PHOENIX (AP) — Democrats are latching on to the Jeffrey Epstein scandal, demanding records be released and trolling Republicans on social media, news shows and in the U.S. House as they revel in a rare fissure between President Donald Trump and his fiercely loyal base.
Conspiracy theories over Epstein’s death in prison and potential evidence in his sex trafficking case, including an alleged “client list,” have largely been a fixation for the right, one .
But Democrats sensed an opening after the Justice Department said last week will be released, and some of Trump’s most influential allies . They’re highlighting the dramatic about-face by some Republicans, which has divided the MAGA movement and could weaken a critical following for Trump. The more in-your-face approach also may help Democrats appease elements of the party’s own base, who are hungry for a more aggressive confrontation with the other side.
Rep. Ro Khanna, a California Democrat and likely 2028 presidential candidate, was among those who joined in Tuesday. Khanna tried to put Vice President JD Vance — who has previously called for the Epstein files to be released — in the hot seat. Khanna shared an X post from 2020 GOP presidential candidate and former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley, who called for the Trump administration to “release the Epstein files and let the chips fall where they may.”
“A 2028 power move, @JDVance,” Khanna . “Where do you stand on the Epstein files these days?”
Vance and Haley are both possible 2028 Republican presidential candidates.
A split in MAGA
MAGA followers were incensed after the Justice Department and FBI the notion there’s an Epstein client list of elites who participated in trafficking of underage girls. Some called the Republican president “out of touch,” and many have continued to demand transparency.
Trump has tried to downplay the Epstein case’s importance and close the book on the controversy.
“I don’t understand why the Jeffrey Epstein case would be of interest to anybody,” Trump told reporters Tuesday.
President Donald Trump praised his Attorney General Pam Bondi's handling of the Epstein files Tuesday, telling reporters she "has handled it very well" and saying it's up to her whether to release any more records related to the sex trafficking investigation. (July 15, 2025)
AP VideoHe also said there were credibility issues with the documents, suggesting without citing evidence they were “made up” by former FBI Director James Comey and former Presidents Barack Obama and Joe Biden, both Democrats.
The controversy puts many elected Republicans in an uncomfortable position, caught between a president who demands loyalty and a sizable segment of their base convinced the files will expose a vast conspiracy covered up by elites.
House Speaker Mike Johnson on Tuesday became the highest-ranking Republican to break with Trump on Epstein, telling conservative podcaster Benny Johnson that “we should put everything out there and let the people decide.”
A topic of House debate
Some of Trump’s rivals have noted the president’s own connections to Epstein.
“Wonder why we’re not getting that list,” the anti-Trump Lincoln Project posted on X with a photo of Trump and Epstein together. Trump has acknowledged knowing Epstein socially in the 1990s but said they had a “falling out” many years ago.
The debate over the Epstein files even spilled over at a meeting of the House Rules Committee late Monday evening. The top Democrat on the panel, Rep. Jim McGovern of Massachusetts, offered a pair of amendments from colleagues seeking the release of the documents.
On the first tally one Republican, conservative Rep. Ralph Norman of South Carolina, voted with the panel’s Democrats for the proposal. It was rejected on an otherwise party-line vote. The second amendment was rejected in a party-line vote.
“You guys are tying yourself into knots trying to find a way to avoid dealing with this issue,” McGovern told Republicans.
Super PAC highlights about-face by GOP
Meanwhile, a super PAC working to elect Democrats to the House is naming and shaming Republicans who once demanded to see records from Epstein’s sex trafficking investigation but voted against the Democratic effort to release them.
GOP Reps. Nancy Mace of South Carolina, Scott Perry of Pennsylvania and Anna Paulina Luna and Cory Mills of Florida are “complicit” with a Trump administration that’s trying to bury documents about the wealthy financier who abused underage girls, the Democratic-aligned House Majority PAC said in an emailed memo.
House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries said if the Trump administration doesn’t act, then Congress should step in to help resolve what he called a conspiracy that has been aired by the president and his supporters.
“The American people deserve to know the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth as it relates to this whole sordid Jeffrey Epstein matter,” Jeffries said during a press conference at the start of the week at the Capitol.
“This was a conspiracy that Donald Trump, (Attorney General) Pam Bondi and these MAGA extremists have been fanning the flames of for the last several years,” he said. “And now the chickens are coming home to roost.”
Said Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer on Tuesday at the Capitol, ”They should release the files now.”
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Associated Press writers Lisa Mascaro in Washington and Ali Swenson in New York contributed to this report.
