President Donald Trump on Monday said he would sign a bill to compel the Justice Department to release all files relating sex offender Jeffrey Epstein if it reaches his desk.
“I’m all for it,” he said as he took reporter questions during an event in the Oval Office, contending the controversy is deflecting from his administration successes.
Pressed again moments later if he would sign the bill that the House is set to take up Tuesday, Trump replied: “Sure I would.”
“Let the Senate look at it. Let anybody look at it. But don’t talk about it too much, because, honestly, I don’t want it to take away from us. It’s really a Democrat problem,” he said.
President Donald Trump speaks during a meeting with the White House task force on the 2026 FIFA World Cup in the Oval Office of the White House, Nov. 17, 2025, in Washington.
Evan Vucci/AP
The comments come after Trump’s sudden reversal on Sunday that House Republicans should vote yes on releasing the files, after his monthslong opposition to the measure — an effort that recently culminated with what sources said was an attempt to dissuade GOP Rep. Lauren Boebert in the White House Situation Room from supporting the discharge petition to force a floor vote.
Kentucky Republican Rep. Thomas Massie, a co-sponsor of the legislation, had said earlier on ABC’s “This Week” that he thinks 100 or more Republicans could vote in favor of releasing the files.
After Trump said on Monday he would sign the measure if it passes the Senate, Massie posted on X: “Looking forward to attending this bill signing.”
Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., appears on ABC News’ “This Week” on Nov. 16, 2025.
ABC News
But questions remain as to whether the full files will be released, even with Trump’s public change in position.
If the bill passes the House, as is expected, it will still have to go through the Senate, where Majority Leader John Thune has not yet publicly committed to holding a vote. Senate Majority Whip John Barrasso, on NBC’s “Meet the Press” on Sunday, said only that the Senate would “take a look” at what passes the House.
“I’m not sure what evidence is out there,” Barrasso said. “What I do know is that the House is going to vote this week, try to make a decision, and we’ll see if they send something to the Senate. And if they do, we’ll take a look at that. But we want transparency and accountability. What I also know is that Jeffrey Epstein is a convicted sex offender and he is dead. And President Trump threw him out of Mar-a-Lago 21 years ago.”
Plus, a new Department of Justice investigation has been started at Trump’s request into ties between Epstein and high-profile Democrats, including former President Bill Clinton.
Trump, in his social media post on Sunday saying Republicans should vote to release the files, notably added that the House Oversight Committee “can have whatever they are legally entitled to.”
The firestorm over the Epstein matter erupted in July when the Department of Justice and FBI released a memo stating they planned to make no future public disclosures related to their review of Epstein’s case, and no further charges were expected as they “did not uncover evidence that could predicate an investigation against uncharged third parties.”
Last week, House Democrats released emails from the Epstein estate that mentioned Trump by name multiple times. In one email, written in 2011, Epstein referred to Trump as the “dog that hasn’t barked” and he told accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell that an alleged victim had “spent hours at my house” with Trump.
Trump, who was friendly with Epstein for years, said after Epstein’s arrest in 2019 that they hadn’t spoken in more than a decade after having a falling out. White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt dismissed the newly released emails last week, saying they “prove absolutely nothing other than the fact that President Trump did nothing wrong.”
Trump on Monday said his administration’s already given House committees tens of thousands of documents, and repeated that the Epstein matter is a “hoax.”
“It’s just a Russia, Russia, Russia hoax as it pertains to the Republicans. Now, I believe that many of the people that we, some of the people that we mentioned are being looked at very seriously for their relationship to Jeffrey Epstein, but they were with him all the time. I wasn’t. I wasn’t at all, and we’ll see what happens,” Trump said.
President Donald Trump speaks during a meeting with the White House task force on the 2026 FIFA World Cup in the Oval Office of the White House, Nov. 17, 2025, in Washington.
Evelyn Hockstein/Reuters
On Monday, House Speaker Mike Johnson continued to raise concerns about the legislation to force the release of the files and said he’s spoken to Trump “quite a bit” on the issue.
“His statements speak for themselves,” Johnson said. “He has nothing, he has never had anything to hide. He and I had the same concern, that we wanted to ensure that victims of these heinous crimes were completely protected from disclosure. Those who don’t want their names to be out there, and I am not sure the discharge petition does that and that’s part of the problem.”
Democrats on Capitol Hill, after Trump’s reversal on the House vote, said he could act now to release the files himself.
“He said for the House to vote for it, and I hope the house will and do it quickly, but he could end all the problems instead of just telling the House to vote for it,” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said at a news conference in Saratoga, New York. “Release them. Release them now.”
ABC News’ Michelle Stoddart and Lauren Peller contributed to this report.
