Democrats to call on Vance to testify to House committee over Epstein files

Democrats on the House oversight committee, led by Representative Robert Garcia, plan to call on Vice President JD Vance to testify about the Trump administration's handling of the Epstein files, following a New York Times report detailing an internal crisis within the administration.

Garcia will ask committee chair James Comer to summon the vice president to speak, according to reports. The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment on whether Vance would agree to appear.

According to the New York Times, Vance warned fellow officials that the controversy was a "huge problem," while senior aides held a series of Situation Room meetings—often without Trump present—to address the issue. White House chief of staff Susie Wiles believed Vance was exaggerating and had "bought into the conspiracy theories."

The report says participants in those meetings included then-Attorney General Pam Bondi, now-acting Attorney General Todd Blanche, FBI Director Kash Patel, White House communications director Steve Cheung, and press secretary Karoline Leavitt. Multiple attendees viewed the situation as a "PR disaster."

Officials explored various responses, including transparency measures that some believed would reveal little new information. They also discussed unconventional approaches, such as using Ghislaine Maxwell to publicly defend Trump in an interview with Tucker Carlson.

Vance argued for releasing all files and taking action before Congress could advance the Epstein Files Transparency Act. Aides were reportedly focused more on losing support from core MAGA voters than on political opponents.

The Times reporters wrote that numerous Trump administration officials had "grossly underestimated or simply been blind to the voracious appetite of the MAGA base for information about Epstein."

Infighting peaked after the Wall Street Journal reported in July that Trump allegedly sent Epstein a "bawdy" birthday message in 2003 with a drawing of a woman's silhouette. Trump denied the letter's legitimacy and filed a $10 billion lawsuit against the publishers; a Florida judge dismissed the suit in March, but Trump's legal team refiled it last month.

The administration continues to grapple with fallout from the document release. Republicans who strongly pushed for releasing all files have faced political consequences. Marjorie Taylor Greene resigned in January after months of Trump criticism. Nancy Mace lost her South Carolina primary, attributing her defeat to her support for Epstein file transparency. Rep. Thomas Massie of Kentucky was ousted after voters backed his Trump-recruited challenger. Massie, a co-sponsor of the Epstein Files Transparency Act, told NBC News: "Everybody's paying a price for it. Trump became irrationally opposed to that more than [defections on] the 'big, beautiful bill'. It struck a nerve with him."

Recently, scrutiny has revived as congressional investigators gather new testimony from Epstein associates, including his longtime executive assistant Lesley Groff. On Wednesday, the committee announced it would ask Epstein's former attorney Alan Dershowitz to appear before the panel.