WASHINGTON – The House of Representatives is poised to vote on a significant bill that mandates the Department of Justice to disclose its case files linked to the late financier Jeffrey Epstein. This move comes despite months of resistance from President Donald Trump and leading Republicans.
Interest in the years-long investigation into Epstein’s sex trafficking ring has reignited as Congress reconvenes following a prolonged hiatus due to the government shutdown. As lawmakers returned to Capitol Hill last week, they encountered fresh revelations from Epstein’s email correspondence. Notably, these emails contain allegations that Trump spent considerable time at Epstein’s residence with a trafficking victim and was aware of illicit activities involving young girls.
These emerging details and the impending vote highlight a rare moment where Trump’s influence over his party seems diminished.
Since Epstein’s death by suicide in a Manhattan jail cell in 2019 while awaiting trial on charges of sexually abusing and trafficking minors, the case has continued to wield significant political clout. Numerous other individuals have since come forward, asserting they were victims of the powerful financier’s abuse.
Lawmakers are now urging the Department of Justice to release its case files on Epstein, asserting that these documents could reveal others who might have been aware of, or complicit in, his crimes. Through a rarely utilized procedural tactic known as a discharge petition, House Democrats, with support from several influential Republicans, have successfully secured a vote on the measure.
As the likelihood of the bill’s passage through the House increases, with expected backing from numerous Republican members, President Trump and House Speaker Mike Johnson have shifted their strategy from opposition to a stance of apparent indifference.
“I DON’T CARE!” Trump wrote in a social media post Sunday. “All I do care about is that Republicans get BACK ON POINT.”
Why is the House about to vote?
Reps. Ro Khanna, D-Calif., and Thomas Massie, R-Ky., introduced a petition in July to force a vote on their bill, the Epstein Files Transparency Act.
The effort was backed by all House Democrats and four Republicans: Massie and Reps. Lauren Boebert of Colorado, Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia and Nancy Mace of South Carolina.
Minutes after Democrat Adelita Grijalva of Arizona was sworn into office Wednesday, she signed her name to the Epstein petition, pushing it to the magic number of 218 — a majority in the 435-member House.
Johnson said following Grijalva’s swearing-in that he would expedite the petition process to bring a vote on the bill to the House floor this week.
The speaker has pushed back on claims that he has obstructed the Epstein legislation to protect Trump or others. He told reporters last week that the Republican majority took issue with the phrasing of the measure, which he claimed did not adequately protect victims.
Johnson has also pointed repeatedly to a concurrent investigation into Epstein’s sexual abuse that is being conducted by the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee. Republicans who control the committee have also focused on Epstein’s connections to Democrats, including former President Bill Clinton.
It was the oversight panel that released Epstein’s emails, part of 20,000 pages of documents that it obtained from Epstein’s estate.
The committee has also subpoenaed the Justice Department for its case files on Epstein, but Democrats on the committee say the response has been insufficient.
What does the bill do?
The bill would force the Justice Department to release all files and communications related to Epstein, as well as any information about the investigation into his death in federal prison. Information about Epstein’s victims or continuing federal investigations would be allowed to be redacted, per the bill.
The department, however, would not be allowed to redact information due to “embarrassment, reputational harm, or political sensitivity, including to any government official, public figure, or foreign dignitary.”
Several survivors of Epstein’s abuse, joined by lawmakers, also plan to speak outside the Capitol on Tuesday morning.
Is it going to pass?
The bill will almost certainly pass the House, but its future in the Senate is a different story.
It already has support from a majority of the House, and more Republicans are expected to vote for it as they respond to demands from their voters.
The tougher test will come in the Senate, where Republicans hold a 53–47 majority.
Asked in September whether the Senate would take up the Epstein bill if it passed the House, Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., said, “I can’t comment on that at this point.”
Thune added that the Justice Department “has already released tons of files related to this matter.”
“I trust them in terms of having the confidence that they’ll get as much information out there as possible in a way that protects the rights of the victims,” Thune said.
Will Trump stop it?
If the measure passes both chambers of Congress, it would go to Trump. He could try to stop it with a veto, but he would also be under enormous pressure to sign it.
Trump lobbied two Republicans last week to try to stop the House discharge petition. But after that was unsuccessful, he seemed to change his approach to the bill.
“We have nothing to hide, and it’s time to move on from this Democrat Hoax perpetrated by Radical Left Lunatics in order to deflect from the Great Success of the Republican Party,” Trump wrote on social media late Sunday after landing at Joint Base Andrews following a weekend in Florida.
A president’s veto could also be overridden with a two-thirds vote in both chambers. That has only happened twice since 2009.
Massie suggested Trump can avoid the entire ordeal by releasing all the Epstein files held by the federal government.
“There’s still time for him to be the hero,” Massie said of Trump.
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