The President in the Trap - and a Power Struggle That Shakes Washington

Donald Trump wanted to keep this chapter closed at any cost. For weeks, he resisted every move in Congress that could force the release of the Epstein file. But on Monday night, shortly after landing on the Air Force One runway at Joint Base Andrews, he abruptly reversed course: The Republicans in the House, he wrote, should now vote in favor of disclosure. They had “nothing to hide,” he claimed, and he described it as a “Democrat scam” meant only to distract from the “successes” of his party.

This reversal does not come from conviction but from pure power arithmetic. The votes are there - and Trump knows it. That he now positions himself at the front is an attempt to mask the defeat before it becomes visible. An attempt to claim control while it slips through his fingers.

In the background, lawmakers from both parties have long been working on a bill that would require the Justice Department to release all files and internal messages related to the Epstein investigation - including all information on the investigation into his death in federal prison. Only information about victims or ongoing investigations would be allowed to be redacted. It is an unusually broad coalition forming here: Thomas Massie of Kentucky, one of the most independent minds among Republicans, and Ro Khanna of California, one of the most prominent Democrats, filed the rarely used discharge petition in July, which strips the House leadership of control and forces a vote.

The Republican congressman Thomas Massie had triggered a political tremor. In a TV interview, he accused FBI Director Kash Patel of misleading the American public about key aspects of the Epstein investigation - and at the same time spoke of an internal list the FBI had kept under lock and key for years. It is said to contain about 20 additional men linked to Epstein’s sex trafficking network, including, according to Massie’s account, even a high-ranking government official. The explosive element lies in his claim that these names were never disclosed, although investigators had them long ago. For many in Congress, it looks like the moment when a years-long wall of secrecy begins to crumble. The demand to release the list without further delay now comes, of all places, from within the Republican Party itself.

When Adelita Grijalva signed the discharge petition, clearing the way for a vote on releasing the Epstein files once and for all, that moment marked one of the most striking turning points in the ongoing power struggle over transparency in Congress.

Since Adelita Grijalva’s swearing-in last week - precisely the 218th vote that was needed - the majority is secured. For Mike Johnson, the Speaker of the House, it is an embarrassment, for Trump a loss of political control. The images of the ceremony, with Johnson raising Grijalva’s hand, have taken hold in Washington like a symbol: Despite all delays, despite all maneuvers, despite the summer recess Johnson initiated to buy time - the matter returned and gathered speed. Massie now speaks of “100 or more” Republican members who will support the bill. A veto-proof result? Possible. And even if it does not go that far: The message is clear. Johnson and Trump will be overruled by their own ranks. “I’m not tired of winning,” Massie said, in a blend of irony and challenge. “But we are winning.”

The Speaker of the US House of Representatives, Mike Johnson, does not exactly appear as if he still has the case under control

Even Johnson himself sounds as if he has already priced in the defeat. They would “get the vote done” and “move on.” He claimed that the Oversight Committee had already released far more than the bill would force. But no one in the House seriously believes he has the situation under control. Especially since the debate is being fueled by new documents. Among them is a 2019 email in which Epstein wrote to a journalist that Trump had “known about the girls.” The White House accuses Democrats of trying to smear the president with selective leaks. But the damage is done - and the question lingers whether the redacted passages conceal more than the White House is willing to admit.

Trump himself has never been accused of wrongdoing in connection with Epstein, and the mere mention of his name in investigative records means nothing. Epstein surrounded himself for decades with hundreds of prominent acquaintances, from Clinton to Prince Andrew to tech billionaires. But in the current political climate, insinuations are enough to sow distrust. And that is precisely what is now splitting the Republican Party.

Marjorie Taylor Greene, Nancy Mace, and Lauren Boebert - three of the loudest voices in the MAGA wing - signed the petition. Greene paid a price immediately. Trump publicly announced he would politically “replace” her if an appropriate challenger emerged. Greene reacted in disbelief: She had spoken with many women who said Trump had done nothing wrong. Why, then, was he fighting so hard against disclosure? “I have no idea what is in the files,” she said. “But that is what everyone is asking.”

Marjorie Taylor Greene: “I have no fear of naming names. And if they want to give me a list [Epstein], I will go into the Capitol, onto the House floor, and say every single damn name of those who abused these women. I can do that for them. And I would be proud to.”

Khanna, the Democratic co-initiator, keeps expectations lower. He hopes for “40 or more” Republicans. He is concerned with something else: that Trump meet with victims who will appear at the Capitol on Tuesday. He says he does not know “how involved Trump even was.” But there are many other names that must finally be made public. Massie, meanwhile, has a warning for his Republican colleagues who might vote no out of fear of Trump’s anger: They will leave a stain that will outlast the president’s second term. “The record of this vote will outlive Donald Trump’s presidency,” he says.

And even if the bill passes the House with a large majority, the question remains whether Senate Republicans will open the door or block it. Massie is counting on pressure: If the House vote is overwhelming, no one will want to bear responsibility for stopping disclosure. “I think we could see a wave of Republicans,” he says.

Victims of Jeffrey Epstein have come together for a video calling on Congress to release the Epstein files.

It is a moment that could become more dangerous for Trump than any impeachment or political scandal of recent years - not because of what is in the files, but because of what his resistance has set in motion. A rebellion within his own ranks, showing how much his power is eroding. While outside in Washington protest art hangs on the walls - Trump and Epstein, side by side, like two shadows of a past that remains unresolved - the White House tries to regain control. But the decision is no longer Trump’s. It rests with a Congress that, for once, refuses to be intimidated. And that is why the president’s reversal is less a sign of strength than a quiet admission: The wave he wanted to stop has long since rolled over him.