WASHINGTON: Donald Trump signed into law on Wednesday legislation requiring the release of government records on convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, spurring a showdown over whether the US president will allow full disclosure of the case. The US president ensured that it sailed through Congress on Tuesday in a show of bipartisan unity. The Republican president announced on social media late on Wednesday that he had signed the bill, forgoing any media spectacle. Insiders warn that even with the president&#39;s signature, his administration could lean on redactions, procedural delays, or lingering federal investigations to keep explosive details out of the public eye. &quot;Once the president signs the bill, he must apply and execute it faithfully. There must be no funny business from Donald Trump,&quot; top Democrat Chuck Schumer warned in a speech on the Senate floor. &quot;He must not use the excuse of frivolous investigations to release some Epstein documents, while intentionally hiding others that deserve to be seen by the American public.&quot; Epstein, a wealthy financier, moved in elite circles for years, cultivating close ties with business tycoons, politicians, academics, and celebrities to whom he was accused of trafficking girls and young women for sex. Epstein&#39;s 2019 arrest fueled a storm of outrage and pressure for a full accounting of his network, his finances, and the people who helped him evade. Conspiracy theories about a cover-up only deepened after his death &mdash; ruled a suicide &mdash; in a New York jail soon after.

Americas

Insiders warn that even with the president's signature, administration could lean on redactions, procedural delays, or lingering federal investigations to keep explosive details out of the public eye.



Trump signs bill requiring Epstein files release

WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump said Sunday he backed lawmakers&#39; efforts to release more files related to sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, despite previous opposition to the measure. &quot;House Republicans should vote to release the Epstein files, because we have nothing to hide,&quot; Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform. <div class="fr-embed"><iframe src="https://truthsocial.com/@realDonaldTrump/115562626931599548/embed" class="truthsocial-embed" style="max-width: 100%; border: 0;" width="600" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen">&nbsp;</iframe></div> The 79-year-old Republican has accused Democrats of pushing an &quot;Epstein hoax&quot; after emails emerged in which the disgraced financier suggested Trump &quot;knew about the girls.&quot; Some critics have accused Trump of trying to conceal details about his own alleged wrongdoing -- something the president denies -- by looking to block the vote. The issue has divided his typically loyal Republican party and driven a rift between Trump and some of his closest allies within his Make America Great Again (MAGA) movement. Over the weekend, Trump withdrew his endorsement for Congresswoman and MAGA stalwart Marjorie Taylor Greene&#39;s 2026 re-election bid. Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson has said he would hold a vote this week on a bid to force the Justice Department to release the remaining files relating to the Epstein probe. &quot;Some &#39;members&#39; of the Republican Party are being &#39;used,&#39; and we can&#39;t let that happen,&quot; Trump said in his post, in reference to lawmakers who backed a call by Democrats to release the files. Justice Department probe&nbsp;After the longest-ever US government shutdown ended last week, lawmakers in the US House of Representatives released a trove of emails obtained from Epstein&#39;s estate. In one, Epstein wrote that Trump &quot;spent hours&quot; with one of the victims at his house, and another referred to the president as &quot;dirty.&quot; Democrats on the House Oversight Committee said the messages &quot;raise serious questions about Donald Trump and his knowledge of Epstein&#39;s horrific crimes.&quot; After the email trove&#39;s release, Trump demanded Attorney General Pam Bondi and the FBI investigate links between Epstein and ex-president Bill Clinton, a Democrat, along with former Harvard president Larry Summers, who served as Clinton&#39;s treasury secretary. The order for a probe comes even though the FBI and Justice Department said in a memo in July that they had not uncovered evidence that would justify an investigation of uncharged third parties. With the help of Ghislaine Maxwell, who acted as a recruiter, Epstein brought underage girls to his residences -- notably in New York and Florida -- where they were sexually abused. Before Epstein died in prison in 2019 while awaiting trial in a pedophile trafficking case, he had been required to register as a sex offender in Florida after pleading guilty in 2008 to solicitation of prostitution, including from a minor. Trump&#39;s conspiracy-minded supporters have been obsessed with the Epstein case for years and have been furious since the FBI and Justice Department said on July 7 that Epstein had killed himself while in jail, did not blackmail any prominent figures and did not keep a &quot;client list.&quot;

Trump reverses stance, backing House vote to release Jeffrey Epstein files, amid party divisions and past allegations. He urges investigations into Clinton and Summers, denying wrongdoing, following emails linking him to Epstein’s victims.

