Republicans who pushed Epstein files release see political careers upended by Trump

WASHINGTON — The four House Republicans who helped force the release of the Jeffrey Epstein files called themselves “The Bravehearts” — an acknowledgment that their risky stand would require a stiff spine, especially given President Donald Trump’s fierce opposition to the move. As they later learned, the gambit would also upend their political futures. Seven months after the House voted to release the Epstein files, sparking a Trump-led crusade against the rebellious quartet behind the effort, one of those four lawmakers is now an ex-member. Two of them won’t be returning to Congress next year. And another is facing the threat of a primary challenge next cycle. “Everybody’s paying a price for it,” Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., who spearheaded the Epstein resolution and lost his May primary to a Trump-backed challenger, told NBC News in an interview. “Trump became irrationally opposed to that more than [defections on] the ‘big, beautiful bill.’ It struck a nerve with him.” Massie co-sponsored with a Democrat the bill that required Trump’s administration to release the Epstein files, Justice Department documents related to investigations of the deceased sex offender. Survivors and many Trump supporters had pushed for the files to be made public. Initially only three other Republicans signed on: Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia, who resigned from Congress late last year in part because of her feud with Trump over Epstein; Rep. Nancy Mace of South Carolina, who failed this week to make the runoff in her state’s gubernatorial primary race, where Trump endorsed a rival; and Rep. Lauren Boebert of Colorado, who publicly faced Trump’s wrath after she recently campaigned for Massie. Sources close to the White House note Epstein wasn’t the only issue that soured the relationship between Trump and those four members. Massie has long been a thorn in the president’s side, including voting against Trump’s “big, beautiful bill,” while Greene started to break with Trump on a whole host of issues last year after the White House discouraged her from a Senate bid. Still, Trump and his allies went all out to defeat Massie, leading to the most expensive primary race in history. And he had threatened to do the same with Greene, before she decided to call it quits on her own midsession. “From the White House’s perspective, they want everyone on the team, which means backing the president, always — it’s their job. If you want to make yourself the turd in the punchbowl, the Epstein stuff is a good way to do that,” said a source close to the White House, who, like others in this story, spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the administration’s thinking. In a statement to NBC News, the White House said Trump has been “totally exonerated on anything relating to Epstein” and defended the president’s handling of the issue. “By releasing thousands of pages of documents, cooperating with the House Oversight Committee’s subpoena request, signing the Epstein Files Transparency Act, and calling for more investigations into Epstein’s Democrat friends, President Trump has done more for Epstein’s victims than anyone before him,” White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson said. Still, Trump’s frustration with the four members continued to grow, even as polling by his political allies obtained by NBC News found scant evidence that advocacy for releasing the files was swaying voters. Internal polling conducted in 2025 and early 2026 by the Trump-aligned super PAC MAGA KY showed almost no voters in Massie’s district ranked the Epstein files as the most important issue during the height of the frenzy last October. Mace, for her part, is convinced her push for the Epstein files is what cost her a Trump endorsement in the governor’s race. There’s no indication Trump had been planning on endorsing her prior to her Epstein vote, though the president did share a poll on social media in August showing Mace leading the pack, and she appeared to still be in good standing with the president at the time. Still, Mace said she had no regrets, calling the Epstein issue a hill she was “willing to die on.” “I knew what I was putting on the line when I voted to release the Epstein files. I’m a survivor, and I would do it all over again,” she told NBC News. Greene declined an interview but posted on social media the morning after Mace’s loss: “Warning. When you cast out and try to destroy those of us who fight the hardest. And you keep and protect weak cucked men. Well let’s just say you have a problem on your hands. We aren’t in your cult and we owe you nothing. And we are still the strongest fighters.” Boebert is now the last one standing, but she’s still potentially on the chopping block next cycle. Trump threatened Boebert after she campaigned with his nemesis, Massie, last month, saying that “anybody who can ⁠be that dumb deserves a good Primary fight!” But it was too late for another candidate to get on the ballot for the June primary in Colorado. “Look, the only thing that saved Lauren Boebert’s ass this year was the calendar,” a source close to the president said. “She may not be that lucky in the future.” A Republican operative also suggested Boebert could be in real trouble down the line. “Massie was already a dead man walking by the time he started to really lean in on this. MTG, it seemed like it was a significant factor — she was still kind of fine up through early fall,” the operative said. “With Boebert, it seems to have deteriorated very quickly over some of this. Next Congress, the Boebert stuff I could see being very serious.” Boebert has downplayed Trump’s attacks on her. “I’m not worried about that. I support the president,” she told NBC News last week. But she also grew frustrated when asked about her role in fighting for the Epstein files and appeared eager to turn the spotlight away from the issue. “Are we ever going to talk about things that are relevant, that we’re actually voting on? Is it just always going to be Epstein?” Boebert said. “That’s the only question that I ever get asked by any reporter. It’s just Epstein, Epstein, Epstein. I have done everything in my power to release the files and provide victims justice in some form or another.” The push for the Epstein files created a bond between the four Republicans involved in the effort. Their support was pivotal in providing the requisite votes for a so-called discharge petition, which allowed them to circumvent leadership and force a floor vote on the resolution. (When it did come to the floor, all but one Republican voted for it.) But both House GOP leaders and the White House mounted an all-out effort to try to prevent the resolution from ever coming up for a vote. That largely centered on trying to convince one of the three Republican women to remove their name from the discharge petition. The four lawmakers decided to form a group chat, which they named “The Bravehearts,” where they could share updates and offer support to one another amid the intense pressure campaign they were facing. At one point, Boebert was summoned to the White House for a meeting in the Situation Room with top Trump officials, who tried to convince Boebert to back down, Massie said. But before the meeting, according to Massie, the rest of the group armed her with loads of information to help rebut the arguments they anticipated from officials. “She had no intention of going over there and caving,” Massie said. “It was just like studying for a final. She wanted to know every aspect of the bill and what was false about what they had been saying.” For the most part, the group seems to be at peace with how the fight played out and affected their political careers, noting the law releasing the Epstein files will be a defining part of their legacies. “When I’m on my rocking chair on the farm 20 years from now, then whoever that attorney general is, if they find new Epstein material, they have to release it in 30 days,” Massie said. And they have remained in touch. After losing his primary race, Massie and his wife vacationed with Greene and her fiancé in Costa Rica. During the trip, they even made light of their predicament. “We joked that she jumped out of the plane, I rode it to the ground and we both ended up in Costa Rica,” Massie said.