House passes legislation to release the Jeffrey Epstein files
EDITOR'S NOTE: The Senate agrees to pass the Epstein Files Transparency Bill with no objections. Read more about it HERE.
UPDATE (14:44 PM): The House has unanimously passed legislation to release the files related to Jeffrey Epstein Tuesday.
The bill passed 427-1, with only one Republican, Clay Higgins of Louisiana, voting against it. The measure secured enough bipartisan support to head straight to the House floor last week.
It got another boost over the weekend when President Donald Trump reversed his position and urged Republicans to support it.
If signed into law, the bill would require the Attorney General to release "all unclassified records, documents, communications, and investigative materials" related to Epstein and his co-conspirator Ghislaine Maxwell.
These include flight logs or travel records, internal e-mails, notes, and other internal Justice Department communications.
Those records would need to be released "no later than 30 days" after enactment of the law.
The lopsided vote puts pressure on the Republican-controlled senate to act on the measure, although it's not clear how much support it has in the chamber.
The bill will now head to the Senate.
UPDATE (10:41 AM): The House is discussing to release the files related to Jeffrey Epstein.
To watch the livestream of the discussion, see attached video.
WASHINGTON (NBC, KYMA) - House lawmakers are expected to vote Tuesday afternoon to force the release of the Justice Department's files on the Jeffrey Epstein investigation.
The vote comes after House Speaker Mike Johnson and President Donald Trump resisted calls to do so for months, saying it was unnecessary because of other ongoing investigations.
President Trump has now reversed course, calling on republicans to vote for Tuesday's measure, and lawmakers will hear from Epstein survivors who plan to be on Capitol Hill to try to sway lawmakers.
After resisting the move for months, Trump is now urging Republicans to vote for the bill, aying he would sign it.
"They can do whatever they want. We'll give them everything. Sure, I would. Let the, let the Senate look at it, let anybody look at it," the president remarked.
This comes as it grows increasingly clear the House has the votes to pass it.
"We were working all weekend and had almost 100 Republicans who were going to vote for a bill in defiance of Donald Trump," said Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA).
"Everybody's gonna vote for it! Everybody's gonna vote," said Rep. Troy Nehls (R-TX).
Now with the president's backing, Rep. Thomas Massie is leading the charge for the files' release, saying he's worried new investigations Trump asked the DOJ to open could block the release of information.
"I believe they may be trying to use those investigations as a predicate for not releasing the files," Rep. Massie explained.
Trump, who socialized with Epstein decades ago before cutting ties, has not been accused of any wrongdoing related to Epstein's crimes.
Survivors of the years of abuse, coming forward to press for transparency, are rallying at the Capitol Tuesday, hoping for a major step on the long road to accountability.
"Knowing how popular this is with the American people, that a tremendous amount of pressure placed on the government means things happen," said Annie Farmer, an Epstein survivor.
The new DOJ investigations Trump requested centers on Democrats who are mentioned, along with the president and other high-profile figures in a newly-released batch of emails, that set the stage for Tuesday's vote in the house.
The Senate could then take the issue up as soon as this week.
