To paraphrase a perennial Washington question: What is the president going to release and when is he going to release it?

Donald Trump is reeling from a spectacular defeat, easily his worst from his own party on Capitol Hill during two turbulent presidencies, after every step he took to stall and deflect the Jeffrey Epstein saga blew up in his face.

No one would have believed as recently as this past weekend that a bill requiring the Justice Department to release files related to the convicted sex offender would race through the GOP Congress with only one vote against it by Tuesday evening.

But such can be the power of suddenly unleashed political justice.

Now, Trump and his Attorney General Pam Bondi, who both triggered the political uproar by pledging to open the Epstein files, only to then refuse to do so, are back where they started. Only in a much more vulnerable political position.

And they have unappetizing political choices at a moment when Trump’s presidency appears damaged, his popularity is falling and a crush of other intractable issues bogs down his White House. Speculation is growing about whether a president who many were recently warning was a dictator is close to becoming a lame duck.

Vindication for victims

The overwhelming House and Senate moves to release the Epstein files are a stunning triumph for Epstein’s victims after they became more visible earlier this summer. A president who believes he enjoys unfettered power and who disdains democracy was defeated by grassroots political campaigning in combination with a handful of courageous lawmakers from both parties.

But Haley Robson, a survivor of Epstein’s abuse, told CNN’s Erin Burnett that Tuesday’s moves were not the end for women who long ago lost trust the government would protect them. “We have to be very honest with ourselves. … We do have a long road in front of us,” she said.

But the pressure of the survivors’ campaign now threatens to bear down on Trump alone, after the House and the Senate moved with extraordinary speed to dump a radioactive political issue on the White House. Their pace might at least momentarily weigh on the mind of a president who was twice saved from conviction in an impeachment trial by pliant Republican senators.

Attendees take part in a vigil hosted for survivors of convicted sex abuser Jeffrey Epstein by the Democratic Women’s Caucus in Washington, DC, on November 18, 2025.

Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images

In one of the most startling developments, House Speaker Mike Johnson, who’d long opposed the bill before Trump’s reversal, insisted the Senate must make changes to the bill. But senators ignored him and passed it up to the White House in an instant.

Unless Trump and Bondi release the Epstein files immediately, the question that’s been haunting Trump for months will now become even more acute: What is he hiding?

A bid by the DOJ to play for time — perhaps by arguing documents cannot be released because of ongoing investigations — might obstruct the hopes of survivors. But it might also mean Trump never escapes a storm that, judging by his eruptions at reporters, is driving him to distraction. Another DOJ strategy could be to release countless pages of Epstein files but with details, names and other information blacked out to avoid incriminating people. But that would only prolong the controversy.

There’s been no evidence of criminal wrongdoing by Trump in relation to his former friendship with Epstein, who killed himself in prison in 2019. Trump again branded the drama a Democratic “hoax” on Tuesday. But multiple mentions of the president in emails sent by Epstein recently released by Congress raise the possibility that he’s also referenced in documents held by the DOJ.

One option for Bondi could be a vast document dump that casts suspicion on multiple prominent men who victims say maintained ties to Epstein in the hope that any minor mentions of Trump might be swept away in a deluge of scandal. But as president, he’s under the harshest spotlight and would be sure to attract the most interest, even though he has said he always knew Epstein was a creep.

Of course, Trump has turned his DOJ into an arm of his political movement. So it would not be a surprise to see partial disclosures that do not satisfy his critics. But such is the intrigue around the drama, that there is no guarantee people would believe that he’d released everything. And conspiracists who’ve obsessed about the Epstein issue will never be satisfied.

National Director of World Without Exploitation Lauren Hersh embraces Epstein survivor Danielle Bensky as they react to the Senate’s passing of the bill to force the release of files related to Epstein in Washington DC, on November 18, 2025.

Annabelle Gordon/Reuters

“The next question is, will Trump use some other maneuvers in an effort to deny the information to the public that’s required by the statute?” Vermont Democratic Sen. Peter Welch said Tuesday. “We’ll see, but I don’t trust Trump on that.”

Kentucky Republican Rep. Thomas Massie, who broke with Trump to force through the bill demanding the release of the Epstein files, warned after the vote that he would act if there was an attempt to thwart disclosure of the Epstein evidence. As a last resort, he said, he might read aloud the names of alleged associates of the accused sex trafficker in the House. But he added that was only “if we hit all of the walls — but so far, we’re making it through the walls and over the walls, and we’re getting this done.”

What wider damage has Trump sustained?

Beyond the difficulty of next steps for Trump, there are the questions of how much political damage he’s suffered in recent days, both within his own party and personal power base and in the country more broadly.

Ever since returning to the White House, Trump has wielded massive power through dominance, or at least the perception that he’s all-powerful. He never followed his party; it followed him. But the myth of total power was shattered on Sunday night when he reversed his adamant position that the House should block the attempt to release the Epstein files.

President Donald Trump awaits the arrival of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman of Saudi Arabia to the White House on November 18, 2025.

