Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene says her once cozy relationship with Donald Trump hit a breaking point over one of the most explosive issues hanging over his second term, the Jeffrey Epstein files.
In a preview of an upcoming 60 Minutes interview, Greene says Trump was “furious” with her after she publicly backed legislation forcing the Justice Department to cough up its Epstein records, telling her that releasing the files “was going to hurt people.”
Greene recalls a tense phone call with the president after she signed a discharge petition to bring the Epstein Files Transparency Act to the House floor. She says Trump confronted her over the move, angry that a loyal MAGA ally had helped push through a bill he had tried to stall.
“I supported releasing the Epstein files, because the victims deserve the truth,” she told CBS. Trump, she says, repeatedly warned that full disclosure would “hurt people,” a phrase she took to mean political allies and powerful figures who might be named in the records.
Greene was one of only four House Republicans to sign the discharge petition that forced a vote on the Epstein Files Transparency Act, a bipartisan bill that requires the Justice Department to release all unclassified Epstein related documents within 30 days. The measure sailed through the House on a 427 to 1 vote before passing the Senate by unanimous consent.
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene tells 60 Minutes that President Donald Trump was furious she supported releasing the Epstein files. “He said that it was going to hurt people,” she says. pic.twitter.com/41GZ6HZPTV
— 60 Minutes (@60Minutes) December 5, 2025
The law orders the DOJ to post the files in a searchable, downloadable format and to provide Congress with an unredacted list of government officials and other politically exposed people named in the documents. The deadline for release is December 19.
Trump ultimately signed the bill, but only after weeks of resistance. He had campaigned on promises to release the Epstein files, then shifted once in office, with his administration lobbying Republicans to block the House vote. An internal pressure campaign framed support for the discharge petition as a “hostile act” toward the White House.
Greene broke ranks anyway, standing alongside Reps. Thomas Massie and Ro Khanna at a Capitol Hill press conference with Epstein survivors, demanding transparency. “The Epstein rape and pedophile network must be exposed,” she wrote in one widely shared post, urging Congress to “release all the Epstein information by any means possible.”
The breach with Trump has grown wider since. According to reporting from People and other outlets, Trump later rescinded his endorsement of Greene and privately branded her a “traitor,” while she announced plans to resign from Congress, citing hostility from within her own party and pressure from the Trump camp.
A federal judge in Florida has already ordered the release of long sealed grand jury transcripts from earlier Epstein investigations, citing the Epstein Files Transparency Act. The Justice Department is now working through FBI notes, interview records, flight logs, and other material that could soon be public for the first time, with limited redactions to protect victims’ identities and ongoing cases.
Greene is leaning into the fight, casting her break with Trump as a moral stand on behalf of survivors. Trump, according to her account, is more worried about the fallout for unnamed “people” in his inner circle.
