'Friends would get hurt': Marjorie Taylor Greene calls Trump a 'traitor' over Epstein files handling
Former Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor-Greene levelled scathing accusations against President Donald Trump and his administration about the Epstein files and even suggested that the President was a "traitor." Greene, a former Trump loyalist, claimed that she had had difficult conversations with the President when speaking about the files related to the deceased sex offender, and that Trump said that "his friends would get hurt" if the files were released.
According to the Epstein Files Transparency Act (EFTA) of 2025, the administration was bound to release all documents pertaining to Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell's prosecutions, but a section of lawmakers claim that only about half of those have been released. They are also critical of the redactions in the already released files. Slamming the Trump administration for the handling of the case, Greene told CNN that they "should be considered traitors." "The ones who refuse to release the Epstein files, want to cover up for pedophiles and rapists...those are the traitors to the American people," Greene added.
Greene said that she would "never forget" a text message President Trump had sent her after she said that her son was being threatened with death as he called her a traitor." "He told me that I deserved it." The former congresswoman's remarks came in response to a question about a bombshell New York Times report, which claimed that top administration officials, including Vice President J.D. Vance, used the White House Situation Room to discuss how the files should be handled.
"Unfortunately, that was something I lived through. I watched the Speaker of the House shut down the government and keep the House completely out of session for eight weeks in the fall of 2025 simply because he was under orders from the President and his team not to do anything in the House of Representatives because they were doing everything they could to stop that resolution (EFTA) from passing in the House," Greene said.
As per the NYT report, government officials involved the situation room discussion about the Epstein files were Vice President JD Vance, White House chief of staff, Susie Wiles, the White House counsel, David Warrington, press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, deputy chief of staff Taylor Budowich, communications director, Steven Cheung, then deputy attorney general, Todd Blanche, associate attorney general, Stanley Woodward Jr., deputy chief of staff James Blair, former Attorney General Pam Bondi, and F.B.I. Director Kash Patel was present. "This is a huge problem," Vance had reportedly said at the meeting.
The Vice President advised the group that the Epstein files should be released, including the unsubstantiated claims against Trump, as the contents would surface either way in the future. However, his argument fell on deaf ears. The deputy chief of staff, Blair, argued that the communication strategy of the group put them in that situation. "I don't know that it's going to get us out. And if you're going to go in front of the press, you've got a lot of work to do," he added.
