GOP accuses Democrats of misusing Jeffrey Epstein probe to attack Trump

Republicans on the Oversight Committee are accusing their Democratic counterparts of using the House’s ongoing investigation into Jeffrey Epstein to attack president Donald Trump instead of finding a solution for the victims of the late child sex abuser.

Fox News Digital obtained a 10-page internal memo written by GOP committee staff to lawmakers on the committee that alleged Democrats intentionally distorted information obtained by Republicans to create a narrative that didn’t exist.

“Unfortunately, during this investigation, Democrats on the Oversight Committee, led by Ranking Member Robert Garcia (D-CA), intentionally distorted witness testimony and selectively released information with targeted redactions in an attempt to create another hoax involving President Trump,” the memo said.

“When the majority released the full set of documents, Democrats claimed that this transparency was intended to ‘obfuscate’ and ‘distract’ from the false narrative they were trying to create about President Trump.”

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The committee’s months-long investigation began with a bipartisan push for transparency, but has since devolved into partisan combat with both sides blaming the other for focusing on the wrong things.

Democrats accused Republicans of using the investigation to cover up Trump, who was known to have been an associate of Epstein but was never linked to any wrongdoing.

But the GOP majority on the panel, which released thousands of pages of documents obtained from both the Department of Justice (DOJ) and Epstein’s private estate, claimed to be dedicated to transparency for victims and accused Democrats of politicizing the investigation.

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“Democrats have revealed nothing new, released no document that was not provided at the request of Republicans, and have only succeeded in reinforcing what the American people already knew: President Trump knew Jeffrey Epstein for decades, President Trump ended the relationship with Epstein, and President Trump did not share or know the nature of Epstein’s evil,” the memo said.

“Committee Democrats over-promised and under-delivered, and are now sifting through every new document produced for one term: Trump.”

The documents released by the committee so far appear to neither concretely prove nor disprove that Trump knew about Epstein’s crimes, but the president himself has consistently denied any improper ties.

In their memo, Republicans pointed to former Attorney General Bill Barr’s testimony in which he appeared to clear Trump of any wrongdoing, at least with his knowledge of the investigation.

President Donald Trump gestures as he walks across the South Lawn of the White House, on November 2, 2025, in Washington. (Mark Schiefelbein/AP Newsroom)

But they accuse Garcia of intentionally misrepresenting the facts by claiming Barr had “limited knowledge” of the case.

The memo also accused Democrats of selectively leaking three emails earlier this month among nearly 23,000 documents turned over by Epstein’s family in an attempt to paint Trump in a negative light.

The GOP accused Democrats of “making their own redacts to deceive the media and the American people,” the memo said, including by naming Epstein accuser Virginia Giuffre, “who stated she never witnessed any wrongdoing by President Trump.”

Democrats also edited out the phrase “she was the one who accused Prince Andrew.” [sic] In another email to Epstein. With this redaction, Democrats removed important context from Virginia Jeffery’s email [sic]“Who was working at Mar-a-Lago made allegations against Prince Andrew and was recruited by Ghislaine Maxwell in the car park,” the memo said.

This changes the meaning of Epstein’s email where he says: “Of course he knew about the girls when he told Ghislaine to stop.”

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The GOP memo also noted that Democrats leaked pages from Epstein’s notorious “birthday book” that included Trump, but did not release a letter allegedly written by former President Bill Clinton.

She also accused Democrats of failing to help the committee bring in the Clintons for questioning, despite issuing subpoenas for both earlier this year. The only figures to have testified so far have been connected to Trump.

“Democrats are not interested in transparency or fairness,” the memo said. “The evidence collected by the Oversight Committee does not suggest that President Trump was involved in any way. Democrats should stop playing games with this investigation.”

Rep. Robert Garcia speaks during a news conference on Capitol Hill in Washington on July 17, 2023. (Drew Angerer/Getty Images)

The memo is dated Sunday, two days before the House is expected to vote on a bipartisan bill requiring the Justice Department to release all of its files related to Epstein.

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House GOP leaders had previously opposed the effort, saying the bill as written could lead to the disclosure of information that could harm Epstein’s victims, while also claiming it was unnecessary in light of the Oversight Committee’s investigation.

But the mechanism known as a recall petition, led by Reps. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., and Ro Khanna, D-Calif., allows a majority of House lawmakers to override leadership’s wishes and force a vote on the bill.

Trump encouraged Republicans to vote for him in a post on Truth Social on Sunday night, telling the GOP: “We have nothing to hide, and it’s time to move on from this Democrats’ hoax.”

Fox News Digital reached out to the Democratic minority on the committee for a response.