U.S. President Donald Trump on Sunday urged Republicans in Congress to support the release of Justice Department files related to Jeffrey Epstein, marking a sharp reversal from his earlier resistance to making the documents public.

Trump issued the call in a post on Truth Social, shortly after House Speaker Mike Johnson said that a vote to release the files could help dispel allegations that Trump had any knowledge of Epstein’s abuse and trafficking of underage girls, as reported in Reuters.

“House Republicans should vote to release the Epstein files, because we have nothing to hide,” Trump wrote, adding that it was time to “move on from this Democrat Hoax perpetrated by Radical Left Lunatics” seeking to distract from what he described as Republican successes, including the party’s stance during the recent government shutdown.

Although Trump and Epstein were photographed together decades ago, Trump has long insisted they had a falling out before Epstein’s criminal convictions. Emails released last week by a House committee showed Epstein believed Trump “knew about the girls,” though the meaning of the statement remains unclear.

The president has recently dismissed the renewed scrutiny of the files as a partisan smear campaign, while simultaneously ordering the Department of Justice to investigate prominent Democrats’ ties to Epstein.

The issue has exposed deep fractures within the GOP, despite Trump having previously campaigned on the promise of releasing more Epstein-related documents. Many of his supporters claim that the government is withholding sensitive records that could reveal the late financier’s connections to influential public figures. Epstein died by suicide in jail in 2019.

Tensions escalated further on Friday when Trump publicly withdrew his support for Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene, one of his most loyal allies, following her criticism of Republicans’ handling of the Epstein files and other issues.

Across the aisle, pressure to move forward with disclosure is also growing. Representative Ro Khanna, a California Democrat and an original sponsor of the petition calling for a vote, said Sunday he expects more than 40 Republicans to join in support.

Republicans currently hold a narrow majority in the House with 219 seats to Democrats’ 214, positioning the upcoming vote as a potentially pivotal moment in the long-running fight over transparency surrounding the Epstein case.