Trump's Epstein problem just won't go away... as MAGA's biggest stars are set to cast deciding vote
Progressive Democrat Ro Khanna and libertarian-minded Republican Thomas Massie of Kentucky teamed up last week to introduce the Epstein Files Transparency Act, which would compel Attorney General Pam Bondi to publicly release all unclassified materials relating to Jeffery Epstein.
The duo's resolution is receiving the the backing of a diverse set of members, including New York socialist Democrat darling Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Michigan 'Squad" member Rashida Tlaib on the left, as well as Lauren Boebert of Colorado, Nancy Mace of South Carolina, and Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia on the right.
Khanna noted during a Thursday media appearance that his resolution had the backing of all 212 of his Democratic colleagues in the House. Even if only the 10 GOP co-sponsors of the resolution were to support it, it would easily pass the House.
Trump has faced a furious rebellion from his MAGA base over the botched handling of the Epstein files - and while he claims 'nobody cares' about the late financier - the furor isn't dying down.
The president last week sued the Wall Street Journal over a report that he wrote Epstein a birthday card with the message: 'May every day be another wonderful secret.'
If the vote makes it through the House in the next several weeks, then Trump's Epstein crisis will only deepen.
Senator Ron Wyden, D- Ore., is among lawmakers on the other side of the Capitol who are adamant that the president and DOJ make all the Epstein documents public. Wyden, the lead Democrat on the Senate Finance Committee is taking a particular look at the money trail Epstein surely left.
'This horrific sex-trafficking operation cost Epstein a lot of money, and he had to get that money from somewhere," Wyden told the New York Times.
The late financier was charged in 2008 for soliciting prostitution with an underaged girl and received a modest jail sentence in Florida. He was later charged with federal sex trafficking crimes in 2019. He hanged himself in prison awaiting his trial, feds say.
The DOJ and FBI recently leaked an unsigned memo concluding that Epstein died by suicide in prison that August and did not possess a 'client list' of VIP co-conspirators.
The memo said that no more people would be arrested, charged or convicted in the Epstein child sex trafficking case which angered some of members of Congress most in tune with the MAGA base.
Georgia Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene, one of the most MAGA-aligned voices on the right said during an appearance on Real America's Voice (RAV) earlier this month that she for one wasn't buying that there wasn't more to the Epstein story.
'I think the Department of Justice and the FBI has more explaining to do. This is Jeffrey Epstein; this is the most famous pedophile in modern-day history,' Taylor Greene told RAV at the time.
Progressive Democrat Ocasio-Cortez seemingly came after Trump this week when she wrote sarcastically on X, 'Wow who would have thought that electing a rapist would have complicated the release of the Epstein Files?'
Trump was found liable of sexually abusing author E. Jean Carroll in a 2023 civil trial. He was not, however, found liable of rape - a distinction the New York Democrat did not make in her post.
'AOC — look, I think she's very nice but she's very Low IQ and we really don't need low IQ,' Trump told members of the media at the White House on Tuesday, firing back at the Congresswoman's jab.
Conservative X users were quick to jump to the president's defense comparing AOC's comments to remarks made by ABC host George Stephanopoulos, which led to Trump suing for defamation and eventually winning $15 million.
South Carolina GOP Congresswoman Nancy Mace called AOC's remarks a 'smear campaign.'
'She should lawyer up. Truth still matters, even if the Left's forgotten. We're not done fighting. Not even close,' Mace added.
Yet, now Mace and Ocasio-Cortez both find themselves on the same side of the fight to force Trump's DOJ to release the files pertaining to Epstein.
Trump has also urged Attorney General Pam Bondi to release additional documents, though the push from Capitol Hill could obtain documents the AG or Trump does not want released.
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