House lawmakers are expected to approve legislation this week that would force the Trump administration to release its files on Jeffrey Epstein, potentially teeing up the documents to be released within weeks—though it still remains to be seen how the Senate will respond after President Donald Trump sharply changed his stance on the bill.
Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., leaves a House Republican caucus meeting at the U.S. Capitol on June 4.
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Key Takeaways
- The House is expected to vote Tuesday on the bill that would require the Department of Justice to release its full files on Epstein within 30 days of the bill becoming law.
- House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., said last week the measure would be voted on this week after Rep. Adelita Grijalva, D-Ariz., became the 218th signature—exactly one vote required for a majority—on a discharge petition for the bill, allowing the legislation to skip the traditional process of being approved by a House committee first and going straight to the House floor.
- Grijalva signed the petition after she was finally sworn into the House, seven weeks after winning a special election, a delay Democrats claimed was to keep the Epstein petition from moving forward.
- The bill is widely expected to pass the House: Reports suggested more than 100 House Republicans planned to vote for the bill, even before Trump flipflopped on social media Sunday, saying the House GOP should back the legislation because “it’s time to move on from this Democrat Hoax.”
- Should more than 290 lawmakers back the legislation as expected—which would require about 70 Republicans to vote for it—that would be enough support to override Trump’s veto of the bill, should he try to kill it.
- It will also likely put pressure on the Senate to take up the legislation, as it still remains unclear whether Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., will bring the bill up for a vote.
When Could The Epstein Files Be Released?
Since the legislation requires the Epstein files to be released within 30 days of the bill becoming law, a quick effort to pass the legislation means the Epstein files could be released by the end of the year. The bill’s uncertain fate in the Senate makes it harder to gauge when the files could be released however, given that it’s unclear when and if Thune intends to bring the measure to the Senate floor.
Trump’s DOJ could also choose to release the files voluntarily at any point, though that remains unlikely even with the president’s push for House Republicans to back the bill. He has directed his administration to investigate Epstein’s ties to prominent Democrats, including former President Bill Clinton and Democratic megadonor Reid Hoffman, but there is no timeline for that investigation, and it’s unclear if the DOJ would make documents public as part of the probe. The House Oversight Committee is also separately making Epstein files public as it receives them from the DOJ in response to a subpoena, but has not given any clarity for when the full files could be turned over to the committee or be publicly released.
Big Number
77%. That’s the share of Americans who want the Trump administration to release its full Epstein files, according to a PBS News/NPR/Marist poll conducted in September, prior to the financier’s explosive emails that were made public last week. That includes 67% of Republicans, underscoring the political pressure that Republicans in Congress face from even their own base to back the legislation on releasing the files.
What Would The Legislation Do?
This bill (HR 581) amends a broader bill that deals with “responsible policies”—like increasing caps for retirement accounts and enhancing the punishment for some trafficking offenses—to add in language requiring the Epstein files to be released. Under the bill, the DOJ would have to release all its files on Epstein within 30 days, specifically any materials that concern investigations or prosecutions into Epstein, associate Ghislaine Maxwell, flight logs related to Epstein, internal DOJ communications on Epstein and documentation related to his 2019 death.
The DOJ must also turn over any information regarding any information on Epstein that officials may have destroyed, altered or concealed, as well as the names of any corporate entities tied to Epstein’s “trafficking or financial networks” and any individuals who are “named or referenced in connection with Epstein’s criminal activities.”
The bill allows the DOJ to redact information that would identify victims, depicts child abuse or death, or that could compromise a government investigation. It does not allow the government to withhold any materials that would cause “embarrassment, reputational harm, or political sensitivity, including to any government official, public figure, or foreign dignitary.”
Will The Senate Pass The Epstein Bill?
It’s unclear. Thune has said previously he doesn’t think the Senate needs to pass the Epstein bill because he’s “not sure what that achieves,” pointing to the separate House Oversight Investigation into the Epstein case. That was prior to Trump’s abrupt change of heart Sunday in asking House Republicans to back the bill, and CNN reports Thune is now considering his options and won’t announce anything until after the House votes. Politico notes Democrats in the Senate could also amend other legislation or try to force the bill to be approved by unanimous consent. Sen. Jeff Merkley, D-Ore., is reportedly coordinating with Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., the bill’s House sponsor, on the legislation. Senators rejected a previous measure on releasing the Epstein files in September, with only two Republicans—Sens. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., and Rand Paul, R-Ky.—supporting it.
Will Trump Veto The Epstein Bill?
Trump has not said either way whether he would try to kill the Epstein bill—though if it were to pass the House and Senate with more than a two-thirds vote, he wouldn’t be able to anyway. In his Truth Social post Sunday night, Trump encouraged Republicans to vote on the Epstein files in order to get the issue over with and ensure “that Republicans get BACK ON POINT” to discuss the Trump administration’s achievements. The president did not indicate whether he would support the legislation past it being approved in the House. Any effort by Trump to kill the bill by vetoing it would put the spotlight back on his relationship with Epstein after recent emails released by the financier’s estate raised speculation over whether Trump knew about Epstein’s alleged abuse of women.
Key Background
Epstein has been accused of sexually assaulting more than 100 women, many of whom were underage, as part of a wide-ranging sex trafficking scheme prior to his 2019 arrest and subsequent death in prison. Interest in the financier’s case has surged in recent months, after the DOJ said in a memo over the summer that it would not release any further Epstein files, despite top Trump officials previously promising the documents would be made public. The memo sparked a widespread backlash against the Trump administration, including from the president’s own base, and prompted lawmakers in Congress to take up the issue, both through legislation and the House Oversight Committee subpoenaing the DOJ for its files.Trump’s post Sunday night came after the president had reportedly strongly lobbied Republicans to withdraw their support of the House bill—unsuccessfully—and as Trump has openly attacked Republicans supporting it on social media, such as Massie and Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga.
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