Congress overwhelmingly approves releasing Epstein files

By Annie Karn

WASHINGTON — The House on Tuesday (18) approved a bill directing the Justice Department to release all files related to its investigation into convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, in a near-unanimous vote that was a stunning turn for an effort that Republicans had worked for months to kill.

Hours later, Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-NY, the minority leader, won unanimous agreement for the Senate to pass the measure as soon as it arrived in the chamber, which would clear it for President Donald Trump’s signature. Trump, who toiled for months to derail the bill but reversed himself once it was clear it would pass overwhelmingly, has said he would sign it.

In the House, the 427-1 vote came after Democrats, joined by a tiny group of Republican defectors, succeeded in forcing the legislation to the floor over the vehement opposition of Trump and GOP leaders. It reflected how the Epstein affair and the president’s handling of it have fractured Trump’s political coalition and suggested a slip in his iron grip on his party.

The sole lawmaker to vote “no” was Rep. Clay Higgins, a far-right Republican from Louisiana.

Even as they voted to demand the release of the files, Republican leaders dismissed the measure as a “political show vote” driven by Democrats who were only feigning interest in the Epstein saga in the hopes of inflicting political damage on Trump. And even though the president has said he would sign the bill if it were to reach his desk, its proponents raised questions about whether the Justice Department would ultimately release the files.

A Justice Department spokesperson declined to comment on the bill Tuesday night.

“I’ve been opposed to it all along,” House Speaker Mike Johnson said at a morning news conference before the vote, standing next to a poster board with five bullet points citing the “dangers” of a measure that he ultimately supported.

Acknowledging the reason he had tried for months to keep the bill off the floor, Johnson said he had no choice but to support a piece of legislation he considered deeply flawed because of the political blowback he would receive for voting no.

“None of us want to go on record and in any way be accused of not being for maximum transparency,” he said.

The same dynamic was at play later in the day in the Senate, where Schumer’s swift move to call for the House-passed bill’s immediate passage effectively dared any Republican to object and go on the record against it. None did.

Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., who cosponsored the measure and led the charge to force a vote on it, said the vote was overdue.

“The speaker was dragged to it kicking and screaming, but here we are,” he said. “It’s not necessarily a rebalancing of the branches of government, but a rebalancing of the people against the executive branch.”

Proponents of the measure worked to keep pressure on Trump to follow through and release the files, something that does not require an act of Congress but that he has chosen not to do.

“The real test will be, will the Department of Justice release the files, or will it all remain tied up in investigations?” Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., who broke hard with Trump on the Epstein matter, said at a morning news conference outside the Capitol.

There, she was joined by some of the victims of Epstein, the disgraced financier who died in prison in 2019 while facing sex trafficking charges. Standing outside the Capitol, some of the survivors directed their remarks at Trump.

“While I do understand that your position has changed on the Epstein files, and I’m grateful that you have pledged to sign this bill, I can’t help but be sceptical of what the agenda is,” said Haley Robson, who met Epstein when she was 16 and has said she recruited friends to his sex trafficking ring after being abused herself.

The vote capped a months-long effort by Republicans to make sure that this day never came to pass. Trump leaned aggressively on three Republicans who signed a petition that made it possible for the proponents to circumvent leadership and force the floor vote to happen.

He called the holdouts personally and had White House officials issue warnings to the rank and file that support for the discharge petition would be viewed as a “hostile act” by the administration.

But the pressure campaign backfired. In the case of the three hard-right Republicans — all women — who refused to remove their names, people familiar with their thinking said, it only caused them to dig in more.

In the House, Johnson vociferously opposed the petition. He claimed the bill did not do enough to protect victims’ privacy, even though it included language that did so. He said it was unnecessary given that a House committee was investigating the handling of the Epstein case. And for weeks after her special election victory in Arizona, Johnson refused to seat Rep. Adelita Grijalva, D-Ariz., who had said she would provide the final signature needed to force the vote on the floor as soon as she was sworn in.

Johnson finally did so last week, and Grijalva signed, putting the petition at the 218-signature threshold to represent a House majority and guarantee a floor vote.

Unwilling to take what was certain to be a humiliating loss on the House floor, Trump then reversed himself on the matter and called on his party to back the bill.

Many Republicans in Congress followed suit, embracing a bill they claimed to have supported all along.

In their upside-down telling, Trump had consistently fought for the release of the Epstein files. And so had they.

Rep. Steve Scalise of Louisiana, the No. 2 House Republican, said the action was “an important vote to continue to show the transparency that we’ve delivered”.

On the House floor Tuesday before the vote, Democrats noted that Trump did not need a vote in Congress at all to release the files and accused Republicans of having tried to hide behind procedure to block the vote.

“Donald Trump could release these files on his own,” said Rep. Jim McGovern, D-Mass. He accused Republican leaders of trying to block the vote “for months and months and months.”

Republicans, in turn, highlighted the fact that their own Oversight Committee investigation led to the release of a trove of documents from Epstein — though they did not mention that it was Democrats who had forced them to begin the inquiry. They claimed that they had opposed the vote because they wanted more justice for Epstein’s victims.

“We now know that Epstein himself hated President Trump,” said Rep. Virginia Foxx, R-NC, referring to emails Epstein wrote to his associates regarding the president. “It’s in black and white.”

But the fight has left lasting rifts and grudges within Trump’s coalition. On Tuesday morning, Greene defended herself against Trump’s charge that she was a “traitor” for backing the release of the Epstein files.

“A traitor is an American who serves foreign countries and themselves,” she said, standing in front of Epstein’s victims. “A patriot is an American who serves the United States of America, and Americans like the women standing behind me.”

Later on the House floor, she laid out why the Epstein episode had resonated so strongly with Trump’s populist base even as the president has sought to change the subject.

“These American women aren’t rich, powerful elites,” Greene said, speaking from the Democratic side of the chamber. She added, “These are your average Americans.”

She said the Epstein files represented the “failures” of the government and Congress to protect their citizens. “For far too long, Americans have been put last, and they’re sick and tired of it,” she said. “This is why they don’t trust Congress. This is why they don’t trust the government.”

Greene noted that she and the three other House Republicans who forced the vote endured attempts at intimidation for months. “This is what the American people are sick of. And rightfully so.”

Some of Greene’s colleagues were more interested in simply falling in line, as usual, with Trump. And they were not ashamed to hide it.

Rep. Troy Nehls, R-Texas, who had staked out a firm “no” position on the release of the files just days ago, dismissing it all as the “Epstein hoax” devised by Democrats to “distract us from the winning of President Trump and his administration,” was unapologetic about his about-face. He conceded that he was merely doing what Trump had said to.

“It is a hoax by the Democrats against Trump,” Nehls said on Monday evening, lighting a cigar on the steps of the Capitol.

So then why support it?

“Why not?” he replied. “Trump said, just release the damn files. He said do it — release the damn files.”

-New York Times