Top Oversight Dem: ‘We need to keep the pressure’ on Epstein files
Rep. Robert Garcia (Calif.), the top Democrat on the House Oversight Committee, urged lawmakers to keep pushing for the release of the so-called Jeffrey Epstein files as the White House has attempted to tamp down on the issue.
“Donald Trump is in the Epstein files. We know that,” Garcia asserted on MSNBC Friday. “It’s time for the whole truth to come out.”
Garcia previously pledged to launch a probe into Attorney General Pam Bondi and other top Trump officials, although he cannot force the Oversight Committee to take any action without the support of at least some of its Republican members.
President Trump on Friday instructed the Justice Department to seek the release of grand jury testimony. The department filed motions in federal court later in the day to unseal the transcripts.
“I have asked the Justice Department to release all Grand Jury testimony with respect to Jeffrey Epstein, subject only to Court Approval," Trump wrote on Truth Social Saturday. "With that being said, and even if the Court gave its full and unwavering approval, nothing will be good enough for the troublemakers and radical left lunatics making the request."
"It will always be more, more, more," he continued. MAGA!”
Garcia, in his Friday appearance, highlighted a discharge petition in the House circulated by Reps. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) and Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) to force a vote on releasing information related to Epstein, the now-deceased financier and convicted sex offender.
The resolution now has at least 10 Republican cosponsors, including Rep. Marjorie Taylor Green (R-Ga.) alongside progressives like Khanna and Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.).
Garcia is not yet an official cosponsor, but he has called on the Trump administration to release files related to the Epstein case.
If it garners majority support, the discharge petition would bypass the House’s usual committee process and force a floor vote. That could happen as soon as the chamber returns from the August recess, Garcia said on Saturday.
“We’ll see how serious the MAGA base and the MAGA Republicans actually are about releasing the files,” he said.
On Friday, Garcia also attacked Fox News for editing an interview with Trump last summer in a way that he views changed Trump’s answer to a question about the release of the Epstein files.