The House of Representatives on Tuesday passed legislation compelling the Department of Justice to make public all of its files on the pedophile financier Jeffrey Epstein. But when, or if, the files will ultimately be released remains unclear.
The vote was nearly unanimous, with just one dissenting Republican, Rep Clay Higgins of Louisiana, voting against the move.
While the 427-1 vote — with five members not voting — itself might indicate a unified effort, the road to it revealed anything but. The House vote came only after Republican leadership had initially blocked the legislation, prompting Reps. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) and Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) to introduce the discharge petition, which gained its crucial 218th vote last week when Democratic Rep. Adelita Grijalva of Arizona — who won a special election back on Sept. 23 — was finally sworn in after delays in part due to the government shutdown.
That forced the hand of House Speaker Mike Johnson, who had for months been stalling the action at the urging of President Donald Trump. Then Trump, over the weekend — in a 180-degree turn from his stance that the Epstein case and the pleas of his victims for public disclosure were merely a “Democrat hoax” — suddenly urged Republicans to pass the measure and said he would sign it if also passed in the Senate.
In the gallery of the House, many of Epstein’s survivors gathered and watched the final tally. When it passed, the floor erupted into applause.
“I am extremely hopeful, but at the same time, I am very skeptical because of all the obstacles we've had to endure just to get to this point,” Haley Robson, a survivor of Epstein, told The Independent.
Robson, who voted for Trump, said she regretted voting for the president and said she offered him several opportunities to speak not only with survivors but their attorneys.
“He said it that he would sign it, so let's see what Daddy does,” she said.
Still, the Tuesday vote is just the first step in what could be a long process before any files are made public.
The Senate could vote on the legislation as soon as later this evening. And then there is the matter of Trump having called on Attorney General Pam Bondi to open an investigation into Epstein’s “involvement and relationship” with prominent Democrats. Which she promptly did.
Specifically, Trump named former President Bill Clinton, Democratic donor and LinkedIn founder Reid Hoffman and ex-Harvard president and Treasure Secretary Larry Summers as alleged associates of Epstein, which could make the release of the complete files more complicated as the Trump administration could claim the investigation is open by the Justice Department.
The legislation calls on the DOJ to publicly disclose all unclassified records, documents, communications and investigative material related to Epstein and his partner and accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell.
Until Trump finally reversed himself and said that Republicans should vote to release the files, only three Republicans — Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia, Nancy Mace of South Carolina and Lauren Boebert of Colorado — had signed the discharge petition.
“I don't think that there's an about face, I think that they are trying to save face,” Rep. Jasmine Crockett (D-Texas) told The Independent about Trump and Johnson. “And we will see what kind of games they continue to play. They have threatened people publicly. He's now broken up with his boo Marjorie.”
Johnson opposed a vote on Epstein files and on Tuesday, told reporters that he hoped the Senate would change the legislation once it passes the House.
“This should have been done in a much more careful manner and it was not,” Johnson said, calling it a “raw and obvious political exercise.”
But discharge petitions allow for individual members to get around congressional leadership and force a vote if it receives a majority of signatures.
For months, it languished after Democrat Adelita Grijalva won a special election in Arizona’s 7th district in September to replace her her late father. Johnson finally swore in Grijalva last week and Grijalva immediately signed the petition, which allowed it to be filed.
But the vote threatened to tear apart the Republican caucus. Trump had played a game of phone tag with Mace, who is running for governor but as a rape survivor wanted the files released.
It also led to Trump un-endorsing Greene, once his biggest defenders in Congress, and him calling her a “tratior.” Ahead of the vote, Greene said that she hoped the Department of Justice would not stall the release of names in the files.
“The real test will be will the Department of Justice release the files, or will it all remain tied up in investigations,” Greene said at a press conference before the vote.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune said that the Senate would hotline the bill and that there likely would be no amendments to the legislation.
“When a bill passes the House for 27 to one and the president said he'll sign it in law, I'm not sure that the there's going to be a need for an amendment or desire for an amendment process,” he told The Independent.
During the 2024 presidential campaign, Trump, who at one point considered Epstein a friend before a supposed falling out, said he would declassify information related to Epstein, a known predator of teenage girls who died in police custody during Trump’s first presidency. Vice President JD Vance also called for the release of the files.
Many on the right had hoped that the declassified files would reveal many Democrats friendly with Epstein, a wealthy financier who obtained his money by mysterious means, had been complicit in his trafficking ring.
But in July, the Justice Department and the FBI released a two-page memo saying that Epstein did not have a “client list” and he likely killed himself. The memo caused a row on the right, including among many of the manosphere podcasters who had backed Trump in the 2024 election.
Up until then, Johnson had opposed releasing the files on the grounds that it could reveal the identities of many of the victims. But many survivors of Epstein and Maxwell lobbied Congress to declassify files related to Epstein.
The legislation will now head to the Senate, but there is no guarantee that it will pass.
Massie, Trump’s major antagonist, had a brief line as he returned to the floor about the GOP changing course after Trump had opposed the Epstein probe.
“The party chose the people, not him,” he told a reporter.
Live updates: Epstein files release bill passes; Clay Higgins voted the only no
Trump rages at ABC News journalist for being too mean to him
Trump rips reporter who asks MBS about 9/11 and Khashoggi murder
Man sets fire to a woman on a Chicago L train before fleeing, police say
Trump team to move Department of Education offices to other agencies
Trump goes on weird rant about Biden fist-bumping MBS: ‘I don’t care where it’s been’
