Trump Signs Bill Ordering Release Of Epstein Files

President Donald Trump signed the “Epstein Files Transparency Act” into law on Wednesday, ordering Attorney General Pam Bondi to make all related unclassified Department of Justice (DOJ) records public.

The process picked up steam after 218 members of Congress signed onto a discharge petition Nov. 12, allowing the bill to release files connected to the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein to move to the House floor. After months of insisting the push to release the Epstein files was a Democrat hoax, Trump reversed course Sunday in a TruthSocial post calling on House Republicans to vote in favor of the legislation. (RELATED: Trump Will Order DOJ To Investigate Epstein’s Links To Bill Clinton, Major Banks)

The legislation passed the House on Tuesday and the Senate formally passed the legislation Wednesday.

Under the new law, all the unclassified documents from the DOJ, the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the U.S. Attorneys’ Offices must be available to the public in a searchable and downloadable format.

The law also gives the Attorney General the power to hold back or redact material connected to child sexual abuse material (CSAM), death or physical abuse; alleged victims’ private information; and information that might compromise active investigations, prosecutions, foreign affairs or the national defense.

Many have speculated on why Trump changed his mind on releasing the files. Two White House officials told the Daily Caller the president’s primary issue wasn’t to the release of the files, but the chance for Democrats like Rep. Ro Khanna to use the issue against him with assistance from Republican Kentucky Rep. Thomas Massie.

One White House official told the Caller that the president chose to push for Republicans to vote in favor of the bill since he has nothing to hide, and did not want matters to appear otherwise. A second White House official emphasized this, pointing to the president’s Monday comments regarding his administration’s transparency and his desire to address base issues.

“His opposition had nothing to do with transparency,” the official said.

“He believed the Democrats were using the House vote as a weapon against him to distract from the many wins the Administration has had. There has been no change in his overall position, he has been urging transparency long before the Democrats even cared about this issue,” the official told the Caller.

Another White House official dismissed any rumor that Trump’s post on TruthSocial was merely a concession once it was clear the petition would pass the House by a significant margin. The official took note of the White House’s work with the Oversight Committee to turn over more than 33,000 documents as evidence the president wants to help release the Epstein Files.

The controversy around the Epstein files has dragged on for months. It started in July after Axios published a memo from the DOJ and the FBI announcing that their investigation uncovered no evidence that Epstein had a “client list” or was murdered in jail.

The memo was an abrupt end to the investigation after Bondi acknowledged earlier in 2025 that she was reviewing a “client list” and a group of MAGA social media influencers received a “Phase 1” binder of Epstein files, many of which contained no new bombshells or were previously released.

Administration officials vented to the Caller at the time, explaining that they were frustrated with the handling of the situation. The sources pointed the blame at the DOJ for fumbling and over-representing the level of evidence they had to go after Epstein’s alleged child trafficking ring.

As debate over the release of the Epstein Files dragged on, Trump repeatedly called the situation a “hoax” as more Democrats used it to attack the administration’s supposed lack of transparency and alleged betrayal of the MAGA base.