So even if Democrats wanted to release the Epstein files in their entirety during Biden’s presidency, it’s not clear that a court would have granted their request. Trump is now encountering the same issue — meaning that the firestorm around him might not die down anytime soon.

The Missouri senator's comments come amid a broader, tumultuous moment for Republicans and allies of Trump both in Missouri and nationally.

Trump is among other prominent figures named in the previously unsealed documents. He was mentioned in a 2016 deposition from Johanna Sjoberg, one of Epstein’s victims, who said the disgraced financier’s plane made an impromptu stop in Atlantic City in the 2000s. Sjoberg said “no” when asked if she’d given Trump a massage.