Republican Congressman Thomas Massie has long fought to publicize the files related to the late pedophile

A Republican lawmaker has accused US President Donald Trump of attempting to distract the public from the Epstein scandal by embroiling the country in a conflict with Iran.

Representative Thomas Massie's comments come after the release of millions of pages of files on late pedophile Jeffrey Epstein by the US Justice Department (DOJ). The documents mention Trump over 5,000 times, though without any indication of criminal activity.

"Bombing a country on the other side of the globe won't make the Epstein files go away," Massiesaidon X on Sunday.

In other posts, the congressman described the US-Israeli attacks on Iran as "acts of war unauthorized by Congress" and expressed opposition to the conflict. "This is not 'America First.'"

A long-time critic of Trump over his ties with Epstein, Massie is one of several lawmakers who have accused the US president of using foreign crises to distract from the scandal.

Massie and Democratic Congressman Ro Khanna co-sponsored the Epstein Files Transparency Act, which required the DOJ to release all documents related to the convicted sex offender. Trump signed the bill into law in November, following pressure from lawmakers and his own supporters.

Last month, Massie and Khanna publicly identified six men whose names had been redacted in the final tranche of files. Khanna questioned why the release took an intervention.

"Imagine how many men they are covering up for in those three million files," he said in Congress.

US Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche objected to the claims, accusing the lawmakers of "grandstanding" and insisting that the DOJ has nothing to hide.

Massie's position has soured his relations with Trump.

In a Truth Social post in January, the US president called him a "weak and pathetic" "third-rate congressman" and endorsed his primary challenger, Ed Gallrein, in Kentucky's 4th Congressional District.

To date, the Justice Department has not announced charges against anyone mentioned in the Epstein files.

(RT.com)