(Washington) President Donald Trump signed a law Wednesday requiring his administration to release all authorities’ documents in the Epstein case, bowing to political pressure from his own party after initially resisting the effort.
“I just signed the law to make the Epstein file public! », Wrote the American president in a long message where he accused the Democrats of having hidden the truth about the rich financier, who died in prison in 2019 before his trial for sex crimes.
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 twenty-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”.
“Scheme”
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. This was 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 accused by the courts in this affair, has opposed for months the proposed law on “transparency in the Epstein file”.
But on Sunday, as it became clear that the text would be adopted without incident in Congress, Donald Trump publicly made an about-face.
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 promulgate it and thus start the 30-day countdown.
“Once the president signs the text, he must apply it and carry it out faithfully,” urged the leader of the Democratic minority in the Senate, Chuck Schumer, who warned against any “shenanigans on the part of Donald Trump”.
“New information”
The Republican pointed the finger at the opposition. Last week, he ordered US 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 Department of Justice and the Federal Police (FBI) announced in July that they had “not discovered evidence on which to base an investigation against people who have not yet been prosecuted” in the case.
Asked by the press about the reason for these new investigations, Pam Bondi said on Wednesday that they were justified by “new information”, without specifying which ones.
The new law passed by Congress authorizes the Justice Department to withhold or redact case materials under certain conditions, including 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 according to the terms of his legislation, the authorities could only take refuge behind the excuse of an investigation in a “temporary” and restricted manner.
Pam Bondi affirmed for her part that her services would respect the law with “maximum transparency, while protecting the victims”.
With Associated Press
