Tucker Carlson claims President Donald Trump was behind orders to withhold government documents related to well-heeled sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, allegedly telling the pundit and former MAGA ally he thought the push to disclose the files was a “plot against him.”

In a Vanity Fair piece detailing Vice President JD Vance’s political origin story, Carlson said he personally pressed Trump to release the files, a strategy that Vance had also been pushing for within the administration.

Carlson remembers frustration among the Trump base escalating around summer 2025 while the White House had yet to follow through on its campaign promise to disclose the so-called Epstein files.

“My position from the beginning with Trump, I said it to Trump, was, ‘I don’t understand why you would ever keep any of this stuff secret,’” he said. “And I got like a bunch of different answers.”

Trump’s justifications didn’t satisfy the former Fox News host, who has since broken with the president over a number of issues, including his decision to embark on a war with Iran.

“I don’t feel any need to cover for Epstein. So I said, ‘You shouldn’t either,’” Carlson told reporter Chris Whipple, adding that “in the end” instructions to continue withholding the documents “came from Trump directly.”

“The order to cover it up came from Trump,” he went on. “I asked him why. And he gave me this long, very emotional explanation that this was all a plot against him, like Russiagate.”

Public and lawmaker pressure continued to mount over the coming months, eventually leading Trump to change course and sign the Epstein Files Transparency Act into law in late 2025.

Though the act resulted in the release of millions of documents, the Department of Justice continues to face scrutiny over the heavily redacted tranches and the millions of additional records that remain unsealed.

Asked to comment on Carlson’s claims, White House spokeswoman Lauren Bis told Vanity Fair the president considers the controversy over the files a settled matter.

“Just as President Trump has said, he’s been totally exonerated on anything relating to Epstein,” she said. “And by releasing thousands of pages of documents, cooperating with the House Oversight Committee’s subpoena request, signing the Epstein Files Transparency Act, and calling for more investigations into Epstein’s Democrat friends, President Trump has done more for Epstein’s victims than anyone before him.”

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