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U.S. President Donald Trump announced Wednesday that he has signed a bill requiring the release of all documents related to late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
The bill requires the Justice Department to release all information from the Epstein investigation “in a searchable and downloadable format” within 30 days.
Trump had previously opposed releasing the documents, but changed his tune last week after facing opposition from Epstein’s victims and members of the Republican Party.
With his support, the bill passed overwhelmingly in both houses of Congress on Tuesday.
In an article published in Truth Social on Wednesday, the president accused Democrats of supporting the issue to distract from his administration’s accomplishments.
“Maybe the truth about these Democrats and their ties to Jeffrey Epstein will be revealed soon, because I just signed the bill releasing Epstein’s documents!” he wrote.
House members passed the bill 427-1. The Senate unanimously approved it upon its arrival.
About 20,000 pages of documents from Epstein’s estate were released last week, including some that directly mention Trump.
They include messages from Epstein in 2018 in which he said of Trump: “I’m the one who can take him down” and “I know how dirty Donald is.”
Trump was a friend of Epstein’s for many years, but the president said they had a falling out in the early 2000s, two years before Epstein was first arrested. Trump has consistently denied any wrongdoing with Epstein.
Trump told reporters Monday night that Republicans had “nothing to do with Epstein.”
“This is really a Democratic problem,” he said. “Democrats were friends with Epstein, all of them.”
Despite the president’s signature, there is no guarantee that Epstein’s complete documents will be released. According to the text of the bill, parts of the content may still be withheld if they are deemed to invade a person’s privacy or are relevant to an ongoing investigation.
Republican Rep. Thomas Massie, one of the bill’s authors, said he was concerned about some documents being withheld.
“I’m concerned about (Trump) launching a series of investigations that I believe they may try to use as a precondition for not releasing documents. That’s my concern,” he said.
