Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi made a stunning announcement on Jeffrey Epstein document disclosure on Thursday, declaring the scandal a “distraction” from Congress’s work — only to demand the files be released hours later when Democrats saw there was political points to score.
During a Thursday morning interview on MSNBC, Pelosi urged caution about releasing files related to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
Pelosi told host Chris Jansing that the focus on Epstein documents was a sideshow that was taking attention away from more important congressional business.
“This is a distraction. We have major issues, right here, things we’re voting on today,” Pelosi said, referring to the spending cuts being considered by Congress. “His own base has its own views of what the president should do. I’ll leave it up to them to talk them out.”
“Whether it’s Jeffrey Epstein or Alcatraz, it’s all off the subject of what they’re doing with this budget that is harmful to the kitchen table, meeting the kitchen-table needs of the American people,” she said.
Pelosi called both issues “distractions” from what she characterized as more pressing fiscal matters.
“I think that they’re off the subject of what is happening, changing the character and the culture of America by undermining – by placing huge, trillions of dollars of national debt on future generations to carry forward at the expense of the health, nutrition and education of the American people,” she argued.
Just hours after her MSNBC appearance, Pelosi completely reversed course and posted on X demanding the release of Epstein files while attacking Trump for allegedly refusing to pursue the case.
“For reasons known only to him, Donald Trump is now refusing to appoint a special prosecutor in the Epstein case after weeks of refusing to release the Epstein files,” Pelosi wrote. “This week, House Democrats voted unanimously to release the files. Republicans voted to keep them hidden.”
Pelosi then called for full accountability in the case: “With deep respect for the victims, their trauma and their privacy, everyone on the Epstein list must be held accountable no matter who they are. Release the files.”
Trump has directed Attorney General Pam Bondi to pursue the release of Epstein’s grand jury testimony from his federal child sex trafficking case out of the Southern District of New York. Epstein was found dead in his jail cell under mysterious circumstances in 2019, right before his trial on federal child sex trafficking charges was set to begin. Epstein was widely known among the globalist elites, who frequented his island and often used his private jet.
Temocrats are trying to navigate the Epstein controversy, which the Biden administration kept under wraps, while simultaneously criticizing Trump’s handling of the case.