WASHINGTON – For months, controversy over what more information the federal government might have about the late Jeffrey Epstein has consumed Washington and much of the country.
Americans, and the politicians who represent them, have clamored to know more about the extent of the disgraced financier and accused sex trafficker's web of relationships with the rich and powerful, including President Donald Trump.
On Tuesday, all that scrutiny came to a head when both chambers of Congress overwhelmingly agreed to pass the Epstein Files Transparency Act, a bipartisan bill that would compel the Justice Department to release as much information as possible about federal investigations into Epstein. The legislation went immediately to the desk of the president after an abrupt about-face to support the measure despite initially opposing it.
The success of the measure was a remarkable show of bipartisan force. It also was the culmination of a rare rebuke from congressional Republicans of Trump, whose decades-old ties to Epstein have recently come back to haunt him.
It's unclear how the Justice Department will immediately respond to the new law, or what the timeline will be for the release of more information. But in the short term, the new law represented a win for Epstein's many victims, and potentially, a growing willingness among congressional Republicans to buck the president – at least on some issues.
