When the 20,000 pages of documents received from the estate of late convicted Jeffrey Epstein were released, the Republicans in control of the majority on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee couldn't avoid the fact that President Donald Trump’s name keeps coming up and as a result, it's unleashing "political friendly fire," reports the Washington Post.
This "bombshell document drop," the Post reports, "began after Democrats on the Oversight Committee released on Wednesday just three select emails from the Epstein estate that the convicted sex offender had sent to his friends and allies, including one alleging that Trump 'knew about the girls.'"
Trump has spent the past several days attacking Democrats for what he deems another "hoax," but the Post says that Republicans are actually more embroiled in a tenuous situation than their political opponents.
"But this congressional investigation is unlike almost any of the modern era," the Post notes. "This is a case of unexpected friendly fire as committee Republicans are leading this investigation into the sprawling crimes committed by Epstein, who killed himself in a federal prison cell in 2019 weeks after his arrest."
The Epstein documents released by the GOP raises many questions about the connections between the president and Epstein, the Post writes.
On Friday, Trump called on the Justice Department to investigate Democrats with ties to Epstein, including former President Bill Clinton.
"Trump’s attorney general, Pam Bondi, quickly dispatched a federal prosecutor to handle," the Post writes, adding, "but the most scrutinized information that has been released since early September all came from subpoenas and document requests ordered by Rep. James Comer (R-KY), the committee chair.
"Republican critics contend that Johnson misplayed his hand when GOP leaders maneuvered to try to block the petition to release the investigative files led by Reps. Thomas Massie (R-Kentucky) and Ro Khanna (D-California)," the Post writes.
After winning the race to become the new ranking minority-party member on June 24, Rep. Robert Garcia (D-CA), the top Democrat on the committee, helped Democrats spring the Epstein issue and pushed for a vote to subpoena the Justice Department for its files. Despite Republicans having a 7-4 majority on the panel, three GOP lawmakers voted with Democrats.
"The only response from Republicans was to also subpoena a few older but prominent Democrats, such as Bill and Hillary Clinton, and a bipartisan list of former top Justice officials such as Merrick Garland, James B. Comey and Alberto Gonzales," they write.
Republicans hoped that letting the oversight panel handle the Epstein investigation "would fend off GOP support for the discharge petition that would compel the Justice Department to release more information related to the investigation and prosecution of Epstein," the Post explains.
But then Comer agreed with Democrats in late August to expand the investigation and ask the estate to hand over relevant documents.
Those documents keep mentioning and pointing to Trump.
In a 2011 email to Epstein's co-conspirator and convicted sex trafficker Ghislaine Maxwell, Epstein wrote that Trump was the "dog that hasn't barked," meaning Trump hadn't publicly disclosed details about his activities.
He also claimed a victim "spent hours at my house" with Trump. In a separate 2019 email, Epstein told author Michael Wolff that Trump "knew about the girls as he asked Ghislaine to stop".
Emails between Epstein and Michael Wolff, who has written books about Trump, discuss how to handle Trump's potential mentions of Epstein in the media.
In one exchange, Wolff suggested that if Trump denied being on Epstein's plane or at his house, it would give Epstein "valuable PR and political currency."
The documents also include an email in which Epstein implied Trump had met victims but had never received a massage from them. Another email from an associate mentioned that Epstein said he "gave" his 20-year-old girlfriend to Trump in the 1990s.
Rep. Andy Biggs (R-AZ), did not sign the discharge petition or vote for the subcommittee’s initial investigation, and doesn't think Trump did anything wrong, but he still supports moving forward on the Epstein investigation, the Post says.
“You’re gonna keep finding more and more stuff about the Epstein files,” Comer said Wednesday.
"Democrats think he’s right," the Post notes