Rep. Melanie Stansbury isn’t tiptoeing around the stakes. The New Mexico Democrat, who sits on the House Oversight Committee as it digs into Jeffrey Epstein’s network and potential co-conspirators, warned over the weekend that the fight over Epstein’s files could trigger political shockwaves big enough to push President Donald Trump toward a Nixon-style downfall.
Speaking with CNN’s Fredricka Whitfield on Saturday, Stansbury said the public’s instincts are already flashing red. “This does not sit well for the American people; our gut is telling us something is wrong here,” she said. And she didn’t hold back on the scale of what she believes is coming. “We know that the White House is engaged in a cover-up, and I believe that this will be as explosive as what we saw in Watergate; not just because of the crimes that are being covered up, but because of the cover-up itself.”
Next week, the House is expected to vote on legislation that would force the Justice Department to release all of its Epstein files—records gathered from the 2019 raids on Epstein’s New York townhouse and private island. The vote wasn’t optional for leadership; a discharge petition, a rarely successful maneuver to bypass parliamentary roadblocks, secured enough signatures to push it through.
According to Stansbury, Trump’s attempts to block that vote may end up being as damaging to him as anything contained in the files. “Part of why this discharge petition vote is so important is [that] we know that the president is involved in a pressure campaign of members of Congress, and we think that he believes that if he can get enough Republicans to basically back him, that he can continue to bury these files,” she said.
But she argued that the strategy is already fraying. “But I think we can see the cracks in that strategy,” Stansbury continued. “Late last night, the president went full-bore attack after Marjorie Taylor Greene, and she revealed that she had been texting with the White House and the president himself, and that the reason why she is going after her and trying to make an example out of her, is because of the Epstein files.”
Stansbury also said the administration has already failed to meet basic legal obligations to the Oversight Committee. The committee has subpoena power, and according to her, that authority has been brushed aside.
“I want to emphasize that we have already subpoenaed these files, and the White House and the Department of Justice have failed to comply with the existing subpoena, which has asked for the full, unredacted files,” she said. “And I have to say that this latest ploy by the president appears to be another stalling tactic.”
If her warnings prove accurate, next week’s vote won’t just be a procedural moment—it could mark the start of a crisis with echoes of one of the most consequential political implosions in American history. (Watch the interview below).
