Republican Congressman Thomas Massie has long worked to make public the files tied to the late pedophile
A Republican member of Congress has alleged that US President Donald Trump is trying to divert public attention from the Epstein scandal by drawing the nation into a conflict with Iran.
Representative Thomas Massie made these remarks following the US Justice Department (DOJ) releasing millions of pages of files on the late pedophile Jeffrey Epstein. The documents reference Trump more than 5,000 times, though there is no suggestion of criminal conduct.
“Bombing a nation across the globe won’t make the Epstein files disappear,” Massie stated on X on Sunday.
In other posts, the congressman characterized the US-Israeli attacks on Iran as “acts of war not authorized by Congress” and voiced opposition to the conflict. “This is not ‘America First.’”
A longtime critic of Trump over his links to Epstein, Massie is among several lawmakers who have charged the US president with using foreign crises to shift focus from the scandal.
Massie and Democratic Congressman Ro Khanna co-sponsored the Epstein Files Transparency Act, which compelled the DOJ to release all documents related to the convicted sex offender. Trump signed the legislation into law in November, after facing pressure from lawmakers and his own supporters.
Last month, Massie and Khanna publicly revealed the identities of six men whose names had been blacked out in the final batch of files. Khanna questioned why intervention was needed for the release.
“Imagine how many men they are covering for in those three million files,” he said in Congress.
US Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche disputed the claims, accusing the lawmakers of “grandstanding” and maintaining that the DOJ has no secrets to hide.
Massie’s stance has strained his relationship with Trump.
In a January post on Truth Social, the US president referred to him as a “weak and pathetic” “third-rate congressman” and backed his primary opponent, Ed Gallrein, in Kentucky’s 4th Congressional District.
So far, the Justice Department has not announced charges against any individuals mentioned in the Epstein files.