The House of Representatives voted overwhelmingly to compel the Justice Department to release the files of Jeffrey Epstein, coming after President Donald Trump reversed himself and said that Republicans should support the measure after vigorously opposing it.
The vote was 427-1. Rep. Clay Higgins (R-LA) was the sole no vote. Democrats cheered after the roll call was read.
The legislation got to the floor only after Democrats and a handful of Republicans signed a petition to bring it to the floor. Up until Sunday, Trump opposed such a vote, and House Speaker Mike Johnson even kept the House out of session, delaying the measure coming to the floor.
The measure still needs to clear the Senate, and Trump needs to sign it, before the files are released. The president said on Monday that he would sign the resolution if it made it to his desk.
All the major news networks covered the roll call, with CNN noting the rare moment of Republicans defying Trump’s wishes. Earlier on Tuesday, Trump grew irate at a reporter who asked about Epstein and why he would not just order the DOJ to release them.
“I have nothing to do with Jeffrey Epstein,” Trump said. “I threw him out of my club many years ago because I thought he was a sick pervert.”
Johnson criticized the vote, calling it “a political exercise for Democrats,” but he ended up also voting for their release.
The House vote was over the release files held by the DOJ and the FBI after years of their investigations of Epstein, who died by suicide in 2019 as he awaited trial on multiple charges, including sex trafficking.
On Friday, Trump called on Attorney General Pam Bondi to investigate Democrats, including Bill Clinton, who were mentioned in a trove of Epstein’s emails that were released by the House Oversight Committee last week. Soon after, Bondi said that a prosecutor was on the case.
That has raised the prospect that, even if the Epstein files release passes Congress, the DOJ will still withhold some, citing an ongoing investigation.
Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY), who has become a target of Trump’s as he championed the release of the files, told CNN on Monday that “I’m afraid they’re going to try to use a provision of the law that allows you not to release these materials if they’re subject of an ongoing investigation, and the release of which would harm the ongoing investigation.”
The Epstein files issue has put a spotlight on divisions within MAGA over how Trump has handled the release. One of the most vocal critics has been one of his longtime supporters, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA), who signed the discharge petition and appeared with Epstein survivors at a press conference at the Capitol earlier on Tuesday.
Trump lashed out at Greene, called her a “traitor” and withdrew his endorsement of her.
“I’ve never owed him anything, but I fought for him for the policies and America First, and he called me a traitor for standing with these women and refusing to take my name off the discharge petition. Let me tell you what a traitor is. A traitor is an American that serves foreign countries and themselves. A patriot is an American that serves the United States of America and Americans like to women standing behind me.”
One of the survivors, Haley Robson, expressed some doubts at Trump’s reversal on the release of the files. “I can’t help but to be skeptical what the agenda is,” she said.
Another survivor, Marina Lacerda, criticized podcaster Megyn Kelly for her comments last week, when she noted that Epstein “liked 15-year-old girls. And I realize this is disgusting. I’m definitely not trying to make an excuse for this. I’m just giving you facts, that he wasn’t into, like, 8-year-olds.”
Lacerda said, “When we talk about how children at 14 should still be treated as children, I ask you to look at the young people around you. Remember when you were that age? Do you think you should have been responsible for being groomed? Put yourselves in our position when we were young.”