In reversal, Trump supports House vote to release Epstein files

WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump told law enforcement chiefs on Friday to investigate links between Jeffrey Epstein and ex-president Bill Clinton, as he sought to deflect growing questions about his own ties to the late alleged sex trafficker. Under mounting pressure from the release of a new trove of Epstein emails, Trump also demanded the Justice Department and FBI probe banking giant JPMorgan Chase and ex-Harvard president Larry Summers, who served as Clinton&#39;s treasury secretary. The 79-year-old Republican accused Democrats of pushing the &quot;Epstein hoax&quot; after emails emerged in which the disgraced financier suggested Trump &quot;knew about the girls&quot; and spent hours with one of the victims at his house. Trump has denied all wrongdoing, but questions about his long friendship with Epstein have dogged him since his return to the White House in January. Epstein died in prison in 2019 &mdash; by suicide, authorities ruled &mdash; before he could face trial on federal sex charges. But questions over his alleged masterminding of a sex ring where powerful men were provided with underage girls have only mounted. Trump said on Truth Social that he would be &quot;asking&quot; Attorney General Pam Bondi and the FBI &quot;to investigate Jeffrey Epstein&#39;s involvement and relationship with Bill Clinton, Larry Summers, Reid Hoffman, J.P. Morgan, Chase, and many other people and institutions.&quot; &quot;Records show that these men, and many others, spent large portions of their life with Epstein, and on his &#39;Island.&#39;&quot; Bondi said that the Justice Department would &quot;pursue this with urgency and integrity&quot; and named senior New York prosecutor Jay Clayton to &quot;take the lead&quot; on Trump&#39;s request. &#39;Damning information&#39;&nbsp;The move comes despite the fact that the FBI and Justice Department said in a memo in July that they had not uncovered evidence that would justify an investigation of uncharged third parties. That memo also sparked a huge backlash in Trump&#39;s MAGA movement after it said a &quot;client list&quot; Bondi claimed to have been reviewing did not in fact exist. Democratic former president Clinton has long faced scrutiny over his ties to Epstein and flew on his private plane, although he too has never been accused of wrongdoing in the scandal. Epstein said that Clinton had &quot;never ever&quot; been to his notorious private island in the Caribbean, according to several emails in the latest trove dating from 2011 and viewed by AFP. There was no immediate comment from Clinton, Summers, or Hoffman, the founder of professional networking app LinkedIn. But JPMorgan Chase &mdash; which in 2023 agreed to pay $290 million to settle a class action lawsuit brought by victims of Epstein, its former client &mdash; rejected Trump&#39;s claims. &quot;The government had damning information about his crimes and failed to share it with us or other banks,&quot; it said in a statement to AFP. &quot;We regret any association we had with the man, but did not help him commit his heinous acts.&quot; &#39;Country to run&#39;Trump&#39;s message broke two days of silence over the scandal, which has overshadowed his victory lap after Democrats agreed to end the longest government shutdown in US history. He has still not commented on camera on the email traffic between Epstein and friends, which said Trump had spent &quot;hours&quot; with Virginia Giuffre, one of Epstein&#39;s victims and the main accuser. The White House said that Giuffre, who died by suicide in April, had cleared Trump of any wrongdoing and had declared that Trump &quot;couldn&#39;t have been friendlier.&quot; Trump&#39;s efforts to put a lid on the scandal have repeatedly failed, fueled partly by the fact that there are photos and videos of him interacting with Epstein decades ago. Another problem is that Trump and some of his close allies &mdash; including his FBI chief Kash Patel &mdash; had in the past promised his right-wing base they would seek the release of all the evidence against Epstein. The US House of Representatives is to vote as early as next week on demanding that the White House release the files, after a rebellion by a handful of MAGA lawmakers provided sufficient votes. Trump on Friday made clear he does not want the effort to proceed. &quot;Don&#39;t waste your time with Trump. I have a Country to run!&quot; he said on social media.

