Claim:
On Sept. 4, 2021, now-U.S. Vice President JD Vance posted a tweet complaining that after Jeffrey Epstein’s ties with “our wealthiest and most powerful people” were made public, and Epstein had died in his jail cell not long after, “we just don’t talk about it.”
Rating:
On Sept. 4, 2021, future U.S. Vice President JD Vance posted a tweet questioning why more people were not discussing the case of the deceased convicted sex offender and disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein.
“Remember when we learned that our wealthiest and most powerful people were connected to a guy who ran a literal child sex trafficking ring? And then that guy died mysteriously in a jail,” he asked.
The documented list of wealthy and powerful people connected to Epstein includes, among others, U.S. President Donald Trump. The course of Trump’s second administration has seen a large effort to make various files related to Epstein’s alleged crimes public. Epstein died by suicide in 2019 while awaiting trial on sex-trafficking charges. Trump’s critics have attempted to portray Epstein and Trump as incredibly close, while the White House and its allies, Vance included, have attempted to distance their boss from his connection to Epstein. For instance, USA Today reported in July 2025 that Vance said that Trump had “nothing to hide” regarding the case.
In November 2025, Democrats on the U.S. House of Representatives Oversight Committee made thousands of Epstein’s emails public. Many referenced Trump. In the wake of the emails, Vance’s 2021 tweet about Epstein resurfaced, appearing to publicly display Vance’s changing priorities on the issue. Snopes readers wrote in asking whether the 2021 tweet from Vance was real.
It was, and as of this writing, remained visible on Vance’s X account.
Trump’s own position on the Epstein files has shifted several times, according to Al Jazeera. At different times, he and members of his administration have said both that they would be open to releasing the files and not doing so.
On Nov. 12, 2025, after waiting a record-breaking seven weeks, U.S. Rep. Adelita Grijalva, a Democrat from Arizona, was sworn in as a member of Congress. She became the 218th representative, the amount needed for a majority, to back a congressional measure co-authored by Reps. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., and Ro Khanna, D-Calif., ordering the public release of files related to Epstein.
On Nov. 16, 2025, Trump changed course and called on House Republicans to vote to release the files. Two days later, the measure, which compels the U.S. Justice Department to release its Epstein records, passed in the House 427-1 before being approved unanimously in the Senate, according to NBC News. Trump promised on Nov. 19 to sign the bill into law.
Sources
“Arizona Democrat Adelita Grijalva Sworn in after Contentious Seven-Week Delay.” NBC News, 12 Nov. 2025, https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/congress/arizona-democrat-adelita-grijalva-sworn-contentious-seven-week-delay-rcna243007.
Bose, Nandita. “Trump’s White House Tried to Slow-Walk a Vote on the Epstein Files. It Failed.” Reuters, 19 Nov. 2025, https://www.reuters.com/world/us/trumps-white-house-tried-dodge-vote-epstein-files-it-failed-2025-11-19/.
“Congress Passes Bill to Force the Release of the Epstein Files.” NBC News, 19 Nov. 2025, https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/congress/house-bill-force-release-epstein-files-bipartisan-vote-rcna244301.
“JD Vance’s Old Epstein Tweets Come Back To Bite Him.” Yahoo News, 12 Nov. 2025, https://www.yahoo.com/news/articles/jd-vance-old-epstein-tweets-200942478.html.
Jokic, Natasha. “JD Vance’s Old Tweets About Epstein Are Resurfacing.” BuzzFeed, 12 Nov. 2025, https://www.buzzfeed.com/natashajokic1/epstein-emails-vance-posts.
Kochi, Sudiksha. “JD Vance Says Trump Has ‘nothing to Hide’ in Epstein Case.” USA TODAY, https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2025/07/28/vance-trump-epstein-case-update/85406754007/. Accessed 19 Nov. 2025.
PolitiFact, Amy Sherman |. “How Donald Trump Shifted on Releasing the Jeffrey Epstein Files.” Al Jazeera, https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2025/11/18/how-donald-trump-shifted-on-releasing-the-jeffrey-epstein-files. Accessed 19 Nov. 2025.
Rascoe, Ayesha. “What Thousands of Released Emails Reveal about How Epstein Operated.” NPR, 16 Nov. 2025. National. NPR, https://www.npr.org/2025/11/16/nx-s1-5608295/what-thousands-of-released-emails-reveal-about-how-epstein-operated.
