WASHINGTON — The House voted 427-1 on Tuesday to pass legislation ordering the Justice Department to release files related to late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
Rep. Clay Higgins (R-La.) was the sole “No” vote. The bill now moves to the Senate, where Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) said it could pass as early as Tuesday night by unanimous consent.
Such swift action comes after a discharge petition forced a House vote on the bill. President Donald Trump changed his position Monday and called for House Republicans to vote in favor of the release of the files. Trump also said he will sign the legislation into law if it passes the Senate.
But in the same Truth Social post calling for the files’ release, he called them a “Democrat hoax,” painting the issue as a distraction from tackling affordability.
“House Republicans should vote to release the Epstein files, because we have nothing to hide, and it’s time to move on,” Trump wrote on Truth Social.
Trump could release the files at any point without congressional legislation mandating him to do so.
Reps. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) and Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) introduced a discharge petition in July to force a House vote on the bill because House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) refused to bring the bill to a vote. The petition secured its final vote Wednesday from Rep. Adelita Grijalva (D- Ariz.), whom Johnson swore in after a seven week delay.
Johnson, who voted “Yes,” said he hopes the Senate amends the legislation due to concerns over “victim privacy.”
The speaker said this bill was unnecessary since the House Oversight Committee had already released materials in its ongoing investigations, including new emails from Epstein released Wednesday. And like Trump, he cast blame on Democrats, calling the vote a “political exercise.”
“Democrats are trying to use the Epstein matter as a political weapon to distract from their own party’s failures,” Johnson said.
Several other Republican lawmakers expressed concerns over privacy during floor debate. But Higgins was the only one among them to vote against the bill over those concerns.
“If enacted in its current form, this type of broad reveal of criminal investigative files, released to a rabid media, will absolutely result in innocent people being hurt,” Higgins wrote on X just after voting.
Throughout the day leading up to the vote, Massie directed a refrain toward the Senate: “Don’t muck it up.”
“I think some of them would like to amend the bill to protect the pedophiles,” Massie said. “And if we see any inkling of that, that bill needs to be killed immediately.”
Massie and Khanna stood with Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) in front of the Capitol with a group of Epstein survivors.
Greene, a loyal Trump supporter, has publicly clashed with the president over the release of the files. Recently, Trump withdrew his endorsement of Greene, who remained firm in supporting the release of the files. She acknowledged the rift they have driven in her party.
“Watching this actually turn into a fight has ripped MAGA apart,” Greene said.
Several Democrats have commended Greene for her stance.
“Are there still many questions about her previous positions and the violence and negativity that she stoked in the past that she needs to answer for? Absolutely,” Rep. Yassamin Ansari (D-Ariz.) told Medill News Service. “But on this issue, she’s been strong. She’s been brave.”
Despite jabs exchanged on both sides of the aisle leading up to the vote, the near-unanimity marked a rare moment of unity.
“Sometimes we have to see people not just through their caricature,” Khanna said. “And I had caricatures of Rep. Greene and Rep. Massie and Rep. Mace. But what I saw is that they cared, as Americans and human beings.”
