Tom Geoghegan and

James FitzGerald

The words “Epstein files” have been haunting the Trump administration for months as it grapples with a growing crisis over the sex crimes of late convicted sex offender and financier Jeffrey Epstein.

Pressure has been building from President Donald Trump’s own supporters and from voices within his own Republican Party for more transparency on what the federal investigations into Epstein uncovered.

Trump has now reversed course and urged Republicans in the House of Representatives to vote to release the Epstein files, made up of material the justice department gathered in its investigations. The House, or lower chamber, is now expected on 18 November to approve a measure on releasing the files, which will then head to the Senate, or upper chamber.

Earlier in November, thousands of documents belonging to the Epstein estate were released by the House Oversight Committee, mostly emails. Most people watching the issue believe the information in those documents is different to that contained in the justice department files.

Hours later, the House of Representatives announced it would hold its vote, which was forced by a discharge petition getting its critical 218th signature that triggers action on the floor.

In 2008, Epstein reached a plea deal with prosecutors after the parents of a 14-year-old girl told police in Florida that Epstein had molested their daughter at his Palm Beach home.

Photos of girls were found throughout the house, and he was convicted of soliciting prostitution from a minor, for which he was registered as a sex offender and escaped a heavy jail sentence as a result of the deal.

Eleven years later, he was charged with running a network of underage girls for sex. He died in prison while awaiting trial, and his death was ruled a suicide.

These two criminal investigations amassed a vast trove of documents including transcripts of interviews with victims and witnesses, and items confiscated from raids of his various properties.

There was also a separate investigation into his British co-conspirator and ex-girlfriend Ghislaine Maxwell, who was convicted in 2021 of conspiring with Epstein to traffic girls for sex.

Both Epstein and Maxwell were also the subject of civil cases.

At various stages over the years, some materials have been put into the public domain.

The email dump on 12 November was not the first tranche released by the House Oversight Committee since it subpoenaed Epstein’s estate earlier in the year.

An earlier release, in September, included a birthday book containing a note to Epstein bearing Trump’s name but he has denied writing it.

In February, weeks after Trump took office, the Department of Justice and the FBI released what they described at the time as the “first phase of the declassified Epstein files”.

A group of right-wing influencers were invited to the White House, but they were left disappointed when they realised that the 341 pages handed to them were mostly material that was already out there.

It included flight logs from Epstein’s plane and a redacted version of his contacts book containing the names of famous people he knew.

In July, the Department of Justice and FBI said in a memo that no more material would be released.

The president’s name was mentioned several times in the released emails belonging to the Epstein estate that were released on 12 November. He has always denied any wrongdoing.

Billionaire Elon Musk and Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, formerly known as Prince Andrew, were named in flight logs released in September.

Mountbatten-Windsor has previously strenuously denied any wrongdoing. Musk has been quoted as saying that Epstein had invited him to the island but he had declined.

According to The Wall Street Journal, Trump is also named in unreleased FBI documents about Epstein and was told as much by Attorney General Pam Bondi in May. The paper noted that being named in the files was not evidence of wrongdoing.

A White House spokesman called the story “fake”, although an unnamed official speaking to Reuters said the administration did not dispute that Trump’s name was included.

Although the contents of any unreleased documents remain unknown, the existing materials in the public domain mention a number of high-profile figures who were connected to Epstein.

Again, this does not imply any wrongdoing by those individuals.

Dozens of names were mentioned in a release of court documents in 2024. Mountbatten-Windsor, former US President Bill Clinton and Michael Jackson were among the associates, friends and alleged victims named in the 900 pages that were unsealed.

Both Clinton and the British royal deny any knowledge of Epstein’s crimes. Jackson died in 2009.

The release of documents related to the case of Epstein’s former girlfriend Ghislaine Maxwell, who is serving 20 years in prison for child sex trafficking.

The vote in the House of Representatives could happen on 18 November, sources have told the BBC’s US partner CBS News.

Four Republicans and all 214 Democrats in the House signed the petition.

If the bill passes the House, it will move on to the Senate. Republican senators haven’t said much yet on where they stand and it requires 60 votes to pass the upper chamber – a high threshold.

Then it goes to the president’s desk, to be approved or denied.

Trump and Epstein appear to have been friends for a number of years, keeping a similar social circle.

Previously released files show that Trump’s details were in Epstein’s so-called black book of contacts. Flight logs also showed Trump flying on Epstein’s plane on several occasions.

They were pictured together at elite events in the 1990s, and photos published by CNN purport to show Epstein in attendance at Trump’s wedding to then-wife Marla Maples.

In 2002, Trump described Epstein as a “terrific guy”. Epstein would later remark: “I was Donald’s closest friend for 10 years.”

According to Trump, they fell out in the early 2000s, two years before Epstein was first arrested. By 2008, Trump was saying that he had not been “a fan of his”.

The White House has suggested that their fallout was connected to Epstein’s behaviour, and that “the president kicked him out of his club for being a creep”.

The Washington Post, meanwhile, has suggested that the breakdown in their relationship was due to their rivalry over some real estate in Florida.

Die-hard members of Trump’s MAGA movement have long believed officials are hiding key truths about Epstein’s life and death.

Some of them have theorised that a child-molesting cabal has been operating at the highest levels of US society, protected by the state. The theory spread through cryptic messages posted by a pseudonymous character called Q.

In one of the conspiracy theories pushed by some MAGA influencers, Epstein was an agent of the Israeli government.

Some Trump allies have tried to quell the backlash. Last month, Republican House announced an early recess for the chamber, stalling efforts to force the release of Epstein-related documents within 30 days.

• Why the Epstein case looms large in MAGA world

There are several unanswered questions about Epstein shared by the wider population too – particularly why he was given such a lenient sentence in Florida, whether he and Maxwell were really acting alone and how he was allowed to take his own life in prison.

Trump and his team hyped up the theories when they were running for office, but now that they are in power, they have found themselves unable to convince their supporter base that there are no more questions to answer.