Joe Rogan has criticized the president following the signing of a bill that mandates the release of all case files pertaining to Jeffrey Epstein.
Donald Trump has been under mounting pressure to make these files public, a promise he made during his 2024 presidential campaign.
In response, Trump and his administration have been gradually releasing information about Epstein, who died by suicide in prison in 2019.
Nonetheless, the Department of Justice announced they would cease releasing additional files connected to the sex trafficking investigation involving the affluent financier—despite Pam Bondi’s earlier comments about a ‘truckload’ of documents, as reported by PBS.
In March, Bondi mentioned that the FBI had handed over ‘thousands of pages of documents’ to the DOJ for review regarding Epstein.
So, why withhold more documents?
Trump has asserted that the files were part of a ‘hoax’ orchestrated by the Democrats.
In a recent statement, the president remarked: “The Democrats are doing everything in their withering power to push the Epstein Hoax again, despite the DOJ releasing 50,000 pages of documents, in order to deflect from all of their bad policies and losses, especially the SHUTDOWN EMBARRASSMENT, where their party is in total disarray, and has no idea what to do.”
However, Trump has now reversed his stance on the files after Congress approved the Epstein Files Transparency Act, which mandates the release of all unclassified documents and records held by the DOJ concerning Epstein. On November 18, Trump enacted the bill into law.
The path to this action has been challenging, with Trump and his administration previously resisting the notion of publicizing the files, leading some to suspect the president’s involvement.
Joe Rogan, who highlighted this on his podcast, criticized Trump following the announcement.
“I heard there’s no files. I heard it’s a hoax,” Rogan commented during a recent podcast episode. “And then all of a sudden he’s going to release the files. I thought there was no files. He wants an investigation now! Like, what is going on?”
Rogan has previously voiced his opinion on the topic, accusing the administration of ‘gaslighting’ the American public.
“This one’s a line in the sand because this is one where there’s a lot of stuff about, you know, when we thought Trump was going to come in and a lot of things are going to be resolved,” he said in July when discussing the administration’s resistance to releasing the documents.
“And when you have this one hardcore line in the sand that everybody [has] been talking about forever and then they’re trying to gaslight you on that,” Rogan added.
The administration now has 30 days to disclose the files.