The US Congress voted overwhelmingly Tuesday to require the Justice Department to release all unclassified records on Jeffrey Epstein, two days after President Donald Trump abruptly ended months of resistance to the measure.
The House passed the resolution 427-1, sending it to the Senate, which approved it quickly. A senior White House official said Trump plans to sign the bill when it reaches his desk.
Epstein, a wealthy financier with ties to powerful figures, died by suicide in federal custody in 2019 while awaiting trial on sex-trafficking charges. His death fueled years of conspiracy theories, including some amplified by Trump. Many of the president’s supporters have accused his administration of hiding information about Epstein’s connections and the circumstances surrounding his death.
Survivors call for release
Before Tuesday’s vote, about two dozen women who say Epstein abused them stood with a bipartisan group of lawmakers outside the Capitol, urging Congress to act. Some held childhood photos of themselves, the ages at which they say they first encountered Epstein. After the vote, they applauded from the House gallery, some embracing through tears.
But Trump bristled at renewed attention on the case. When asked about the bill in the Oval Office, he called the reporter a “terrible person” and suggested the journalist’s employer should lose its broadcast license.
“I have nothing to do with Jeffrey Epstein,” Trump told reporters while hosting Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. “I threw him out of my club many years ago because I thought he was a sick pervert.”
White House caught off-guard
According to Reuters, two people familiar with the matter said the White House was surprised at how quickly the bill moved through Congress, expecting a slower Senate process.
Trump and Epstein socialised in the 1990s and early 2000s before what Trump describes as a falling-out. The past association, rare among issues that cut into Trump’s base, has become a vulnerability.
“Please stop making this political. It is not about you, President Trump,” Jena-Lisa Jones, who says Epstein abused her at age 14, said at a news conference hours before the vote. “I voted for you, but your behaviour on this issue has been a national embarrassment.”
Trump has insisted he had no connection to Epstein’s crimes and has recently labelled the controversy a “Democratic hoax,” even as several Republicans lead the push for disclosure.
GOP splits emerge
Rep. Thomas Massie of Kentucky, the Republican spearheading the effort, accused the Justice Department of shielding abusers.
“How will we know if this bill has been successful?” he asked on the House floor. “We will know when there are men — rich men—in handcuffs being perp-walked to jail.”
Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, one of Trump’s staunchest allies, said the president pressured her to drop support for the resolution and called her a “traitor” when she refused. Greene, who has repeatedly criticised the DOJ for withholding information on Epstein, stood with Massie and Democratic Rep. Ro Khanna before voting for the bill.
“A traitor is an American that serves foreign countries and themselves,” Greene said. “A patriot is an American that serves the United States of America and Americans like the women standing behind me.”
Epstein pleaded guilty in Florida in 2008 to a state prostitution charge and served 13 months. Federal prosecutors charged him with sex trafficking of minors in 2019; he pleaded not guilty before his death.
