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Donald Trump has signed into law a bill forcing the US Department of Justice to release files related to sex offender Jeffrey Epstein one day after it passed Congress with near unanimous support.
The move caps off a months-long saga over the release of the files during which the US president and senior Republicans sought to avoid bringing the legislation to a vote in Congress.
But in an abrupt change of course, Trump this week directed Republicans to back the measure, prompting its swift passage through Congress.
In a post on his Truth Social platform on Wednesday evening, the president took credit for the legislation’s passage and said Democrats had used the issue “to try and distract from our AMAZING Victories”.
“As everyone knows, I asked Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, and Senate Majority Leader John Thune, to pass this Bill in the House and Senate, respectively. Because of this request, the votes were almost unanimous in favor of passage,” he wrote.
It remains unclear how much material the justice department will be willing to make public.
This is a developing story
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