(Washington) After having opposed it for a long time, Donald Trump should promulgate a law on Wednesday which forces his government to make public all the documents of the authorities in the Epstein affair. However, the extent of the revelations to be expected remains unclear.
The text voted on Tuesday in Congress gives the Department of Justice one month to make available all of the unclassified documents in its possession on the New York financier, who died in prison in 2019 before his trial for sex crimes, on his accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell, who is serving a 20-year prison sentence, and on all people involved in the related legal proceedings.
Jeffrey Epstein’s suicide in his cell has fueled countless conspiracy theories, according to which the financier – with extensive connections in politics, business, and entertainment – was murdered to prevent embarrassing revelations.
After promising shattering revelations during the 2024 campaign, Donald Trump has urged his supporters to turn the page since his return to power, and describes the affair as a “hoax” hyped up by the Democratic opposition.
Recently, he repeated that he had “nothing to do with Jeffrey Epstein”, assuring that he had “fired” the financier from Mar-a-Lago, his luxurious club in Florida, because he was “a sick pervert”.
“Diversion”
Figures of the New York jet set, the two businessmen were close from the end of the 1980s until their falling out in the early 2000s, and before proceedings were launched a few years later against the financier, accused of having organized a network of sexual exploitation of underage girls.
The American president, who has never been charged by the courts in this affair, has for months opposed the proposed law for “transparency in the Epstein file”, and has exerted strong pressure on the Republican elected officials who supported it.
On Sunday, when it became clear that the text would be adopted without incident in Congress, Donald Trump publicly made an about-face. The president now said he supported it, while emphasizing that this legislation should not constitute a “diversion” from his political successes.
The bill was finally adopted Tuesday by 427 votes for and 1 against in the House, and the Senate used a special procedure to approve it without debate and unanimously.
Donald Trump must now sign for promulgation, and thus start the 30-day countdown.
“We have nothing to hide,” the president said recently, pointing the finger at the opposition. “All his friends were Democrats,” he said of Jeffrey Epstein.
Retention
Last week, he ordered his attorney general, Pam Bondi, to open an investigation into the relationship between the financier and certain Democratic figures, including former President Bill Clinton.
However, the legislation adopted by Congress authorizes the Department of Justice to withhold or redact the documents concerned under certain conditions, in particular to preserve the privacy of victims or because of “an ongoing federal investigation or prosecution”.
Republican elected official Thomas Massie, one of the authors of the bill and frequent critic of Donald Trump, said he feared that these investigations were “a smokescreen” and a “last-ditch attempt to prevent the publication of the Epstein file”.
However, he stressed on Wednesday on X that under the terms of his legislation, the withholding of documents due to an investigation must be “narrowly tailored and temporary”.
Former ally of Donald Trump, Republican elected official Marjorie Taylor Greene said Tuesday that the “real test” would come after Congress, and will consist of waiting to see if the government will publish the documents.
