In a dramatic U-turn, US President Donald Trump on Sunday called for Republicans in the House of Representatives to vote to release all documents on the late sex offender, Jeffrey Epstein.

Although Trump denies any wrongdoing tied to the so-called Epstein Files, his critics have accused him of attempting to block their release in a bid to conceal any potential references to him.

So, why have things changed, and what is likely to happen next?

Why is Trump now backing the release of the Epstein Files?

The US leader now wants to show he has "nothing to hide", according to his post on Truth Social. Despite pledging to release the documents — a long-running touchpoint of the American right — in his 2024 presidential campaign, Trump had been reluctant to allow them into the public domain, calling them a "hoax" and "boring" as recently as July.

The release by Democrats on the House Oversight Committee last week of three emails which reference the president, among more than 20,000 documents subpoenaed from Epstein's estate, has piled pressure onto Trump.

But, given that many Republicans have signaled that they would vote with Democrats to force the Justice Department to release all files and communications, Trump may be trying to save face ahead of a prospect that is looking increasingly likely.

What do the latest Epstein emails say about Trump?

The earliest mails are an exchange with Epstein's associate, and fellow convicted sex offender, Ghislaine Maxwell in 2011. In them, Epstein writes to Maxwell that: "I want you to realize that that dog that hasn't barked is Trump.. [REDACTED VICTIM] spent hours at my house with him".  Epstein goes on to write that Trump "has never once been mentioned", including by a "police chief" before Maxwell wrote: "I have been thinking about that..."

Years later, in February 2019, just a few months before his arrest, Epstein sent an email to his own address saying that Trump "never got a massage" despite "coming to my house many times during that period."

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said the released emails were "selectively leaked" by the House Democrats to "liberal media to create a fake narrative to smear President Trump".

What happens next?

That depends on the progress of the Epstein Files Transparency Act. Republican Representative Thomas Massie, a co-sponsor of the bill with Democratic Congressman Ro Khanna, says it has enough support from the party to get through a vote in the House of Representatives this week, reportedly on Thursday. "I think we could have a deluge of Republicans," Massie told ABC. "There could be 100 or more."

Should that pass, the bill will move to the upper house of the US government, the Senate, which is majority Republican. There it will require 60 (out of 100) votes and Trump's signature to pass.

In effect, that means at least 13 Republican senators would have to vote for disclosure, alongside all Democrats and the two independents. Should Trump refuse to sign, the bill would need two-thirds support in both houses to pass. 

Has this damaged Trump's presidency?

It's hard to say for certain, but there are signs that it has. As well as the substantial number of his own party willing to vote for something that was, until Sunday, opposed by the president, the Epstein links have seen cracks appear in the MAGA wing of the Republican party, most notably with Republican congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene.

Once a staunch Trump ally, Taylor Greene and Trump have been involved in a drawn-out public spat over her support for the release of the Epstein Files.

"A hotbed of threats against me are being fueled and egged on by the most powerful man in the world," Taylor Greene wrote on X shortly before Trump's reversal. She has since sought to mend the relationship, but Trump's Sunday Truth Social post lambasted her, saying: "Nobody cares about this Traitor to our Country!"

Though not necessarily directly related to the Epstein Files, a poll by news agency Reuters and the research firm Ipsos found that Trump's disapproval rating jumped from 52% in May to 58% in November, while his approval rating remained at 40%.

What were the ties between Trump and Epstein?

Trump and Epstein moved in the same business and social circles in the late 1980s and seemed to develop a close friendship. Epstein bought a mansion just two miles from Trump's Mar-a-Lago resort in 1990.

A decade later, Maxwell recruited Virginia Giuffre, then 16, from Mar-a-Lago, where she was a locker room attendant, to be a masseuse for Epstein. Giuffre was one of the most prominent accusers of Epstein and publicly described being trafficked by him to Prince Andrew, of the UK. She sued the then-prince, who settled out of court in 2022. Giuffre, who this year committed suicide, said more than once, that she never saw any wrongdoing by Trump.

Flight logs from Epstein's private plane state that Trump flew in it seven times between 1993 and 1997 and Trump described Epstein as a "terrific guy" in a profile on Epstein in New York magazine in 2002, adding that: "It is even said that he likes beautiful women as much as I do, and many of them are on the younger side."

By the time Trump became president for the first time in 2019, he had distanced himself from Epstein — partly due to a 2004 real estate dispute. By then Epstein had served 13 months in jail for soliciting prostitution in 2008. 

Epstein was charged with sex trafficking in 2019 and Trump said: "I don't think I've spoken to him for 15 years." He then called for a full investigation after Epstein's death later that year. Six years later, he has flip-flopped back to a similar position.

Edited by Jess Smee