Trump flounders as he calls Epstein furor a ‘hoax’ while sex-abuse survivors bring Capitol to tears

Sign up for the daily Inside Washington email for exclusive US coverage and analysis sent to your inboxGet our free Inside Washington emailGet our free Inside Washington emailHas Donald Trump found the limit of his grip on MAGA world?Congress is back in Washington and the attention around the Jeffrey Epstein investigation is more intense than ever. After lawmakers went home for the August recess some Republican leaders were hopeful that the headlines which have given the president and his allies the most trouble of any issue in years were finally on their way out of the news cycle.Instead, members of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform spent the summer month doggedly pursuing the issue and returned on Tuesday to publish what they said was the first batch of documents retrieved via subpoena from the Department of Justice. On Tuesday, the committee released more than 33,000 pages received from the DOJ, though only a small fraction contained new information.Wednesday led to more problems for the president as a split-screen played out in close to real time across Washington. At the White House, seated next to the president of Poland, Trump declared that the Epstein issue was a “Democrat hoax” and likened it to conspiracies surrounding the John F. Kennedy assassination. Across town, lawmakers on Capitol Hill — including some of his close Republican allies — rallied with Epstein’s victims just a few feet from the steps of the Capitol.Their message was clear: the issue is no hoax, nor is it going away any time soon.open image in galleryRep. Marjorie Taylor Greene spoke to reporters after meeting with survivors of Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell on Wednesday (Getty Images)Wednesday’s event near the Capitol steps drew hundreds of protesters, media, spectators and supporters and made it obvious that the furor around the administration’s handling of the investigation is not dissipating. After releasing a joint memo with the FBI regarding the investigation in July, the Justice Department stated that it would break a commitment to release evidence from the investigation and insisted that it had no evidence linking Epstein’s crimes to the numerous powerful men and institutions with whom he pursued friendships.The agency’s declarations stunned and angered many younger Trump supporters who latched on to the issue through social media and other online content; Democrats were less shocked, but quickly jumped on the opportunity to call out the president for his administration’s reversal.Since then, the Justice Department has pursued a less direct strategy. The agency filed a long-shot request to make grand jury transcripts related to Epstein’s prosecution public; it was denied, with a judge calling the move a distraction. It complied with a Oversight panel subpoena, while dispatching Trump’s own former attorney to speak personally with Ghislaine Maxwell, Epstein’s imprisoned accomplice. Trump has since declined to reject the possibility of pardoning Maxwell, despite being repeatedly pressed on it.The problem for Trump: there’s very little momentum in the news cycle working to push Jeffrey Epstein out of the headlines — and a lot more keeping the spotlight squarely on it. The salience of the issue among his MAGA base is now threatening to spiral out of control for the president. The first batch of the Oversight committee’s Epstein document dump, which contained documents that were largely previously-released, managed to slow but not halt the momentum among Republican House members.Alarm bells were clearly going off in the White House on Wednesday, when an unnamed White House spokesperson issued a statement outright threatening retribution against Republicans who break ranks and join a discharge petition that would force the Justice Department to release all of its files on the investigation.“Helping Thomas Massie and Liberal Democrats with their attention-seeking, while the DOJ is fully supporting a more comprehensive file release effort from the Oversight Committee, would be viewed as a very hostile act to the administration,” the spokesperson said.That tactic worked for Trump in July, when the White House bullied Republican holdouts into line and shepherded passage of the “big, beautiful bill” through the House. The president’s iron grip on the GOP is legendary at this point. And it makes the response Wednesday from Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, one of his allies, all the more significant.“This isn’t a hostile act towards the administration. The hostile act has been against these women for so many years now, and the hostile act is covering up for Jeffrey Epstein and everyone else that’s been involved in this; and that’s the real hostile act,” she said. “I look forward to talking with President Trump about these women that I’ve met. I also encouraged him already this morning that he should have these women in the Oval Office. They deserve to be there.”While the discharge petition’s main Republican cosponsor Rep. Thomas Massie is no ally of Trump’s, the statement from Greene is just the tip of the iceberg as it pertains to the GOP’s hesitance to dismiss the Epstein issue. Just two more Republicans would be needed to sign on to Massie’s discharge petition for it to succeed; two others currently supporting the legislation include MAGA Reps. Lauren Boebert and Nancy Mace. Their defiance is a sign of the issue’s potency, especially with younger voters.Mace, also a survivor of sexual violence, left a hearing in tears on Tuesday as Epstein survivors recounted their experiences to lawmakers on the Oversight panel. She later said the testimony triggered a panic attack.“I feel the immense pain of how hard all victims are fighting for themselves because we know absolutely no one will fight for us. GOD BLESS ALL SURVIVORS,” wrote the congresswoman.Massie was fiery in his response, calling the White House statement “disgusting.” He, Greene, and the Epstein survivors who gathered this week on Capitol Hill have all signaled they’re ready to ratchet up the pressure on the White House and Speaker Mike Johnson until the petition gets the requisite votes. Victims, meanwhile, told reporters that they are considering making their own list of the convicted sex offender’s alleged accomplices. open image in galleryEpstein accuser Jennifer Araoz speaks during a press conference to encourage the release of the remaining files related to the investigations into Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell (Reuters)That combined pressure and momentum could end up having as much or more political strength than Trump, who is now facing record-low approval ratings as Americans’ worries about the economy keep climbing higher.The rhetoric in the House, predictably, is reaching a fever pitch.Regarding Johnson, the Kentucky congressman issued a vicious statement on Tuesday: “He’s allegedly a social conservative…and it seems to be very out of character for him to cover up for a sex trafficking ring.” Greene vowed Wednesday to use House privilege to name Epstein’s alleged accomplices on the House floor if it came to that. Doing so would immunize Greene from criminal or civil penalties for defamation.”If [the survivors] want to give me a list, I will walk in that Capitol on the House floor and I’ll say every damn name that abused these women,” said Greene on Wednesday. “I can do that for them and I’d be proud to do it.””It’s a scary thing to name names. But I will tell you, I’m not afraid to name names.”



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