Donald Trump has changed his tune, saying he doesn’t care if the Epstein files are released, because all Jeffrey Epstein’s friends were Democrats. Here’s why that’s a problem for him
Donald Trump has ten days to sign the bill requiring the release of the Epstein files after Congress voted it through late last night. He’s been on a journey with calls for the files to be released – initially opposing them and whipping House members persistently to remove themselves from the petition demanding it.
But he changed his tune early this week, suggesting he wanted House Republicans to vote through the measure, which requires them to be released in a searchable format within 30 days. His argument is that he doesn’t care about the files being released, because Jeffrey Epstein’s friends were all Democrats.
Confirming he’d sign the bill when it reached his desk, he said yesterday: “We have nothing to do with Epstein. The Democrats do. All of his friends were Democrats.” He added: “Let the Senate look at it. Let anybody look at it. But don’t talk about it too much, because honestly… it’s really a Democrat problem. The Democrats were Epstein’s friends, all of them. And it’s a hoax. The whole thing is a hoax, and I don’t want to take it away from really the greatness of what the Republican Party has accomplished over the last period of time.”
The suggestion being that Trump couldn’t possibly be in the files, because he’s a Republican. There is just one small problem with that argument.
Donald Trump was friends with Jeffrey Epstein from the late 80s until around 2007, when he says he banned the notorious paedophile from his Mar A Lago club in Palm Beach, Florida. As well as being a friend of Epstein, Donald Trump was also a Democrat for most of that period.
He was a registered Democrat between August 2001 and September 2009. Epstein’s federal indictment lists the period for which he was charged as 2002-2005. So for the entire time the Justice Department’s investigation – and the Epstein files themselves – would relate to, Donald Trump was both a friend of his, and a Democrat.