of the trips were between Palm Beach, Florida, where both men had homes, and Teterboro, New Jersey, outside New York City.
No court records that have been unsealed so far implicate either Mr. Trump or Mr. Clinton in any crimes connected to Epstein.
Mr. Trump reposted a statement from David Schoen, one of Epstein’s attorneys, who said Sunday that Epstein told him “unequivocally” that he had no “dirt” on Mr. Trump.
The conspiracy theories and disinformation about Mr. Trump have only intensified.
The main social media handle for the Democratic Party last week posted that the latest document dump from the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee showed Mr. Trump, during his first year in the White House in 2017, “spent Thanksgiving with Jeffrey Epstein.” The post pointed out that “at the time, Trump was already president and Epstein was a convicted sex offender.”
The faulty post was based on a 2017 email released by Epstein’s estate in which Epstein reported that Mr. Trump was in Palm Beach for Thanksgiving. Mr. Trump spent his first Thanksgiving as president at his Mar-a-Lago club in Palm Beach.
The Democratic Party later deleted the post.
Mr. Trump isn’t finished targeting Democratic figures involved with Epstein.
He ordered Attorney General Pam Bondi to investigate prominent Democrats whose names turned up frequently in the 22,000 pages of documents released last week by Republicans on the oversight panel.
Thousands of newly released emails reveal that influential Democrats remained close to Epstein long after his 2008 conviction on soliciting prostitution from a minor and after lawsuit depositions and news reports about Epstein’s abuse of underage girls were circulating.
Epstein’s list of pals included Lawrence H. Summers, a top economic official under Presidents Biden and Obama. Another is Democratic fundraising giant and LinkedIn founder Reid Hoffman.
Ms. Bondi designated Jay Clayton, acting U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, to lead the investigation.
“As with all matters, the department will pursue this with urgency and integrity to deliver answers to the American people,” Ms. Bondi said.
Mr. Hoffman responded by accusing Mr. Trump of “slanderous lies” and calling for the release of all the Epstein files to “expose the people who had both deep and ongoing relationships with Epstein.”
Mr. Summers, now a Harvard professor, said in a statement to the Harvard Crimson that his association with Epstein was “a major error in judgment.”
• Susan Ferrechio can be reached at sferrechio@washingtontimes.com.
Please read our comment policy before commenting.