Trump-Backed Iowa Senate Candidate Slapped With Rough Community Note After Ad Claims She Voted to Release Epstein Files

Ashley Hinson/X

Iowa Senate candidate Ashley Hinson was slapped with a Community Note after she released an ad that claimed she voted for the release of the Epstein files.

“I voted to release the Epstein files and have spent years working across the aisle to protect survivors of sexual abuse,” Hinson captioned the ad, which was shared on social media. “Men like Epstein, who hurt children, they’ll have to answer to God. But men who lie about it to win an election, they’ll have to answer to you.”

Not so fast, the Community Note on X warned. “Rep. Hinson voted for the Epstein Files Transparency Act (H.R. 4405) in Nov. 2025 after a discharge petition passed without her signature. She voted for prior procedural motions blocking standalone votes and did not sign key discharge petitions,”‘ the note reads.

Hinson also accused her opponent, Josh Turek, of “lying” about “men who hurt children.”

“Men like Epstein, who hurt children, they’ll have to answer to God,” she said in the video. “But men who lie about it to win an election, they’ll have to answer to you.”

Turek, who was not a member of Congress and could not have voted for or against the release of the files, previously ran an ad in which he claimed in part that Hinson “skipped three votes to help expose the Epstein files” ad for “protecting predators and billionaire donors.”

The discharge petition that pushed Republicans to vote for the release of the files had been ignored for 50 days, during which Speaker of the House Mike Johnson delayed swearing in Rep. Adelita Grijalva (D-AZ) last year. Grijalva was finally sworn in on November 12, nearly two months after she won. Her signature was the final on needed for the release to take place. The delay took place despite the fact that any single Republican could have added their own signature in that time. Congress ultimately voted 427-1 for the release of the files, with Rep. Clay Higgins (R-LA) casting the only “no” vote.

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