US House of Representatives is to vote as early as next week on demanding that the White House release the files, after a rebellion by a handful of MAGA lawmakers provided sufficient votes.



Trump demands probe into Epstein links to Bill Clinton

LONDON: The British royal family is once again under intense scrutiny as a memoir by Virginia Giuffre, one of the most outspoken accusers of Prince Andrew and Jeffery Epstein, hits bookstores Tuesday. &ldquo;Nobody&rsquo;s Girl&rdquo; is being published posthumously six months after Giuffre died by suicide in April. <figure class="fr-media"><img src="https://paktv-assets-7d41fab8.s3.eu-west-2.amazonaws.com/uploads/97f32e3c-7e8c-40a6-afe4-9c125f921c8e-Virginia Roberts Giuffre speaks during a news conference outside a Manhattan court in New York, Aug. 27, 2019. (AP).jpg" alt="Virginia Roberts Giuffre speaks during a news conference outside a Manhattan court in New York, Aug. 27, 2019. (AP)" class="fr-fil fr-dib"><figcaption class="caption-cover-image text-sm text-gray-600 italic">Virginia Roberts Giuffre speaks during a news conference outside a Manhattan court in New York, Aug. 27, 2019. (AP)</figcaption></figure> Giuffre had for years accused Andrew of sexually abusing her on multiple occasions when she was under 18 years old and a victim of sexual trafficking by convicted sex offender Epstein and his former girlfriend Ghislaine Maxwell. While her book didn&#39;t break new ground, it has thrown fuel on a series of new accusations against Andrew, who is trying to control the damage to the monarchy from the long-running scandal over his friendship with Epstein. The 65-year-old prince said last week that he will stop using his titles, including Duke of York, but reiterated that he &ldquo;vigorously&rdquo; denies Giuffre&rsquo;s claims. <figure class="fr-media"><img src="https://paktv-assets-7d41fab8.s3.eu-west-2.amazonaws.com/uploads/9abc23fe-ac69-4e72-8ef0-c33dffb2311b-Prince Andrew looks round as he leaves after attending the Easter Matins Service at St. George's Chapel, Windsor Castle, England, April 20, 2025. (AP).jpg" alt="Prince Andrew looks round as he leaves after attending the Easter Matins Service at St. George's Chapel, Windsor Castle, England, April 20, 2025. (AP)" class="fr-fil fr-dib"><figcaption class="caption-cover-image text-sm text-gray-600 italic">Prince Andrew looks round as he leaves after attending the Easter Matins Service at St. George&#39;s Chapel, Windsor Castle, England, April 20, 2025. (AP)</figcaption></figure>In her book &mdash; which leapt to number&nbsp;1 on Amazon&#39;s bestseller list on Monday before its publication &mdash; Giuffre recounts details of how she first met Andrew in March 2001, and says the royal&rsquo;s staff tried to hire &ldquo;internet trolls&rdquo; to hassle her when she sued him years later. Accounts of three interactions with Andrew Giuffre long alleged that she was recruited at age 16 by Epstein and Maxwell, who introduced her to Andrew in London in March 2001 when she was 17. She said she was forced to have sex with the royal on three separate occasions. She wrote that on the day she first met Andrew, Maxwell woke her up and told her it was going to be a special day and that &ldquo;just like Cinderella&rdquo; she will meet &ldquo;a handsome prince.&quot; She said when they met, the prince told her that &ldquo;my daughters are just a little younger than you.