{"id":388819,"date":"2025-11-19T01:19:16","date_gmt":"2025-11-19T01:19:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/388819\/"},"modified":"2025-11-19T01:19:16","modified_gmt":"2025-11-19T01:19:16","slug":"house-votes-to-release-epstein-files-but-speaker-johnson-urges-senate-to-correct-issues-in-discharge-petition","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/388819\/","title":{"rendered":"House votes to release Epstein files — but Speaker Johnson urges Senate to ‘correct’ issues in discharge petition"},"content":{"rendered":"

WASHINGTON \u2014\u00a0Congress was overwhelmingly unified Tuesday, voting in both chambers to release\u00a0federal investigative materials<\/a>\u00a0on notorious sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein and sending the bill to President Trump\u2019s desk.<\/p>\n

The swift turnaround was remarkable after lawmakers and the Trump administration had been at odds for much of the year on releasing the so-called Epstein files.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Follow The Post\u2019s live coverage of President Trump and national politics for the latest news and analysis<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

The measure<\/a>\u00a0would mandate the Department of Justice turn over all \u201cunclassified records, documents, communications and investigative materials\u201d \u2014 and all classified information to the maximum extent possible \u2014 within 30 days of becoming law.<\/p>\n

It sailed through the House of Representatives in a\u00a0427-1 vote.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The US House of Representatives voted Tuesday after a four-month fight to release federal investigative materials on the notorious sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein. AP<\/p>\n

A few hours later, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) moved to immediately send the bill to the White House and received no objection.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Senate has now passed the Epstein bill as soon as it comes over from the House,\u201d Schumer proclaimed.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Schumer\u2019s move came as Trump expressed no preference for how quickly the Senate got the bill.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t care when the Senate passes the House Bill, whether tonight, or at some other time in the near future,\u201d Trump wrote on Truth Social, adding, \u201cI just don\u2019t want Republicans to take their eyes off all of the Victories that we\u2019ve had.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) had urged the Senate to \u201ccorrect\u201d the bill and provide \u201cproper protections for the innocent,\u201d which the upper chamber declined to do.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Epstein Files Transparency Act, which was introduced by Reps. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) and Ro Khanna (D-Calif.), would also order Attorney General Pam Bondi to deliver a list of government officials and other \u201cpolitically exposed persons\u201d linked to Epstein within 15 days of receiving the president\u2019s signature.<\/p>\n

House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) urged the Senate to \u201ccorrect\u201d the discharge petition\u2019s language and provide \u201cproper protections for the innocent.\u201d Getty Images<\/p>\n

\u201cRepublicans are letting the facts speak for themselves and pursuing justice for the victims of these heinous crimes,\u201d House Majority Whip Tom Emmer (R-Minn.) told The Post, before accusing Democrats of using Epstein victims \u201cas political leverage\u201d against President Trump and others.<\/p>\n

Rep. Clay Higgins (R-La.) was the only lawmaker who voted against the move, while five others were absent\u00a0in the House.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have been a principled \u2018NO\u2019 on this bill from the beginning. What was wrong with the bill three months ago is still wrong today,\u201d Higgins said in a statement posted on X. \u201cIt abandons 250 years of criminal justice procedure in America. As written, this bill reveals and injures thousands of innocent people \u2013 witnesses, people who provided alibis, family members, etc.\u201d<\/p>\n

Follow The Post\u2019s coverage on the Jeffrey Epstein files, Ghislaine Maxwell, and more<\/p>\n

\u201cIf enacted in its current form, this type of broad reveal of criminal investigative files, released to a rabid media, will absolutely result in innocent people being hurt. Not by my vote,\u201d he added. \u201cThe Oversight Committee is conducting a thorough investigation that has already released well over 60,000 pages of documents from the Epstein case.\u201d<\/p>\n

