After months of delay tactics and attempted strong-arming by Republican leadership, the House of Representatives passed legislation on Tuesday to force the Justice Department to release the so-called Epstein files. The bill still needs to pass the Senate, but the House vote marks a bipartisan rejection of President Donald Trump, who urged his party to move on from Epstein and to vote against the resolution before reversing course over the weekend after it had become clear the resolution would pass.
The 427-1 vote was nearly unanimous, with only Rep. Clay Higgins (R-La.) voting against it.
This historic vote — and the months-long battle to bring the bill to the floor — caused rifts between Trump and some of his closest allies, while continuing to raise questions about the president’s relationship with one of the most notorious sex offenders in American history.
In a press conference with survivors held shortly before the vote, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) bashed the president, and lamented that her support for transparency regarding the Epstein case has seemingly demolished her relationship with him.
“I was called a traitor by a man that I fought for six years for. And I gave him my loyalty for free,” she said, adding: “Let me tell you what a traitor is: a traitor is an American that serves foreign countries and themselves. A patriot is an American that serves the United States of Americans — Americans like the women standing behind me.”
Lawmakers continued to bash Trump’s handling of the case on the House floor ahead of the vote. “Trump has the power to release the files today,” said Oversight Committee Ranking Member Robert Garcia (D-Calif.). “He does not even need a vote, but he continues to defy the subpoena of the Oversight Committee to release all of the files. What is Donald Trump hiding?”
The House said on Tuesday that it wants to find out.
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Here’s everything you need to know about what they actually voted on, what is already public, and what questions they hope to answer by releasing new information.
What are the Epstein Files?
In the context of the House vote, the documents referred to as the “Epstein files” are the evidence and testimony collected by the Justice Department and FBI over the course of two investigations and criminal cases against Epstein.
Epstein pleaded guilty in 2008 to procuring and soliciting prostitution from a minor in a controversial sweetheart deal with federal prosecutors. He died by suicide in federal custody in 2019 shortly after being charged with sex trafficking of minors in a separate investigation. The files held by the DOJ and FBI reportedly contain thousands of pages of witness and survivor testimony, digital evidence, communications between Epstein and others, as well as potentially videos and images of sexual abuse against minors.
Since Epstein died in prison, only his close associate and long term partner — Ghislane Maxwell — has been tried and convicted in connection with the trafficking ring run by Epstein. The lack of subsequent investigations and prosecutions into others named by survivors as participants in their abuse has generated widespread public interest in the contents of the files, and the reasons behind federal prosecutors’ failure to pursue additional indictments.
Conservatives and right-wing commentators spent years calling for transparency regarding the government’s Epstein investigations, while insisting Trump would release the files upon returning to office. In July, after a public stunt in which prominent MAGA influencers were photographed at the White House with binders supposedly containing a portion of the files, the DOJ and FBI pulled the rug out from under their own movement, announcing that they would not be releasing any additional indictments, and that evidence related to the case would not be made public.
The resulting backlash has persisted for months, and the slow, continuous trickle of information related to the case has placed increased scrutiny on the president. Shortly after the DOJ made its announcement, The Wall Street Journal reported that Trump had been warned by the Justice Department that his name appears in the files.
Trump has repeatedly called the scandal a “hoax” perpetrated by Democrats. On Saturday, he demanded that Attorney General Pam Bondi launch investigations into other men named in Epstein-related documents, including former President Bill Clinton, former Treasury Secretary Larry Summers, and LinkedIn founder Reid Hoffman. Bondi quickly agreed.
What did the House vote on?
The House passed the “Epstein Files Transparency Act,” which would require the DOJ to release “all unclassified records, documents, communications, and investigative materials in the possession of the Department of Justice, including the Federal Bureau of Investigation and United States Attorneys’ Offices,” related to the cases against Epstein and Maxwell. These include flight logs and travel records, records on corporate entities associated with Epstein, the identities of individuals “named or referenced in connection with Epstein’s criminal activities, civil settlements, immunity or plea agreements, or investigatory proceedings,” as well as internal communications among government agents discussing the case.
