AUSTIN — State Rep. James Talarico, D-Austin, during a Friday appearance at the Texas Tribune Festival accused the White House and Congressional Republicans of covering up the Epstein files to avoid embarrassing President Donald Trump.
“When did pedophilia become a partisan issue?” asked Talarico, who recently announced he’s running for U.S. Sen. John Cornyn’s seat. “The American people deserve to know the whole truth about Jeffrey Epstein and every single powerful person who enabled him.”
Talarico’s comment comes as U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson said he’d schedule a vote to demand the Justice Department release all files related to alleged sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein. Until now, Johnson — a Trump ally — had spent weeks opposing the vote.
Pressure to hold the vote comes after the House Oversight Committee investigating the Epstein case this week released emails from the late financier containing allegations that Trump “spent hours” with victim Virginia Giuffre and that Trump knew of Epstein’s abuse of underage girls but never participated.
Even so, some Republicans continue to advocate against releasing the files, which Talarico, a Presbyterian seminarian and former public school teacher, called hypocritical.
“These are the same politicians that called librarians groomers, who called their political opponents pedophiles,” Talarico said. “And, to be clear, if there is a Democrat, I will be the first to call for their prosecution, because if there’s one thing we should all be able to agree on — Democrats and Republicans, conservatives and progressives — it’s that no one, including the President of the United States, should be able to cover up crimes against children.”
On Friday, U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi announced that she had assigned Jay Clayton, interim U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, to lead an investigation into possible ties to Epstein among Trump’s adversaries.
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