Trump said he doesn’t care about the Epstein files. What’s the next step in pushing for their release?

WASHINGTON (AP) — The House is moving toward a vote on a bill to force the Justice Department to release case files it collected on the late financier Jeffrey Epstein, prompting a months-long effort by President Donald Trump and Republican leaders to thwart the effort.

Demands for more disclosure of the sex trafficking investigation into Epstein, which began years ago, have returned with force since the House returned to Washington after a nearly two-month absence during the government shutdown. As lawmakers returned last week, they were greeted with new details from a trove of Epstein’s emails, including allegations that Trump “spent hours” at Epstein’s home with a sex trafficking victim and that he “knew about the girls.”

The new revelations and the upcoming vote demonstrated one of the rare instances in which Trump was unable to demonstrate near-total control over his party.

However, the sex trafficking case for Epstein has been growing in political clout since Epstein killed himself in a Manhattan jail while awaiting trial in 2019. He faced accusations of sexually assaulting and trafficking underage girls, and many others have since said they were abused by the well-connected financier.

Now, several lawmakers say the Justice Department also needs to release its case files on Epstein, arguing they could show that other people knew about or were complicit in Epstein’s sexual assault. House Democrats, joined by a few key Republicans, were able to force a vote on the bill to do so using a rarely successful procedure called a recall petition.

He watches: Trump disputes with MAGA ally before vote to release Epstein files

As it became clear that the bill would pass the House, likely with significant support from Republican lawmakers, Trump and House Speaker Mike Johnson changed their approach from outright opposition to declaring indifference.

“I’m not interested!” Trump wrote in a social media post on Sunday. “All I care about is that Republicans get back to some point.”

Why is the House of Representatives about to vote?

Reps. Ro Khanna, D-Calif., and Thomas Massie, R-Ky., filed a petition in July to force a vote on their bill, the Epstein Files Transparency Act.

The effort was supported by all House Democrats and four Republicans: Massie and Reps. Lauren Boebert of Colorado, Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia, and Nancy Mace of South Carolina.

Minutes after Democratic Rep. Adelita Grijalva of Arizona was sworn in on Wednesday, she signed her name to Epstein’s petition, pushing her to the magic number of 218 — a majority in the 435-member House.

He watches: Rep.-elect Adelita Grijalva is sworn in 7 weeks after the election, boosting Epstein’s vote

Johnson said after Grijalva was sworn in that he would speed up the petition process for a vote on the bill in the House of Representatives this week.

The spokesman rejected claims that he blocked Epstein’s legislation to protect Trump or others. He told reporters last week that the Republican majority objected to the wording of the measure, which he claimed did not provide adequate protection for victims.

Johnson also repeatedly pointed to a concurrent investigation into Epstein’s sexual assault by the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee. Republicans who control the committee also focused on Epstein’s ties to Democrats, including former President Bill Clinton.

It was the oversight committee that released Epstein’s emails, part of 20,000 pages of documents it obtained from Epstein’s estate.

The committee also asked the Justice Department to see its case files related to Epstein, but Democrats on the committee say the response has been insufficient.

What does the bill do?

The bill would force the Justice Department to release all files and communications related to Epstein, as well as any information about the investigation into his death in federal prison.
It would be allowed to withhold information related to Epstein’s victims or ongoing federal investigations, according to the bill.

However, the ministry will not be permitted to redact information due to “embarrassment, reputational damage, or political sensitivity, including toward any government official, public figure, or foreign figure.”

Several survivors of Epstein’s abuse, joined by lawmakers, plan to speak outside the Capitol on Tuesday morning.

Will it pass?

The bill will almost certainly be approved by the House of Representatives, but its future in the Senate is a different story.

He already has majority support in the House of Representatives, and more Republicans are expected to vote for him as they respond to the demands of their constituents.

The toughest test will be in the Senate, where Republicans have a 53-47 majority.

When asked in September whether the Senate would take up the Epstein bill if it passed the House, Senate Majority Leader John Thune said: “I can’t comment on that at this point.”

He watches: Thune would not commit to a Senate vote on the Epstein files in a Senate leadership briefing

Thune added that the Justice Department “has already released a lot of files related to this matter.”

“I trust them in terms of their confidence that they will get as much information as possible in a way that protects the rights of the victims,” Thune said.

Will Trump stop it?

If this measure passes both chambers of Congress, it will go to Trump. He could try to stop it with a veto, but he would also be under enormous pressure to sign it.

Trump pressured two Republicans last week to try to stop the House impeachment petition. But after that didn’t work, he appeared to change his approach to the bill.

“We have nothing to hide, and it’s time to move forward with the Democrats’ hoax perpetrated by the lunatics of the radical left in order to distract from the great success of the Republican Party,” Trump wrote on social media late Sunday after landing at Joint Base Andrews after a weekend getaway in Florida.

The president’s veto can also be overridden by a two-thirds majority in both chambers. This has only happened twice since 2009.

Massie suggested that Trump could avoid the entire ordeal by releasing all of the Epstein files held by the federal government.

“There’s still time for him to be the champion,” Massie said of Trump.