Democrats to call on Vance to testify to House committee over Epstein files

Vance argued for releasing all of the files and taking action before Congress could advance the Epstein Files Transparency Act, according to the report, which would compel the administration to disclose more information.

At the same time, aides were said to be focused largely on the possibility of losing support from core Maga voters rather than concern about political opponents, suggesting that worries about their own base heavily influenced the administration’s handling of the matter.

The Times reporters wrote that numerous Trump administration officials, Bondi among them, had either “grossly underestimated or simply been blind to the voracious appetite of the Maga base for information about Epstein”.

Their reporting also states that infighting and finger-pointing spread among officials and reached a peak after the Wall Street Journal reported in July that Trump had allegedly sent Epstein a “bawdy” birthday message in 2003 accompanied by a drawing of a woman’s naked silhouette.

Trump responded by denying the legitimacy of the letter and filing a $10bn lawsuit against its publishers. A Florida judge dismissed the lawsuit in March, but the president’s legal team refiled the suit last month.

The administration is still scrambling to deal with the fallout of the botched release. The Republicans who took the hardest stances in favor of releasing the entirety of the files have seen their political careers upended by Trump.

Marjorie Taylor Greene, one of the few Republicans who voted to force the release of files, resigned in January after months of being lambasted by Trump. Nancy Mace, the controversial Republican congresswoman, was defeated in the South Carolina primary earlier this week, attributing her loss to her support for releasing the Epstein files, a move that prompted Trump to give his endorsement to her opponent.

Perhaps most notably, the maverick congressman Thomas Massie of Kentucky was ousted after voters rejected him in favor of his challenger, Ed Gallrein, who was recruited into the race by Trump. Massie, a lifelong Republican, had spearheaded the bipartisan Epstein Files Transparency Act alongside representative Ro Khanna.

“Everybody’s paying a price for it,” Massie told NBC News, in reference to holding an unwavering stance in favor of Epstein file transparency. “Trump became irrationally opposed to that more than [defections on] the ‘big, beautiful bill.’ It struck a nerve with him.”

More recently, scrutiny has been revived as congressional investigators have gathered fresh testimony from people associated with Epstein, including his longtime executive assistant, Lesley Groff. On Wednesday, the committee announced it would be asking Alan Dershowitz, Epstein’s former attorney, to appear before the panel.