Debate in Congress over releasing the Epstein files has created unlikely alliances across party lines and disunity among partisan bedfellows.
President Donald Trump appeared to do a full one-eighty on the issue on Sunday, just days before House lawmakers are set to vote on a discharge petition that would force the Justice Department to release all their information on the disgraced financier and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
But what does the average American or Utahn think about the Epstein files?
A recent Deseret News/Hinckley Institute of Politics poll conducted by Morning Consult found that most people aren’t following the issue closely. The files are said to include travel records, flight logs, and the names of high-profile individuals and entities who may have some connection to Epstein’s sex abuse ring, estimated to have affected more than 1,000 female victims.
On a national level, only 18% registered voters said they were very closely following the government’s handling of the Epstein files, 30% were somewhat closely following, and a combined 53% were either only slightly following the issue or not at all.
Utah’s numbers were similar, with 17% saying they were following the issue very closely, 27% following somewhat closely, and 56% only slightly following or not at all.
“Only a small share of voters are following the Epstein files closely, but that doesn’t mean they lack strong views. People may not know every detail, but they care deeply about fairness and accountability,” Jason Perry, director of the Hinckley Institute of Politics, told the Deseret News.
“The case has become a symbol of whether powerful people play by the same rules. With new documents coming out almost daily, these numbers are a snapshot, not the final word. What stands out is that across parties and demographics, Americans overwhelmingly want transparency,” he said.
Among national voters, 47% said they think the Trump administration should release the Epstein files with victims’ names redacted. Among Utahns, that number was 56%. Only 3% nationally and 4% of voters in Utah think no documents should be released.
Several Epstein victims spoke out in a video that was published over the weekend by World Without Exploitation, calling for the full release of the files.
The video depicted the women holding photos of themselves at the ages they were when they met Epstein, some as young as 14.
“It’s time to bring the secrets out of the shadows. It’s time to shine a light into the darkness,” one of the victims said, followed by a screen that read “Five administrations and we’re still in the dark.”
The White House speaks out. Is it authentic?
After President Donald Trump’s Sunday night post on Truth Social, where he accused the attention being given to the Epstein files in Congress as a “Democrat Hoax perpetrated by Radical Left Lunatics in order to deflect from the Great Success of the Republican Party,” the White House published a press release targeting all the reasons they are for the release of the Epstein files with a list of all the alleged collaboration with members of the Democratic party.
The bullet point list of what the White House called a lack of transparency from the political left included many high-profile names who have been tied to Epstein in the past.
“Why aren’t Democrats talking about the fact that former President Bill Clinton traveled on Epstein’s aircraft 26 times? Or the fact that one of Epstein’s victims wrote that she saw Clinton on Epstein’s island with two young women?" per the press release. “Or the ’long relationship' and storied friendship that Larry Summers — ex-Harvard President, Clinton Treasury Secretary and prominent Democrat — had with Epstein."
It continued, “the fact that Democrat so-called ‘journalist’ Katie Couric had dinner at Epstein’s residence after he was already a convicted sex offender who had served jail time? ... The fact that Reid Hoffman — billionaire Democrat megadonor — visited Epstein’s ‘pedophile island,’ attended a dinner with him, and even planned to stay at his New York mansion?"
All of the people Trump listed have denied any wrongdoing.
The White House’s rapid response social media posted the list on X, including a screenshot of Trump’s Truth Social post saying that Republicans have “nothing to hide.”
This is a stark contrast from Trump’s past comments.
Last July, Trump claimed not to understand all the attention surrounding the files.
“I don’t understand why the Jeffrey Epstein case would be of interest to anybody. It’s pretty boring stuff. It’s sordid, but it’s boring. I don’t understand why it keeps going,” he said to reporters outside of Air Force One.
But not everyone buys the president’s change of attitude.
CNN’s Jake Tapper said Trump’s Truth Social post calling House Republicans to vote for the release of the Epstein files is “just an exercise in theater,” because in reality, Trump has the power to release them himself.
Trump’s change of heart is because of the “huge defeat coming,” Tapper said. “Not only are there 218 votes from the discharge petition, other House Republicans are now saying they’re probably going to vote to release the Epstein files.”
“We don’t need to go through any of this. We don’t have to have legislation in the House, and then it goes to the Senate, and then it goes to get President Trump’s signature or not,” Tapper added. “He can do it right now. He is the president.”