President Donald Trump’s administration convened an urgent meeting in the Situation Room on Wednesday regarding efforts to release Department of Justice files on Jeffrey Epstein.
Senior Trump administration officials gathered with a prominent Republican lawmaker concerning a House of Representatives vote to unseal the documents, CNN reported.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt confirmed the meeting later on Wednesday during a press briefing when questioned about reports that officials had met with Rep. Lauren Boebert, reports the Express US.
“Doesn’t that show the level of transparency when we are willing to sit down with members of Congress and address their concerns?” she said. “I’m not going to detail conversations that took place in the Situation Room.”
Situation Room emergency
A source informed CNN that the Situation Room gathering included Boebert, who has demanded that the Justice Department release its files on the convicted sex offender and has backed a petition to force a vote compelling their release.
After the meeting, Boebert is not anticipated to withdraw her name from the petition, a source told CNN.
Whilst administration officials have engaged with the Colorado Republican, the president himself has sought to influence South Carolina Congresswoman Rep. Nancy Mace, another Republican who has endorsed the petition.
Phone tag
The pair have been engaged in “phone tag,” according to CNN. Mace has previously dismissed speculation that she was planning to withdraw her name from the petition.
Wednesday’s frantic attempts to meet with Boebert and continued efforts to win over Mace underscore the Trump administration’s anxiety regarding the Epstein documents, which returned to public attention after the House Oversight Committee unveiled additional papers from the Epstein estate.
The papers reveal Epstein purportedly referencing Trump by name on multiple occasions in private correspondence during the final 15 years of his existence.
Democrat pressure
The correspondence featured Epstein asserting that Trump had devoted considerable time with a woman whom Democrats on the Oversight Committee characterised as allegedly connected to Epstein’s sex trafficking operation.
Trump has consistently refuted any misconduct connected to the Epstein matter, has faced no criminal allegations from law enforcement, and has never been identified as the focus of any probe.
