Republicans on Capitol Hill admit that they will inevitably vote for legislation that would force President Donald Trump’s administration to release files related to Jeffrey Epstein, The Hill reports.
One Republican Senator spoke to The Hill anonymously and said that Congress will pass legislation about the late convicted pedophile financier who had long eluded justice.
“Whole bunches of them have been very vocal about this, most of the Freedom Caucus has been,” the senator reportedly said. “The problem for some of these folks is that this has been an issue for years.”
Numerous Republicans spent years talking about releasing files related to Epstein in hopes they would implicate Democratic elected officials and donors. Then in July, the Department of Justice and the FBI released a two-page memo saying no “client list” existed and Epstein likely killed himself in prison in 2019 as he awaited charged.
This came despite the fact that Attorney General Pam Bondi said on Fox News that a list of Epstein clients was sitting on her desk.
“That was really unwise,” the senator said.
In response, Reps. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) and Thomas Massie (R-Ky) filed a discharge petition to release files related to the Epstein investigation. If a discharge petition receives a majority of signatures, members can automatically force a vote even if House leadership opposes it.
House Speaker Mike Johnson has opposed the discharge petition and Trump called the issue a “a Democrat hoax that never ends” the same day that survivors went to Capitol Hill to advocate for the release of the files.
As of right now, every Democrat and three Republicans have joined Massie and Khanna’s discharge petition. The duo now only needs one more signature after Democratic Rep. James Walkinshaw was sworn in to replace the late Gerry Connolly in Virginia’s 11th district.
Next week, Arizona’s 7th district will hold a special election to fill the seat of the late Democratic Rep. Raúl Grijalva. Grijalva’s daughter Adelita is almost guaranteed to win the seat and sign the dischage petition.
On the Senate side, Republicans blocked an attempt by Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer to force a vote on amendment to release the files during votes on the National Defense Authorization Act. Only Sens. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) and Rand Paul (R-Ky.) joined Democrats.
“My position has long been I think we ought to release those files and trust the American people, just like we did with the MLK files and the JFK files. I think this is a similar deal,” Hawley told reporters.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune later said he supported transparency, but wouldn’t bring up a “hypothetical” scenario if the House passed the bill.
“I can’t comment on that at this point. I guess the House is having a conversation about that. What I can tell you is … I believe that transparency is always best and you should get as much information out there as you possibly can in a way that protects the rights of the victims,” he told reporters.