&quot; She said Maxwell instructed her to &ldquo;do for him what you do for Jeffrey,&quot; adding: &ldquo;I knew better than to question her orders.&rdquo; She said that Epstein gave her $15,000 soon after for having sex with Andrew. Giuffre wrote that she had sex with the royal a second time at Epstein&rsquo;s house in New York about a month later, and a third time on Epstein&rsquo;s private island in the Caribbean along with about eight other girls who she said all appeared to be under 18. 2022 lawsuit settlement Giuffre previously detailed how Epstein, Maxwell and Andrew allegedly forced her to have sex with the prince against her will in a lawsuit that she filed New York in 2021. Andrew reached an out-of-court settlement with Giuffre in 2022 for an undisclosed sum. While he didn&rsquo;t admit wrongdoing, Andrew did acknowledge Giuffre&rsquo;s suffering as a victim of sex trafficking and agreed to make a donation to her charity. Of that settlement, Giuffre wrote: &ldquo;After casting doubt on my credibility for so long &mdash; Prince Andrew&rsquo;s team had even gone so far as to try to hire internet trolls to hassle me &mdash; the Duke of York owed me a meaningful apology as well.&rdquo; &ldquo;We would never get a confession, of course. That&rsquo;s what settlements are designed to avoid,&rdquo; she added. &ldquo;But we were trying for the next best thing: a general acknowledgment of what I&rsquo;d been through.&rdquo; New allegations Andrew, the second son of the late Queen Elizabeth II, had already stepped down from all of his public duties and charity roles in 2019, after an attempt to dispel reports about his friendship with Epstein backfired badly. The prince was widely criticized for the BBC interview, in which he offered unbelievable explanations for his continued relationship with the disgraced financier. He also denied that he had ever had sexual contact with Giuffre, that he had &ldquo;no recollection&rdquo; of meeting her and &ldquo;absolutely no memory&rdquo; of a now infamous photograph showing him with his arm around her waist in 2001. Andrew also said in the same interview that he had cut off contact with Epstein in December 2010. Last week, British newspapers published an email that purportedly showed that the royal had remained in contact with Epstein longer than he had admitted. In the note, reportedly from February 28, 2011, Andrew said they were &ldquo;in this together&rdquo; and would &ldquo;have to rise above it.&rdquo; Separately, London&rsquo;s Metropolitan Police force said that it was looking into a report in the Mail on Sunday that Andrew in 2011 asked one of his police bodyguards to find out if Giuffre had a criminal record. Buckingham Palace and the UK government are under pressure to formally strip Andrew of his dukedom and princely title, and kick him out the 30-room mansion near Windsor Castle where he lives. Ghostwriter Amy Wallace, who cowrote the memoir, said that Andrew also should agree to testify in the US about what he knew of Epstein&#39;s crimes. Wallace told the BBC that Giuffre &quot;deserves all credit for whatever role she played in forcing Prince Andrew to relinquish a few more of his titles. But she deserves all credit even more than that for being brave enough to stand up to say, &lsquo;This isn&rsquo;t right.&rsquo;&rdquo;