While Trump said Monday he was willing to sign the discharge petition in its current form, Johnson warned Tuesday morning that it would \u201ccarelessly dump thousands of documents without proper protections for the innocent.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is dangerously flawed,\u201d Johnson told reporters on Capitol Hill, before urging Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) to fix its issues. \u201cOur problem and our frustration is, there\u2019s no way for us in the House to amend it or correct these problems because the authors of the discharge will not allow it.\u201d<\/p>\n

House lawmakers approved a resolution forcing the Department of Justice to turn over all investigative materials \u2014 and classified information to the maximum extent possible \u2014 on Epstein within 30 days. AP<\/p>\n

Thune later told reporters that given the near-unanimous vote in favor of releasing the Epstein files, changes were \u201cnot likely to happen.\u201d<\/p>\n

Four Republicans \u2014 Massie and Reps. Nancy Mace (R-SC), Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.) and Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) \u2014 joined with all 214 House Democrats to get the necessary 218 signatures needed to vote on the discharge petition.<\/p>\n

\u201cI want to see the emails that Epstein had with some of these other rich and powerful people,\u201d Khanna\u00a0told The Post in an exclusive interview<\/a>\u00a0Monday. \u201cI want to see the photographs that were on his computer. I want to see \u2026 who were the other men who engaged either in sex trafficking or actually visited the Epstein island [Little St. James in the US Virgin Islands], who were the men and women who may have known about Epstein\u2019s abuse and yet were taking money from him and still going to dinner parties with him and still emailing with him.<\/p>\n

Trump associated with Epstein during the 1990s and early 2000s in New York and Palm Beach, Fla., before breaking off contact after he discovered Epstein and Maxwell \u201cstole\u201d girls such as Giuffre from his Mar-a-Lago club\u2019s spa. Getty Images<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd I want to know why some of these people still have universities named after them, why they still have scholarships named after them, why they are still in positions of power,\u201d the Silicon Valley rep added. \u201cThere needs to be a reckoning in this country.\u201d<\/p>\n

Some of that information has been released as a result of the House Oversight Committee\u2019s investigation into the DOJ\u2019s Epstein materials, albeit with many redactions. Other documents came out as part of federal cases against Epstein and his accomplice, Ghislaine Maxwell.<\/p>\n

Some federal documents have previously come out as part of cases against Epstein and his accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell. US District Court for the Southe<\/p>\n

Johnson cited the resolution\u2019s failure \u201cto fully protect victim privacy,\u201d the risks of disclosing Child Sexual Abuse Materials (CSAM) or non-credible allegations against others, the potential to unmask undercover law enforcement or whistleblowers and reveal \u201cconfidential sources and methods\u201d used by the feds.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m gonna vote to move this forward,\u201d he added. \u201cI think it could be close to a unanimous vote because everybody here, all the Republicans, want to go on record to show there\u2019s a maximum transparency.\u201d<\/p>\n

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The discharge petition does include language calling for the protection of victims\u2019 privacy \u2014 language that Johnson said didn\u2019t go far enough \u2014 but states that no names associated with Epstein can be redacted in the investigative files for reasons of \u201c[e]mbarrassment, reputational harm, or political sensitivity.\u201d<\/p>\n

During a press conference earlier Tuesday, Massie, Khanna and Greene had joined Epstein victims and thanked Trump as well as administration officials for helping to urge the GOP to pass the discharge petition after months of dismissing it.<\/p>\n

During a press conference earlier Tuesday on Capitol Hill, Massie, Khanna and Greene joined Epstein victims and thanked Trump as well as administration officials for helping urge the GOP to pass the discharge petition. Getty Images<\/p>\n

\u201cI beg you, President Trump, please stop making this political. It is not about you,\u201d said Jena-Lisa Jones, who was abused by Epstein as a 14-year-old girl. \u201cI voted for you, but your behavior on this issue has been a national embarrassment.\u201d<\/p>\n

