Donald Trump approves bill for release of Epstein files

Move comes after Congress passed the legislation almost unanimously

Representative Becca Balint embraces Jeffrey Epstein victim Danielle Bensky after the Senate passed the bill. Reuters

US President Donald Trump on Wednesday signed into law a measure compelling the Department of Justice to release the investigative files on sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, hoping to shift the narrative in a scandal that has weighed on his second term in office.

The move comes after the House and the Senate almost unanimously approved the Epstein Files Transparency Act at the end of a lengthy political fight that saw House Speaker Mike Johnson refuse to bring the bill to a vote until he was forced to do so by breakaway members of his own Republican Party.

Mr Trump is one of many prominent, wealthy men named in the files, and he had long resisted their release. Being named in the files does not necessarily imply any wrongdoing. He came out in support of the measure after it became clear Republicans would vote in favour of it.

In a lengthy post on Truth Social announcing that he had signed the bill, Mr Trump again sought to portray the Epstein scandal as a Democrat-led hoax.

Democrats want to “distract from the great job that Republicans, and the Trump administration, are doing”. “This latest hoax will backfire on the Democrats just as all of the rest have,” he wrote.

Epstein was a well-connected financier who died in jail in New York while awaiting trial in 2019 on charges that he sexually abused and trafficked minors. He was previously convicted in 2008 of soliciting prostitution and soliciting prostitution from a minor.

Survivors of Epstein's trafficking ring say the government must release all files in the case, which exploded back into the headlines this month after Democrats released a series of emails from Epstein, including one that said Mr Trump “knew about the girls”.

Mr Trump has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing and said he terminated his friendship with Epstein because he was a “sick person”.

Now that the President has signed the bill, there's a 30-day countdown for the Justice Department to produce the files.

The bill compels Attorney General Pam Bondi to release essentially everything the Justice Department has collected over several federal investigations into Epstein, as well as his long-time confidante and girlfriend Ghislaine Maxwell, who is serving a 20-year prison sentence for luring teenage girls for the disgraced financier.

Those records total around 100,000 pages, according to a federal judge who has reviewed the case.

Expanding fallout

Until recently, the heaviest fallout from the Epstein scandal had landed across the Atlantic. The British former prince, Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, and former ambassador to the US Peter Mandelson have both been disgraced over their connections to Epstein.

But Congress released thousands of pages of documents this week that shone a light on Epstein's connections to America's elite, including former US treasury secretary Larry Summers.

Mr Summers has not been accused of any wrongdoing but his friendship with Epstein, which continued for years after his 2008 conviction, has raised questions.

When asked about the emails last week, Mr Summers issued a statement saying he has “great regrets in my life” and that his association with Epstein was a “major error in judgment”.

He resigned from the OpenAI board on Wednesday and Harvard University, where Mr Summers served as president from 2001-2006, said it was reinvestigating his association with Epstein.

Jeffrey Epstein, left, and economist Larry Summers. AP

Harvard, where Mr Summers is still a professor, said it is “conducting a review of information concerning individuals at Harvard included in the newly released Jeffrey Epstein documents to evaluate what actions may be warranted”, spokesman Jason Newton said.

An earlier review completed in 2020 found that Epstein visited Harvard’s campus more than 40 times after his 2008 sex crimes conviction and was given his own office and unfettered access to a research centre he helped establish.

Mr Summers served as treasury secretary from 1999 to 2001 under former president Bill Clinton.