An old report has brought back a question Donald Trump’s team hoped would disappear: did the FBI work through the night to remove his name from the Jeffrey Epstein files before saying there was nothing left to release? The timing is important as Trump has suddenly reversed his stance on making the documents public.Trump announced on Truth Social: “House Republicans should vote to release the Epstein files, because we have nothing to hide.” It marked a sudden U-turn after months of resisting pressure from both parties. His shift only came once it became clear that the House was preparing to move forward without him. The move was surprising given that Trump had previously dismissed the Epstein issue as a Democratic “hoax” despite having campaigned on transparency in 2024. Bloomberg reported in August this year that an FBI FOIA team had already blacked out Trump’s name from the documents during an exhaustive internal review.Sources familiar with the process told Bloomberg, “We know from news reports that Trump’s name was in the Epstein files. But what hasn’t been reported is that an FBI FOIA team redacted Trump’s name and the names of other prominent public figures from the documents.” The review involved up to 1,000 FBI agents and staff working through more than 100,000 documents. The White House referred questions about the redactions to the FBI. The FBI declined to comment and the Justice Department offered no response. In July, DOJ and the FBI said they had collected more than 300 gigabytes of Epstein-related evidence but concluded that “no further disclosure would be appropriate or warranted.” The decision angered Trump’s base, with Joe Rogan accusing the administration of “trying to gaslight” its own supporters.The fight over the files also caused serious political fallout. After Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene signed the discharge petition, Trump called her a “ranting Lunatic” and withdrew his endorsement.The House is now expected to back the release of the files, though the Senate will require 60 votes. At the same time, Trump has urged Republicans to refocus on economic issues, warning that Epstein is a “trap.” And that Democrats are trying to distract Americans from the shutdown, he said last week.