Like Johnson, Trump supported the bill\u2019s passage but rejected Democratic calls for transparency on the Epstein issue \u2014 which weren\u2019t prioritized when their party controlled the White House and Congress between January 2021 and January 2023 \u2014 as a political \u201ctrap\u201d set for Republicans.<\/p>\n

Both have also pointed out that prominent Democrats \u2014\u00a0including former President Bill Clinton<\/a>\u00a0and ex-Treasury Secretary Larry Summers \u2014 enjoyed chummy relationships with Epstein, with the president ordering a Justice Department probe of those ties last week.<\/p>\n

Sky Roberts, the brother of Virginia Giuffre, and his wife Amanda Roberts, attended the press conference with Epstein\u2019s victims on Capitol Hill earlier Tuesday. Getty Images<\/p>\n

In Summers\u2019 case, his interactions with Epstein continued for more than a decade after he pleaded guilty in Florida to soliciting a minor for prostitution in June 2008 \u2014 right up until the 66-year-old\u2019s arrest on federal sex trafficking charges in July 2019, according to emails released last week by the House Oversight Committee.<\/p>\n

Johnson noted that among the 65,000 documents already released by the Oversight panel were \u201cEpstein\u2019s flight logs, his personal financial records and ledgers, his daily calendars, and so much more\u201d not \u201ceven written or included in the discharge petition.\u201d<\/p>\n

Democrats on the Oversight panel selectively released three emails last Wednesday that suggested Trump may have been aware of Epstein sexually abusing girls, though the allegation concerned his late victim Virginia Giuffre, who never publicly\u00a0accused Trump of wrongdoing<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Johnson urged Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) to fix the discharge petition before passing it. REUTERS<\/p>\n

Trump was friendly with Epstein during the 1990s and early 2000s in New York and Palm Beach, Fla., before breaking off contact after he discovered Epstein and Maxwell \u201cstole<\/a>\u201d girls such as Giuffre from his Mar-a-Lago club\u2019s spa.<\/p>\n

In July, Trump\u2019s DOJ and FBI concluded a \u201csystematic review\u201d of all Epstein materials in its possession that determined the financier didn\u2019t have a blackmail ring or \u201cclient list\u201d as part of his sex trafficking operation and that no third parties linked to him could be reasonably charged with crimes.<\/p>\n

But public outcry over the July 6 memo led to months of backlash against the president and his administration, with a majority of Americans indicating in public polls that they\u00a0disapproved of Trump\u2019s handling of the matter<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Epstein was found dead on Aug. 10, 2019, in his Manhattan lockup before he could be tried. His death was later ruled a suicide by federal and medical investigators.<\/p>\n

In December 2021, Maxwell was convicted of taking part in the sex trafficking conspiracy and sentenced to 20 years in prison in June of the following year.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"WASHINGTON \u2014\u00a0Congress was overwhelmingly unified Tuesday, voting in both chambers to release\u00a0federal investigative materials\u00a0on notorious sex trafficker Jeffrey…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":388820,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5122],"tags":[5229,327,69,49022,15053,9701,8119,405,403,5226,5225,5228,5227,80,5620,16854,67,586,132,5230,68,5621,1154,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-388819","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-congress","10":"tag-donald-trump","11":"tag-ghislaine-maxwell","12":"tag-jeffrey-epstein","13":"tag-marjorie-taylor-greene","14":"tag-mike-johnson","15":"tag-new-york","16":"tag-new-york-city","17":"tag-newyork","18":"tag-newyorkcity","19":"tag-ny","20":"tag-nyc","21":"tag-politics","22":"tag-republicans","23":"tag-senate","24":"tag-united-states","25":"tag-united-states-of-america","26":"tag-unitedstates","27":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","28":"tag-us","29":"tag-us-house-of-representatives","30":"tag-us-news","31":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115573736480577577","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/388819","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=388819"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/388819\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/388820"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=388819"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=388819"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=388819"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}