As Republicans call for transparency into Epstein probe, Trump lashes out : NPR

President Trump continues to be embroiled in the backlash to the Justice Department’s handling of documents related to Jeffrey Epstein. Members of his own party have been calling for more transparency into the DOJ’s investigation of the disgraced financier, whose death by suicide in prison in 2019 has sparked numerous conspiracy theories.

Trump’s Justice Department said last week that no additional documents from the investigation into Epstein’s death would be made public, and denied the existence of a “client list” which riled up Trump’s base. Trump had said during the election last year that he would want to make files related to Epstein’s death public.

In a post to Truth Social, his social media website, on Wednesday morning, Trump lashed out at Democrats, and some of his own supporters, calling the furor over the Epstein case a “hoax.”

“Their new SCAM is what we will forever call the Jeffrey Epstein Hoax,” Trump said of Democrats. He then called it bull**** that his “past” supporters had bought into it “hook, line, and sinker.”

“Let these weaklings continue forward and do the Democrats work, don’t even think about talking of our incredible and unprecedented success, because I don’t want their support anymore!” Trump said.

House Democrats tried to force a vote to compel Attorney General Pam Bondi to release the files but a procedural vote to move ahead failed. Democrats needed Republican support that did not materialize.

Prominent Republicans like House Speaker Mike Johnson and Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene have called for more transparency on the Epstein case. Conservative “MAGA” voices like Tucker Carlson and Laura Loomer have also been critical of the Justice Department’s handling of the case.

Trump has been insistent in recent days that his supporters should let go of the issue and “not waste time and energy on Jeffrey Epstein, somebody that no one cares about,” as he said on social media over the weekend. He has also backed Bondi’s handling of the case.

“We’re on one Team, MAGA, and I don’t like what’s happening,” he said over the weekend.