Copyright The Daily Beast
The next phase of the long-running battle over the Epstein files is slowly unfolding now that the government is gearing to reopen after the longest shutdown in U.S. history, Donald Trump’s biographer teased Tuesday. On a new episode of Inside Trump’s Head, author Michael Wolff said the specter of the convicted sex trafficker is once again looming large over the Trump administration as lawmakers prepare to force a vote on the release of federal investigation files on Epstein. Republican Rep. Thomas Massie and Democratic Rep. Ro Khanna earlier introduced a discharge petition that would force the release of the notorious Epstein files. The measure has received broad bipartisan support, putting them on the brink of notching all 218 signatures they need. The final signature is expected to come from Adelita Grijalva, a newly elected Arizona representative whose swearing-in has been delayed for seven weeks. House Speaker Mike Johnson finally scheduled her induction for Wednesday afternoon, right before lawmakers vote to end the government shutdown. The measure will also need to clear the Senate, where a similar effort to force a release of the Epstein files failed in September. Wolff said documents related to Epstein are scattered throughout the U.S. government, from criminal investigations launched by the Justice Department and its multiple arms to other probes of the late financier’s shadowy empire and business relationships. “So this is all just spread far and wide and it will be sort of up to Congress to define what they’re looking for,” Wolff said. “If an investigation actually begins, if hearings actually happen, then that’s the question: Where is this? What do you know? How do we define this information about this guy?” But at the end of the day, the contours of the Epstein files will be shaped by the executive branch, helmed by Epstein’s old pal, according to Wolff. “Within the hands of the executive branch is the ability now to define what that is plus its own, I suspect, confusion about what it is and where it is, and then what they redact and don’t redact,” he said. “So the executive branch, even with a vote in Congress, is still basically in charge of these Epstein files.” It’s not just Epstein who’s under scrutiny. His former girlfriend, disgraced British socialite Ghislaine Maxwell, is preparing to ask Trump to commute her 20-year prison sentence, according to documents obtained by House Democrats and reviewed by CBS News. Trump previously kept the door open to a possible Maxwell pardon, telling reporters in October: “I can say this‚ that I’d have to take a look at it. I would have to take a look.” Maxwell, 63, is in prison for sex trafficking and conspiracy to recruit underage girls for sex acts. She was moved to a cushier jail after sitting for an hours-long interview with Todd Blanche, the No. 2 at the Justice Department, in what Wolff described as a “cover-up” ultimately aimed at keeping Maxwell quiet. “So in that respect, the out-in-the-open cover-up will probably succeed. Yes, the Epstein matter will go on. Yes, people will continue to try to get to the bottom of it, including yours truly. But that pivotal witness, Ghislaine Maxwell... will be quiet.” The White House responded to a request for comment with communications director Steven Cheung’s boilerplate attack on Wolff. “Michael Wolff is a lying sack of s--- and has been proven to be a fraud. He routinely fabricates stories originating from his sick and warped imagination, only possible because he has a severe and debilitating case of Trump Derangement Syndrome that has rotted his peanut-sized brain,” he said. The Daily Beast has also reached out to the Justice Department.
