The Trump administration asked federal judges on Friday to unseal grand jury transcripts from the prosecutions of Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell, citing public demand for transparency and renewed scrutiny of how the Justice Department handled the high-profile sex-trafficking cases.

Trump’s decision to seek the release of grand jury transcripts but not Justice Department files comes after a recent article by the WSJ reporting on his ties to Jeffrey Epstein led many to believe the 47th US president may personally be implicated in evidence against the disgraced financier.

House Republicans ultimately put forward a resolution that carried no legal weight but nodded to the growing demand for greater transparency.

The House Rules Committee laid the groundwork for an eventual vote to call for release of the Epstein files, reflecting Republican uneasiness with the president’s refusal to divulge information from the investigation.

House Republicans fear a mauling from constituents over the Trump administration’s failure to release the government’s records related to Jeffrey Epstein.