Senate Agrees to Pass Epstein Files Bill Approved by US House
Representative Thomas Massie speaks during a news conference outside the US Capitol in Washington on Nov. 18.
(Bloomberg) — Donald Trump’s firm control of Washington showed signs of weakening Tuesday as Congress voted to compel the Justice Department to release its files on sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein, whose earlier ties to the president have been the subject of intense scrutiny.
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The legislation overwhelmingly passed the House in a 427 to 1 vote. Within hours, the Senate agreed unanimously that the bill would be passed without further action once it arrives in the Senate. It will then be sent to Trump, who has said he’ll sign it.
Trump late Sunday relented on his prior opposition and directed Republicans to vote to release the files. Senate Republicans ignored calls by Speaker Mike Johnson to give the Justice Department additional leeway to withhold documents.
The votes mark the latest political setback for Trump, whose party suffered election defeats earlier this month. He has also struggled to regain control of the narrative on the US economy, with concerns over the cost of living already the driving issue in next year’s midterms.
The latest CNN/SSRS poll said 37% of Americans approved of Trump, a rating that makes it difficult for many incumbent Republicans to run next year on the president’s record and risks creating fissures within the party.
A group of dissident Republicans, including three MAGA acolytes, teamed with Democrats to make an end-run around Republican leaders on Epstein. They ultimately bent Trump to their will rather than acceding to his demands that they drop the issue.
“We have nothing to hide, and it’s time to move on,” Trump posted on social media late Sunday after the vote had been scheduled with enough Republican backing for the resolution to succeed.
Still, Republican Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene, a long-time Trump ally until he broke with her as she campaigned for the files’ release, excoriated the president for his protracted resistance to disclosing information gathered in the investigation.
“Watching this actually turn into a fight has ripped MAGA apart,” Greene said in a press conference on the steps of the Capitol, surrounded by survivors of Epstein’s sex trafficking ring who offered dramatic accounts of abuse they suffered as teenagers.
“I’ll tell you right now, this has been one of the most destructive things to MAGA,” Greene added, “watching the man that we supported early on, three elections, for people that stood for hours, slept in their cars to go to rallies, have fought for truth and transparency.”
WATCH: The House voted 427 to 1 to compel the Justice Department to release its files on sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein, with nearly all House Republicans voting in favor of the legislation. Joe Mathieu reports.Source: Bloomberg
Only four in 10 Republicans approved of Trump’s handling of the Epstein files in an October Reuters/Ipsos poll. Perhaps even more telling for the GOP is that independents disapproved by a nearly six-to-one margin.
Trump has the power to order the Epstein files release without an act of Congress but so far not done so.
Representative Clay Higgins of Louisiana provided the only vote against the bill, citing concerns that it could injure the reputations of witnesses and others named in investigative files.
The disclosures “will absolutely result in innocent people being hurt,” he said in a social media post.
The legislation requires the release of all files and records, including investigations, flight logs, travel records, immunity deals, internal DOJ communications, and all records related to Epstein’s 2019 death in prison.
Trump may be able delay release of key files even if the measure becomes law. Trump on Friday directed the Justice Department to investigate Epstein’s possible ties to notable Democrats and the ongoing probe could prevent release of related files, Republican Representative Thomas Massie of Kentucky, who helped spearhead the legislation, said on ABC’s “This Week” Sunday.
After the vote, Massie said Trump was smart to “get in front of the parade.”
Trump, who has repeatedly said he cut ties with Epstein nearly two decades ago and was not aware of the late financier’s activities, just last week pushed back against Republicans supporting a discharge petition to force the House vote.
He summoned one of the Republican signees, Lauren Boebert, to the White House Situation Room so his aides could lobby her to withdraw her name from the petition.
The Epstein matter has also blunted Trump’s ability to control the news cycle. A congressional committee on Wednesday released some 20,000 pages of documents, pivoting attention away from the ongoing government shutdown and forcing the White House to respond. A selection of emails highlighted by Democrats suggested the president knew of Epstein’s activities.
“I want you to realize that that dog that hasn’t barked is trump,” Epstein wrote in a 2011 email, without specifying if he was referring to the future president. He went on to say that a victim had “spent hours at my house with him” and that “he has never once been mentioned,” again without directly identifying whom he was referring to.
That email was sent to Ghislaine Maxwell, an associate of Epstein, who was convicted and is serving a 20-year prison sentence for her role in helping him with the sexual abuse of underage women.
“When you talk about the Epstein hoax, what happens is, you’re not talking about how well we’ve done,” Trump told journalists aboard Air Force One last week. “They want to waste people’s time, and some of the dumber Republicans like that.”
But faced with the prospect of a lopsided vote not in his favor, Trump relented over the weekend and demanded that Republicans “get BACK ON POINT.”
Trump’s handling of the investigation — from claiming he wasn’t in the files at all, to having his deputy attorney general interview Maxwell who was later moved to more comfortable accommodations, to ordering an investigation into Democrats — has only exacerbated tensions within the party.
It also fractured Trump’s relationship with conservative media. He’s sued Rupert Murdoch and the Wall Street Journal over their Epstein coverage and the release of an illustration for Epstein’s infamous birthday book, something he’d denied existed. Right-wing podcasters Tucker Carlson and Candace Owens have criticized his approach.
The House Oversight Committee is conducting its own probe into Epstein and on Tuesday subpoenaed JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Deutsche Bank AG for Epstein’s financial records.
–With assistance from Justin Sink, Jimmy Jenkins and Jonathan Tamari.
(Updates with vote detail in second and third paragraphs)
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