Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY) suggested on Tuesday that President Trump is targeting him due to his bipartisan Epstein Files Transparency Act.
When asked by a reporter if he thinks Trump is losing trust with members of Congress like himself, Rep. Massie said, “I wouldn’t say he’s lost trust, I would say I’m sort of in a different category. The president’s consultants have spent more than 1.8 million dollars against me, and I got a new tweet last night, or Truth Social last night, and clearly that was because I’ve done this Epstein file.”
The congressman appeared to be referring to the Epstein Files Transparency Act, which he recently introduced alongside Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA).
The remark follows a series of disputes between Rep. Massie and Trump, beginning in Trump’s first term when the congressman opposed Trump’s COVID relief package. It has continued into Trump’s second term, as Rep. Massie called Trump’s strikes on Iran “unconstitutional” and voted against Trump’s “Big, Beautiful Bill.”
This opposition has been followed by the launch of Kentucky MAGA, a PAC run by Trump’s senior political advisers Tony Fabrizio and Chris LaCivita. The PAC is dedicated to spending “whatever it takes” to defeat Rep. Massie, according to LaCivita.
Trump also posted on Truth Social about Rep.Massie specifically on Monday, calling him “the worst Republican Congressman,” “an Embarrassment to Kentucky,” “lazy, slow moving, and totally disingenuous,” and “a real loser!”
“Dogs don’t bark at parked cars,” Rep. Massie said Tuesday regarding Trump’s anger with him.
Rep. Massie claimed his bill “is moving, this is coming to a vote. We’ve got enough Republican co-sponsors of the bill, twice as many as we need right now, such that when they sign it, and every Democrat signs this, we’re gonna force a vote on it.”
“It’s not going away,” he finished.
The Epstein Files Transparency Act would force the Department of Justice, along with the FBI, to “make publicly available in a searchable and downloadable format all unclassified records, documents, communications, and investigative materials” related to Jeffery Epstein.
Epstein was first investigated in 2005 under reports that he was molesting young girls in Palm Beach, FL. He was then arrested in 2006 by local police, before the investigation was turned over to the FBI in 2007. In June 2008, Epstein was sentenced to 18 months in jail under a nonprosecution agreement before he was released into house arrest. He spent the next decade in legal battles with victims seeking monetary damages and challenging the nonprosecution agreement.
In July of 2019, Epstein was arrested on federal charges of paying underage girls for sex after a judge found that the nonprosecution agreement had violated victim’s rights laws. Before he was brought to court, he was found dead in his Manhattan cell, with investigators claiming he died by suicide.
Epstein has been at the center of both suspicion and conspiracy theories since his death, with the phrase “Epstein Didn’t Kill Himself” used as a slogan for disbelief in the official story. Many accuse the government of covering up Epstein’s crimes, alleging high-level officials were involved with or friends with Epstein.
On the 2024 campaign trail, Trump responded “yeah, yeah, I would,” to Fox News’s Rachel Campos-Duffy asking if he would declassify the files.
“Yeah, I’d certainly take a look at it. Now, Kennedy’s interesting because it’s so many years ago,” Trump also said in a September 2024 podcast episode with Lex Fridman. “They do that for danger too because it endangers certain people, et cetera, et cetera, so Kennedy is very different from the Epstein thing, but I’d be inclined to do the Epstein. I’d have no problem with it.”
Trump has been photographed with Epstein, and the two were reportedly friends in the late 1990s and early 2000s until a falling out in 2004. An alleged birthday letter from Trump to Epstein was published by the Wall Street Journal on Thursday, but Trump claimed the letter was fake and filed a lawsuit over the report.
Trump has recently ramped up claims that the entire files scandal is fake, with a Truth Social post on July 12 saying “let’s not waste Time and Energy on Jeffrey Epstein, somebody that nobody cares about,” and that the Epstein files were “created” by former presidents Barack Obama and Joe Biden.
All federal investigations into Epstein occurred either during the George W. Bush administration or Trump’s first term.
On July 16, Trump doubled down on the claim when ABC News Chief White House Correspondent Mary Bruce asked in the Oval Office if Attorney General Pam Bondi had told him it was a hoax, or what evidence he’d seen supporting the claim otherwise.
“It was a hoax. It’s all been a big hoax. It’s perpetrated by the Democrats and some stupid Republicans and foolish Republicans fall into the net. And so they try and do the Democrats’ work. The Democrats are good for nothing other than these hoaxes,” Trump replied.
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Author: Kristina Watrobski
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