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The US House votes to force release of Epstein files amid Republican divisions
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The US House votes to force release of Epstein files amid Republican divisions

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The Republican-controlled United States House of Representatives has voted almost unanimously to force the release of US Justice Department files on now-convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, an outcome US President Donald Trump had fought for for months before ending his opposition.
Two days after Trump’s abrupt about-face, the vote passed 427-1, sending a resolution requiring the release of all unclassified data on Epstein to the Senate for consideration.
The public and increasingly bitter feud among Republicans over the Epstein files had fractured relations between Trump and some of his most fervent supporters.
Before the vote, about two dozen survivors of Epstein’s alleged abuse joined a trio of Democratic and Republican lawmakers outside the U.S. Capitol to push for the documents’ release.
The women held photos of their younger selves, the age they say they first met Epstein, a New York financier who fraternized with some of the country’s most powerful men.

The Epstein scandal has been a political thorn in Trump’s side for months, in part because he extended conspiracy theories about Epstein to his own supporters.

Danielle Bensky, a survivor of Jeffrey Epstein, speaks with survivors of convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein outside the U.S. Capitol during the press conference. Source: MONKEY / Bill Clark / KickUSA

Many Trump voters believe the Trump administration covered up Epstein’s ties to powerful figures and covered up details surrounding his death, which was ruled a suicide, in a Manhattan jail in 2019.

Despite his changed position on the bill, the Republican president remains angry about the attention paid to the Epstein issue.

On Tuesday, he called a reporter who asked in the Oval Office a “terrible person” and said the television station the journalist worked for should have its license revoked.

‘Nothing to hide’

Trump socialized and partied with Epstein in the 1990s and 2000s, before what he calls a rift, but the old friendship has become a rare soft spot for the president and his supporters.
Trump has said he had no connection to Epstein’s crimes and has taken to calling the issue a “Democratic hoax,” despite some Republicans being among the loudest voices calling for the release of the records of criminal investigations into Epstein.
Trump said his about-face Sunday was an attempt to persuade Republicans to put a damaging feud over Epstein behind them and “because we have nothing to hide.”
Trump already has the power to order the release of Justice Department documents himself, and does not need a resolution from Congress forcing him to do so.
It was unclear what the Republican-led Senate would do next.

The resolution passed by the House of Representatives allows the Justice Department to withhold material that would “jeopardize an active federal investigation or pending prosecution.”

Epstein pleaded guilty to a prostitution charge in Florida in 2008 and served 13 months in prison.
The U.S. Department of Justice charged him in 2019 with sex trafficking of minors.
Epstein pleaded not guilty to these charges before his death.

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