The U.S. Senate moved rapidly to pass the legislation to compel the Justice Department to release files related to the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, just a couple of hours after the House of Representatives almost unanimously passed the legislation.
The Senate did not add amendments, despite overtures from House Speaker Mike Johnson, who had initially opposed the initial vote in the House until President Donald Trump made a last-minute about-face to say he would sign the legislation.
“When a bill passes the House for 27 to one and the president said he'll sign it into law, I'm not sure that there's going to be a need for an amendment or desire for an amendment process,” Senate Majority Leader John Thune told The Independent after the House held its vote.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) requested unanimous consent for the legislation to deem it passed as soon as it came to the Senate floor, sending it to Trump’s desk.
“The American people have waited long enough. They want to see what's in it,” Schumer told The Independent as the House prepared to vote on the legislation earlier Tuesday.
The vote bookends a protracted process on Capitol Hill to force the Trump administration to release files related to the late convicted sex offender who preyed on scores of girls and young women, many of whom came to Capitol Hill to plead their case to release the files.
But Republicans seemed relieved to move on from the entire episode.
“We've got other important things to do, so I’m glad it’s behind us,” Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) told The Independent.
In July, the Department of Justice and the FBI released a two-page memo saying Epstein did not have a “client list” and that he likely killed himself when authorities arrested him and placed him in federal custody in 2019.
In turn, Reps. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) and Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) introduced a discharge petition to get around congressional leadership to force a vote to release the files. Every Democrat signed the petition alongside Republican Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia, Nancy Mace of South Carolina and Lauren Boebert of Colorado.
But the petition languished for months after Johnson refused to swear in Rep. Adelita Grijalva (D-Ariz.) after she won a special election to replace her father. Johnson finally swore in Grijalva last week.
Initially, Trump decried the efforts, calling them in September a “Democrat hoax” the same day that Epstein survivors came to the Hill to plead their case. That disappointed the victims, some of whom supported Trump.
“I voted for him, I regret that,” Haley Robson, a survivor, told The Independent. “I have offered him several opportunities to, if not, talk to survivors, meet with our attorneys, talk to them, but like I said, just very skeptical of moving forward and what the agenda is.”
Trump then changed his mind and said he would sign the legislation. After the passage in the House, he made a meandering, long-winded post saying he’d rather see Republicans focus on legislative accomplishments in his administration and move on.
“I don’t care when the Senate passes the House Bill, whether tonight, or at some other time in the near future,” Trump said on Truth Social.
Trump giving his consent to the vote meant that Republicans did not risk crossing the president and receiving the wrath he lobbed at Greene, long one of his most stalwart defenders.
“The President rightly called on the House to support the release of the Epstein files. I’m glad he did so,” Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) told The Independent, all while plugging his podcast where he said he did an episode.
But this does not guarantee that all of the files that survivors want will be released. Trump previously instructed Attorney General Pam Bondi to investigate Epstein’s ties to Democratic officials like former president Bill Clinton and his former Treasury secretary Larry Summers, as well as LinkedIn founder and Democratic megadonor Reid Hoffman, which Bondi said she would do.
“He's about hiding it, and my apprehension is he continues to do that,” Sen. Peter Welch (D-Vt.) told The Independent. “That's what all these investigations are that he's directed Attorney General Bondi to do.”
Schumer said Democrats will work to make sure Bondi does not withhold documents.
“We have many different ways that we are going to do everything we can to see that it comes out,” he told The Independent. “Pressure works.”
