WASHINGTON—President Trump is making a last-ditch push to dissuade House Republicans from supporting a measure this week to release files related to sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, in what is shaping up as a major test of GOP loyalty to the president.
Trump failed last week to stop a House petition from reaching the critical 218th signature, including those of four Republicans, prompting the House to hold a vote this coming week mandating that the Justice Department turn over its Epstein-related files. While the proposal is expected to pass with all Democrats and at least some Republicans in the narrowly divided chamber, broader GOP defections could show the limits of the White House’s power.
Democrats “want to waste people’s time, and some of the dumber Republicans like that,” Trump said on Air Force One.
Asked about whether Trump was trying to dissuade House Republicans from voting yes, White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson said: “Democrats and the mainstream media are desperately trying to use this hoax as a distraction to talk about anything other than the president’s many wins,” including the fight over the government shutdown.
The vote, pushed for months by GOP Reps. Thomas Massie of Kentucky and Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia, along with Democratic Rep. Ro Khanna of California, will put all House lawmakers on the record. Trump has continued to try to raise the stakes for GOP lawmakers, who are balancing voters’ outrage over the case against Trump’s claim that the push for more Epstein disclosures is a Democratic effort to hurt Republicans politically.
Khanna, who is hosting an event Tuesday alongside Greene and Massie with Epstein survivors at the Capitol, said on NBC’s “Meet the Press” that he is “hoping for 40-plus” Republicans to vote for the measure.
Tension spilled into the open in recent days, with Trump taking aim at fellow Republicans.
Trump politically disowned Greene, once one of his closest allies, in a series of social-media posts, in part for pursuing the Epstein vote. He called her a traitor and a Republican in Name Only, while encouraging a Republican to challenge her in the 2026 GOP primary.
Greene, who joined Congress in 2021 and had at one point been an ardent Trump ally, said the president was trying to intimidate Republicans ahead of the vote.
“He’s coming after me hard to make an example to scare all the other Republicans,” Greene wrote Friday on X. In a Sunday interview on CNN’s “State of the Union,” Greene continued to question why Trump and other Republicans were resisting calls to release the Epstein files. “That is the question everyone is asking, is, why fight this so hard?” she said.
House Speaker Mike Johnson (R., La.) and other leaders had argued against the need for the Epstein measure, saying a continuing effort by the House Oversight Committee, which publicly released thousands more files last week, is making progress.
“It is a political exercise, and we’re going to dispense with that this week,” Johnson said on “Fox News Sunday.”
If the measure passes the House, it would then go to the Senate, where its fate is unclear. The measure would also be subject to a veto by Trump, which would require a two-thirds supermajority in each chamber to override.
Already, GOP lawmakers including Reps. Don Bacon of Nebraska, Andy Biggs of Arizona and Tim Burchett of Tennessee have indicated they will back the measure.
“The train has left the station on this,” Bacon said on CBS’s “Face the Nation.” “Let’s rip the Band-Aid off and get it done. I wish the president realized that. The more the White House pushes back on this, it just looks bad,” he said.
Other Republicans made clear they would vote no. Rep. Troy Nehls (R., Texas) said he would reject it, accusing Democrats of “using the Epstein Hoax to distract us from the winning of President Trump and his administration.”
Before Democratic Rep. Adelita Grijalva of Arizona was sworn in on Wednesday and became the 218th signature on the petition, Trump personally reached out to the two other Republicans besides Greene and Massie who had signed on, Reps. Lauren Boebert of Colorado and Nancy Mace of South Carolina, the Journal previously reported.
Boebert was summoned to White House situation room to meet with Attorney General Pam Bondi and FBI Director Kash Patel on the matter. Neither she nor Mace withdrew their names.
Boebert said she had no disagreement with Trump. “President Trump is an amazing man. I stand by him,” she told reporters.
Massie, who has clashed with Trump on Epstein and other issues, said he knows of about two dozen Republicans who are committed to voting in favor of forcing the Justice Department to turn over the Epstein records.
Trump “keeps causing interest to be drawn to it,” Massie said in an interview. Referring to Boebert, he said, “Why would you take a member of Congress into the situation room with the FBI director, the attorney general, and try to flip her vote?”
In a social-media post, Trump targeted Massie’s recent marriage to Carolyn Grace Moffa, more than a year after his spouse of more than three decades died. “Boy, that was quick!” Trump said, while calling Massie a loser.
Massie responded: “Carolyn blames me, she told me to invite Trump to the wedding and I didn’t.”
Trump has said he cut off ties long before Epstein was first arrested in 2006. Epstein pleaded guilty to soliciting a minor for prostitution in 2008. Trump and Epstein socialized together in the 1990s and early 2000s. Epstein died in 2019 in jail after he was arrested a second time and charged with sex trafficking conspiracy.
More than 20,000 emails from Epstein were made public by House Oversight Committee lawmakers last week, including messages that reference Trump. None of the emails were to or from Trump. The tranche of emails included exchanges with a broad network of rich and powerful people, including Democratic figures. They also reference people who have been affiliated with Trump. Being mentioned in the emails isn’t an indication of wrongdoing.
