Congress approves bill to release Epstein documents, sending them to Trump’s desk

Both houses of Congress agreed to order the U.S. Department of Justice to release documents concerning sex crimes financier Jeffrey Epstein.

The House passed the measure overwhelmingly, 427 to 1, and the Senate passed it unanimously and quickly, without the need for a formal vote.

Just days ago, President Donald Trump reversed his stance and urged Congress to vote to disclose the records after facing public backlash from many of his supporters.

Trump and his relationship with Epstein returned to the headlines last week after more than 20,000 pages of documents, some of which referenced the president, were released. The White House denies any wrongdoing.

Republican Clay Higgins of Louisiana, the lone dissenter in the House, expressed concern that the release of the information would lead to “innocent people being harmed.”

Trump surprised some in Washington by shifting from attacking those on Capitol Hill who wanted the documents released to saying there was “nothing to hide.”

Republican congressional leadership was caught off guard after spending the past few weeks aligning themselves with the president and opposing the release.

House Speaker Mike Johnson has repeatedly called the push to release the Epstein documents a “Democratic hoax.”

On Tuesday, he voted for his release.

The measure was originally expected to take several days to reach the U.S. Senate, but the timeline quickly accelerated after a blockbuster afternoon vote in the House.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer introduced the bill in the Senate under a process called “unanimous consent.” As there were no objections, there was no debate and no changes were made to the bill.

The bill will go from the Senate to the president’s desk, where he is expected to sign it into law.

No congressional vote was required to release the documents — Trump could have ordered their release himself.

The bill requires Attorney General Pam Bondi to release “all unclassified records, documents, communications and investigative materials” related to Epstein and his co-conspirator Ghislaine Maxwell within 30 days of the law’s enactment.

The materials include internal justice communications, flight logs and people and entities associated with Epstein.

But the bill also gives Bundy the power to withhold information that could jeopardize any ongoing federal investigation or identify any victims.

Financier Epstein was found dead in a New York jail cell in 2019, and a coroner ruled it a suicide.

He was previously convicted of soliciting a minor for prostitution in 2008 and is currently in custody on sex trafficking charges.

Thousands of documents, including transcripts of interviews with victims and witnesses, were collected during two criminal investigations into Epstein.

Trump and Epstein previously had similar social circles, but the president said he severed ties with Epstein years before Epstein was convicted in 2008. The president also said he was unaware of Epstein’s criminal activities.

Last week, Democrats on the House Oversight Committee released three email chains that included communications between Epstein and Maxwell, who is currently serving a 20-year sentence for sex trafficking.

Some of them mentioned Trump, including an email sent in 2011 in which Epstein wrote to Maxwell: “I want you to realize that the dog that did not bark was Trump… (The victim) spent several hours with him at my house.”

The White House said last week that the victim named in the emails was Virginia Giuffre, a prominent Epstein accuser.

Giuffre, who died in April, said she never saw Trump engage in any abuse and there was no suggestion in the emails of any wrongdoing by Trump.

Trump has consistently denied any wrongdoing with Epstein. White House press secretary Carolyn Leavitt said the emails were “selectively leaked” by House Democrats to the “liberal media in an effort to create a false narrative to smear President Trump.”

The push to release the investigative dossier held by the Justice Department is the sometimes dissident Republican Thomas Massie of Kentucky and Democratic Ro Khanna of California, both of whom have sponsored the legislation.

Massey was criticized by Trump for pushing for the release of the documents, but he stood firm.

“He’s not going to be president in 2030,” Massie told ABC News over the weekend. He added that fellow Republicans who voted against the release “will vote to protect pedophiles.”

Another Republican pushing for the documents to be released is House Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene. She had been a staunch supporter of Trump before the two feuded over the issue, with him now calling her a “traitor.”

At a news conference earlier Tuesday, Greene said she was speaking out on behalf of Epstein’s survivors. She also named Trump directly.

“Let me tell you what a traitor is. A traitor is an American who serves foreign nations and themselves; a patriot is an American who serves the United States of America and Americans like the women standing behind me,” Green said.

She said the row over Epstein has been one of the “most damaging things” about Trump’s “Make America Great Again” campaign since his election in 2016.

Survivors of Epstein’s abuse also spoke at the news conference, urging lawmakers to release the documents and urging Trump to do the same.

Epstein survivor Anne Farmer said keeping the documents secret amounted to an “institutional betrayal.”

“Because these crimes are not properly investigated, more girls and women are harmed,” Ms Farmer said.