Win McNamee/Getty Images

The flip-flop was an attempt to defuse a looming political loss. But if his myth of omnipotence frays, it’s likely only to encourage further challenges to his authority. Of course, Trump’s instinct might be to lash out with constitutionally questionable conduct.

This is an unusual moment for Trump. Could it presage a new phase of his presidency where the GOP does not move in lockstep on his orders? Or is the Epstein issue — which, at least to begin with, was disproportionately important to the conservative base — a one-off?

One test might come soon for Trump over whether GOP lawmakers revolt over another matter: the expiration of enhanced Obamacare subsidies, which triggered the government shutdown. Some GOP lawmakers want to compromise with Democrats on the issue, but the president reiterated on Tuesday that he opposed any solution that sends more money to insurance firms.

The US political calendar is relentless. And following larger-than-expected victories by Democrats in governor’s races in Virginia and New Jersey this month, Republicans are wary about midterm elections next year. And onetime Trump ally Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene’s recent attacks on Trump’s globetrotting and lack of empathy over high prices suggest that frustration with him cuts deeper than Epstein alone.

The Jeffrey Epstein saga has a dastardly quality: The more anyone drawn into the morass tries to dig themselves out, the deeper they dig themselves in.

The White House proved the rule yet again on Wednesday, on a shocking day of revelations in Washington over Epstein emails that mentioned Donald Trump multiple times and darkened a broadening shadow over his presidency.

The question at the heart of a political drama that grew out of the profound tragedy of scores of young women trafficked and abused by Epstein is now becoming impossible for the president to suppress.

Why is he so adamant that Americans must not see files related to a onetime friend he later denounced, even though there’s been no evidence of criminal wrongdoing on his own part?

A dizzying day of political intrigue Wednesday crushed Republican hopes of claiming the end of the longest government shutdown on record as an eye-catching win. It opened when House Oversight Committee Democrats released three emails newly acquired from Epstein’s estate that mention Trump. This was soon followed by a torrent of other emails, some referencing the president, from the GOP-led panel.

It did not immediately appear that the trove of material created any new legal issues for Trump. White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said it proved “absolutely nothing, other than the fact that President Trump did nothing wrong.”

But the explosive content — which included Epstein and his now-jailed accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell discussing Trump — was the kind of gossipy jet fuel that can ensure scandals defy all attempts at containment and significantly worsened Trump’s political predicament on the issue. It was also the latest twist in a story with an extraordinary capacity to tarnish reputations, which, unlike its main protagonist, will not die.

Political earthquakes are now rumbling on both sides of the Atlantic. Washington is on scandal alert. In the UK, the aftershocks just led to the defenestration of a prince — Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor — and the dismissal of a lord as ambassador to Washington — Peter Mandelson — both over their past friendships with Epstein.

Most seriously for the president, Wednesday’s disclosures raised questions over whether he’s been fully transparent about what he knew about Epstein — a former fellow New York and Florida resident, who killed himself in prison in 2019. At the least, the emails implied Trump knew more than he’s been prepared to let on about a wealthy convicted pedophile who moved in the highest society circles alongside powerful men in New York and London.

In one email on April 2, 2011, which CNN has independently reviewed, Epstein emailed Maxwell: “i want you to realize that that dog that hasn’t barked is trump.. (REDACTED) spent hours at my house with him ,, he has never once been mentioned. police chief. etc. im 75 % there.” Maxwell responded: “I have been thinking about that…”

CNN

GOP members of the House Oversight Committee identified the person as Virginia Giuffre, one of Epstein’s most prominent survivors, who died by suicide in April. They accused Democrats of hiding her name because she did not allege Trump did something wrong.

Maxwell told Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche in an interview this year that she “never witnessed the president in any inappropriate setting in any way,” and that she didn’t recall ever seeing Trump at Epstein’s house. She said she did witness the two men together in social settings. “The president was never inappropriate with anybody,” Maxwell said. “In the times that I was with him, he was a gentleman in all respects.”

Other material was embarrassing for Trump. Epstein called him “borderline insane” in a 2018 email exchange with former Treasury Secretary Larry Summers. In another email to a New York Times reporter on January 28, 2017, a week after Trump signed an executive order banning the entry of foreign nationals from Muslim majority countries for 90 days, Epstein said, “Donald is f**king crazy.”

CNN

A year later, Epstein wrote, “I know how dirty Donald is,” referring to potential scandals that might come out about him, in an August 2018 email to Kathryn Ruemmler, a former White House counsel under President Barack Obama. Epstein also emailed about Trump’s mental state with his personal attorney and Ruemmler in March 2018.

CNN

An overbearing White House response makes the political drama worse

The Epstein saga has dogged Trump for months. He’s tried and failed to shut it down, for instance when he lashed out in a Cabinet meeting in July, telling a reporter he didn’t know why people were still talking “about this guy, this creep.”

Ironically, the latest focus on the Epstein affair has underscored why the Justice Department makes it a practice not to release investigative files when prosecutions are not deemed appropriate. Disclosures can harm the reputations of those involved when they are not charged or accused of wrongdoing, or are merely witnesses who provided testimony or were mentioned in evidence.

