The House of Representatives passed a resolution demanding the release of the Department of Justice case files related to late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. The resolution passed nearly unanimously, by a vote of 427-1.
The Epstein files have hung over the heads of the Trump administration since the president’s return to office. A Department of Justice memo over the summer disregarded the idea that Epstein kept a “client list” of powerful people for whom he trafficked women and girls. The memo disappointed the sizable conspiracist contingent of Trump’s base, creating a rift between them and the rest of MAGA.
Calls to release the DOJ’s entire collection of case files related to Jeffrey Epstein only grew louder from there.
The buzz around the files grew to a fever pitch last week, when House Democrats released a tranche of tens of thousands of Epstein’s emails. Hundreds of those messages referred to Epstein’s long-time associate, Donald Trump. Epstein said that the president “knew about the girls” and called him “the dog that hasn’t barked.”
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Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., and Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Calif., floated a bipartisan resolution to release the files that was quickly iced by House Speaker Mike Johnson. When it appeared that representatives in the House had enough votes to force the issue onto the floor, Johnson shuttered the lower chamber. Following the end of the federal government shutdown, representatives passed a petition to bring the Epstein files question to a vote. In the wake of the emails, a frenzied Trump called for an investigation into prominent Democrats and attempted to squash the effort in the House. This week, with a vote imminent, Trump flipped his position and began advocating for the full release of Epstein’s case files.
On Tuesday, Johnson voted in favor of the resolution while saying he still had concerns about serious deficiencies in the bill.
“I told my members today I’ll be voting yes on this, and I suspect almost everyone will. We’ll send it to the Senate and we’ll hope it is corrected,” Johnson said.
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