A House Democrat boldly claimed in a fiery moment during a weekly press conference on Tuesday that former President Donald Trump “should drop out of the race” and that he was allegedly pictured on “multiple plane flights with [Jeffrey] Epstein with young girls on board.”

The claims came amid a comment Rep. Ted Lieu (D-Calif.) delivered to the press in Washington, D.C. The representative, who has served as a member of Congress since 2015, first for California’s 33rd Congressional District and then for its 36th, didn’t hold back.

“We hear a lot from our constituents on different issues, but something I’ve heard that doesn’t seem to be covered are the Epstein files,” he began. “These files were released, and Donald Trump’s sort of all over this,” he alleged.

A House Democrat claimed on Tuesday alleged Donald Trump was pictured on a plane with Epstein and ‘young girls’ as he called for the former president to ‘drop out of the race’ ( Image: Getty Images)
He claimed the files contained pictures of him with the convicted pedophile. “He’s taken multiple plane flights with Epstein with young girls on board,” Lieu said. “He is on call logs with Epstein.”

“One of the highest trending hashtags on Twitter right now is about Trump and Epstein,” Lieu continued. “I’m not going to repeat the hashtag because that would dignify its setting.”

He called the revelation from the files “highly disturbing”, adding: “Again, it shows that Donald Trump is unfit for office.”

Rep. Ted Lieu (D-Calif.) delivered the comments on Tuesday during a press conference speech ( Image: PBS News)
A jury ultimately found the businessman liable for sexual abuse in May 2023, awarding Carroll $5 million. She was later awarded an additional $83.3 million after she won a defamation suit against Trump in early 2024 in which she accused the former president of defaming her with comments made while he was president and after he left office after she accused him of the aforementioned rape.

The 34 felony convictions were related to the historic hush money trial that played out in Manhattan as well. That case saw Trump accused by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg of 34 counts of falsifying business records in the first degree to cover up an alleged hush money repayment made to his former lawyer and fixer, Michael Cohen, who testified against Trump in the trial.

It had been Cohen who actually paid porn star Stormy Daniels $130,000 after she threatened to come forward with a claim that she had an affair with Trump back in 2006 in a Nevada resort. The claim could have harmed Trump’s ability to ascend to the White House in 2016, his campaign reportedly believed, and so he authorized Cohen to pay Daniels off to silence her, according to prosecutors.

Lieu called for Trump to leave the race for the presidency amid his recent convictions ( Image: AFP via Getty Images)
A Manhattan jury found the former president guilty of all 34 felony counts, making him the first-ever former president in American history to become a convicted felon.

Lieu has long been against Trump and has claimed for years that the former president had connections with Epstein, who died by suicide in his prison cell in 2019. In mid-August of that year, shortly after Epstein’s death, Lieu scathingly wrote on X, tagging Trump: “Hey @realDonaldTrump, you were friends with Jeffrey Epstein and were at parties with him. His death happened under your watch. Before you tweet out conspiracy theories, you may want to first talk with your AG Bill Barr and your head of the Federal Bureau of Prisons.”

Epstein was charged with sex trafficking of minors and conspiracy to commit sex trafficking of minors, according to a press release from the United States Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York. Lieu’s comments on Tuesday ironically come almost five years to date after the bombshell charges were revealed.

“The indictment unsealed today alleges that, between 2002 through 2005, EPSTEIN sexually exploited and abused dozens of underage girls by enticing them to engage in sex acts with him in exchange for money,” the release reads. “Epstein allegedly worked with several employees and associates to ensure that he had a steady supply of minor victims to abuse, and paid several of those victims themselves to recruit other underage girls to engage in similar sex acts for money. He committed these offenses in locations including New York, New York, and Palm Beach, Florida.”

Epstein was even convicted of sex crimes in Florida in 2008 and served a stint in prison, but he was then released. It wasn’t for another decade that the bombshell charges outlined by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York, were revealed.

The release, which came out on July 8, 2019, continued, “From at least 2002 through at least 2005, JEFFREY EPSTEIN enticed and recruited, and caused to be enticed and recruited, dozens of minor girls to visit his mansion in New York, New York (the ‘New York Residence’), and his estate in Palm Beach, Florida (the ‘Palm Beach Residence’), to engage in sex acts with him, after which he would give the victims hundreds of dollars in cash.

“In order to maintain and increase his supply of victims, EPSTEIN also paid certain victims to recruit additional underage girls whom he could similarly abuse. In this way, EPSTEIN created a vast network of underage victims for him to sexually exploit, often on a daily basis, in locations including New York and Palm Beach.

“EPSTEIN’s victims were as young as 14 at the time he abused them, and were, for various reasons, often particularly vulnerable to exploitation. Moreover, EPSTEIN knew that many of his victims were under 18, including because, in some instances, victims expressly told him they were underage.”

On July 2, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, a Republican, signed into law Florida House Bill 117, which, according to a press release from DeSantis’ office, “allows for the public release of grand jury documents, such as those related to the 2006 Florida investigation into Jeffrey Epstein.”

Two of Epstein’s alleged victims joined DeSantis for the signing last week. The governor said, according to the press release, “The public deserves to know who participated in Jeffrey Epstein’s sex trafficking. Nobody should be protected from facing justice due to their wealth or status, and those who harm children should be exposed and punished to the fullest extent of the law.”

The transcripts were released the same day and show that Epstein cut a plea deal with prosecutors that many have criticized for years as too lenient that allowed Epstein to walk free.

When another wave of court documents related to the Epstein case was released in January this year, Donald Trump’s name appeared several times in the documents — he allegedly had a tight relationship with Epstein.

But Trump has long denied that he ever had involvement with Epstein, even calling out actor Mark Ruffalo in January shortly after the bombshell documents were released for reposting A.I.-generated photos that purported to show showed Trump on Epstein’s plane.

It was revealed after the fact that the images were made with A.I. Ruffalo captioned his post at the time, “Gross. #MAGA wants to paint everyone on those flights as pedophiles except the one guy who smiles in a group of young girls all headed to Epstein’s ‘Fantasy Island’ with him. My bet is there are some decent Republicans left in America that may think this is going too far.”

Trump stabbed back on his Truth Social account, writing, “This is what the Democrats do to their Republican Opponent, who is leading them, by a lot, in the Polls. This is A.I., and it is very dangerous for our Country!

“I was never on Epstein’s Plane, or at his ‘stupid’ Island. Strong Laws ought to be developed against A.I. It will be a big and very dangerous problem in the future!” Ruffalo later apologized for reposting the fake images.