A Republican lawmaker slammed President Donald Trump on Sunday, warning that the escalating U.S.-Israeli strikes on Iran won’t erase the controversy surrounding the Jeffrey Epstein files.
Operation “Epic Fury,” launched in the early hours of Saturday, saw airstrikes hit Tehran and other Iranian cities, resulting in the death of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and a wave of retaliatory strikes across the Middle East. At least four U.S. soldiers have died, three American fighter jets went down in an apparent friendly fire incident over Kuwait, and the conflict has now spilled into Lebanon. Trump told reporters the mission could continue for “four to five weeks,” urging the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps to surrender.
The strikes, which dominated the headlines, coincided with former President Bill Clinton’s testimony before the House Oversight Committee over his ties to Epstein, temporarily pushing the scandal off the front pages.
But Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.), who sponsored the Epstein Files Transparency Act last year, reminded the president that war abroad won’t hide the domestic scandal.
“PSA: Bombing a country on the other side of the globe won’t make the Epstein files go away, any more than the Dow going above 50,000 will,” Massie wrote on X (formerly Twitter) Sunday afternoon.
Massie wasn’t the only one drawing a link between Trump’s Iran strikes and Epstein. On Saturday Night Live, James Austin Johnson, impersonating Trump, quipped: “War, what is it good for? Distracting from the Epstein files!” — parodying Trump’s own Truth Social video announcing the operation.
Former MAGA congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene, who broke with Trump last year, also criticized the president for pursuing regime-change operations abroad instead of focusing on domestic issues. In a post on X, she highlighted the lack of accountability in the Epstein case:
“For years we demanded to release the Epstein files, demanding transparency and justice for thousands of victims… and not a single person has been arrested and likely won’t be,” Greene wrote. “Instead, we get a war with Iran… Another foreign war for foreign people for foreign regime change. For what?”
As U.S. forces continue their operations in Iran, critics warn that no amount of military action can erase the ongoing scrutiny over Epstein and the unanswered questions that remain in the files.
