Did Mike Collins ‘admit’ that Trump was in the Epstein files? A Jon Ossoff ad omits critical facts

An ad by Georgia Sen. Jon Ossoff says his Republican opponent, U.S. Rep. Mike Collins, revealed information about President Donald Trump and the Epstein files.

The ad said Collins covered for Trump and other powerful men when he voted against releasing the Epstein files, a cache of documents and recordings released by the federal government beginning in December 2025 from investigations of financier and deceased sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

Collins "even admitted Trump was in the files," the June 17 ad said.

Ossoff’s ad includes a clip of Collins saying: "Yeah, I’m sure he’s in there." 

The Collins audio was leaked in August 2025, when little was known about the files’ contents and speculation was rampant. Collins’ comments were recorded at an Aug. 13, 2025, campaign stop at a Muscogee County GOP meeting on the Tennessee border, and the media outlet Heartland Signal released the full exchange.

The ad gives the impression that Collins is saying Trump is in the files for nefarious reasons. Many powerful political and business people have been linked to files and stepped down or were fired from their jobs.  But the ad omits what Collins said next. Here are his comments in full:

Unidentified speaker: "…the Epstein files, do you think Trump’s in there?" 

Collins: "Yeah, I’m sure he’s in there. Because he was the one telling the FBI about it. He’s the one that kicked the guy out of Mar-a-Lago and then called the FBI. Yeah, yeah, he’s in there." 

As Epstein's crimes became public in 2006, Trump told a South Florida police chief that he was glad Epstein was being investigated and that "everyone" knew of his crimes, the Miami Herald reported that the chief said.

Collins later said in the conversation with at least one other person that he wanted the Epstein files to be made public: "Oh, we need to release them."

Ossoff’s campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Our ruling

An Ossoff ad says Collins "admitted" Trump was in the Epstein files.

Collins did speculate that Trump was in the files. But the ad omits that Collins said it’s logical Trump would be in there because he had flagged Epstein’s criminal behavior. Without this information, the ad gives the impression that Collins thinks Trump is in the files because of criminal behavior.  

The statement contains an element of truth but ignores critical facts that would give a different impression. We rate it Mostly False.