Trump says he would sign bill to release Epstein files if it reaches his desk

President Donald Trump said Monday he would sign a bill to force the Justice Department to release all files related to sex offender Jeffrey Epstein if it reaches his desk.

“I’m all for it,” he said while taking questions from reporters during an event in the Oval Office, maintaining that the controversy is deflecting from his administration’s successes.

Asked again moments later if he would sign the bill that the House of Representatives will consider on Tuesday, Trump responded: “Of course I would.”

“Let the Senate see it. Let anyone see it. But don’t talk about it too much, because, honestly, I don’t want it to take anything away from us. It’s really a Democratic issue,” he said.

The comments come after Trump’s sudden reversal on Sunday that House Republicans should vote yes on releasing the records, following their months-long opposition to the move, an effort that recently culminated in what sources said was an attempt to dissuade Republican 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 previously said on ABC’s “This Week” that he believes 100 or more Republicans could vote to release the files.

After Trump said Monday that he would sign the measure if it passes the Senate, Massie posted on X: “Looking forward to the signing of this bill.”

But questions remain about whether the full files will be released, even with Trump’s public change of position.

If the bill passes the House, as expected, it will still have to go through the Senate, where Majority Leader John Thune has not yet publicly committed to a vote. Senate Majority Leader John Barrasso, on NBC’s “Meet the Press” on Sunday, said only that the Senate would “take a look” at whatever the House passes.

“I’m not sure what evidence exists,” Barrasso said. “What I do know is that the House will 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 look at it. But we want transparency and accountability. What I also know is that Jeffrey Epstein is a convicted sex offender and he’s dead. And President Trump kicked him out of Mar-a-Lago 21 years ago.”

Additionally, at Trump’s request, a new Justice Department investigation was launched into ties between Epstein and high-profile Democrats, including former President Bill Clinton.

Trump, in his Sunday social media post saying Republicans should vote to release the files, notably added that the House Oversight Committee “can have everything it is legally entitled to.”

The storm over the Epstein matter erupted in July when the Justice Department and the FBI released a memo indicating that they did not plan to make future public disclosures related to their review of the Epstein case, and that no further charges were expected as they “discovered no evidence that would predicate an investigation against unindicted third parties.”

Last week, House Democrats released emails from Epstein’s estate that mentioned Trump by name several times. In one email, written in 2011, Epstein referred to Trump as the “dog that hasn’t barked” and told his accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell that an alleged victim had “spent hours at my house” with Trump.

Trump, who was friends with Epstein for years, said after Epstein’s arrest in 2019 that they had not spoken in more than a decade after a fight. 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 said Monday that his administration had already turned over tens of thousands of documents to House committees and repeated that the Epstein affair is a “hoax.”

“It’s just a Russia, Russia, Russia hoax as far as Republicans are concerned. Now, I think a lot of the people that we, some of the people that we mentioned, are being looked at very seriously for their relationship with Jeffrey Epstein, but they were with him the whole time. I’m not. I wasn’t at all, and we’ll see what happens,” Trump said.

On Monday, House Speaker Mike Johnson continued to raise concerns about legislation to force disclosure of the records, saying he had spoken “quite a bit” with Trump about 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: we wanted to ensure that the victims of these heinous crimes were completely protected from disclosure. Those who don’t want their names to come to light, and I’m not sure the release petition does, and that’s part of the problem.”

Johnson He later said that he expects a “great vote count” to support the measure in the House.

When asked by ABC News’ Rachel Scott why the president shouldn’t pre-empt the vote and release the files himself, Johnson He insisted that Trump is in favor of “maximum transparency” in the matter.

“He’s telling Congress to do it. I’m not sure what else he could do in terms of transparency.” Johnson said.

Democrats on Capitol Hill, after Trump overturned the House vote, said he himself could act now to release the files.

“He said let the House vote yes, and I hope the House does it quickly, but he could put an end to all the problems instead of just telling the House to vote yes,” 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.