US Congress passes law to release Jeffrey Epstein files: understand what happens now

Epstein’s victims criticize Trump and call for an end to the politicization of the case. The United States Congress approved on Tuesday (18) a bill that requires the disclosure of all investigation files on billionaire Jeffrey Epstein. ✅ Follow g1’s international news channel on WhatsApp ▶️ Context: Epstein was accused of abusing more than 250 underage girls and operating a sexual exploitation network in the 2000s. The case gained prominence again this year with President Donald Trump’s back and forth over the release of the files. Last week, the US Congress published messages suggesting that Trump had knowledge of Epstein’s conduct. In a 2018 email, the billionaire wrote that the current president “spent hours” at his home with one of the victims. Epstein was known for his wide network of contacts with politicians, celebrities and executives. He and Trump were friends between the 1990s and early 2000s. The billionaire was arrested in July 2019 and, according to authorities, took his own life a month later, inside his cell. This Tuesday, the Chamber and Senate quickly approved — and almost unanimously — the project that obliges the government to release all investigation files. The move was seen as a political defeat for Trump. Understand more below. According to the text, all investigation documents, including information about Epstein’s death in prison, must be released within 30 days after the presidential sanction. The law allows the Department of Justice to hide personal information from victims or data from ongoing investigations. On the other hand, it prohibits censorship based on “embarrassment, damage to reputation or political sensitivity”. The expectation is that Trump will sanction the law as soon as the text reaches the White House. This could happen this Thursday (19). MORE see Political defeat US President Donald Trump during an event at the White House on November 6, 2025 REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst During the 2024 campaign, Trump promised several times that, if he returned to the White House, he would make secret files on the case public. In an interview, he even said it was “very strange” that Epstein’s client list had never been released. In February this year, the government released a series of files on the case. Trump’s attorney general, Pam Bondi, even stated that a list of clients was on her “desk to be reviewed”. Later, however, the Department of Justice said it found no evidence of the existence of this relationship. The statement frustrated Trump supporters, many of whom spread conspiracy theories about the case — some driven by the president himself. Since then, he started to minimize the issue and even called anyone who still cared about the subject an “idiot”. Trump’s stance increased political pressure from the opposition and even from members of the president’s own party for all documents to be released. In recent months, Trump has started calling the movement a “sham” created by the opposition to divert attention from issues such as the federal budget. The White House and Republican leaders tried to prevent the project from reaching the minimum number of signatures necessary to be considered in the Chamber, but were unable to do so. The text reached the minimum required on November 12, with support including from Republican deputies. Three days later, Trump changed his position and started to defend the approval of the proposal, saying that the Republicans had “nothing to hide”. President quoted in emails Jeffrey Epstein, arrested for sexual crimes, in photograph taken by the New York State Division of Criminal Justice Services/Handout/File Photo via REUTERS On November 12, the US Congress released more than 20 thousand pages of files on the Jeffrey Epstein investigation. Most of the documents contain emails that the billionaire exchanged with relatives and friends. In one of the messages, from January 2019, Epstein wrote that Trump “knew about the girls”. In the same text, the name of a victim appears — which was censored — and a mention of Mar-a-Lago, the president’s resort in Florida. In another email, from 2011, Epstein wrote to Ghislaine Maxwell, his partner and confidant, about Trump. “I want you to realize that the dog that didn’t bark is Trump,” he said. He then added that one of the victims “spent hours at my house with him… and he was never mentioned once.” Another file shows Epstein reflecting on how he should respond to questions from the press about his relationship with Trump, who at the time was beginning to gain prominence as a national political figure. For Democratic deputies, the messages raise new doubts about the relationship between the president and the billionaire. The New York Times newspaper stated that Trump may have more knowledge of Epstein’s conduct than he has publicly admitted. Trump, in turn, said that the controversy surrounding the emails is a “trap” created by the opposition. White House spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt said the files show the president “did nothing wrong.” VIDEOS: most watched on g1

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