National Director of World Without Exploitation Lauren Hersh embraces Jeffrey Epstein survivor Liz Stein as they react to the Senate's passing of the bill to force the release of files related to the late convicted sex offender on Tuesday.Annabelle Gordon/Reuters
The U.S. Congress has overwhelmingly passed a bill requiring the Department of Justice to release all investigative files on late child sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein, defying President Donald Trump, who furiously attempted to stop the move until the last minute.
The legislation must now be signed by Mr. Trump to take effect. The Department of Justice, meanwhile, may yet exercise a loophole in the law to withhold documents. It all means that full disclosure is still far from certain.
The decisive vote represented a rare legislative loss for Mr. Trump, who has dominated his Republican congressional caucus this year.
The President had worked since the summer to prevent the bill from moving forward. When it became clear this past weekend that it would pass the House regardless, he and House Speaker Mike Johnson abruptly reversed course and backed it.
Mr. Trump had a lengthy friendship with Mr. Epstein until a falling out before the financier’s first arrest in 2006. The push to release the documents gained steam last week with the disclosure of e-mails in which Mr. Epstein claimed Mr. Trump “knew about the girls.” Mr. Trump has maintained he knew nothing of Mr. Epstein’s crimes.
Reuters
The President’s opposition to releasing the files – once a cause célèbre for his MAGA movement – has already triggered a rift between him and part of his base, as well as an unusual alliance between Democrats and the far-right of the Republican Party. Mr. Epstein died in jail in 2019 after his second arrest, his death ruled a suicide by authorities.
The bill, called the Epstein Files Transparency Act, was co-sponsored by maverick libertarian Kentucky Republican Representative Thomas Massie and Ro Khanna, a leftist California Democrat. It passed the House of Representatives 427-1 on Tuesday afternoon.
The U.S. Congress has passed a bill to release the Epstein files. Here’s what you need to know
Democratic Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer used unanimous consent to speed it through the upper chamber mere hours later. The manoeuvre allows a legislative body to take an action – in this case, passing a bill immediately without a recorded vote – that does not follow the usual procedures, so long as no one in the chamber objects.
Mr. Schumer’s use of it here forced the Republicans who control the chamber to immediately go on-record about supporting or opposing the legislation, without having the opportunity to delay a vote on it.
As broadcast on House Television, a tally shows the final vote in the House to pass a bill to force the Justice Department to publicly release its files on the convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.Uncredited/The Associated Press
The lone “no” vote in the House came from Clay Higgins, a Louisiana Republican who cited concerns that the disclosure would make public the names of innocent witnesses, despite provisions allowing for such information to be redacted from the files.
Until Tuesday’s vote, Mr. Massie has often found himself the only GOP legislator routinely willing to oppose the President.
“We have a chance today to make something happen, something that has not happened and should have happened decades ago, and that is to get justice for these victims and survivors and transparency for America,” Mr. Massie said ahead of the vote.
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Democrat Jamie Raskin argued that, if Mr. Trump really favours transparency on Mr. Epstein, he should order the Department of Justice to make its documents public without waiting for the legislation. “Mr. President, you’ve got the power today to release the whole file,” he said on the floor of the House.
Republican Representative Jim Jordan, meanwhile, admonished the Democrats for not releasing the Epstein files while then-president Joe Biden was in office, accusing them of only taking action now because they saw an opportunity to skewer Mr. Trump.
“Why now after four years of doing nothing? Because going after President Trump is an obsession with these guys,” he said.
Advocates for the release of the Epstein files embrace in Washington on Tuesday after the U.S. House of Representatives passed the bill to force the release of the files.Annabelle Gordon/Reuters
On Mr. Trump’s orders last week, Attorney-General Pam Bondi had the Justice Department open a new investigation specifically looking at Mr. Epstein’s ties to Democratic politicians, including former president Bill Clinton. If the transparency bill is signed into law by Mr. Trump, it is possible that the department will use a provision in the legislation protecting active investigations from disclosure in order to avoid making public all Epstein files.
At the urging of his base, Mr. Trump promised during last year’s election campaign to release the Epstein files if he won. But after returning to the White House, he instead branded the matter a “hoax” and implored Republicans to drop it.
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After Mr. Johnson refused to bring Mr. Massie’s bill to a vote, Mr. Massie organized a successful discharge petition to force one. In addition to garnering the support of all Democrats for the petition, he was joined by right-wing Republicans Marjorie Taylor Greene, Lauren Boebert and Nancy Mace.
The Trump administration’s unsuccessful pressure campaign included a last-ditch effort to change Ms. Boebert’s mind during a meeting with Ms. Bondi in the White House Situation Room, a place best known for discussions of military actions.
In Ms. Greene’s case, the move shattered her previously close relationship with Mr. Trump. He openly disowned her and demanded someone challenge her in next year’s Republican primary. “This has been one of the most destructive things to MAGA,” she told reporters Tuesday. “Watching this actually turn into a fight has ripped MAGA apart.”
For survivors of Epstein’s abuse, passage of the bill was a watershed moment in a years-long quest for accountability.
The Associated Press
One of Mr. Epstein’s victims, Jena-Lisa Jones, directly addressed the President during a news conference on Capitol Hill before the vote. “Please stop making this political. It is not about you, President Trump,” she said. “You are our President. Please start acting like it.”
Documents provided by Mr. Epstein’s estate to a congressional committee, which were released publicly last week, showed that Mr. Epstein claimed in e-mails Mr. Trump “knew about the girls” and spent “hours” with one of Mr. Epstein’s victims.
The estate also provided a suggestive birthday note from Mr. Trump to Mr. Epstein in 2003, which hinted at a “wonderful secret” of Mr. Epstein’s. Mr. Trump has denied writing the note.
Right-wing influencers have long claimed Mr. Epstein did not die by suicide but was murdered to cover up the participation of other rich and powerful people in his crimes.
Mr. Trump has faced accusations of sexual misconduct from more than 20 women over the years, all of which he denies. In 2023, a civil court found him liable for sexually abusing the writer E. Jean Carroll.