‘DESERVE TO KNOW’

GOP Wants to Release the Epstein Files Despite His History With Trump

Republican Senators like Ted Cruz believe people deserve to know the truth about the disgraced financier.

Several prominent Republicans in Washington, including Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, have voiced their support for the declassification of intelligence files related to the disgraced financier and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein—regardless of whether or not his onetime friend Donald Trump is named in them.

“I’d like to see them,” Louisiana Senator John Kennedy told The Bulwark in an article published Tuesday. The president signed an executive order last week facilitating the declassification of files tied to the assassinations of former president John F. Kennedy and civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr.

When asked by The Bulwark why Trump omitted Epstein from those declassifications, Kennedy said he doesn’t know, but added, “If I talk to him, I’ll ask him. But I’d like to see them, I’ll be the first in line.”

“I don’t care if he’s named in them,” the senator continued. “The American people are entitled to know the truth. The man’s dead as Jimmy Hoffa—he’s gone—and his sidekick’s in jail,” he added, referring to Epstein’s convicted co-conspirator, Ghislaine Maxwell, who was found guilty of child sex trafficking in 2021.

“We’re entitled to know what he did, who he did it with, and whether he broke any laws,” Kennedy concluded.

Meanwhile, Cruz said Trump should “absolutely” declassify Epstein’s files and added that it has been a goal of his for a while. “I have long called for the administration to release the Jeffrey Epstein files, and also the P. Diddy files,” Cruz told The Bulwark. “We deserve to know who is implicated in abusing children.”

Montana Sen. Steve Daines also jumped on the Epstein bandwagon and agreed that Trump should release the documents even if he’s potentially named in them.

In July 2019, Epstein was arrested by the FBI for child sex trafficking. He died by suicide in his prison cell six weeks later.

Trump and Epstein were famously friends during the 1990s and early aughts, with the president telling New York Magazine in 2002: “I’ve known Jeff for 15 years. Terrific guy. He’s a lot of fun to be with. It is even said that he likes beautiful women as much as I do, and many of them are on the younger side.”

The two reportedly had a falling out two years later when they butted heads over a property in Palm Beach.

The day after Epstein’s arrest in 2019, Trump shared that he knew the financier “like everybody in Palm Beach knew him” but that he had a “falling out with him” around 15 years ago at that point.

“I was not a fan of his, that I can tell you,” Trump continued.

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Yasmeen HamadehNight News Reporter

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