Exclusive: Trump administration plans meeting over House effort to force release of all of DOJ’s Epstein files
Top Trump administration officials were planning to meet Wednesday about an effort in the US House to force a vote on releasing Justice Department case files related to Jeffrey Epstein, according to multiple sources familiar with the meeting.
One of the sources said the planned meeting would include Attorney General Pam Bondi, Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche, FBI Director Kash Patel and Republican Rep. Lauren Boebert of Colorado, who has wanted the Justice Department to release their trove of Epstein files and has signed onto the effort in the US House to force the vote compelling their release.
CNN has not yet confirmed if the meeting has taken place. A spokesperson for the Justice Department declined to comment, and the White House did not immediately return a request for comment. CNN has reached out to Boebert’s office.
Still, the intention of a meeting underscores the Trump administration’s concerns around the Epstein saga, which roared back Wednesday morning when the House Oversight Committee released more documents it had obtained from Epstein’s estate.
The Justice Department files, which capture years of investigation into a child sex trafficking ring, could include details the House hasn’t obtained.
The controversy around Epstein and his contacts with other powerful people, including Donald Trump, has divided the Republican Party in recent months, with Boebert being among the Republican House members publicly pushing for more transparency around the case.
Trump hasn’t been accused of any crime, and longtime Epstein contact and convicted child sex trafficker Ghislaine Maxwell previously told Blanche in an interview this summer that she had seen no wrongdoing, including by Trump.
On Capitol Hill, three Republican House members – Boebert, Marjorie Taylor Greene and Nancy Mace – have signed onto an effort from Reps. Thomas Massie, a Kentucky Republican, and Ro Khanna, a California Democrat, to force a vote on the release of the files on the House floor. The pair is set to receive the 218th decisive signature from Rep. Adelita Grijalva Wednesday afternoon, allowing the push to force a vote to move forward.
Bondi was seen leaving the White House at 1:10pm ET on Wednesday.
Should anyone, like Boebert, remove their name from the petition, Massie and Khanna would no longer have the support needed to move forward.
Under the arcane procedure of a House discharge petition, if 218 members of the House – a majority of all 435 districts – sign on, they can force a floor vote in the chamber on anything — even if leadership opposes it. Such an effort rarely succeeds.
At least two women who say they are survivors of Epstein’s abuse are expected to attend Grijalva’s swearing-in ceremony Wednesday afternoon, sources with knowledge tell CNN.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt on Wednesday said the emails released Wednesday, which mention Trump, “prove absolutely nothing.” She also defended the administration’s efforts to block moves in the US House to try to compel the release of the Epstein files, arguing that the administration is committed to transparency.
“We are cooperating and showing support for the House Oversight Committee. That’s part of the reason you are seeing these documents that were released today, because of the House Oversight Committees and Republicans’ efforts to get these out to the public,” she said.
This story has been updated with new reporting.
