Claim:
The conservative political commentator Ben Shapiro said the full release of government-held files relating to the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein would destroy Donald Trump’s presidency.
Rating:
In December 2025, a claim (archived) circulated online that conservative political commentator Ben Shapiro said the full release of government-held files relating to the disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein would destroy Donald Trump’s presidency.Â
Epstein, a convicted sex offender, died by suicide in a Manhattan jail cell in 2019 while awaiting trial on federal sex-trafficking charges, according to the FBI. Questions remain over his relationship with Trump, who appeared several times in a trove of photos released by the disgraced financier’s estate in December 2025.
One Threads user wrote, “Ben Shapiro is warning us all that if the full Epstein Files are released, it could DESTROY Trump’s entire presidency.”
The claim also circulated on Facebook (archived), Instagram (archived), X (archived) and Bluesky (archived). The rumor previously circulated online in November 2025 alongside a video clip from Shapiro’s podcast, “The Ben Shapiro Show” (archived, archived, archived).
In an episode (archived) of the show published on Nov. 13, 2025, Shapiro described Republican U.S. Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia and Thomas Massie of Kentucky as people who were “attempting” or “would like to” destroy Trump’s presidency. Shapiro said Greene was “going out and campaigning against President Trump every way she can” and that Massie was “attacking” both the Trump administration and the FBI.
Shapiro did not say in the Nov. 13 episode that the release of the government-held files relating to Epstein would destroy Trump’s presidency but rather that Greene and Massie sought to do so. Given the above, we find the claim to be false.
Shapiro claimed twice in the podcast that Greene and Massie were anti-Trump.
First, while recounting how Massie and Democratic U.S. Rep. Ro Khanna of California secured a 218th signature for their discharge petition that led to the Epstein Files Transparency Act, Shapiro said (at 21:10, emphasis ours):
So yesterday, after the House of Representatives reopened, Rep. Adelita Grijalva of Arizona became the 218th and final signature on the discharge petition. She joined all the other Democrats as well as four Republicans, including two who hate President Trump and would like to destroy his presidency — that would be Thomas Massie and Marjorie Taylor Greene — as well as Lauren Boebert and Nancy Mace.
Later, after detailing how Greene had allegedly, “spent the last two months going out and campaigning against President Trump every way she can,” Shapiro said (at 27:55, emphasis ours):
I understand the president’s frustration with this, I do, because he’s saying, “I’m busy being president and you’re bringing me this Epstein crap in order to distract from the things I’m trying to do.” And the people who are trying to do it are in fact the people who are attempting to destroy his presidency, and that includes people inside the House.
In both instances, Shapiro said specific people — Greene and Massie — were trying to destroy Trump’s presidency, not that a release of documents would.
Shapiro said Massie attacked the Trump administration and the FBI and cast doubt on “whose side” Greene and Massie were on politically due to allegedly “joining with” with Jasmine Crockett, a Democratic representative from Texas who is vocally anti-Trump.
It was unclear exactly what Shapiro meant by saying Massie and Greene had “joined with” Crockett. All three signed Massie and Khanna’s discharge petition.
Though Shapiro dismissed the petition as something of a distraction on his Nov. 13 podcast, the Epstein Files Transparency Act became law on Nov. 19.
At the time of this writing, lawmakers were expecting a large release of files after the act gave the Department of Justice a 30-day deadline to release its unclassified files. That deadline was Dec. 19, 2025.
Snopes has previously published extensively about claims we have fact checked relating to emails and photos released by Epstein’s estate.
Sources
“As Part of Our Commitment to Transparency, the Department of Justice and the Federal Bureau of Investigation Have Conducted an Exhaustive Review of Investigative Holdings Relating to Jeffrey Epstein.” Department of Justice, July 2025, https://www.justice.gov/opa/media/1407001/dl?inline.
Chappell, Bill. “Jeffrey Epstein Files: Tracing the Legal Cases That Led to Sex-Trafficking Charges.” NPR, 25 July 2025. Law. NPR, https://www.npr.org/2025/07/25/nx-s1-5478620/jeffrey-epstein-crimes-timeline-legal-case.
Khanna, Ro. Epstein Files Transparency Act. H.R.4405, 19 Nov. 2025, https://www.congress.gov/bill/119th-congress/house-bill/4405.
Massie, Thomas. “Discharge Petition No. 9, Bill Number: H.Res. 581, 119th Congress.” Office of the Clerk, U.S. House of Representatives, 2 Sept. 2025, https://clerk.house.gov/DischargePetition/2025090209.
MISRA, RIYA. “The Candidate Democrats Can’t Stop Arguing about.” Politico, 12 Dec. 2025, https://archive.ph/iY5Ve.
Ranking Member Robert Garcia Statement After Oversight Democrats Receive 95,000 New Photos from Epstein Estate; Includes Images with Donald Trump, Bill Clinton, Steve Bannon, Bill Gates, Larry Summers | The Committee on Oversight and Accountability Democrats. 12 Dec. 2025, http://oversightdemocrats.house.gov/news/press-releases/ranking-member-robert-garcia-statement-after-oversight-democrats-receive-95000.
Shapiro, Ben. “20,000 Epstein Files RELEASED.” YouTube, 13 Nov. 2025, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hYmQ5J_lXtY.
