WASHINGTON — House Republicans are expected to join their Democratic colleagues in a near-unanimous vote this week in support of releasing all of the Jeffrey Epstein files, The Post has learned.
GOP aides said the vote to force the Department of Justice to hand over all of the federal government’s “unclassified records, documents, communications and investigative materials” on late powerful pedophile Epstein was a foregone conclusion after President Trump urged House lawmakers to do it “because we have nothing to hide.”
Once the measure is passed in the House, Senate Republicans will have to vote on it, and there is already reportedly enough support for it there, too. Trump said Monday he would immediately sign it afterward.
“Let the Senate look at it. Let anybody look at it,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office.
“The president has always been committed to transparency and accountability when it comes to the Epstein files” and “delivered on it” by having his administration “fully cooperate” with the House Oversight Committee’s production of tens of thousands of investigative materials, a White House official said.
“The only reason Democrats care about this is because they think they can use this against the president and the administration,” the official added, noting how the party has been mum about Democratic Virgin Islands Delegate Stacey Plaskett texting with the notorious sex trafficker during a 2019 congressional hearing.
“Nobody cared about Jeffrey Epstein when he was alive and, if the Democrats had anything, they would have released it before our Landslide Election Victory,” Trump also said on his Truth Social.
“Some ‘members’ of the Republican Party are being ‘used,’ and we can’t let that happen. Let’s start talking about the Republican Party’s Record Setting Achievements, and not fall into the Epstein ‘TRAP,’ which is actually a curse on the Democrats, not us. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!” he wrote.
The Epstein Files Transparency Act, introduced by Reps. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) and Ro Khanna (D-Calif.), would order Attorney General Pam Bondi in 15 days to send Congress reports on all “categories of records released and withheld,” a list of government officials and “politically exposed persons” referenced in the files and an explanation for any redactions by the feds.
No names can be redacted for reasons of “[e]mbarrassment, reputational harm, or political sensitivity,” according to the text of the House resolution, though victims’ privacy must be protected.
Within 30 days, DOJ investigative materials on Epstein, his flight logs, his accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell, other individuals linked to him and internal information about his 2008 non-prosecution agreement, civil cases and eventual death in federal custody must also be made available in a searchable format, according to the measure.
House Majority Whip Tom Emmer (R-Minn.) has tentatively scheduled a vote on the resolution Tuesday — after the White House worked the phones last week in anticipation of the so-called discharge petition receiving the 218 signatures necessary for consideration.
The Epstein issue has been a rallying point for Democrats, with members in the minority on the House Oversight Committee selectively releasing some emails Wednesday that suggested Trump may have been aware of his former associate’s criminal conduct.
Start your day with all you need to know
Morning Report delivers the latest news, videos, photos and more.
Thanks for signing up!
Those emails redacted the name of Epstein’s most famous victim, the late Virginia Giuffre, who never publicly accused Trump of wrongdoing and also had to retract mistaken allegations against others such as lawyer Alan Dershowitz.
“Remember, the Biden DOJ had every one of these files in their possession for four years, and neither [Reps.] Hakeem Jeffries or Ro Khanna or Thomas Massie or any of them ever said a word about it,” House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) told “Fox News Sunday.”
“They’re doing this to go after President Trump on this theory that he has something to do with it. He does not,” Johnson said.
“We’re going to take that weapon out of their hand,” he added of the Democrats. “There’s nothing to hide, and the Oversight Committee is releasing far more information than the discharge petition, their little gambit, ever even anticipated.
“They’ve never been mentioned in the discharge, the Epstein estate files, and that is the treasure trove of documents that’s given us Epstein’s flight logs, his personal records, his financial ventures, his daily calendar.”
Massie has disagreed over some of this in the past, pointing to the number of redactions still made to documents that Trump’s DOJ has given to Congress.
Reps. Nancy Mace (R-SC) and Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.) refused to withdraw from the petition demanding the files’ release despite previous pressure from the White House, sources said, and the swearing-in of Rep. Adelita Grijalva (D-Ariz.) on Thursday gave Massie and Khanna the necessary signatures to bring it to the floor.
“The Epstein vote transcends politics, it’s deeply personal. And it’s about far more than one predator. This is about justice for every survivor who has found the courage to come forward,” Mace told The Post in a statement.
“I will cast my vote with profound emotion, mindful of how far we have come – and how much further we have to go.”
While avoiding any public disagreements with Mace or Boebert, Trump still lashed out at Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.), the fourth Republican to initially sign onto the discharge petition — and withdrew his endorsement of her Friday after the Georgia congresswoman continued to beat the drum on the Epstein files.
In his Truth Social post on Sunday, Trump said the disclosures — some of which the House Oversight Committee has already produced — could also shed light on the relationship between Epstein and “Democrat operatives” such as former President Bill Clinton and ex-Treasury Secretary Larry Summers.
The president had fumed to reporters in July that he didn’t “understand what the interest or what the fascination” was with Epstein, who was found dead in what was later ruled a suicide at a Manhattan jail in August 2019.
The 66-year-old disgraced financier had been federally charged the month before with a sex-trafficking conspiracy involving underage women. Maxwell is serving a 20-year sentence after being convicted in June 2022 in connection with the conspiracy.
Trump had also called for an “end” to federal inquiries about Epstein in September, claiming the DOJ did “everything requested of them” in terms of making investigative information public.
He also characterized the clamor from congressional Democrats about the notorious sex trafficker as a “hoax,” since several members of their party who knew Epstein “while he was alive” were happy to “befriend him, socialize with him, travel to his Island, and take his money!”
Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.), who sits on the Senate Judiciary Committee, said the move to release all of the files has already signaled support for it.
“I just don’t think this issue is going to go away until that issue is addressed and answered to the American people’s satisfaction,” Kennedy told CNN’s Kasie Hunt on her podcast. “And I may end up with a sombrero on my head for saying that, but that’s the way I see it.”
