"Innocent people shouldn’t be hurt but I’m in support of keeping it totally open, I couldn’t care less," Trump said during a White House event Aug 22.

Controversy over the handling of the Jeffrey Epstein files had dogged the Trump administration for weeks. So as Congress went on their typical August recess, President Donald Trump’s team began discussing ways they could finally get ahead of the story.

The ‘overwhelming majority’ of the material provided to a key investigative committee in response to a subpoena had already been released, according to Democratic members.