A House committee plans to meet on Tuesday with 10 people who have accused the disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein of sex trafficking, putting further attention on an issue President Trump has sought to downplay.
Mr. Trump’s supporters have been galvanized by conspiracy theories that Mr. Epstein was only one among a cabal of pedophiles in the upper echelons of American society. Mr. Epstein died in 2019 while in prison awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges.
Mr. Trump and his administration spent much of the summer trying to extinguish the conspiratorial fervor they fanned by promising the release of files connected to Mr. Epstein’s case.
Attorney General Pam Bondi released around 200 pages of documents in February. The Justice Department and the F.B.I. concluded in July that there was no list of Mr. Epstein’s clients, nor was there any evidence that Mr. Epstein had blackmailed prominent individuals.
Tuesday’s meeting suggests that some lawmakers in both parties are eager to keep a spotlight on an uncomfortable topic for Mr. Trump.
Many Americans believe that the government has concealed information about Mr. Epstein — 69 percent, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll in July. The fallout has threatened Mr. Trump’s hold on his base, and it prompted Speaker Mike Johnson to start the House of Representatives’ summer recess early to avoid votes on the issue.
Representative Thomas Massie, Republican of Kentucky, and Representative Ro Khanna, Democrat of California, had tried to force the House to vote on a discharge petition demanding the release of the files.
The House cannot compel the Justice Department to release documents, but the vote would have laid bare a rift among Mr. Trump’s supporters in Congress. Six Republicans who are prominent in Mr. Trump’s MAGA movement, including Representatives Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia and Lauren Boebert of Colorado, had signed on to Mr. Massie’s petition.
“I pray Speaker Johnson will listen to the pleas of these victims for justice and quit trying to block a vote on our legislation to release the Epstein files,” Mr. Massie wrote on social media on Monday. He added that the 10 victims would appear on the steps of the United States Capitol on Wednesday for a news conference.
Last month, Representative James Comer, Republican of Kentucky and the chairman of the House Oversight Committee, issued a subpoena to the Department of Justice and Mr. Epstein’s estate for documents related to the case. Ghislaine Maxwell, Mr. Epstein’s partner who is serving a 20-year sentence for sex trafficking and other crimes, was also subpoenaed for a deposition.
Separately, the Justice Department last month released the transcript of a July courthouse interview with Ms. Maxwell in which she said many of the more sensational theories about Epstein were not true.
Francesca Regalado is a Times reporter covering breaking news.
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