The Epstein Files Are All Over the News Now, but Why Biden Didn't Release Them?
Are there Epstein files? Biden might not have cared.
Published July 16 2025, 5:01 p.m. ET

Although Donald Trump is usually pretty good at controlling narratives, he has struggled to control the one focused on Jeffrey Epstein. After promising his supporters that he would release all files related to the case and take down all those who knew him, he has now suggested that people should stop talking about it altogether.
That about-face has turned into a genuine controversy inside the Trump administration, and it's also left some wondering why Joe Biden didn't simply release the files when he was president, especially if they have damaging information about Trump in them. Here's what we know.

Why didn't Biden release the Epstein files?
The first thing to establish is that when we talk about the Epstein files, we're usually talking about what could be a bunch of different things. The thing most people are interested in is flight lists that indicate who else Epstein would invite onto his private planes, which is often where he performed the sexual assaults that he was ultimately convicted for. Conspiracies have swirled suggesting that Epstein had various powerful people on those planes.
After suggesting on the campaign trail that there was cover-up at work in the Epstein case, and that there may have been foul play in his death, an investigation by the DOJ and FBI came to the same conclusion as previous investigations, saying that there was no client list and that he died by suicide.
Plenty in far-right circles believe Trump's administration is hiding something, although we don't know for sure.
As for why Biden didn't release this information himself, there could be any number of explanations. It's possible that he looked into it and determined that the conclusions of the original investigation were correct. It's also possible that he didn't spend much time thinking about Jeffrey Epstein while he was trying to run the government. Or, of course, it's possible that he or someone he knows is also implicated in this whole sordid affair.
When it comes to Epstein, there's plenty that we don't know. Most people have long assumed that everything about Epstein was as it seemed. He was a wealthy abuser who took advantage of his wealth and was connected to plenty of powerful people.
Now, though, even those of us who didn't think there was any grand conspiracy at work are wondering why Trump is working so hard to hide the ball here.
Whatever there is to learn about Epstein, if it's anything, we may never know. What's clear, though, is that Trump is not interested in talking about this anymore, and we don't know whether Biden ever really was.
Epstein's death was the inspiration for reams of conspiracy theories, but it was also a reminder of how much power he wielded while he was alive. Although he's been dead for years now, he still has a pretty powerful grip on the imagination of at least some portion of America, perhaps including the president.