To Donald Trump, Jeffrey Epstein has become the nuisance who won’t accept that the friendship is over. Six years after the disgraced financier died by apparent suicide in a Manhattan prison cell, he continues to stalk Trump’s second term as president. One of the few upsides of being dead is that nobody can tell you what to do or say.
But occasionally, the living can be stubborn too. Whenever the Trump era is over and the time comes to properly examine the hypnotic spell he cast on several generations of Republican politicians, the role of Thomas Massie is likely to feature prominently. The Kentuckian engineer turned politician maintains a typically rigid and eclectic set of conservative ideologies – rabidly anti-green energy, America First, limited federal Government powers – and soon acquired the nickname Mr No for the number of Bills he voted against.
That included Trump’s coveted “One Big Beautiful Bill“, because it would not cut the federal deficit at a time when the national debt is $31 trillion and counting. But his co-sponsorship of the discharge petition with California Democrat Ro Khanna to force a House vote to release the Epstein files might yet become the most consequential moment of Massie’s political life.
The reopening of government and Congress was always going to lead to a resumption of the political chatter about the Epstein files. The new Democrat congresswoman Adelita Grijalva, sworn in this week by House speaker Mike Johnson after a 50-day delay, gave Massie and Khanna the final signature they needed to force a floor vote to release the files. The petition will have unanimous Democrat support but also needs to have at least 70 House Republican votes.
RM Block
“I’ve already had a couple of Republicans tell my office privately that they’re going to vote for it and I think that could snowball,” Massie said this week.
“You know, the deal for Republicans on this vote is that Trump will protect you if you vote the wrong way. In other words, if you vote to cover up for paedophiles, you’ve got cover in Republican primaries. But I would remind my colleagues: this vote is going to be on your record for longer than Trump is president. And what are you going to do in 2028 and 2030 when you are in a debate either with a Republican or a Democrat and they say: how can we trust you, you covered up for a paedophile back in 2025?”
The observation is revelatory. For the first time, Republicans who have contorted themselves into whatever shape Donald Trump requested are beginning to think about the post-Trump era. With next year’s midterms looming, it is already on the horizon.
Trump has already declared that Massie is a “weak and pathetic Rino [Republican In Name Only] who must be thrown out of office asap” and has endorsed navy veteran Ed Gallrein to challenge him in those 2026 elections – although Gallrein has yet to officially declare his candidacy.
The Lexington Herald Leader recently reported that three Republican billionaires have contributed $2 million to the Maga-KY committee which is running local television adverts attacking Massie. Chris Lavita, who along with Susie Wiles ran Trump’s election campaign, is in charge of Maga-KY. So Massie’s stance could cost him his place in Congress and it’s not going unnoticed. Jack Dorsey, the co-founder of Twitter, this week took to his former platform to declare “Thomas Massie for president”.
But the resistance goes beyond Massie. The Epstein issue is a principle on which Republicans will not or cannot bend. South Carolina congresswoman Nancy Mace is running for governor of her state and is a prominent Trump loyalist. Yet both she and Lauren Boebert declined to remove their names from the Massie/Khanna discharge petition this week. The only other Republican who has signed is Georgia’s Marjorie Taylor Greene, who has already begun to voice disenchantment with Trump’s policies.
Trump’s exasperated wish is for the entire Epstein criminal case, which includes years of coercion and sexual abuse of underage girls, a history he has tried to dismiss as a “hoax”, to go away. It is as though Epstein is taunting him from beyond the grave. Within the Maga movement, the Epstein files have attained a sort of mythical status as containing final proof of a cabal of corruption and sex trafficking among the liberal political and business elite. The testimonies of many Epstein victims are proof that abuse and rape occurred on an appalling scale. So far, nobody from the United States has faced prosecution. Epstein’s death, in August 2019, took place while he was awaiting trial.
Many of the loudest voices demanding the release of the files during the Biden presidency are now key members of Trump’s cabinet. Vice-president JD Vance pushed for the tranche of papers to be released many times. Back in his podcaster days – just two years ago – current FBI director Kash Patel gave Benny Johnson this reply when asked why he felt the files were not made public.
“Simple. Because of who’s on that list. Put on your big boy pants and let us know who the paedophiles are.”
Now, it is up to Patel to throw on the big boy pants and he has been found wanting. The White House’s determination to repress the files had led to one obvious and increasingly loud question. Why?
It is established that Trump was, at the very least, on friendly social terms with Epstein back in the 1990s when the financier, while evidently sleazy, was wealthy enough to move in powerful circles. Health secretary Robert F Kennedy is among those who have acknowledged he flew in Epstein’s private jet – although not to the infamous private island where Epstein took preferred clients. Kennedy was on an environmental trip in the company of others, including his wife. By repeatedly dismissing the fact of a previous friendship with Epstein, Trump is simply stoking curiosity and conjecture, even though there has never been any suggestion that he was involved in any of Epstein’s criminal activities.
As ever, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt launched a staunch defence of the president hours after emails between Epstein and his associate, the British socialite Ghislaine Maxwell, who is serving 20 years for her part in the sex trafficking crimes, were released by the House Oversight Committee. (If nothing else, the releases will surely scupper Maxwell’s hopes that Trump will facilitate an early release from the low-security prison to which she was recently transferred).
“These emails prove absolutely nothing other than the fact that president Trump did nothing wrong,” Leavitt said.
“And what President Trump has always said is that he was from Palm Beach and so was Jeffrey Epstein. Jeffrey Epstein was a member at Mar-a-Lago until President Trump kicked him out because Jeffrey Epstein was a paedophile and he was a creep.”
Leavitt also pointed out that the redacted victim’s name in one released email was that of Virginia Giuffre, who took her own life this year shortly before the publication of a powerful and accusatory memoir detailing the horrors she endured through Epstein and Maxwell.
“Ms Giuffre, and God rest her soul, maintained that there was nothing inappropriate she ever witnessed, that President Trump was always extremely professional and friendly to her.”
That was indeed Guiffre’s summary in her book. But for the first time since she started as press secretary, Leavitt’s redoubtable delivery deserted her for a few seconds. There was a faint note of pleading in her voice when she was asked about Boebert’s visit to the White House on Wednesday.
“Doesn’t it show transparency that members of the Trump administration are willing to brief members of Congress on their concerns whenever they please? Doesn’t that show our level of transparency when we are willing to sit down with members of Congress and address their concerns?”
That, or an unaccountable desperation. The path to releasing the papers is through a House and Senate vote. In the unlikely event that the bill advances through Congress, it will land on the Resolute Desk for Donald Trump to sign.
A pal is a wonderful thing – until it isn’t.
