WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump and his administration on Wednesday ramped up a pressure campaign on congressional Republicans who are pushing for a full release of the Justice Department’s files about convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, rushing to head off a House vote on the matter.
Top officials met in the White House Situation Room on Wednesday with Rep. Lauren Boebert, R-Colo., who is backing an effort to force a House vote on whether to demand the release of the files.
She was summoned to sit down with top Justice Department and FBI officials, according to two people familiar with the matter. One of the people said the session included Attorney General Pam Bondi and FBI Director Kash Patel. Both people spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to comment on the private discussions.
Karoline Leavitt, the White House press secretary, confirmed that the meeting had taken place, calling it an example of “transparency” and how administration officials “are willing to sit down with members of Congress and address their concerns.”
Boebert is one of three Republican women in the House who have signed on to a petition aimed at forcing a vote on a bill demanding that the Justice Department release all of its investigative files on Epstein, who died by suicide in 2019.
If they refuse to remove their names, the petition is set later Wednesday to reach the 218 signatures needed to compel action within weeks.
Even if the measure were to pass the Republican-led House, it would almost certainly be dead on arrival in the Senate, and Trump would surely veto it. But a vote on the matter could be a political disaster for him and many Republicans, who have been torn between their loyalty to Trump and the clamoring by their constituents for more transparency about Epstein. The president has lobbied intensively behind the scenes to prevent such a vote.
Trump connected with Boebert by phone early Tuesday morning, according to two people familiar with the call, a day before Speaker Mike Johnson was set to finally swear in Rep. Adelita Grijalva, D-Ariz., who was expected to provide the 218th signature needed to force the Epstein vote.
Trump has also been reaching out by phone to Rep. Nancy Mace of South Carolina, another of the Republicans who have signed the petition, according to a person familiar with the calls. The two have not yet connected.
Boebert did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The flurry of lobbying came as the House Oversight Committee released tens of thousands of pages of material about Epstein, including three emails singled out by Democrats in which the disgraced financier suggested that Trump knew more about Epstein’s abuse than he has acknowledged.
In a social media post, Trump claimed the fresh focus on what he called the “Epstein Hoax” was a tactic by Democrats to deflect blame for causing the government shutdown.
“Only a very bad, or stupid, Republican would fall into that trap,” Trump wrote.
White House officials have sought to enlist Bondi and Patel in the lobbying effort directed at getting Boebert to remove her name from the discharge petition, according to people familiar with the matter.
A spokesperson for Bondi declined to comment, or to say whether Bondi attended a meeting Wednesday morning at the White House with Boebert. A White House official also declined to comment.
Patel was at the White House on Wednesday, where he spoke to reporters about the administration’s efforts to fight fentanyl.
Leavitt said she would not comment on conversations held in the Situation Room, normally a space reserved for handling high-level crises and military operations.
Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia and Thomas Massie of Kentucky are the two other Republicans currently signed on to the discharge petition. Massie, a longtime Trump adversary, is the leader of the petition and would not abandon his own effort.
Greene, previously a die-hard Trump ally, has in recent weeks broken repeatedly with the president on a range of issues and is seen as less likely to be swayed by outreach from Trump or the White House on the Epstein matter.
So far, none of the four Republicans have indicated that they are wavering on the Epstein petition. At home in their districts for over a month, people who spoke to them have said, they have repeatedly heard from constituents thanking them for signing their names to the discharge petition and pleading with them to hold the line.