President Donald Trump has done everything he can to try to tank the vote on releasing the Epstein files and discourage Republicans from voting for it.Manuel Balce Ceneta/AP
On Tuesday, the Republican-controlled House of Representatives will finally vote on the bipartisan Epstein Files Transparency Act. If passed, the bill would force the Department of Justice to release all unclassified records related to Jeffrey Epstein’s sex trafficking of minors, including flight logs, names of people and entities with ties to Epstein, sealed settlements, and internal DOJ communications related to the case.
The Tuesday vote—which was first reported by Politico on Friday, citing three anonymous sources—has been a long time coming. The bill was first introduced in the House by Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) in July; in early September, he and co-sponsor Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) put forth a discharge petition to force the legislation out of the Rules Committee for a floor vote. Last week, when House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) finally swore in Rep. Adelita Grijalva (D-Ariz.), they secured the last signature needed to make the legislation eligible for a vote.
Now, the question is whether enough House Republicans will turn on President Donald Trump—who has been doing everything he can to tank the vote—to move the bill forward. Only four Republicans—Massie, Rep. Nancy Mace (R-S.C.), Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.), and Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.)—signed onto the discharge petition, and CNN reported that the White House held a meeting with Boebert in the Situation Room to pressure her to take her name off of it. (She declined.) Trump has called the effort to release the files “a Democrat hoax” but, confusingly, also ordered the DOJ on Friday to investigate Epstein’s ties to prominent Democrats.
But at least some on the right appear undeterred. On ABC’s This Week on Sunday morning, Massie said he expects “a deluge of Republicans” to vote for the bill, adding, “There could be 100 or more.” (On NBC’s Meet the Press on Sunday, Khanna offered a more conservative estimate, of at least 40 Republicans he expects to vote in support of the bill.)
Massie said he is hoping to secure a veto-proof majority in the House—which would require two-thirds of present members to vote to pass the bill—to ensure Trump could not tank it if it gets to his desk. But that would also require a veto-proof majority in the Republican-controlled Senate, which appears unlikely given that Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) has refused to even commit to holding the vote. A handful of Senate Republicans, including Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), Josh Hawley (R-Mo.), and Thom Tillis (R-Fla.), have called for the files’ release.
Still, Massie is hopeful. Senators, he said, could “force the vote in spite of the leadership’s effort” by inserting the language as an amendment to a larger bill to ensure it passes. “I just hope John Thune will do the right thing,” he said, adding, “the pressure’s going to be there if we get a big vote in the House.” (If the bill did pass the Senate, but without the two-thirds vote, Trump could still veto it.)
Massie added that the investigations Trump ordered the DOJ to conduct on Friday against high-profile Democrats could be “a big smokescreen…as a last-ditch effort to prevent the release of the Epstein files.”
“I’ve never said these documents will implicate Donald Trump,” he said. “I think he’s trying to protect a bunch of rich and powerful friends, billionaires, donors to his campaign, friends in his social circles.”
“I don’t think we’ve had a scandal like this in this country, and what we’re asking for is justice for those survivors. So it’s not about Donald Trump—I don’t even know how involved Trump was.”
Massie added that, through conversations with the victims’ lawyers, he has learned that “there are at least 20 people in those files—there are politicians, billionaires, movie producers—who are implicated criminally who haven’t been investigated.”
“When I see Donald Trump announce a bunch of investigations,” Massie continued, “I don’t see him going after these rich elites that are implicated in these files, according to the survivors.”
Khanna, on Meet the Press, offered a similar assessment: “There is a group of rich and powerful men who abused young girls. It’s the one thing this country agrees was horrible. I don’t think we’ve had a scandal like this in this country, and what we’re asking for is justice for those survivors. So it’s not about Donald Trump—I don’t even know how involved Trump was.”
Spokespeople for Khanna and Thune did not immediately respond to requests for comment from Mother Jones on Sunday; a spokesperson for Massie referred questions to his appearance on ABC.
Survivors of Epstein’s sex trafficking and abuse are also hoping enough Republicans vote to pass the bill. In a letter Friday, a handful of them wrote: “Dear Esteemed Members of the Senate and the House of Representatives, You have the ability to vote to release the Epstein files, and with it, deliver a promise the American people have awaited far too long. We implore you to do so.”
