A bipartisan group of lawmakers is one step closer to the full release of the Justice Department's documents on Jeffrey Epstein after securing the final signature needed to force a House vote. Scott MacFarlane reports.

Washington

The U.S. House of Representatives is nearing a vote to release all Department of Justice files related to Jeffrey Epstein, following a bipartisan push and the decisive signature of Congresswoman Adelita Grijalva. This development comes as Democratic lawmakers released private emails from Epstein's estate, some of which reference former President Donald Trump, though the meaning of the references remains unclear.

The White House and Trump have denied any wrongdoing and criticized the release as politically motivated. Survivors of the Epstein case and several lawmakers are advocating for full transparency, while the House speaker indicated a vote could take place soon, increasing pressure on the Senate to take similar action.

House to vote on Epstein files release after bipartisan group push

Now to those new questions about President Trump's relationship with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. In a new batch of private emails released by Democratic lawmakers on Wednesday, Epstein alleges Trump, quote, knew about the girls, though it's not clear exactly what that means. Scott McFarland has more on this. Scott, good morning. So how is President Trump responding to all of this? Hey, good morning. The president was meeting with and calling Republicans who are supporting this bill to release Epstein case files. After those meetings, the Republicans did not remove their names from the bills. The White House says it wasn't a pressure campaign, but transparency. More than six years after disgraced and convicted sex predator Jeffrey Epstein died by suicide, U.S. House Democrats released on Wednesday a series of his private messages mentioning President Trump. I think pretty serious stuff, disturbing stuff in these emails. The emails include this one from Epstein to his co-conspirator Ghislaine Maxwell in 2011, in which he wrote that Trump had spent hours at my house with one of Epstein's victims. The White House identified that victim as Virginia Giuffre, who said she was recruited by Maxwell while working at Mar-a-Lago and died by suicide in April. Jeffrey was a sick pedophile. But in a 2016 deposition, Giuffre said she didn't think Donald Trump participated in anything. And in a separate newly released message from 2019, Epstein wrote to author Michael Wolff about Trump. Of course he knew about the girls, as he asked Ghislaine to stop, though it's unclear what exactly he had asked her to stop doing. Wolff, whose writings have sparked controversy in the past, reacted to the email Wednesday night on a podcast with the Daily Beast. Donald Trump and Jeffrey Epstein had this deep relationship. They knew everything about each other. Their obsession was women, girls, models. The emails were part of approximately 23,000 pages of records handed over by Epstein's estate to the Republican-led House Oversight Committee under subpoena. Trump has frequently denied any wrongdoing, and he's dismissed calls to release more information. So this is a Democrat hoax that never ends. The White House downplayed Trump and Epstein's relationship and blasted Democrats for cherry-picking excerpts. Jeffrey Epstein was a member at Mar-a-Lago until President Trump kicked him out because Jeffrey Epstein was a pedophile and he was a creep. Meanwhile, a bipartisan group of lawmakers are one step closer to a vote to release all of the Epstein case files held by the Department of Justice. After Democratic Congresswoman Adelita Grijalva of Arizona was finally sworn in Wednesday after nearly two months of waiting, and became the decisive signature on a petition to force that vote. With my signing, we move one step closer to the truth—the truth that they will try to deny, but that survivors deserve. There were survivors of the Epstein case in the House chamber yesterday. They've been pushing for full transparency. The House speaker says there could be a vote next week on this bill to force the release of Epstein case files. That would raise pressure, Nate, on the Senate to do the same. And Scott, you are in Virginia, where two cases involving President Trump's political rivals are back in court. What's happening today? An unprecedented argument behind me at the federal courthouse. James Comey, the former FBI director, and Attorney General Letitia James of New York, both will argue to get their criminal cases dismissed, saying the prosecutor on each of them was unlawfully appointed. It'll be a joint hearing, even though these are two separate cases, both, Nate, deny wrongdoing in their cases. All right, Scott, thank you.

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Belém

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Washington County

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U.S. House Democrats on Wednesday released emails from Jeffrey Epstein referencing President Donald Trump, who has denied any knowledge of the convicted sex offender's crimes. In a 2019 email, Epstein said Trump "knew about the girls as he asked Ghislaine to stop."

New emails from Epstein mentioning Trump released by House Democrats

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London

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Tel Aviv-Yafo

Middle East Conflict

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Beijing

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Council of the City of Sydney

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Jerusalem

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Sighnaghi Municipality

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Breakdown