The Republican-controlled House of Representatives in the United States is expected to vote within days to force the release of investigative files related to the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, with passage seen as all but guaranteed after US President Donald Trump dropped his longstanding opposition.
Trump's reversal late on Sunday came days after a House petition gathered enough support to force a vote, a rare instance of House Republicans defying the president's wishes.
Until the weekend, Trump and his staff had lobbied hard to prevent any further release of files from the criminal investigation by the US Department of Justice into Epstein, a wealthy New York financier who was, for a time, friends with Trump.
"House Republicans should vote to release the Epstein files, because we have nothing to hide," the Republican president wrote on Sunday night in a message on social media.
"And it's time to move on from this Democrat Hoax perpetrated by Radical Left Lunatics in order to deflect from the Great Success of the Republican Party."
Credit: Truth Social
Epstein was convicted on several Florida state and federal charges related to his sexual abuse and trafficking of teenage girls.
He died in a federal jail cell in Manhattan in 2019 in what was ruled a suicide, a few weeks after he was arrested on new federal charges of sex trafficking children.
If the House passes the measure, it would move to the Senate, which would also need to vote on it before sending it to Trump to sign.
Republican Senate majority leader John Thune's office could not be reached for comment on what he planned to do about the bill.
Trump accuses enemies of smear
Trump partied with Epstein in New York and Florida's Palm Beach in the 1990s and 2000s, along with other members of the US and international power elite.
The president has said his friendship with Epstein ended some time in the 2000s and he had no connection to Epstein's crimes, and that his political enemies are trying to smear him by insinuating otherwise; he has been visibly angered this year when asked about Epstein at various times since returning to office in January.
Emails released last week by a House committee showed the disgraced financier believed Trump "knew about the girls", though it was not clear what that phrase meant.
The White House said the released emails contained no proof of wrongdoing by Trump.
Last week, Trump instructed the Justice Department to investigate prominent Democrats' ties to Epstein, a highly unusual public order for a department that has generally held itself independent of a president's whims.
US attorney-general Pam Bondi, who earlier this year said a review of the Epstein files revealed no further investigative leads, replied to Trump that she would get on it right away.
House speaker Mike Johnson said on Sunday that he believed a vote on releasing the Epstein files should help put to rest allegations that Trump had any connection to Epstein's abuse.
California representative Robert Garcia, the senior Democrat on the House Oversight Committee, said Trump "has tried everything to kill our Jeffrey Epstein investigation".
"He's failed," Garcia said in a statement. "And now he's panicking and has realised he is about to lose this Epstein vote to force the Department of Justice to release the files."
Some Trump supporters suspect cover-up
Many of Trump's most loyal supporters believe the government is withholding sensitive documents that would reveal Epstein's ties to powerful public figures who have managed to escape scrutiny.
US representative Ro Khanna, a California Democrat and an original sponsor of the petition calling for a vote on the files' release, said on Sunday that he expected more than 40 Republicans to vote in favour.
Republicans hold the majority in the House, with 219 seats, versus 214 for Democrats.
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