Rep. Thomas Massie is leaving Congress the same way he spent much of his final term, forcing Washington to look again at the Jeffrey Epstein files.
Hours after the Kentucky Republican lost his primary to Trump-backed challenger Ed Gallrein, Massie's concession speech included him touting the six-month anniversary of the Epstein Files Transparency Act and warning that he still has months left in office to push for more disclosures.
"Today is the six month anniversary of the Epstein Files Transparency Act," Massie said. "We've taken out two dozen CEOs, an ambassador, a prince, a prime minister, a minister of culture. And that was just six months. I got seven months left in Congress."
Massie and Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Calif., pushed the Epstein Files Transparency Act through the House last November after Massie gathered the 218 signatures needed on a discharge petition to force a vote. The bill passed the House 427-1.
President Donald Trump signed the measure into law on Nov. 19, 2025. The White House said the law required the attorney general to release Justice Department records related to Epstein. The law gave the Justice Department 30 days to release the files, though DOJ could withhold or redact some material under specific legal exceptions.
The release process quickly became politically explosive. The Justice Department said in January that it had published more than 3 million additional pages and that its total production had reached nearly 3.5 million pages, including videos and images, in response to the law. But lawmakers, victims, and political figures have continued to clash over redactions, missing material, and how to protect survivor privacy while naming powerful people who maintained ties to Epstein.
Massie's role in forcing the vote made him a central figure in one of the most uncomfortable transparency fights in Washington. It also put him at odds with Trump and the Republican establishment at a moment when the president was moving aggressively against GOP dissenters.
That conflict caught up with him in Kentucky. The Associated Press reported that Gallrein, a farmer and retired Navy SEAL endorsed by Trump, defeated Massie in Kentucky's 4th Congressional District primary, as another sign of Trump's influence over Republican voters, and noted that Massie had repeatedly broken with Trump on foreign aid, military intervention, and other issues.
The New York Post reported that the race drew more than $32 million in ad spending and became the most expensive House primary in U.S. history, with Massie targeted by Trump-aligned and pro-Israel groups.
For Massie, the Epstein issue now appears to be part of his closing argument. He has lost the seat, but not the platform. His warning that he still has "seven months left in Congress" suggests he intends to keep pressing the Justice Department, the courts and political elites over what remains hidden in the Epstein records.
