GOP rep on Trump, Epstein files: ‘This is not a good moment’

Rep. Eric Burlison (R-Mo.) on Wednesday discussed the ongoing uproar over files related to the investigation of convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, and President Trump’s pushback to the backlash, saying it is “not a good moment.”

“This is not a good moment. … So, I’m open — if the president has information that we do not have, I want to hear it,” Burlison told NewsNation’s Blake Burman on “The Hill.”

“But I think the — the American people right now, they expected these files to be released. And I think, look, we’ve got how many victims, right? Hundreds of young girls were victimized. And I think the American people and these victims deserve to have some kind of clarity,” he added. 

Republican support recently came in for a new legislative push in the House to direct the Justice Department to release additional files on Epstein, despite pressure from Trump to drop the matter.

Reps. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) and Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) have headed up the push, with Massie announcing Wednesday that five more Republicans had signed on to cosponsor the measure. The five included Reps. Lauren Boebert (Colo.), Jeff Van Drew (N.J.), Marjorie Taylor Greene (Ga.), Tim Burchett (Tenn.) and Burlison.

“The American people deserve full transparency,” Van Drew wrote on the social platform X.

“I will never protect pedophiles or the elites and their circles,” Greene wrote in her own post.

The Hill has reached out to the White House for comment.