Vice President JD Vance is facing calls to testify before Congress after new reporting alleged that senior Trump administration officials held a series of White House Situation Room meetings to manage the political fallout over the Jeffrey Epstein files.
The claims, drawn from a New York Times Magazine excerpt of Regime Change, a forthcoming book by Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan, describe top Trump aides using one of the most secure rooms in the U.S. government not for a foreign policy emergency, but to contain an escalating domestic scandal over Epstein records. Axios reported that Vance, White House chief of staff Susie Wiles and other senior officials met in the Situation Room last summer as they feared leaks and backlash over the administration’s handling of the files.
According to the report, Vance floated an extraordinary public-relations plan: have Tucker Carlson interview Ghislaine Maxwell from prison in the hope that Epstein’s convicted accomplice would say Trump had not been involved in wrongdoing. Axios, citing the book excerpt, reported that Vance believed such an interview “might help the president” if Maxwell publicly cleared him.
The account also says Vance pushed for all Epstein files to be released quickly, while Trump allegedly wanted the issue buried. Axios quoted the authors as writing that Trump wanted “the whole Epstein issue buried” and was angry whenever aides raised it. The White House rejected the framing, saying Trump had been “totally exonerated” on Epstein-related matters and had released thousands of pages of documents.
The Guardian reported that House Oversight Democrats, led by Rep. Robert Garcia, now plan to call on committee chair James Comer to summon Vance for testimony. Garcia questioned why Epstein strategy meetings were taking place in the Situation Room at all.
The alleged meetings reportedly included senior administration figures such as Pam Bondi, Todd Blanche, Kash Patel, Steve Cheung, Karoline Leavitt and Taylor Budowich. The Guardian said officials discussed several options, including transparency measures and the possibility of using Maxwell in a Tucker Carlson interview to publicly defend Trump.
The new allegations revive scrutiny of an earlier August 2025 controversy, when Vance and Trump publicly denied reports of an Epstein strategy meeting. At the time, Vance called the reporting “completely fake news,” while Trump dismissed the matter as a Democratic “hoax.” Newsweek reported that CNN had said officials were expected to meet at Vance’s residence to discuss a unified response to the Epstein fallout.
Fox News later confirmed that Vance was hosting senior officials including Bondi, Patel, Blanche and Wiles for dinner, though sources said Epstein was only one of several topics. Fox also reported that two well-placed administration sources confirmed the dinner was taking place after Vance’s office had called the CNN report “pure fiction.”
The controversy cuts directly into Trump’s own political base, where demands for full Epstein transparency have remained intense. The Guardian reported that the crisis deepened after a 2025 Justice Department memo concluded there was no Epstein “client list,” angering many Trump supporters who had expected fuller disclosure.
The most damaging allegation is not simply that officials discussed Epstein. It is that the White House allegedly treated the Epstein files as a political threat to be managed from inside the Situation Room — and considered using Maxwell, a convicted sex trafficker, as part of a media strategy to defend the president.