But incredibly, the latest political ramifications of the Epstein affair were triggered by administration officials themselves, with Trump and Attorney General Pam Bondi pledging to release files before going back on their word. That has created the frenzy of speculation over what is contained in the full record of the case.

And it’s left Trump accused of a classic Washington cover-up. As Democratic Rep. James Walkinshaw put it in an interview with CNN’s Erin Burnett. “It would make a lot more sense for him to just say, ‘Let’s release the full files and get it all out there and get it all over with.’”

Walkinshaw went on: “Why doesn’t he want to do that? What’s in those files that he wants to allow this drip, drip, drip of bad news to continue?”

Despite new denials of wrongdoing by Trump and his aides, Wednesday’s releases set off the latest overbearing, and frankly strange, effort by officials to quell the drama. In an extraordinary meeting exclusively reported by CNN, top officials met a single lawmaker, Rep. Lauren Boebert, in the White House Situation Room, a venue fabled for its use in national security crises. Multiple sources said before the meeting that a heavyweight line-up of Attorney General Pam Bondi, FBI Director Kash Patel and Blanche, the deputy attorney general, was expected.

The meeting raised the question of whether the White House hoped to get the Colorado lawmaker to pull her name from a petition that will force GOP House leaders to allow a vote on releasing investigative files from the Epstein case.

Boebert later told CNN’s Manu Raju that Trump did not pressure her to take her name off of the discharge petition and that while Epstein came up in the White House meeting, other topics were also covered.

Rep. Lauren Boebert, right, speaks with CNN’s Manu Raju on Wednesday.

CNN

It was another stunning twist in a saga that makes the White House look not just clumsy but as if it is trying to orchestrate a cover-up, even as Trump’s aides insist there is nothing to hide.

The Situation Room meeting was just the latest bizarre intervention by Trump’s aides in the Epstein case. In July, Blanche traveled to interview Maxwell, and the Justice Department later released the transcript and tape of her saying that the president had never at any time behaved inappropriately. Shortly afterward, Maxwell, who is serving a 20-year sentence, was moved to a far less draconian prison.

Underlining the failure of the latest White House damage-control effort, GOP Rep. Nancy Mace confirmed to CNN’s Jake Tapper that she did not intend to try to remove her name from the discharge petition. “I will never turn my back on other survivors,” she wrote in a text message. “The work is too important. No one believes us. And we never get justice.” The petition got its pivotal signature on Wednesday with the swearing-in of a newly elected Democratic lawmaker, which had been delayed for weeks by Speaker Mike Johnson.

Rep. Nancy Mace speaks to reporters on Wednesday.

CNN

How can Trump tamp down the controversy?

Wednesday’s drama was precipitated by the return of the House for the first time since mid-September. The immediate focus on Epstein seemed to reinforce a claim by Johnson’s critics that one of his aims in keeping lawmakers at home during the shutdown was to tamp down the Epstein storm. If that was the case, he only made it worse. The speaker had no choice but to announce that the House next week will vote, against the wishes of the White House, on a resolution requiring the Department of Justice to release files from the Epstein case.

One question now is how on earth does Trump — whose approval ratings are already dipping fast, and who is struggling to empathize with a wave of economic anxiety rippling across the country — ever make all of this go away?

Time and again, the president’s achievements have been overshadowed by the return of the Epstein case. While it is not clear that this is an issue that will decide many votes in the 2026 midterm elections, it’s a constant distraction for the White House. Questions about Trump’s character and past did not stop him twice winning the presidency. But the Epstein issue is a rare controversy that has caused a backlash with his base, even though there’s no sign yet that it will sever his almost mythical bond with his most loyal supporters.

But on this question, at least, he’s failed to pull the GOP into line. He made increasingly frantic efforts on social media to portray the email releases as all part of a Democratic plot. His efforts failed. Now, the number of Republican lawmakers who back the release of the documents will be closely watched.

Any large-scale Republican revolt against the president in the House vote could be latest sign that his impregnable support from the GOP on Capitol Hill is beginning to crumble, following the failure of his demands on Republican senators to remove the filibuster rule in their chamber, which frustrated him during the shutdown.

And a strong vote from Republicans to release the files might also heap more pressure on Republicans in the Senate to vote for disclosure. “I’ve already had a couple Republicans tell my office privately that they’re going to vote for it, and I think that could snowball,” Republican Rep. Thomas Massie of Kentucky, who has braved fierce pressure from the White House, told CNN’s Manu Raju.

In another sign of growing tensions in the House, another Republican, Rep. Tim Burchett of Tennessee launched an unsuccessful bid to force the release of all the Epstein files immediately. “Just get it to the daggum floor and let the people decide,” Burchett said.

This was the latest indication, that, in Epstein’s words, the “dog that hasn’t barked” over his association with Trump is barking now. Everyone in Washington and around the globe can hear it. And ominously for Trump, the White House seems to have no idea how it can be silenced.