US Congress Greenlights Full Release of Epstein Files as Trump Rants About “Democrat Hoax”

The US Congress has cleared the way for the long-sealed Jeffrey Epstein files to finally see daylight. In a rare act of near-total bipartisan unity, House lawmakers voted 427–1 to release the government’s documents on the late sex offender, and the Senate agreed by unanimous consent before the bill even formally reached the chamber.

Once the Senate gavels back in on Wednesday, the bill heads to President Donald Trump, who says he’ll sign it. That stance is a sharp reversal from his earlier insistence that the controversy around Epstein was a “hoax.”

Technically, the White House and the Department of Justice didn’t need Congress at all. They already had the authority to make the files public. But months of pressure, and a political storm around Epstein’s deep ties to elites, turned this into a congressional showdown.

Before Tuesday’s vote, the bill’s sponsors, Democrat Ro Khanna and Republicans Thomas Massie and Marjorie Taylor Greene, appeared outside the Capitol with survivors of Epstein’s abuse. Massie said:

“We fought the president, the attorney general, the FBI director, the speaker of the House and the vice president to get this win. They’re on our side today, so let’s give them some credit as well.”

The Epstein Files Transparency Act orders the DOJ to release “all unclassified records, documents, communications and investigative materials” linked to Epstein’s prosecution. The documents must be downloadable and searchable. Investigators can withhold material that would compromise an active federal investigation or expose victims’ personal information.

The lone “no” vote came from Republican Clay Higgins, a hardline Trump ally, who argued the bill “reveals and injures thousands of innocent people, witnesses, people who provided alibis, family members, etc.”

Epstein first pleaded guilty to soliciting a minor in 2008, served 13 months in a lenient work-release arrangement, and continued mingling with powerful figures even after his conviction. He was arrested again in 2019 on federal sex-trafficking charges but was found dead in a New York jail cell two months later. His death was ruled a suicide.

His network remains a flashpoint: Ehud Barak, Prince Andrew, Bill Clinton, Larry Summers, the roster is long and politically inconvenient for both parties. Which may explain Trump’s erratic messaging. On Tuesday he insisted none of this matters compared with immigration or the military, and snapped at an ABC reporter pressing him on why he won’t release the files himself. “You just keep going on the Epstein files. And what the Epstein is is a Democrat hoax,” he said.

On Friday, aboard Air Force One, he lashed out at a Bloomberg reporter with “Quiet, quiet, piggy,” drawing condemnation from CNN’s Jake Tapper and even Trump’s own niece, Mary Trump, who called the remark “wildly inappropriate and despicable.”

Massie offered a different explanation for Trump’s reluctance: “I believe he’s trying to protect friends and donors. And by the way, these aren’t necessarily Republicans. Once you get to a billion dollars, you see, you transcend parties.”