U.S. President Donald Trump said he would not exercise a presidential veto if a bill urging the release of documents on the late Jeffrey Epstein, a perpetrator of the sexual exploitation of minors, passes Congress.
On the 17th (local time), President Trump, at a meeting with the 2026 Federation Internationale de Football Association (FIFA) World Cup White House task force (TF), was asked by reporters, "If the Epstein file disclosure bill comes up, will you sign it?" and answered, "Absolutely."
President Trump completely denied any connection to the Epstein case, saying, "Epstein and we have nothing to do with each other," and emphasizing, "All his friends were Democrats."
Until now, Trump had dismissed the Epstein case as "a Democratic scam," but the day before, in a rare move, he used social media to urge Republican House members to cast votes in favor of releasing the Epstein documents.
With forecasts that on the 18th the House will pass a bill urging release of the "Epstein files" with Republican defections, some interpret Trump as having shifted his position for the moment. Some observers even suggested that supportive votes within the Republican Party could reach 100.
Earlier, the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported that in Epstein's email records released the previous day by the House Committee on Oversight and Accountability, President Trump's name appears in more than half of roughly 2,300 total entries.
However, most of these are said to be items criticizing President Trump together with friends, passing related information to reporters, or answering acquaintances' questions about President Trump.