WASHINGTON ― Senate Republicans on Wednesday blocked an effort requiring the Trump Department of Justice to release more documents relating to American financier and child sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) forced a vote on an amendment to the annual defense authorization bill that would have compelled the administration to release more files within 30 days of the measure’s passage. Sens. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) and Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) were the only Republican senators who joined all Democrats in support of the amendment.
Schumer’s move came as a surprise since typically only the Senate majority leader ― Sen. John Thune (R-S.D.) ― can schedule a vote in the upper chamber. When Thune didn’t “fill” the amendment tree on the defense bill, a procedural maneuver that blocks other senators from offering amendments, Schumer took the rare step of filing cloture and setting up a vote.
Republicans reacted angrily, calling it a stunt and accusing the New York Democrat of injecting politics into the typically bipartisan defense bill.
“It’s political theater, is all this is, and Schumer doesn’t surprise me, because he’s running scared of AOC, instead of actually trying to lead his conference,” Sen. Markwayne Mullin (R-Okla.) told HuffPost.
