STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
The president spent part of yesterday dismissing questions about a decline in his health, saying he was, quote, "very active." Today, some members of Congress are trying to force a vote to make the Trump administration release the Epstein files. Trump's Justice Department first promised to release more information about Epstein and then abruptly said, move along. Nothing to see here.
MICHEL MARTIN, HOST:
NPR senior political editor and correspondent Domenico Montanaro is with us now to tell us more about all this. Good morning, Domenico.
DOMENICO MONTANARO, BYLINE: Hey. Good morning, Michel.
MARTIN: So explain what these lawmakers are trying to do.
MONTANARO: Well, the two members of Congress who are at the center of this effort are Republican Thomas Massie of Kentucky and Democrat Ro Khanna of California. Massie filed what's known as a discharge petition on Tuesday. That's a procedural maneuver to try and get around leadership and force a vote. They need 218 House members to sign it and force that vote. It would still need to pass the Senate, though, so this wouldn't force a release on its own. But proponents hope that this'll ramp up political pressure on the administration to do more. To an extent, it's already having an effect. I mean, after the petition was filed, the Republican-controlled House Oversight Committee released some 30,000 more pages of documents related to the investigation, but a lot of that information is already public. It's not new. And those in favor of the release - of more release are saying, don't be fooled by that.
MARTIN: So what exactly do those calling for the full release of the files want or expect to find?
MONTANARO: Well, I want to highlight how Ro Khanna describes what this effort and discharge petition are about here on MORNING EDITION on Tuesday.
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RO KHANNA: The petition is about restoring trust in government. It protects victims' identity. It's simply calling for the release of all of the Epstein files to hold rich and powerful men who abused underage girls accountable.
MONTANARO: You know, more than this being about individual men who are Democrats or Republicans, this is seen as a question of who has power, money and influence and how it's used or abused. Very rarely have we ever seen Congress really involve itself in the Department of Justice and its investigations quite in this way.
MARTIN: You know what? We don't want to discount the fact that there are young women here who experienced something terrible, OK? But how much of this pressure is really about political opportunity?
MONTANARO: Politically, a day that's focused on Epstein is a day that is likely more helpful than not to Democrats. I mean, it's an irritant for Trump, especially since he's had a longtime friendship with Epstein. The White House says Trump and Epstein had a falling out in the early 2000s because Epstein was, quote, "being a creep." Other reporting has said it was over a property dispute. Nonetheless, there's a lot we don't know about their relationship. The association is certainly something Democrats, though, don't mind reminding people about. And polling has shown big majorities of people don't think the government is being transparent enough and disapprove of how Trump is handling this.
MARTIN: Can you say more about that polling very briefly? Is this something that's resonating with voters?
MONTANARO: You know, it's hard to say that this is going to be something that factors into people's minds more so than, say, prices, crime or immigration. But that's not to say it doesn't matter to people. It's one of the rare areas where we've seen some splits with people who are key in Trump's base.
MARTIN: That is NPR's Domenico Montanaro. Domenico, thank you.
MONTANARO: You're welcome. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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