Trump says 'a lot of people are mentioned in Epstein Files that don't deserve to be'

Donald Trump has branded the Jeffrey Epstein investigation currently taking place in the US "a Democrat hoax" and insisted "a lot of people are named in those files that don't deserve to be." The President's declaration comes months after Elon Musk appeared to reveal during a Twitter spat that Mr Trump himself was named in the Epstein Files and knew it.

Speaking at a tense Q&A with reporters at the Oval Office, President Trump was asked about the current congressional investigation into Jeffrey Epstein and answered: "Innocent people shouldn't be hurt but I'm in support of keeping it open, you've got a lot of people named in those files that don't deserve to be - because he knew everybody in Palm Beach. I don't know about that."

"Give them everything you can give them. Because it's a Democrat hoax," Mr Trump continued. "The whole Epstein thing is a Democrat hoax. So we had the greatest six months, seven months, in the history of the presidency. The Democrats don't know what to do, so they keep bringing up that stuff. But it affected them."

The President again repeated that this was a "Democratic hoax", an attempt "to try and get the significance of what we've done over the past seven months... nobody's ever seen anything like it".

Before the 2024 presidential election, both Donald Trump and JD Vance called for the release of more files related to the convicted sexual offender. In its first months in office, the new Trump administration promised more transparency in government, but has not released any trove of "Epstein files". The names of a number of powerful figures have already appeared in documents related to Epstein's case that have been released, including President Trump and former President Bill Clinton, both of whom socialised with Epstein. However, appearing in the flight logs and other records is not an indication of wrongdoing.

The Justice Department is expected to start turning over documents from the investigation to the House Oversight Committee from Friday. Once received, the committee plans to make public some of the Epstein files, a spokesperson told CNN. It is not clear when that will be. It is also not known how many documents will be turned over, but Kentucky Rep. James Comer, the Republican committee chair, said in a statement that the DOJ has many records it would "take time" to ensure the identification of victims and any child sexual abuse material is redacted.

"I appreciate the Trump Administration's commitment to transparency and efforts to provide the American people with information about this matter," Mr Comer said.

The Epstein files have become one of the biggest scandals of the Trump presidency when the DOJ and FBI announced in July that no further disclosures would be made regarding the case.