Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi refuses to say why Biden didn’t release Epstein files

Leading Democrat Rep. Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., says President Donald Trump should release the Epstein files, but is silent on why former President Joe Biden did not anytime in his four years in the Oval Office.

Democrats have seized on the issue since the case became a political controversy for the Trump administration. However, despite their current calls for transparency on the case, the Biden Justice Department also failed to release additional documents on Epstein. 

Asked by Fox News Digital whether she thought the Trump administration should release the Epstein files, former House Speaker Pelosi responded, “Absolutely.”

Fox News Digital then asked, “Why do you think Biden didn’t do it for four years?” to which Pelosi simply turned around and began walking away.

 TRUMP DIRECTS AG BONDI TO WORK ON UNSEALING GRAND JURY TRANSCRIPTS IN EPSTEIN CASE: ‘WE ARE READY’

Fox News Digital pressed, “Do you know why they didn’t do it? Do you think they should have?” However, Pelosi ignored the reporter and stepped into a car.

Pelosi served as House speaker, one of the most powerful positions in the country, from 2019 to 2023, two of those years occurring when Biden was in the Oval Office.

Other Democrats have similarly struggled to answer why a president of their party did not release the files as they demand action now.

On Thursday, Rep. Jamie Raskin, D-Md., was pressed on the issue by “Morning Joe” co-host Joe Scarborough, but he could not give an answer.

“But, Congressman, you could have gotten that from ’21 to ’25, when Democrats controlled the DOJ. Why — it was a crisis then. It’s a crisis now. Why didn’t Democrats call for it from ’21 to ’25?” Scarborough asked. 

“So, I mean, you’d have to go back and look specifically at particular prosecutorial decisions and what was taking place in terms of the other cases. So, I don’t know, we could try to reconstruct that record,” Raskin replied. 

DEMOCRATS HIT ROCK BOTTOM AS PARTY PLUMMETS TO ALL-TIME LOW: POLL

Jeffrey Epstein in Cambridge, Mass., in September 2004. Epstein was connected with several prominent people including politicians, actors and academics. Epstein was convicted of having sex with an underaged woman. (Rick Friedman/Rick Friedman Photography/Corbis via Getty Images)

Rep. Pramila Jayapal, D-Wash., was also caught off guard when a CNN anchor challenged her on why she never called for transparency on Epstein while Biden was president, despite her hammering the Trump administration over the case.

“I would have been happy to raise it then as well. Frankly, we were focused on so many different pieces,” Jayapal replied. 

Meanwhile, Republican Sen. Roger Marshall of Kansas told Fox News Digital, “What I think is really rich is this, Epstein dies in 2019 and the Biden administration does nothing for four years, absolutely nothing.”

“I didn’t hear any Democrats call for it. And, you know, I never heard the legacy media on TV saying one thing about it either. And suddenly, it’s a code blue. Suddenly, every Democrat and the legacy media wants to see these reports. I think that’s hypocritical,” he said.

Marshall went on to say that “beyond that, there may be a lot more going on than meets the eye.”

TWICE-DEPORTED MIGRANT RAPIST FREED AS DEMS FACE HEAT FOR SANCTUARY POLICIES

Rep. Pramila Jayapal, D-Wash., was also caught off guard when a CNN anchor challenged her on why she never called for transparency on Epstein while Biden was president, despite her hammering the Trump administration over the case. (Al Drago/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

While noting that he does not have any special information, he said, “I think something else is going on that may be affecting national security,” and “I think President Trump deserves a little bit of grace here. But hopefully, at the end of the day, everything will be released. I’m all for the transparency.”

Rep. Scott DesJarlais, R-Tenn., said that while U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi may not need to release all the files, “if there’s information in those files that shows that somebody committed a crime, that there’s somebody that she has knowledge of that knowingly had sex with an underage girl, they need to be prosecuted and I would hope that she would be doing that.”

“Pam Bondi made quite a show out of what she had, and we need a better explanation than what we’ve got,” said DesJarlais.

He suggested that a bipartisan panel be given access to the files for review.

“Do you need to release everything? I don’t know. But anything that’s criminal, I think, needs to be exposed,” he said.

TRUMP DIRECTS AG BONDI TO WORK ON UNSEALING GRAND JURY TRANSCRIPTS IN EPSTEIN CASE: ‘WE ARE READY’

AG Bondi, Jeffrey Epstein, President Donald Trump. (Getty Images)

Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., told Fox News Digital, “I’m sure that the president is going to want to release whatever he can release.”

CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP

Johnson went on to say, “I am concerned about the chain of custody” of the files.

“The Democrats have had control of these files. What have they added? What have they deleted? I don’t know. I have no idea. I’m as curious as anybody else,” he said, adding, “I’ll trust the Trump Justice Department to do what is right.”

Fox News Digital’s David Spector contributed to this report.