President Donald Trump delivers remarks during a joint press conference with French President Emmanuel Macron in the East Room of the White House on February 24, 2025 in Washington, DC (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
WASHINGTON – President Donald Trump signed a law slow Wednesday requiring the release of unclassified investigative files from the trial of convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, with whom he had a well-documented friendship, even as Trump denies any involvement in the financier’s crimes.
Epstein, who surrounded himself with the affluent and powerful, died in a Manhattan jail cell in 2019 while awaiting a federal trial on sex trafficking charges.
Trump signed the bill the day after the House sent it to the Senate, which unanimously agreed to pass the measure.
In a post on his own social media platform Truth Social, the president named several prominent business and political figures, including former President Bill Clinton.
“Perhaps the truth about these Democrats and their ties to Jeffrey Epstein will soon be revealed because I just signed the bill declassifying the EPSTEIN files!” Trump wrote.
In the lengthy post, Trump praises himself and Republican leaders in Congress for the legislation, even though the bipartisan bill was pushed through the House by a dismissal motion.
After months of clamorous calls to release the files, even from his base, Trump changed his position on Sunday evening and directed Republicans to support the measure.
In July, Trump’s Justice Department issued a memo saying it would not publicly release any further documents related to the Epstein case.
The bill was passed overwhelmingly by the House of Representatives on Tuesday a 427-1 vote. Republican Rep. Clay Higgins, R-La., was the lone no vote.
The law requires the Justice Department to publicly disclose “all unclassified records, documents, communications and investigative materials in its possession relating to Epstein or (co-conspirator Ghislaine) Maxwell.”
These include records of Epstein’s imprisonment and death; flight logs from Epstein’s planes; names of those connected to Epstein’s alleged crimes; records of civil settlements and sealed and unsealed immunity agreements and settlements; Records of companies with ties to Epstein’s human trafficking or financial networks; and internal DOJ communications “relating to decisions to investigate or charge Epstein or his associates.”
The bill creates exceptions for records that contain the identities of victims, images of deaths or physical abuse, and information that could jeopardize a federal investigation.
The bill also states that the “DOJ may not withhold or redact records if doing so is due to embarrassment, reputational harm, or political sensitivity.”
The bill’s passage and Trump’s signature came less than a week after lawmakers on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee released about 20,000 pages of emails from Epstein’s estate that repeatedly mentioned Trump’s name.
In an email from Epstein to convicted co-conspirator Ghislaine Maxwell, the financier and sex offender claimed that Trump “knew about the girls.”
Many other names appeared in the thousands of pages of correspondence, including Democratic Rep. Stacey Plaskett, who represents the U.S. Virgin Islands, where Epstein had a residence, and former Treasury Secretary Larry Summers.
An attempt by Republicans in the House of Representatives to narrowly censure Plaskett failed on Tuesday evening in the House of Representatives. Summers announced Wednesday that he was stepping down from key board and other positions.
