WASHINGTON, D.C. – Hours after the House overwhelmingly passed a measure that would compel the Justice Department to release the files related to Jeffrey Epstein, the Senate received unanimous consent on the measure; meaning, it passed the Senate the second it arrived in the chamber. Epstein, the late financier was a convicted sex offender who surrounded himself with a powerful crowd.
The only “no” vote in the House was from Rep. Clay Higgins, a Republican member from Louisiana. This Epstein case has caused huge political infighting especially among Republican members and their base.
Getting to this point was no easy feat. Democrats and a handful of Republicans got enough signatures to force the legislation onto the House floor even though the President and Republican leaders opposed it. The President dismissed the Epstein documents as part of a hoax and Republicans have supported other legislation related to the Epstein case, but others claim that legislation doesn’t go far enough in the pursuit of full transparency. The President has done a complete 180 on this latest measure and gave the Republicans the green light to support it ahead of this vote. Many believe that’s why there is an overwhelming support from Republicans on this measure.
“This is, there was the popular will within the conference to move that bill,” said Rep. Nick Langworthy (R- NY). “I support the bill. We need full disclosure we need full transparency, and now we have it. We need to protect those victims’ identities and narratives if that’s what they want but we also need transparency about what happened in this entire episode and let the truth speak.”
Congressman Dan Meuser (R- PA), told us the President has continuously called for the release of documents for years, as long as its credible and legal. Democrats said the President has the authority to release the documents without Congress’ approval.
“He [Trump] didn’t want to get into something where somebody’s name was attached to some invitation or something to a party by this creep, Epstein creep, monster,” said Rep. Dan Meuser (R- PA). “So, you know ,they were reviewing that. 45-thousand, 50-thousand pages released. Democrats have tried to use this as a ploy and in a way its worked on social media and saying oh release the files, so we released the rest and what we’ll see what’s in there and like the President said, as long as we’re not putting someone in there that’s not credible or opening yourselves up for a liability suit, let’s get it out.”
Ahead of the vote, Rep. Jack Bergman (R- MI) said he has always supported full transparency in the Epstein case and the President’s change of stance on this measure did not impact him:
“Let’s lay it all out there and see what’s in it,” said Rep. Jack Bergman (R- MI). “The point is we need to be transparent with the American people and everything but what we really need to be transparent about is lay out the true cost of healthcare- I’m not trying to shift the subject here, but we need to show everybody what’s behind the curtain.”
The President has said he will sign the legislation if Congress passed it.