The act would allow the DOJ to redact sensitive information pertaining to the identity of survivors, as well as material depicting child sexual abuse, other violent crimes, or material that would jeopardize an ongoing investigation.
Critically, there is some evidence in the DOJ’s documents on Epstein that cannot be released without judicial approval, primarily sealed grand jury transcripts. Judges have recently rejected bids by the DOJ to unseal grand jury testimony related to Epstein’s case, although it is not unheard of for transcripts to be made public.
Where did the other material that has already been released come from?
So, if Congress has to force the DOJ to release all these materials, where are things like Trump’s page from Epstein’s “birthday book,” and the Epstein emails released earlier this month coming from?
They’re from an entirely separate source: the Epstein estate.
Democrats on the House Oversight Committee, led by Rep. Robert Garcia (D-Calif.), have been working with Epstein’s estate, as well as survivors, to release evidentiary documents held by representatives of the late sex offender.
These include the so-called “birthday book” — a collection of over 50 congratulatory letters that included a lewd missive from Trump — and thousands of emails between Epstein, Maxwell, and other individuals the Oversight Committee released last week. The trove of over 20,000 emails included allegations that Trump knew of Epstein’s activities with underage girls. Epstein wrote in 2011 that Trump “spent hours” at his house with one of his victims, said he was the man who could “take down” Trump, and described Trump as “the dog that hasn’t barked.”In another email, Epstein tells a reporter to look into reports that Trump was so enthralled while ogling young women in Epstein’s pool that he ran face-first into a glass door.
On Sunday, Garcia appeared on MS NOW and reaffirmed that the Oversight Committee will continue to seek additional materials from the Epstein estate and other sources — regardless of what happens with “The Epstein Files Transparency Act.”
“What we’ve received pales in comparison to the documents that actually exist in the Department of Justice,” he said. “Just stay tuned, because there’s a lot more information that is going to be released, more documents that we’re going to get, and we’re going to continue to demand that they do the right thing and get us that release from the Department of Justice.”
What is Trump saying about all of this?
Trump again accused Democrats on Sunday of pushing the “Epstein Hoax” as a way to “deflect from all of their bad policies and losses.”
“Epstein was a Democrat, and he is the Democrat’s problem, not the Republican’s problem! Ask Bill Clinton, Reid Hoffman, and Larry Summers about Epstein, they know all about him, don’t waste your time with Trump,” he wrote.
Hours later, Trump flipped his position on the vote, writing on Truth Social that “Republicans should vote to release the Epstein files, because we have nothing to hide, and it’s time to move on from this Democrat Hoax.”
The 180 came after Trump’s efforts to kill the discharge petition — the mechanism through which House members are able to force a vote on the files over the objections of leadership — failed. Last week, the White House reportedly summoned Rep. Lauren Boebert (D-Colo.) to the Situation Room and attempted to convince her to remove her name from the petition, a similar unsuccessful effort was made to convince Rep. Nancy Mace (R-S.C.) to withdraw her support.
Trump’s reversal meant large swaths of the House Republican caucus changed their vote to “yes” on the act.
Now that Trump says he’s supportive of the petition, it bears remembering that — just as he can order the DOJ to investigate his political rivals — he could order Bondi to release the files without the intervention of Congress.
What happens now that the House passed the act?
Like any other bill, the act will now advance to the Senate, where — if leadership decides to bring it to a vote — it would require only a simple majority to pass. It would then head to Trump’s desk. The president has already indicated he would sign the bill if it does. “I’m all for it,” he said as part of his response to a question on Monday about whether he’d sign the bill
As Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) reminded everyone on Tuesday, though: “He can release these files without the Senate acting.”
House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) — while standing in front of a poster display titled “DANGERS OF THE DISCHARGE PETITION” — told reporters on Tuesday that “if and when it is processed in the Senate — which is no certainty, that that will be — that they will take the time methodically to do what we have not been allowed to do in the House, to amend this discharge petition and to make sure these protections are there.”
Johnson added that he had spoken to Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-Mont.), and indicated the two were in agreement.
By contrast, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) says he intends to push for the act to be taken up “immediately” by the Senate.
From Rolling Stone US