The memoir book of Virginia Giuffre, Nobody's Girl is seen amongst other books in a store and is up for sale in London, Tuesday, Oct. 21, 2025 six months after Giuffre died by suicide in April.(AP).jpg

United Kingdom

Giuffre had for years accused Andrew of sexually abusing her on multiple occasions when she was under 18 years old and a victim of sexual trafficking by convicted sex offender Epstein and his former girlfriend Ghislaine Maxwell.

Prince Andrew and Epstein scandal resurfaces following memoir from accuser

Reuters

US Congressional Democrats released on Friday daily schedules belonging to the late financier and sex offender Jeffrey Epstein from 2014 to 2019, which show Epstein had plans to meet with Republican donors Elon Musk and Peter Thiel and conservative commentator Steve Bannon. The documents, which Democrats on the House Oversight Committee said came from Epstein&#39;s estate in response to a congressional subpoena, also showed Britain&#39;s Prince Andrew flew on Epstein&#39;s private jet in 2000. No accusations of wrongdoing&nbsp;There were no accusations of any wrongdoing by Musk, Thiel, Bannon or Andrew in the documents released on Friday. The daily calendars do not indicate whether Epstein&#39;s meetings with Musk, Thiel and Bannon in fact took place. In an X post on Friday referencing a news story about the documents&#39; release, Musk wrote: &quot;This is false.&quot;<div class="fr-embed responsive-video"><div class="video-wrapper aspect-video"><div class="twitter-tweet twitter-tweet-rendered" style="display: flex; max-width: 550px; width: 100%; margin-top: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px;"><iframe id="twitter-widget-0" scrolling="no" frameborder="0" allowtransparency="true" allowfullscreen="true" title="X Post" src="https://platform.twitter.com/embed/Tweet.html?dnt=false&embedId=twitter-widget-0&features=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%3D%3D&frame=false&hideCard=false&hideThread=false&id=1971681164248470018&lang=en&origin=https%3A%2F%2Fmain.d1wrm1qseko1cp.amplifyapp.com%2Farticles%2F&sessionId=dbafae434be1ef7b8c60e40ab05433b3cc723e4c&theme=light&widgetsVersion=2615f7e52b7e0%3A1702314776716&width=550px" style="position: static; visibility: visible; width: 550px; height: 876px; display: block; flex-grow: 1;" data-tweet-id="1971681164248470018"></iframe></div></div></div>A spokesperson for Thiel and lawyers who have represented Bannon and Andrew did not immediately respond to requests for comment. President Donald Trump has been facing criticism in recent months from his conservative base and congressional Democrats over his administration&#39;s handling of the Epstein case. Call for release&nbsp;The Justice Department in early July said it would not make public files from its sex trafficking investigation into Epstein, reneging on earlier promises from Trump and his allies to do so. The Democrats said the documents showed Epstein was friends with &quot;some of the most powerful and wealthiest men in the world,&quot; and called on the Justice Department to release all the documents from its probe. &quot;Oversight Democrats will not stop until we identify everyone complicit in Epstein&#39;s heinous crimes,&quot; Sara Guerrero, a spokesperson for the committee, said in a press release accompanying the documents. &lsquo;No credible information&rsquo;FBI Director Kash Patel said in congressional testimony earlier this month that there was no credible information that Epstein trafficked women and underage girls to anyone but himself. Epstein died by suicide in 2019 in jail while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges, to which he had pleaded not guilty. The calendar entries for Epstein&#39;s meetings with Musk, Thiel and Bannon referenced periods that came after he pleaded guilty to state-level prostitution charges in 2008 but before he was indicted on federal sex trafficking charges in 2019. A calendar entry&nbsp;One calendar entry dated December 6, 2014, reads: &quot;Reminder: Elon Musk to island Dec. 6 (is this still happening?).&quot; Epstein at the time owned a private island in the U.S. Virgin Islands, where many women say Epstein abused them. The documents released on Friday included a passenger list showing Britain&#39;s Prince Andrew flew on Epstein&#39;s private jet from the New York area to Palm Beach, Florida, on May 12, 2000, with Epstein and his longtime partner Ghislaine Maxwell. Flight logs presented as evidence during Maxwell&#39;s 2021 sex trafficking trial showed Andrew had flown on Epstein&#39;s plane on other occasions. Andrew&rsquo;s association&nbsp;Andrew in 2022 settled a US lawsuit brought by the late Virginia Giuffre, one of Epstein&#39;s most prominent accusers. In the lawsuit, Giuffre accused Andrew of sexually abusing her when she was a teenager. Andrew has denied wrongdoing and said he regrets his past association with Epstein. Maxwell was convicted of recruiting and grooming underage girls for Epstein to abuse, and is serving a 20-year sentence. She had pleaded not guilty and is asking the US Supreme Court to overturn her conviction.

Democrats release daily calendars provided by Epstein estate. No wrongdoing by Musk, Thiel, Bannon, or Prince Andrew in documents. Authorities say no evidence Epstein trafficked victims to others.

Articles tagged with "Epstein files"

Trump signs bill requiring Epstein files release

In reversal, Trump supports House vote to release Epstein files

Trump demands probe into Epstein links to Bill Clinton

Prince Andrew and Epstein scandal resurfaces following memoir from accuser

US House Democrats release Epstein schedules showing plans to meet Musk, Bannon