Overview: Tucker Carlson tells Vanity Fair he pushed President Trump in 2025 to release documents tied to Jeffrey Epstein and alleges the president ordered the files suppressed.
Trump later signed the Epstein Files Transparency Act on November 19, 2025, and the Justice Department released nearly 3.5 million pages of records. Legal experts note that mentions of a person in those documents do not prove criminal wrongdoing, and Trump denies any misconduct.
Tucker Carlson, once a prominent supporter of Donald Trump and now one of his most outspoken critics, has accused the former president of ordering a cover-up to block the public release of documents tied to convicted financier Jeffrey Epstein.
In a Vanity Fair profile about Vice President J.D. Vance, Carlson said he urged Trump in 2025 to make the Epstein files public but that the president resisted. Carlson described confronting Trump directly about the records and pressing him on why the documents would be kept secret.
"My position from the beginning with Trump," Carlson recalled, "I said it to Trump, was, 'I don't understand why you would ever keep any of this stuff secret.'"
Carlson said he recommended against concealing the material, but that the final instruction to suppress the files came, he alleged, from Trump himself. According to Carlson, Trump responded with a lengthy, emotional explanation suggesting the disclosures were part of a plot against him.
"The order to cover it up came from Trump," Carlson said. "I asked him why. And he gave me this long, very emotional explanation that this was all a plot against him."
Despite Carlson's allegations, Trump later signed the Epstein Files Transparency Act into law on November 19, 2025. Under that statute, the Justice Department published nearly 3.5 million pages of material collected across multiple investigations into Epstein. The released records include thousands of mentions of Trump, though experts emphasize that an appearance in the files does not by itself establish criminal conduct.
Trump has denied any wrongdoing related to Epstein and has said he ended his association with Epstein years before Epstein’s arrest. Carlson has said his split from Trump was driven in part by policy differences, including disagreements over the U.S. war with Iran.
Whether Carlson's account will prompt further scrutiny or evidence remains unclear; the released documents and ongoing public debate continue to shape how the story is understood.
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