Name: Trump takes aim at MAGA supporters calling for release of Epstein documents | DW News
Uploaded: 2025-07-20T17:06:49.000Z
Duration: 4 min 11 s
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President Donald Trump has filed a billion-dollar lawsuit against The Wall Street Journal and its owner Rupert Murdoch.

The newspaper had claimed that Donald Trump wrote a lewd birthday message to the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

Trump is under intense pressure from his usually loyal supporters for a lack of transparency around the Epstein case.

In response, the president has asked a federal court to unseal grand jury testimony from the prosecution against the disgraced financier, in an effort to put the issue to rest.

For the latest, let's bring in Janelle de Milan in Washington for more.

Janelle, it appears when it comes to the Epstein file that Trump's MAGA base is not buying what Trump is claiming.

President Trump also clearly having to respond to it this morning.

We saw a post on Truth Social where he reiterated that he had asked the Justice Department to get that grand jury testimony unsealed.

We know that yesterday, Attorney General Pam Bondi already made that request to a federal court.

But we could see in that Truth Social post that Trump feels that he has to manage expectations a bit.

If I may just read quickly, he said, I've asked the Justice Department to release all grand jury testimony with respect to Jeffrey Epstein, subject only to court approval.

With that being said, and even if the court gave its full and unwavering approval, nothing will be good enough for the troublemakers and radical left lunatics making the request.

We know that President Trump has sought to divert attention from this story by saying that that Epstein list was a hoax created by Democrats.

Democrats, of course, have recognized a political moment and seized upon the opportunity to also pile on and call for the release of these Epstein documents.

But we know that that does not take away from the fact that it has been the president's own supporters who are the loudest in calling for the release of these documents.

Now the release of this grand jury testimony, will that have the desired effect to calm the disgruntled among Trump's supporters?

Well, that is, of course, certainly the hope of this White House.

But I would like to go back to that Truth Social post where he said that the radical left lunatics and the troublemakers would not be satisfied by the release of this grand jury testimony.

And I think the subtext there is a message to his supporters.

If you are not satisfied by the steps that the president has taken, that perhaps you yourself are a radical left lunatic or a troublemaker and not in fact MAGA.

But there's reason to believe that there are a few indications that this might be unsatisfying for anyone seeking more transparency in this case.

It could be quite difficult to get court approval for the unsealing of these kinds of documents.

They're sealed by design to protect witnesses, to protect victims, victims, of course, that have been largely overlooked in the discourse of this.

Even if these documents are unsealed, the unsealing process could take months.

And even then, there is indication that that is likely to be just a small fraction of the evidence collected in this case.

So whether this will go a long way to calming the MAGA base down, we don't know.

But what could happen is that the next big story could come that could deflect attention away from this case.

That is also a pattern we have seen in this administration.

Very briefly, how serious is this for Trump's presidency?

I think it has shown us that there is a layer of vulnerability to the presidency that was not there before.

Whether that is the end of the presidency or something that could bring him down, I am willing to wager a guess and say that is unlikely.

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Trump takes aim at MAGA supporters calling for release of Epstein documents | DW News

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