Some have suggested that the public fallout between President Donald Trump and billionaire Elon Musk may be more calculated than expected.
According to Axios, House Democrats are questioning the Department of Justice and the FBI about whether President Trump is included in the Epstein files, as Elon Musk says.
The clearest illustration yet demonstrates how Trump’s political opponents are profiting from the president’s high-profile conflict with his former lieutenant.
Some conservatives online have suggested that maybe this was set up by Trump and Musk to put pressure on the full release of the Epstein list. And now that Democrats are calling for the release of the list, it could be a stunt to expose some high-profile Democrats. This is simply a theory being pushed by some conservatives on social media.
Trump “is in the Epstein files,” Musk wrote Thursday in a post on X, adding, “That is the real reason they have not been made public.”
The Tesla CEO also called for Trump’s impeachment, a position that many Democrats are hesitant to support.
In a letter to Attorney General Pam Bondi and FBI Director Kash Patel, Reps. Stephen Lynch (D-Mass.) and Robert Garcia (D-Calif.) requested that they “immediately clarify whether this allegation is true.”
The congressmen requested a deadline for the Department of Justice’s declassification and publishing of the Epstein papers, as well as an explanation for why no fresh documents had been given over since February.
They also demanded a description of Trump’s participation in examining the files, a list of persons involved in their release, and an explanation for why previously given information to Congress had “significant redactions.”
Lynch serves as the acting ranking member of the House Oversight Committee, while Garcia is the leading Democrat on the Task Force on the Declassification of Federal Secrets.
“Oversight Democrats are engaged in another baseless stunt that bears no weight in fact or reality. These are the same left-wing lunatics who neglected their oversight duties regarding the Biden administration’s lawless actions and concocted hoax after hoax on President Trump during his first term. No one takes them or their petty letters seriously,” White House spokesperson Harrison Fields said in a statement to Axios.
Bondi disclosed more than 100 pages of Epstein-related records in February as part of the Trump administration’s quest for greater transparency in a variety of high-profile cases.
The papers, however, were heavily blacked, and Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-Fla.), head of the declassification task committee, has accused Bondi of “stonewalling” her requests for further documents.
“We agree with their conclusion that the release of these documents is long overdue,” Lynch and Garcia wrote.
Musk’s allegation “implies that the President may be involved in determining which files should be released and whether files will be withheld from the public if he personally chooses,” the two Democrats wrote.
They noted that Trump and Epstein’s relationship has been well-documented.
“Any attempts to prevent the appropriate release of the Epstein files to shield the President from truth and accountability merits intense scrutiny by Congress and by the Department of Justice,” they added.
Last week, FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino vowed to reveal additional footage from the cell housing sexual predator and human trafficker Jeffrey Epstein around the time of his suicide, proving “no one was there but him.”
Epstein’s 2019 death in the Metropolitan Correctional Center in New York City was deemed a suicide, but there are widespread conspiracy theories that he was murdered because of his connections with high-profile celebrities and businesspeople.
Bongino’s remarks come after he and FBI Director Kash Patel faced criticism from the MAGA crowd for dismissing Epstein conspiracy claims during a joint interview on Fox News earlier this month.