{"id":49988,"date":"2025-11-16T22:57:00","date_gmt":"2025-11-17T04:57:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/?p=49988"},"modified":"2025-11-17T00:09:27","modified_gmt":"2025-11-17T06:09:27","slug":"trump-in-reversal-calls-on-house-gop-to-vote-to-release-epstein-files","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/?p=49988","title":{"rendered":"Trump, in reversal, calls on House GOP to vote to release Epstein files"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

President Trump\u2002<\/u><\/a>on Sunday night called on House Republicans to vote to release files linked to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein,<\/u><\/a> reversing his previous position.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Trump\u2019s announcement came amid signs that a vote this week on a measure forced by a discharge petition might have won dozens of Republican votes despite the president\u2019s opposition.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAs I said on Friday night aboard Air Force One to the Fake News Media, House Republicans should vote to release the Epstein files, because we have nothing to hide, and it\u2019s 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, including our recent Victory on the Democrat \u2018Shutdown,\u2019\u201d the president wrote in the Sunday night post<\/u><\/a> on his Truth Social platform.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A discharge petition to force a vote on a measure to release the government files secured its 218th signature on Wednesdasy when Rep. Adelita Grijalva (D-Ariz.) was sworn into Congress. Speaker Mike Johnson\u2002<\/u><\/a>(R-La.) had refused to swear in Grijalva for weeks amid the government shutdown.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Discharge petitions are a way for the minority to force a vote on legislation the majority in the House does not want to hold. In this case, a handful of House Republicans, including Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene\u2002<\/u><\/a>(Ga.), who has been in a feud with Trump<\/u><\/a> over the Epstein files and other issues, joined with Democrats on the discharge petition.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Johnson said the House would vote on the underlying measure forced by the petition this week. Several sponsors, including Rep. Thomas Massie\u2002<\/u><\/a>(R-Ky.), predicted<\/u><\/a> dozens of Republicans would vote for it on the floor. Massie specifically predicted 100 GOP members could back it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Such a scenario would have potentially been embarrasing for Trump and the White House. Calling for the GOP to back the release of the files ahead of the vote saves the president from the harshness of that situation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If the measure is approved by the House, it would still need to be passed by the Senate and signed by Trump to force the release. Last week, those two steps still seemed in doubt, but Trump\u2019s statement on Sunday suggests they could become reality.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At least 13 GOP senators would likely need to support the measure in the Senate given the filibuster in that chamber.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In recent months, the Trump administration has faced scrutiny from both sides of the aisle over its handling of information related to Epstein.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pressure grew last week after the release by Democrats of more emails, including one<\/u><\/a> written by Epstein that said Trump \u201cknew about the girls.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the hours before Grijalva was sworn into the House last week, Trump and allies reached out<\/u><\/a> to some Republicans who had signed in the discharge petition, in what appeared to be an effort to get them to back down.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Hill\u2019s sister network NewsNation had previously reported that Trump had called House Republicans in an attempt to have them remove their signatures from the petition, according to a Republican source.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.), who has been leading the discharge petition push with Massie, said in an interview Sunday on NBC News\u2019s \u201cMeet the Press\u201d that he wanted Trump to \u201crelease all these files,\u201d noting it could improve his public perception.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cSomeone was saying that his numbers would go up. I don\u2019t care if he gets the political win. There is a group of rich and powerful men who abused young girls,\u201d Khanna added. \u201cIt\u2019s the one thing this country agrees was horrible.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

thehill<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

President Trump\u2002on Sunday night called on House Republicans to vote to release files linked to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, reversing his previous position. Trump\u2019s announcement came amid signs that a vote this week on a measure forced by a discharge petition might have won dozens of Republican votes despite the president\u2019s opposition. \u201cAs I said on […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":49989,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[33923,1230,3174],"class_list":["post-49988","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics","tag-epstein-files","tag-trump","tag-vote"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49988","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=49988"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49988\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":49990,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49988\/revisions\/49990"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/49989"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=49988"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=49988"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ustower.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=49988"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}