House set to vote to release Epstein files following months of pressure

WASHINGTON— The House is set to vote overwhelmingly on Tuesday to require the Justice Department to release all documents related to its investigation of convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

President Trump, who initially worked to block the vote before reversing course Sunday night, said he would sign the bill if it reached his desk. For this to happen, the bill will also need to pass the Senate, which will consider the measure on Tuesday night.

Republicans have pushed back on the release of the Epstein files for months, joining Trump in claiming that the Epstein issue was brought up by Democrats as a way to distract from Republican legislative accomplishments.

But all of that changed seismically on Sunday, when Trump pushed back hard and urged Republicans to vote to release the documents, saying there was “nothing to hide.”

“It is time to give up on this Democrat Fraud perpetrated by Radical Left Crazies to distract from the Great Success of the Republican Party,” Trump wrote on Truth Social.

The reversal came days after 20,000 documents from Epstein’s private estate were released by lawmakers on the House Oversight Committee. Trump was referenced more than 1,000 times in the files.

In private emails, Epstein wrote that he “spent hours” at Trump’s house and “kept up on the girls”; This reignited pressure in Congress for more disclosure.

Trump has continued to deny wrongdoing in the Epstein saga, even as he opposes the release of federal investigative files into the conduct of his former friend, a convicted sex offender and alleged sex trafficker. He died by suicide while in federal custody in 2019.

Many members of Trump’s MAGA base have demanded the release of the files, believing they contain revelations about powerful individuals involved in Epstein’s abuse of more than 200 women and girls. Tensions rose between the lawyer and his base. Gen. Pam Bondi said in July that an “Epstein client list” did not exist, after saying in February that the list was on her desk awaiting review. He later said he was talking about the Epstein files more generally.

Trump’s call to release the files underscores how he is trying to avoid an embarrassing defeat, with a growing number of Republicans in the House of Representatives joining Democrats in voting for the legislation in recent days.

The Epstein files have become a highly divisive fight in Congress in recent months; Democrats were pressing for the release of these files, but Republican congressional leaders were largely refusing to vote. The issue even sparked a rift within the MAGA movement, with Trump breaking ties with Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia, who has long been an ardent supporter of the president.

“Watching this actually escalate into a fight has torn MAGA apart,” Greene said at a news conference Tuesday, referring to resistance to releasing the files.

Democrats accused House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) of delaying the inauguration of Rep. Adelita Grijalva, an Arizona Democrat; because he had promised to cast the final vote necessary to move the so-called petition of expulsion, which would compel a supposed vote. Johnson denied these allegations.

If the House and Senate vote to release the files, all eyes will be on the Justice Department and what exactly it will make public.

“The fight, the real fight, will happen from now on,” Greene said. “The real test will be: Will the Justice Department release the files? Or will it all be tied to one investigation?”

Several Epstein survivors joined lawmakers at the news conference to talk about how important the vote was to them.

Haley Robson, one of the survivors, questioned Trump’s support for his resistance to voting even now.

“I understand that your stance on the Epstein files has changed, and I appreciate your commitment to sign this bill, but I can’t help but be skeptical about what the agenda is,” Robson said.

If signed by Trump, the bill would prohibit Bondi, the attorney general, from withholding, delaying, or redacting “any record, document, communication, or investigative material, including that of any government official, public figure, or foreign dignitary, on the basis of embarrassment, disrepute, or political sensitivity.”

But the bill’s caveats could give Trump and Bondi loopholes to keep records about the president secret.

In the spring, FBI Director Kash Patel directed a Freedom of Information Act team to comb through all files in the investigation and ordered it to redact references to Trump, citing his status as a privacy-protected private citizen when the investigation was first launched in 2006. Bloomberg reported In that case.

Rep. Thomas Massie, a Republican from Kentucky, said the Trump administration would be forced to release the files by an act of Congress.

“If they don’t release these files, they will be breaking the law,” he said.