The Senate agreed Tuesday to pass by unanimous consent a measure compelling the Trump administration to release the federal government’s files on deceased pedophile Jeffrey Epstein.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D., N.Y.) sought unanimous consent and nobody objected, meaning the legislation will pass once the House formally delivers it. The Epstein files measure will head to President Trump’s desk for signage shortly.
It comes after Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R., S.D.) indicated that the chamber would quickly pass the Epstein bill without any changes to its language.
Hours earlier, the House voted 427-1 on the bipartisan legislative measure to have the Department of Justice release all investigative materials related to Epstein after President Trump gave House Republicans his blessing to support the effort. Representative Clay Higgins (R., Texas) was the lone no vote.
Trump’s endorsement of the measure Sunday night marked a significant reversal after the president spent months dismissing the Epstein files as a “hoax.” On numerous occasions, Trump tried unsuccessfully to push the Epstein files out of the news cycle. Epstein’s sexual abuse gained renewed public interest in recent months because of the Trump administration’s decision not to release the government’s Epstein files.
House Speaker Mike Johnson (R., La.) voted for the discharge petition to release the Epstein files, despite his opposition to certain aspects of the measure. Johnson asserted Tuesday that the legislation would hinder future investigations and potentially reveal victim identities and child sexual abuse materials. He argued the Senate should revise the language of the bill to address his list of concerns.
Higgins expressed similar objections to Johnson in his opposition to the Epstein files petition. He said he would support the bill if the Senate amended the language to address privacy concerns.
“As written, this bill reveals and injures thousands of innocent people – witnesses, people who provided alibis, family members, etc. If enacted in its current form, this type of broad reveal of criminal investigative files, released to a rabid media, will absolutely result in innocent people being hurt. Not by my vote,” Higgins said in a statement shared on X.
The House’s discharge petition was signed by all House Democrats and a handful of Republicans before Trump gave the rest of the GOP permission to vote for the measure. Trump has hammered Representatives Thomas Massie (R., Ky.) and Marjorie Taylor Greene (R., Ga.), for supporting the release of the Epstein files and bucking the GOP on other contentious issues.
Trump broke with Greene last week and accused her of being a traitor to the MAGA movement. In classic Trump fashion, he has publicly workshopped derogatory nicknames for Greene. At a press conference Tuesday, Epstein’s victims reiterated their support for the discharge petition to ensure maximum transparency. Greene spoke with the victims and lamented Trump’s attacks on her, given her longtime MAGA advocacy.
“I’ve never owed him anything, but I fought for him, for the policies and for America First, and he called me a traitor for standing with these women and refusing to take my name off the discharge petition,” Greene said.
“Let me tell you what a traitor is: A traitor is an American that serves foreign countries and themselves,” she added. “A patriot is an American that serves the United States of America, and Americans like the women standing behind me.”
Massie and Representative Ro Khanna (D., Calif.) led the push to garner the 218 signatures needed to advance the discharge petition. Representative Adelita Grijalva (D., Ariz.) provided the final necessary signature once she was sworn in following the conclusion earlier this month of the weeks-long government shutdown.
The Trump administration’s decision not to release the files prompted Democrats to rally around the issue after largely ignoring it during the Biden administration. Democrats have hammered Trump for months over his friendship with Epstein in the 1990s and early 2000s.
The House Oversight Committee is currently investigating Epstein’s activities and gaining access to records with more information about Epstein. The panel has received a trove of documents from Epstein’s estate, including a batch of 20,000 emails between Epstein and various associates.
Last week, Democrats released three of the emails in an attempt to further scrutinize Trump’s relationship with Epstein. In 2019, Epstein emailed anti-Trump author Michael Wolff and said Trump “knew about the girls” and asked Epstein’s partner Ghislaine Maxwell to “stop.” Another Epstein email sent in 2011 indicated Trump spent “hours at my house” with a victim, whose name Democrats redacted.
The victim was prominent Epstein accuser Virginia Giuffre, who previously said Trump did nothing wrong in connection with his friendship with Epstein. Giuffre spent much of her adult life raising awareness about Epstein’s pattern of sexual abuse before committing suicide earlier this year.
The 20,000 emails released by the Oversight Committee last week further illuminated Epstein’s relationships with powerful officials in business, politics, and the media. Trump is among the people mentioned in the email cache. He has never been accused of misconduct from his time as a friend of Epstein’s.
Last week, Trump directed the Justice Department to investigate prominent Democrats with links to Epstein. He specifically highlighted former President Bill Clinton, former Treasury Secretary Larry Summers, and billionaire Democratic donor Reid Hoffman. The emails showed Summers regularly communicated with Epstein about personal and political matters until Epstein was arrested in 2019 on federal sex trafficking charges. Epstein died in August 2010 while awaiting trial on those charges. His death was officially ruled a suicide, which the Trump administration affirmed.
Attorney General Pam Bondi responded quickly to Trump’s directive and ordered the Manhattan U.S. Attorney’s office to conduct the investigation. Hoffman and a spokesman for Clinton have dismissed the investigation. Summers recently issued an apology and said he would step back from his public commitments.