Democrats are showing they’re ready to get dirty and hit President Trump where it hurts by stoking the Jeffrey Epstein controversy that’s severed his MAGA movement.
The strategy strays from the official line coming from top Democrats such as House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (N.Y.), who say they want their midterm campaign message to center on Medicaid cuts and other kitchen-table policies contained in Trump’s “big, beautiful bill.”
But the focus on Epstein has also been remarkably successful, energizing the Democratic grassroots and aggravating tensions within the GOP.
And this week, it prompted Republican leaders to scrap their legislative plans and head early into the long summer recess — all to avoid votes on the Epstein saga.
Even traditionalist Democratic veterans are applauding the tactic for its effectiveness.
“As long as we don’t live in the mud, crawling down in the mud every now and then is not bad, in the political arena,” Rep. Emanuel Cleaver (D-Mo.) said.
The case of Epstein, the late financier and convicted pedophile, has roiled the Trump administration in recent weeks after the Department of Justice (DOJ) released an unsigned memo saying Epstein did not have a “client list” and that there was no evidence that he sought to blackmail global “elites” who might have committed sex crimes or other offenses. The DOJ also said it would not release any more documents surrounding the case.
The memo directly contradicted claims from Trump, who had campaigned on the notion of releasing at least some of the files, and many prominent figures in his orbit, who have long claimed that Epstein operated an extensive pedophile ring that involved some of the world’s most powerful people — a criminal enterprise that was covered up by the government to protect those same elites.
Some of the loudest promoters of Epstein-related conspiracy theories have since been appointed to top positions in the Trump administration — including U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi, FBI Director Kash Patel and Dan Bongino, Patel’s deputy director — feeding expectations from Trump’s supporters that the files would soon be released. In February, Bondi had fueled those expectations further when she said she had the “client list” on her desk and was preparing to release it.
The DOJ memo dashed the hopes of many of the MAGA faithful, fracturing the movement that’s stood at the heart of Trump’s political ascension. And Democrats have found rare success in dumping salt on the wound.
At every turn, Democrats are publicly bashing the administration for reneging on promises to release the Epstein files, aggravating the unusual split within Trump’s far-right MAGA base.
They’re demanding votes on bills to force the Justice Department to release those files, paralyzing House floor activity on the Republicans’ preferred legislative agenda.
And they’re backing an obscure procedural maneuver designed to force a floor vote on the Epstein files in the fall, ensuring that the national debate on the sordid episode — and the headaches it’s created for Trump and the GOP — will endure for at least a few more months.
“This is a cover-up of epic proportions, where you’ve got the majority party literally having us leave Congress early, and not having the Rules Committee meet, because they don’t want to deal with releasing the Epstein files,” Rep. Ted Lieu (Calif.), vice chair of the House Democratic Caucus, told reporters Tuesday in the Capitol.
“The story’s not going to go away because, at core, this is an issue about underage women who are sexually abused and assaulted,” he continued. “Attorney General Pam Bondi should not be protecting Epstein’s legacy, nor his clients, nor should congressional Republicans be doing the same.”
The Epstein saga has created a huge headache for Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) and other GOP leaders in the Capitol, who have struggled to contain the unrest within a GOP conference that’s divided over whether the Epstein documents should be released.
On Monday, the Democrats’ vows to continue pushing Epstein resolutions brought action on the Rules Committee to a screeching halt, which in turn prevented Republicans from bringing their week’s planned agenda to the floor.
Without bills to vote on, Johnson on Tuesday announced that the House will leave Washington on Wednesday, rather than Thursday, for the long summer recess. He insisted the move was not intended to shield Republicans from tough Epstein votes — or protect Trump from potentially embarrassing disclosures — but to end the Democrats’ “political games.”
“We want any individual who’s been involved in any way in the Epstein evils to be brought to justice as quickly as possible,” Johnson told reporters. “What we refuse to do is participate in another one of the Democrats’ political games.
“We are not going to let them use this as a political battering ram.”
Complicating Johnson’s efforts, some Republicans have joined Democrats in demanding the release of the Epstein documents. Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) is a top sponsor of legislation that would force the DOJ to release the records, and he’s also leading the effort to force a vote on that bill through a discharge petition.
Because of the obscure rules governing that procedural gambit, a vote on the underlying Epstein proposal won’t happen until after Congress returns from the long summer recess in September— a timeline all but ensuring that the issue won’t go away anytime soon.
Jeffries this week downplayed the focus on Epstein, saying Democrats hope to target the major pieces of Trump’s “big, beautiful bill,” particularly the cuts to Medicaid and food stamps that were included to help pay for tax cuts.
Other party leaders, however, said Democrats have no intention of taking their foot off the gas when it comes to attempting to release the Epstein files — and highlighting his ties to Trump.
“We’re going to continue to support those efforts,” said Rep. Pete Aguilar (Calif.), chair of the House Democratic Caucus. “Donald Trump and his son and his closest friends spent years fanning the flame of this theory, and now we’re holding them accountable.”
“Do they want to protect the rich and the powerful? Or do they want the truth?”
