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FIRST ON FOX: The GOP majority on the House Oversight Committee is at war with their Democratic counterparts over what they say is a false narrative being crafted about President Donald Trump and Jeffrey Epstein.
Republican committee staff authored a new talking points memo sent to GOP lawmakers on Tuesday morning that is aimed at discounting Democrats’ recent leaks of information on Epstein, accusing them of releasing information on a selective basis to paint a picture that is not there.
“Throughout the Oversight Committee’s review of the federal government’s handling of the Epstein and Maxwell criminal investigations, Democrats have demonstrated a sustained pattern of misconduct — misrepresenting witness testimony, selectively leaking cherry-picked documents, and manipulating emails and images — to fabricate yet another politically motivated hoax targeting President Trump,” the memo, obtained by Fox News Digital, said.
“As a result, nothing Democrats post or leak on this matter can be taken at face value.”
HOUSE REPUBLICANS SAY DEMS TWISTING EPSTEIN PROBE TO SMEAR TRUMP IN NEW MEMO
The memo also encourages Oversight Republicans to take aim at “Legacy Media,” which it says “uncritically amplified these falsehoods, acting as a willing conduit rather than performing basic due diligence.”
“This reckless combination of partisan distortion and media malpractice undermines the Committee’s work, misleads the public, and distracts from the serious responsibility of ensuring accountability, transparency, and justice for the American people,” the memo said.
What had initially begun as a bipartisan investigation quickly devolved into partisan infighting.
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Democrats have argued that Republicans are using the probe to give Trump cover, while the GOP said the left is distorting facts to create a false narrative that Trump participated in Epstein’s crimes.
The pair were known to have a close friendship decades ago, but had a falling out in the early 2000s before accusations of sexual contact with minors first surfaced. To date, the president has denied involvement — and not been implicated — in any of Epstein’s crimes.
Among the memo’s highlights are Oversight Democrats releasing three emails sent to the committee by Epstein’s estate which appear to suggest that Trump “knew about” various illicit activities of Epstein’s, including one which refers to him as “that dog that hasn’t barked.”
EX-PRINCE ANDREW APPEARS IN PHOTO RELEASED BY JEFFREY EPSTEIN’S ESTATE, SHARED BY HOUSE DEMOCRATS
Republicans said they selectively released three emails out of a tranche of 20,000 pages of documents at the time.
“When CNN questioned the redactions, Democrat Committee members falsely claimed Republicans were responsible. After Republicans released more than 20,000 pages, Democrats then claimed this transparency was intended to ‘disorient’ and ‘distract’ from their fabricated narrative,” the memo said.
In a later release of photos from Epstein’s estate, Republicans accused Democrats of having “censored adult women’s faces to smear President Trump.”
For example, one of the photos censored, they said, “shows President Trump standing next to adult Hawaiian Tropic women models.”
Democrats have not always mentioned Trump directly in their releases, but he has been a regular feature of the emails and photos they have made public.
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“It is time to end this White House cover-up and bring justice to the survivors of Jeffrey Epstein and his powerful friends,” Rep. Robert Garcia, D-Calif., the top Democrat on the committee, said in a statement on one of the releases.
“These disturbing photos raise even more questions about Epstein and his relationships with some of the most powerful men in the world. We will not rest until the American people get the truth. The Department of Justice must release all the files, NOW.”
Meanwhile, the Trump administration is facing a Dec. 19 deadline to release its files related to Epstein, pursuant to a near-unanimous vote in the House and a unanimous vote in the Senate.
Fox News Digital reached out to Oversight Committee Democrats for a response to the memo.
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