President Trump is making a last-ditch effort to kill a bill which could force a disclosure of the Jeffrey Epstein files on the same day emails were disclosed in which Epstein claimed the president had been spending time at his home with one of his victims. Mr. Trump has just a few hours to flip one of the Republican supporters of the legislation before a vote is guaranteed on the floor. 

The legislation from Congressman Thomas Massie was introduced back in July. That bill would force the Department of Justice to disclose all files related to Epstein within 30 days. Because Speaker Mike Johnson has refused to call up the vote, Mr. Massie is using what is known as a discharge petition to force the bill on to the floor. If he can get 218 signatures on that petition, then the bill will receive a vote within the next two weeks. 

The petition currently has 217 signatures, and with a new Democratic congresswoman being sworn in on Wednesday afternoon, Mr. Massie is expected to have his 218 supporters lined up by the end of the day. 

In a message posted to Truth Social, Mr. Trump demanded that Republicans ignore the effort to force a disclosure of the Epstein files. 

“The Democrats are trying to bring up the Jeffrey Epstein Hoax again because they’ll do anything at all to deflect on how badly they’ve done on the Shutdown, and so many other subjects. Only a very bad, or stupid, Republican would fall into that trap,” Mr. Trump wrote Wednesday. 

“There should be no deflections to Epstein or anything else, and any Republicans involved should be focused only on opening up our Country, and fixing the massive damage caused by the Democrats!” he added. 

There are currently three Republicans signed on to the discharge petition other than Mr. Massie — Congresswomen Marjorie Taylor Greene, Nancy Mace, and Lauren Boebert. All three have insisted that they will not remove their names from the petition, though that reportedly is not stopping Mr. Trump from trying. 

According to the New York Times, Ms. Boebert was summoned to the White House Situation Room for a meeting with Attorney General Pam Bondi, deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche, and FBI director Kash Patel. The administration officials were trying to convince her to take her name off of the discharge petition, according to the Times. 

The new Democratic lawmaker, Congresswoman-elect Adelita Grijalva, says she will sign the discharge petition shortly after she is sworn into office on Wednesday. Mr. Johnson’s office announced on Tuesday night that Ms. Grijalva would take her oath around four o’clock on Wednesday afternoon. 

Mr. Trump’s pressure campaign comes on the same day that the Oversight Committee released a trove of emails turned over to Congress by Epstein’s estate. 

One of those emails includes Epstein and his associate Ghislaine Maxwell talking about how that president had spent time at Epstein’s home with one of his own victims. 

“I want you to realize that that dog that hasn’t barked is trump,” Epstein allegedly wrote in an email to Maxwell in 2011 — years after Epstein had pleaded guilty after having sex with a minor. “[VICTIM] spent hours at my house with him,” the email states, redacting the name of Epstein’s victim. Democrats released that redacted version of the email, though Republicans on the committee released an unredacted version showing that Epstein was talking about Virginia Giuffre, who accused both Epstein and the then-Prince Andrew of rape. 

“He has never once been mentioned. police chief. etc,” Epstein wrote of Trump. “im 75 % there.”