House votes overwhelmingly to force release of Epstein files, sending bill to Senate

In a decisive show of bipartisan support, the House voted 427-1 on Tuesday to compel the Justice Department to publicly release its files on convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, overcoming months of opposition from President Donald Trump and Republican leadership.

The overwhelming approval marks a significant victory for a small group of lawmakers who had used a rare legislative maneuver to bypass House Speaker Mike Johnson’s control over which bills reach the floor. When the petition was introduced in July, few expected it would succeed, especially after Trump dismissed the matter as a “hoax” and urged his supporters to ignore it.

Both Trump and Johnson ultimately failed to prevent the vote. As momentum behind the bill grew, Trump reversed course and pledged to sign it if passed by the Senate. Following the House vote, Senate Majority Leader John Thune indicated the upper chamber would act swiftly on the legislation.

Rep. Clay Higgins, a Louisiana Republican and fervent Trump supporter, cast the lone dissenting vote, citing concerns about potentially releasing information on innocent individuals mentioned in the federal investigation.

The bill requires the Justice Department to release all files and communications related to Epstein within 30 days, including information about the investigation into his 2019 death in a Manhattan jail while awaiting trial on charges of sexually abusing and trafficking underage girls. The legislation permits redactions to protect victims or ongoing federal investigations but prohibits withholding information due to “embarrassment, reputational harm, or political sensitivity.”

“These women have fought the most horrific fight that no woman should have to fight. And they did it by banding together and never giving up,” said Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, a Georgia Republican and typically loyal Trump ally, as she stood with abuse survivors outside the Capitol on Tuesday morning.

“That’s what we did by fighting so hard against the most powerful people in the world, even the president of the United States, in order to make this vote happen today,” Greene added.

The bill’s passage represents a pivotal moment in a years-long push by Epstein’s victims for accountability and a reckoning over law enforcement’s failure to act across multiple presidential administrations. A separate House Oversight Committee investigation has already released thousands of pages of documents from Epstein’s estate, revealing his connections to global leaders, Wall Street executives, and influential political figures, including Trump.

Trump, who has said he cut ties with Epstein years ago, tried for months to sidestep demands for disclosure. However, pressure from his own base continued to build. On Tuesday morning, survivors rallied outside the Capitol, sharing their stories of abuse while holding photos of themselves as teenagers.

“We are exhausted from surviving the trauma and then surviving the politics that swirl around it,” said one survivor.

Jena-Lisa Jones, who identified herself as a Trump voter, addressed the president directly: “I beg you Donald Trump, please stop making this political.”

The vote faced delays because Johnson kept the House closed for legislative business for nearly two months and refused to swear in Democratic Rep. Adelita Grijalva of Arizona during the government shutdown. Grijalva, who won a special election on September 23, had pledged to provide the crucial 218th signature on the discharge petition. Only after she was sworn in last week could she sign, giving the petition majority support in the 435-member House.

As passage became inevitable, both Johnson and Trump relented. Trump on Sunday called for Republicans to support the bill, though Greene told reporters that Trump’s initial opposition had “ripped MAGA apart.”

Rather than waiting for the discharge petition to officially take effect next week, Johnson held the vote under a procedure requiring a two-thirds majority. Though he raised concerns about potential unintended consequences of disclosing typically private federal investigations, he ultimately voted for the bill, explaining, “None of us want to go on record and in any way be accused of not being for maximum transparency.”

House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries characterized the outcome as “a complete and total surrender” by Republicans.

In the Senate, Thune said he would quickly gauge support for the bill, noting it could be brought forward as early as Tuesday evening and almost certainly by week’s end. Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer also expressed eagerness to pass the legislation swiftly, declaring, “The American people have waited long enough.”

The bill’s sponsors, Reps. Thomas Massie (R-KY) and Ro Khanna (D-CA), warned senators against making changes that would “muck it up,” saying they would face the same public backlash that forced Trump and Johnson to back down.

“We’ve needlessly dragged this out for four months,” Massie said, adding that those raising concerns “are afraid that people will be embarrassed. Well, that’s the whole point here.”