FILE PHOTO: U.S. President Donald Trump looks on as he meets with the White House Task Force on the FIFA World Cup 2026 in the Oval Office at the White House in Washington, D.C., U.S., November 17, 2025. REUTERS/Evelyn Hockstein/File Photo
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -The White House quietly lobbied senators to slow-walk a vote to force the release of investigative files on Jeffrey Epstein even as President Donald Trump publicly insisted his administration had nothing to hide and urged Congress to act, according to two sources with direct knowledge of the matter.
The effort unraveled on Tuesday when senators approved the measure passed by the Republican-controlled House of Representatives without the changes Trump aides had pressed for, exposing the limits of the president’s sway over his party on an issue that has bedeviled him since he returned to power this year.
