U.S. Rep. Blake Moore, Utah’s only member of congressional leadership, said Wednesday that he supports government transparency,” but that he was concerned about the impact on victims if lawmakers move to fully release files related to Jeffrey Epstein, the late financier who was convicted of sex offenses and accused of trafficking children.
Pressed on the question, the House Republican caucus vice chair echoed some of his GOP colleagues, including Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., and did not directly answer whether or how he would support the release of the documents.
“I absolutely support transparency, but you have to protect potential victims’ private information as well,” Moore said during a brief media availability in South Ogden on Wednesday. “It’s not just this easy, like, ‘Let’s release it all,’ when there’s going to be a lot of victims that are going to be exposed from this.”
“That’s the part that’s also concerning to Speaker Johnson, and that doesn’t get captured,” Moore added.
Moore’s comments Wednesday came after House lawmakers left for their annual August recess a day early last week, avoiding one final day of frenzy about records, as Democrats continued to try to force votes on the issue, despite Johnson having previously said he supported the release.
“I’m for transparency,” Johnson said during a July 15 podcast interview. “It’s a very delicate subject. We should put everything out there and let the people decide.”
But by July 22, Johnson had changed his tune. At a news conference last week, the speaker said he was “done being lectured about transparency” and that he would not allow Democrats to “continue with their nonsense this week.”
President Donald Trump repeatedly promised to release the documents about Epstein, who authorities say died by suicide in 2019 while jailed on charges of sex trafficking minors.
Trump went back on his promise to release the files in recent weeks after his former adviser, Elon Musk, alleged Trump was included in the records. Earlier this month, The Wall Street Journal reported that Trump contributed to a birthday gift for Epstein that included “bawdy letters.” And Attorney General Pam Bondi reportedly also told Trump earlier this year that his name appeared in the Epstein files.
Moore, like Johnson, said Wednesday that he thinks Democrats are using the possible release of the files to attack Trump.
“I don’t remember any of my Democrat colleagues demanding [former President Joe] Biden to release this stuff,” he said. “If they feel like it could affect Trump in some negative way, then they’re going to continue to push it. That’s just the reality.
Moore added that Democrats had “all of Biden’s years with [control of] the White House, House and Senate to get this done, and now it’s like the only thing that they ultimately care about.”
Asked again by reporters if he supported the release of the documents in a way that protected the identities of victims, Moore said, “I’m in full [support] of transparency. … I’m not a legal scholar, I’m not an attorney, but I want to make sure that any type of grand jury testimony that could affect innocent people or victims or things like that, that they’re taken out.”
The line on the Epstein files has become an increasingly difficult one for GOP lawmakers to walk, as Trump has tried to shut down calls for the release from members of his own base. Some, including Utah’s senior federal delegate, Sen. Mike Lee, have pushed instead for Ghislaine Maxwell, who was convicted of sex trafficking, to testify before Congress.
A lawyer for Maxwell said this week that she would testify, but only with major conditions, including immunity. Asked Wednesday if he thought Maxwell should get immunity or a pardon, Moore said, “I don’t think so.”
Most other members of Utah’s all-GOP congressional delegation have avoided addressing the topic on the record. Sens. Lee and John Curtis, as well as Reps. Celeste Maloy and Burgess Owens, did not respond to requests for comment on whether they supported the release of the documents earlier this month.
A spokesperson for Rep. Mike Kennedy said in a statement to The Salt Lake Tribune, “Congressman Kennedy has always supported transparency,” but asked whether that meant the congressman supported the release of the files — and if so, in what fashion — the spokesperson never responded.