In Washington, President Donald Trump approved a legislative measure on Wednesday that requires his administration to unveil documents related to Jeffrey Epstein, a convicted sex offender. This decision comes after significant pressure from his political allies, despite his initial reluctance to support such actions.

Trump had the option to release many of these documents on his own months earlier but chose not to.

“Democrats have manipulated the ‘Epstein’ issue, which is more detrimental to them than to the Republican Party, as a diversion from our INCREDIBLE achievements,” Trump stated in a social media post while announcing his signing of the bill.

The legislation now obliges the Justice Department to release all pertinent files and communications concerning Epstein, including details of the investigation into his 2019 death in federal custody, within the stipulated 30-day period. While the bill permits redactions regarding Epstein’s victims for ongoing investigations, it explicitly prohibits withholding information due to reasons of “embarrassment, reputational harm, or political sensitivity.”

It was a remarkable turn of events for what was once a farfetched effort to force the disclosure of case files from an odd congressional coalition of Democrats, one GOP antagonist of the president, and a handful of erstwhile Trump loyalists. As recently as last week, the Trump administration even summoned one Republican proponent of releasing the files, Rep. Lauren Boebert of Colorado, to the Situation Room to discuss the matter, although she did not change her mind.

But over the weekend, Trump did a sharp U-turn on the files once it became clear that congressional action was inevitable. He insisted the Epstein matter had become a distraction to the GOP agenda and indicated he wanted to move on.

“I just don’t want Republicans to take their eyes off all of the Victories that we’ve had,” Trump said in a social media post Tuesday afternoon, explaining the rationale for his abrupt about-face.

The House passed the legislation on a 427-1 vote, with Rep. Clay Higgins, R-La., being the sole dissenter. He argued that the bill’s language could lead to the release of information on innocent people mentioned in the federal investigation. The Senate later approved it unanimously, skipping a formal vote.

It’s long been established that Trump had been friends with Epstein, the disgraced financier who was close to the world’s elite. But the president has consistently said he did not know of Epstein’s crimes and had cut ties with him long ago.

Before Trump returned to the White House for a second term, some of his closest political allies helped fuel conspiracy theories about the government’s handling of the Epstein case, asserting a cover-up of potentially incriminating information in those files.

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