WASHINGTON — The House is speeding toward a vote next week on releasing files related to the sex trafficking investigation into Jeffrey Epstein, after months of resistance from Republican leaders.
They have no choice but to allow consideration of the bill after a petition on the measure reached the necessary 218 signatures.
It comes as newly released documents raise fresh questions about Epstein and his associates, including a 2019 email that Epstein wrote to a journalist that said President Donald Trump "knew about the girls." In another email written in 2011, Epstein told confidant Ghislaine Maxwell that Trump “spent hours” at Epstein’s house with a sex trafficking victim.
The White House accused Democrats of selectively leaking the emails to smear the Republican president.
Epstein, a wealthy financier accused in yearslong efforts to sexually exploit underage girls, took his own life in a New York jail in 2019 while awaiting trial on federal charges.
Public speculation has been rampant for years about Epstein's operation, death and connection to powerful and wealthy individuals, including Trump, former Democratic President Bill Clinton, tech billionaires and celebrity academics, among others.
Why is the House about to vote?
Reps. Ro Khanna, D-Calif., and Thomas Massie, R-Ky., introduced a petition in July to force a vote on their bill, the Epstein Files Transparency Act.
The effort was backed by all House Democrats and four Republicans, including Massie and Reps. Lauren Boebert of Colorado, Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia and Nancy Mace of South Carolina.
Minutes after Democrat Adelita Grijalva of Arizona was sworn in to office Wednesday, she signed her name to the Epstein petition, pushing it to the magic number of 218 — a majority in the 435-member House.
Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., said after Grijalva's swearing-in that he would expedite the petition process to bring a vote on the bill to the House floor early next week.
Johnson pushed back on claims that he obstructed the Epstein legislation to protect Trump or others. He told reporters Wednesday that the Republican majority took issue with the phrasing of the measure, which he claimed did not adequately protect victims.
Johnson also pointed repeatedly to the Epstein investigation being conducted by the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, which resulted in the release of thousands of pages of documents — including more than 20,000 Wednesday.
What does the bill do?
The bill would force the Justice Department to release all files and communications related to Epstein, as well as any information about the investigation into his death in federal prison. Information about Epstein's victims or ongoing federal investigations would be allowed to be redacted, per the bill.
The department, however, would not be allowed to redact information due to "embarrassment, reputational harm, or political sensitivity, including to any government official, public figure, or foreign dignitary."
Is it going to pass?
Johnson, who dismissed the petition as a "moot point," said he will bring the measure to a vote next week. If everyone who signed the petition supports it on the floor, it will pass.
The bill appears likely to pick up additional Republican votes — potentially dozens or more — now that it is moving forward. Rep. Don Bacon, R-Neb., who did not sign the discharge petition, said he plans to back it.
The tougher test will come in the Senate, where Republicans hold a 53–47 majority and it would likely take 60 votes to move the bill to final passage.
Asked in September whether the Senate would take up the Epstein bill if it passed the House, Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., said, "I can't comment on that at this point."
Thune added that the Justice Department "already released tons of files related to this matter."
"I trust them in terms of having the confidence that they'll get as much information out there as possible in a way that protects the rights of the victims," Thune said.
Can Trump stop it?
If the measure passes the Senate, it would go to Trump, who almost certainly would veto it. He opposed the discharge petition from the start, even reaching out Wednesday to two Republicans who signed it.
"The Democrats are trying to bring up the Jeffrey Epstein Hoax again because they'll do anything at all to deflect on how badly they've done on the Shutdown, and so many other subjects," Trump posted on his social media platform. "Only a very bad, or stupid, Republican would fall into that trap."
A president's veto can be overridden with a two-third vote in both chambers, though that only happened twice since 2009.
Massie said Trump can avoid the entire ordeal by releasing all the Epstein files held by the federal government.
"There's still time for him to be the hero," Massie said of Trump.
