President Donald Trump announced he signed a bill to compel the U.S. Justice Department to release files related to late convicted pedophile Jeffrey Epstein in a post shared on his Truth Social account Wednesday (November 19) night.

Trump's lengthy post attempted to tie Epstein to the Democrats, days after publicly urging Republicans to vote in favor of the release of the full Justice Department files related to Epstein, changing his previous stance on the files being released. The president had called on Attorney General Pam Bondi to investigate Epstein's ties to prominent Democratic officials and banks like JP Morgan days after his own name was mentioned in emails sent by the late convicted pedophile.

"We have released over 33,000 Epstein documents to the Hill, and we will continue to follow the law and to have maximum transparency. Also, we will always encourage all victims to come forward," Bondi said at a news conference alongside FBI Director Kash Patel, Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche and others on an unrelated issue via ABC News.

On Wednesday (November 12), several emails sent by Epstein were released by Democrats on the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, which included the late pedophile referring to Trump as the "dog that hasn't barked" and claiming he "spent hours at my house" to longtime confidant Ghislaine Maxwell.

"I want you to realize that that dog that hasn't barked is trump," Epstein wrote in a typo-riddled emails to Maxwell reported to be sent in April 2011. "[Victim] spent hours at my house with him ,, he has never once been mentioned."

"I have been thinking about that ... " Maxwell replied.

The email exchange -- which reportedly took place weeks after stories of Epstein, Maxwell and their associates were published by a British newspaper -- was among three exchanges released by the Democrats as part of 23,000 total documents sent by Epstein's estate in adherence with a subpoena. The alleged victims' names and personal identifying information was redacted from the messages.

Email exchanges between Epstein and author Michael Wolff, who wrote four books chronicling Trump's presidency, were also released by the committee on Wednesday.

"I hear CNN planning to ask Trump tonight about his relationship with you--either on air or in scrum afterwards," Wolff wrote to Epstein in December 2015, six months after Trump president officially announced his 2016 presidential campaign.

"If we were to craft an answer for him, what do you think it should be?" Epstein replied.

"I think you should let him hang himself," Wolff replied the following day. "If he says he hasn't been on the plane or to the house, then that gives you a valuable PR and political currency. You can hang him in a way that potentially generates a positive benefit for you, or, if it really looks like he could win, you could save him, generating a debt. Of course, it is possible that, when asked, he'll say Jeffrey is a great guy and has gotten a raw deal and is a victim of political correctness, which is to be outlawed in a Trump regime."

A third message, which was exchanged between Epstein and Wolff during Trump's first presidential term in January 2019, addresses claims that Trump had Epstein banned from membership at Mar-a-Lago years prior.

"Trump said he asked me to resign, never a member ever," Epstein claimed, "Of course he knew about the girls as he asked ghislaine to stop."

Top officials within the Trump administration reportedly met with a key Republican lawmaker in the Situation Room following the new release. White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt later acknowledged that a meeting with Republican Rep. Lauren Boebert took place when asked about the reported Situation Room meeting during a press briefing.

“Doesn’t that show the level of transparency when we are willing to sit down with members of Congress and address their concerns?” Leavitt claimed via CNN.

“I’m not going to detail conversations that took place in the Situation Room," she added.

Boebert, who signed a discharge petition for the Justice Department to release its trove of Epstein files, later confirmed that she met with White House officials on her X account, but denied that Trump pressured her into taking her name off of the petition, claiming several other topics were also covered during her meeting via CNN's Manu Raju. Trump was also reported to have reached out to Republican Rep. Nancy Mace, who also signed the petition.

Mace reportedly sent a direct message to the president Wednesday detailing why she's supporting the discharge petition, which a source familiar with the situation claims largely mirrored her previous public statement of: “I will NEVER abandon other survivors.”

In August, Maxwell, a convicted sex offender, reportedly told the Justice Department that Trump was "never inappropriate with anybody" during his friendship with Epstein.

“I never witnessed the President in any inappropriate setting in any way,” Maxwell told Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche during their meeting one month prior, according to audio and transcripts obtained by the New York Post.

The Department of Justice previously handed over an annotated version of the Maxwell grand jury transcripts showing that "much of the information provided during the course of the grand jury testimony -- with the exception of the identities of certain victims and witnesses -- was made publicly available at trial or has otherwise been publicly reported through the public statements of victims and witnesses," according to the filing via ABC News.

The Justice Department asked two New York federal judges to unseal grand jury transcripts in the cases against Maxwell and Epstein, however, is not asking them to unseal the grand jury exhibits, though the attorney general is seeking additional time to consider "its position with respect to unsealing of the grand jury exhibits."

Maxwell, who is serving a 20-year-sentence, was moved from Federal Correctional Institution Tallahassee to Federal Prison Camp Bryan after speaking with the Department of Justice about Epstein. Federal Prison Camp Bryan typically houses nonviolent offenders and is less restrictive than the Tallahassee federal prison.

The Federal Bureau of Prisons hadn't publicly given a reason for Maxwell's relocation, however, the move was made after she met with Blanche in an effort to get immunity by providing details about Epstein.

In September, an alleged doodle and note made by Trump to Epstein in 2003 was released by House Democrats, Axios reported. The note, which was originally reported by the Wall Street Journal in July and Trump publicly denied existed, includes a drawing of a woman's body and was allegedly written in a book compiled by Maxwell for Epstein's 50th birthday.

The book was turned over to the House Oversight Committee along with a larger tranche of documents on Monday, Rep. Robert Garcia, the panel's top Democrat, confirmed in a statement obtained by Axios.

"It's time for the President to tell us the truth about what he knew and release all the Epstein files. The American people are demanding answers," Garcia said, adding that Democrats are now "carefully reviewing the contents of the book and additional documents to determine the full extent of the implications," and "expect to release our findings to the public."

Trump threatened to sue the Wall Street Journal for its report, which he called "defamatory" and "a fake thing" in a post shared on his Truth Social account.

Weather

Current Weather