Newsweek, November 2025
With the longest government shutdown in U.S. history nearing an end, Republicans are set to face another reckoning on Jeffrey Epstein as a petition to force a vote to compel the release of the government’s files on Epstein garners the needed support.
President Donald Trump’s administration has faced scrutiny from both critics and supporters since the FBI and Justice Department abruptly announced in July that it would not be releasing any additional records from the sex trafficking investigation into Epstein, saying in a memo there was no evidence that Epstein maintained a “client list” and that no “further disclosure would be appropriate or warranted.” Authorities have said Epstein died by suicide in a New York jail in 2019 while awaiting sex trafficking charges.
Survivors of Epstein’s abuse and lawmakers from both major parties have been calling for the release of the files, but Trump has repeatedly dismissed the scandal as a “hoax,” accusing Democrats of trying to distract from his administration’s success.
