Trump defends handling of Epstein controversy, says GOP doing 'legendary' job

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(The Center Square) – With rumors swirling around the connections of convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, President Donald Trump expressed frustration Friday that demands for the administration to declassify even more documents have intensified rather than abated. 

Democrats in particular have capitalized on the public’s recent demands for transparency in the case of the now-deceased criminal, accusing the Trump administration of hiding information. Interest in Epstein’s crimes resurfaced after U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi said his alleged client list was “sitting on [her] desk,” only for the administration to backtrack and claim that no such list existed.

In a social media post Friday, Trump accused Democrats of amping up drama to distract people from “the lowest poll numbers in the history of the Party.”

“The confused and badly failing Democrat Party did nothing about Jeffrey Epstein while he was alive except befriend him, socialize with him, travel to his Island, and take his money!,” Trump, who also socialized with Epstein in the past, said.

“They knew everything there was to know about Epstein, but now, years after his death, they, out of nowhere, are seeming to show such love and heartfelt concern for his victims. Does anybody really believe that? Where were they during his very public trials, and for all of those years before his death?," he continued.

Epstein died awaiting trial in 2019, while his associate Ghislaine Maxwell is serving a 20-year sentence that she recently appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court. At Trump’s request, the Department of Justice asked that grand jury for  materials from the Epstein and Maxwell trials be unsealed, but three federal judges have refused to do so. 

In response to the House Oversight Committee subpoenaing the DOJ for any Epstein investigation-related materials, the agency has begun to declassify troves of such documents, which largely yielded no new information.  

Trump, meanwhile, has downplayed the issue, calling it “merely another Democrat HOAX” and adding in his Friday post that it is time to “give Republicans credit for the great, even legendary, job that they are doing.”

Some Republicans still remain unsatisfied, however. Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., recently filed a discharge petition to bring a bill to the House floor that, if passed, would compel the Trump administration to immediately release all documents related to Epstein and people he associated with. 

As of Friday, all 212 House Democrats have signed on to Massie’s petition, as well as Reps. Majorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., and Nancy Mace, R-S.C. Only three more signatures are needed, but the White House has warned Republicans that signing on to the petition “would be viewed as a very hostile act to the administration.”