WASHINGTON – The House on Tuesday overwhelmingly passed a bill that would force the Justice Department to publicly release its files on the late child sex predator Jeffrey Epstein, a massive rebuke of President Donald Trump and his efforts to hide documents potentially tying him to Epstein.
The vote was 427–1. The Epstein Files Transparency Act, led by Reps. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) and Ro Khanna (D-Calif.), gives the Justice Department 30 days to publish all of its Epstein records “in a searchable and downloadable format.”
Rep. Clay Higgins (R-La.) was the lone “no” vote. He said in a statement that the bill “abandons 250 years of criminal justice procedure in America.”
The House chamber erupted in applause as the bill was passed.
Trump has not been implicated in Epstein’s crimes, despite his name being mentioned in a separate tranche of documents obtained from Epstein’s estate by Congress. But Trump and his allies on Capitol Hill have gone to great lengths, for months, to try to stop this bill from getting a vote. It only hit the House floor on Tuesday after a bipartisan group of lawmakers collected enough signatures for a rare “discharge petition,” which allowed them to go around Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) and force the House to vote on their bill.
