For Trump, Epstein is the story that won't go away

Washington: It's the one storyline President Donald Trump hasn't been able to evade.

During his first term and now in his second, Trump has managed to deflect and defeat news cycles he views as negative to him, often by quickly diverting the media and public's attention to a new topic.

With a "flood the zone" strategy of doing everything, everywhere, all at once, Trump often generates multiple news cycles per day. White House officials believe that when the news is focused on immigration, crime or the president's peacemaking efforts abroad, Trump is winning.

As such, if Trump doesn't like one news cycle, he can fire off an all-caps Truth Social post and create another.

But the Epstein files -- which carry with them a constant reminder of the president's friendship with a sex offender -- have dogged him in a way few other issues have. Nothing Trump has tried to do to get them out of the news has worked.

Trump has sought to distract from the files, complaining that the public should focus instead on his administration's successes. He ordered Republicans to stop talking about them. He tried to bully House Republicans into killing their effort to get them released. When his attempts failed, an increasingly frustrated Trump threatened primary campaigns against GOP members who cross him and even accused one of his biggest supporters of being a "traitor."

But the lawmakers pushing for the files to be released have defeated the master of attention domination.

With Trump set to lose a vote in the House over the release of the files, the president on Sunday reluctantly embraced the legislation to call on his own administration to release the documents it was withholding. Trump made clear he was doing so only grudgingly, still referring to the files as nothing more than a "hoax." Trump has denied any involvement in or knowledge of Epstein's sex-trafficking operation.

On Tuesday, the House voted 427-1 to force the Trump administration to release more files from the investigation into Epstein, who died by suicide in jail in 2019 while facing charges of sex trafficking minors. The Senate quickly moved on the measure as well, agreeing to clear the way as soon as Wednesday for Trump's signature.

"There is hope here," said Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., one of the sponsors of the bill that so angered Trump. "We fought the president, the attorney general, the FBI director, the speaker of the House and the vice president to get this win."

Massie said he had little optimism of forcing the release of the files when he started the effort, but Republican women rallied around the cause. Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia, Lauren Boebert of Colorado and Nancy Mace of South Carolina were some of the most committed supporters, crossing the president and demanding any information from the files that could shed light on the abuse of women and girls.

"They were pressured in ways that you cannot even imagine, and they stood strong, and that's why we're here today," Massie said. "They didn't take us seriously over at the executive branch or in the Senate, because they always thought they could flip one of these women, they could convince them or control them, or intimidate them into taking their names off of this petition, but they did not succeed."

Greene said Trump's attacks on her over the Epstein files had subjected her to a torrent of threats. At a news conference Tuesday at the Capitol with women who said they were victims of Epstein's abuse, Greene responded to the president.

"He called me a traitor for standing with these women," Greene said. "Let me tell you what a traitor is. A traitor is an American that serves foreign countries and themselves."

For years, the allegations of sexual abuse against Epstein -- and his close connections to the rich and powerful -- have fueled a desire for the release of more documents about his case to expose any other potential abusers. During his 2024 campaign, Trump said he would release the files as president.

But the Epstein case quickly turned Washington politics upside down.

In the early days of Trump's second term, releasing the files was an intense focus of the Trump administration. More than 1,000 FBI employees, some of them on 24-hour shifts, were ordered to review the files. Attorney General Pam Bondi released binders full of documents titled "The Epstein Files, Phase 1."

But there was never a "Phase 2."

Instead, the Justice Department released an unsigned memo in July saying that its review of the files "revealed no incriminating 'client list.'"

By this time, Bondi had already informed Trump that his name appeared in the files.

The politics on the issue shifted. Democrats sensed the administration had grown defensive, and loudly joined calls to release the files.

Trump's allies on Capitol Hill, including Speaker Mike Johnson, fought the passage of what's known as a "discharge petition" to demand that the Justice Department release all of its investigation files. They even went so far as to shut down the House early in July, grinding the legislative business of Washington to a halt.

Although Johnson voted for the measure Tuesday, he derided it as a "show vote" and a "political weapon." The speaker has circulated a legal memo outlining what he said are the "dangers" of the discharge petition, including what he said is the airing of "noncredible allegations" against "innocent persons."

"They're trying to attack President Trump," Johnson said.

Despite his newfound support of the measure, Trump made clear Tuesday he was not happy about it.

When an ABC News reporter in the Oval Office asked Trump about releasing the files, the president lashed out.

"You're a terrible person and a terrible reporter," Trump said, adding, "As far as the Epstein files, I have nothing to do with Jeffrey Epstein."