WASHINGTON — The House passed and the Senate approved a bill on Tuesday to force the Justice Department to publicly release its files on the late child sex predator Jeffrey Epstein.
The House vote was 427–1, and the Senate approved the bill unanimously, with automatic passage set for Wednesday as soon as the bill’s papers come over from the House. The bill’s passage is a rebuke of Trump, who fought the legislation for months until it became clear it would pass the House over his opposition.
“He positioned our party against the people, and our party chose the people, not him,” the bill’s lead sponsor, Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.), told HuffPost after the vote.
The Epstein Files Transparency Act 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.”
