Rep. Chellie Pingree (D-Maine) demanded the release of the Epstein files on Thursday as controversy mounts over President Donald Trump’s handling of the documents after he began referring to the files as a “hoax.”
Rep. Pingree along with numerous other Democrats only started calling for the release of the files after it became apparent that pushing the issue could harm President Trump. She did nothing to call for or facilitate their release while her party had control and President Joe Biden was in the White House.
[RELATED: EPSTEIN FILES: Here are all the Jeffrey Epstein files Trump’s DOJ just released…]
“For weeks, Republican leadership in the House and Senate has stonewalled every attempt to make the Epstein files public, culminating in Speaker Johnson’s desperate decision to cancel floor votes and send everyone home for August recess early,” said Pingree.
“The American people deserve to know the truth: about who’s in these files, what they did, what they knew and when, and about how some of the world’s most powerful people could escape accountability for so long. More importantly, the victims deserve real, unvarnished justice—a justice they’ve been cruelly denied for years. It’s time for the truth to come out. Release the files,” she added.
Pingree claims that Epstein’s victims have been “cruelly denied” justice for years, begging the question ‘who has been denying them justice?’ While President Trump has been in office since January, prior to that, it would seem that it was Pingree herself, along with President Biden and the Democrats, who had the power to release the files and nevertheless did nothing.
The Maine representative criticized House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) for bringing the House into recess a day earlier than expected, in an apparent attempt to avoid the controversial vote on releasing the Epstein files.
President Trump has also angered many in his base with his recent comments on the situation, including one post in which he referred to the Epstein files as a hoax and claimed that he no longer wants support from voters who still care about Epstein.
“Their new SCAM is what we will forever call the Jeffrey Epstein Hoax, and my PAST supporters have bought into this “bullshit,” hook, line, and sinker. They haven’t learned their lesson, and probably never will,” said Trump in a post on Truth Social.
“Let these weaklings continue forward and do the Democrats [sic] work, don’t even think about talking of our incredible and unprecedented success, because I don’t want their support anymore,” he added.
While Democrats only recently began caring about the Epstein files after it became apparent that Trump’s handling of them was unpopular, some Republicans, including Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) and Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.), have been consistent in their demands for transparency.
A House vote on a proposed resolution calling for the release of the Epstein files would likely place Republicans in a difficult position, allowing Democrats to present themselves as the party of government transparency and sowing division among Republicans.
Rep. Jared Golden (D-Maine) expressed support for transparency on the Epstein files, speaking to the Bangor Daily News, after the House Oversight Subcommittee voted to subpoena files related to Epstein’s child sex-trafficking ring from the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ).
He referred to the subcommittee vote, which came before Rep. Johnson called a recess, as “a good step toward bringing much-needed sunlight.”
“The administration created quite a bit of confusion, with an ever-changing story about what documents exist and what they contain,” Golden added.
Though clearly politically motivated, Pingree and the Democrats’ dramatic pivot to outward calls for transparency could win over some voters, many of who are deeply unsatisfied with the Republicans’ handling of the issue. Recent polling from Quinnipiac University released last week found that 63 percent of voters disapprove of the Administration’s handling of the Epstein files, including 36 percent of Republicans, compared with just 40 percent who said they approved.
