President Donald Trump wants his “‘boys,’ and in some cases, ‘gals'” to leave the Jeffrey Epstein scandal in the past and accept the muted findings released by his administration.
But U.S. Rep. Thomas Massie, as you may have guessed, isn’t on board.
Massie, a Republican who Trump wants out of office, has filed a discharge petition in the U.S. House of Representatives calling on Attorney General Pam Bondi to publicly release “all unclassified records, documents, communications, and investigative materials” the federal government possesses relating to Epstein, the financier and convicted sex offender whose death by suicide while in prison in 2019 has been at the center of a number of conspiracy theories.
In social media posts announcing the move July 15, Massie said members of the public “deserve to know what’s in the Epstein files, who’s implicated, and how deep this corruption goes.” The congressman was unavailable for an interview July 16 and did not offer an additional statement beyond his social media comment, which had been reposted more than 11,000 times in less than 24 hours.
A discharge petition allows House members to bypass leadership and bring legislation directly to the floor. Massie likely faces an uphill climb though — signatures from a majority of House members, 218 in total, are required for the resolution to be taken up in Congress.
He has some support in his party. Republican U.S. Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene (of Georgia), Tim Burchett (Tennessee), Eric Burlison (Mississippi), Jeff Van Drew (New York) and Lauren Boebert (Colorado) have all asked to cosponsor the legislation. And while House Speaker Mike Johnson, a Louisiana Republican, has not publicly backed Massie’s push, he told conservative media host Benny Johnson the government should “put everything out there and let the people decide it.”
Rep. Thomas Massie, center, speaks with reporters in June 2025. Massie is sponsoring a resolution calling for the release of more investigative materials related to Jeffrey Epstein.
The resolution’s support in Kentucky is less clear. Representatives for U.S. Reps. James Comer, Brett Guthrie and Hal Rogers did not respond to requests for comment. U.S. Rep. Andy Barr, the Lexington Republican running to replace retiring U.S. Sen. Mitch McConnell, does not support the push, referring to it as a distraction in a July 16 statement.
“President Trump and I are focused on delivering for Kentucky families, farmers, and miners. And this week, I’m fighting alongside the President to make America the home of crypto while ensuring we don’t have a government controlled digital currency,” Barr wrote. “We need to stick together and deliver the President’s agenda.”
Louisville-based U.S. Rep. Morgan McGarvey, the state’s lone Democrat in Congress, said making the information public is “the right thing” and would display “trust and transparency.”
“Now for Trump, we’ve watched him lie repeatedly over the years,” McGarvey said in an interview on MSNBC. “The problem is this is a lie he has a hard time getting out of. He was either lying about everything he ever said about Jeffrey Epstein or he’s lying about releasing the files.”
The Epstein intrigue
The Epstein case has captivated a significant number of people in the U.S. in recent years.
At the time of his death in August 2019, he was awaiting trial on sex trafficking and sex trafficking conspiracy charges over allegations he recruited girls as young as 14 to engage in sex acts at his mansions in New York and Florida from 2002 to at least 2005, eventually creating a “network of minor victims in multiple states” that he’d recruited alongside associate Ghislaine Maxwell, the only other person charged in the case. He was indicted on similar charges in 2006 and eventually pleaded guilty to state charges, a deal that allowed him to avoid a potentially lengthier federal term.
Epstein had a network of influential friends that included several well-known names, including Prince Andrew, former President Bill Clinton and Trump, though the current president has worked to put distance between himself and Epstein, calling him “somebody that nobody cares about” in a recent social media post.
Trump said on the campaign trail he would declassify more files related to the investigation if he returned to office, and several key allies — including Vice President JD Vance, FBI Director Kash Patel and FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino — openly called for the investigation to be publicly released in the lead-up to the 2024 presidential election.
As recently as February, Bondi said Epstein’s client list was “sitting on my desk to be reviewed,” though recently she’s said that comment was in reference to a general “file.” Bondi invited several pro-Trump influencers to the White House in February and gave them binders titled “The Epstein Files: Phase I” — the recipients displayed them to the press as they left the event that day but later noted almost all of what was included had already been made public, including flight logs from Epstein’s private plane.
In this file photo taken on July 2, 2020 a photo of Ghislaine Maxwell and Jeffrey Epstein is seen as acting US Attorney for the Southern District of New York, Audrey Strauss, announces charges against Maxwell during a press conference in New York City.
Their tune has changed in recent weeks, and it’s drawn criticism from some of Trump’s most loyal supporters.
In early July, the U.S. Department of Justice and FBI issued a memo saying they had no evidence Epstein kept a “client list” and backed up previous conclusions that his death was a suicide. No evidence existed to prompt additional arrests, it added, sparking backlash among those who had called for more action. (Maxwell was convicted of trafficking a minor to engage in sex acts with Epstein in 2021, though she’s now appealing her 20-year sentence.)
Since then, Trump has bristled at questions about the case’s conclusion, recently attempting without evidence to tie it to former Presidents Barack Obama, in office from 2009 through 2016, and Joe Biden, who was in power from 2021 through 2024. On July 16, he criticized “PAST supporters” who are skeptical of the probe’s conclusion as “weaklings.”
Critics have included Greene, the firebrand representative from Georgia who is usually in lockstep with Trump, along with former Breitbart News chairman Steve Bannon, ex-Fox News host Tucker Carlson and right wing activist Laura Loomer, though much of the fire has been aimed at Bondi.
Trump and Massie
President Donald Trump speaks in the Oval Office at the White House in Washington, D.C. on July 16, 2025.
Massie and Trump ending up on opposite ends of an issue is nothing new.
After the congressman opposed the massive Trump-backed policy bill approved earlier this month, the president said he would back a primary challenger against him in 2026. While no new opponent has entered the race yet, a new “Kentucky MAGA” PAC led by Trump advisors has already paid for one ad to hit the airwaves.
While Massie did not criticize Trump in his social media posts announcing the resolution, he repeatedly wrote “Americans deserve transparency and the victims of Epstein (and his associates) deserve justice.”
“Americans were promised justice and transparency,” Massie wrote.
Reach Lucas Aulbach at laulbach@courier-journal.com.
This article originally appeared on Louisville Courier Journal: Breaking again with Trump, Massie pushes for release of Epstein files
