{"id":292946,"date":"2025-11-18T16:29:08","date_gmt":"2025-11-18T16:29:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/292946\/"},"modified":"2025-11-18T16:29:08","modified_gmt":"2025-11-18T16:29:08","slug":"house-set-to-vote-on-release-of-epstein-documents-after-trump-u-turn-us-politics","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/292946\/","title":{"rendered":"House set to vote on release of Epstein documents after Trump U-turn | US politics"},"content":{"rendered":"

The US House of Representatives is expected to vote on Tuesday to force the release of investigative files related to pedophile Jeffrey Epstein<\/a>, the latest move in a scandal that has dogged Donald Trump since he returned to the White House.<\/p>\n

In a sharp reversal this weekend, Trump dropped his opposition to the bill that releases documents from the justice department\u2019s criminal investigation into Epstein and said he would sign the measure if it reached his desk.<\/p>\n

\u201cToday is the first day of real reckoning for the Epstein class,\u201d Democratic congressman Ro Khanna, a cosponsor of the legislation, said at a press conference.<\/p>\n

Calling Epstein and his accomplices\u2019 behavior \u201cone of the most horrific and disgusting corruption scandals in our country\u2019s history\u201d, Khanna said: \u201cBecause survivors spoke up because of their courage, the truth is finally going to come out, and when it comes out, this country is really going to have a moral reckoning. How did we allow this to happen?\u201d<\/p>\n

Trump\u2019s friendship with Epstein has been a long-running scandal in American politics as the late disgraced financier had links to many other rich and powerful figures in the US and overseas. As a candidate seeking re-election, Trump promised to release the files on Epstein, who, investigators concluded, killed himself in a New York jail cell in 2019. Since resuming office, Trump has failed to follow through.<\/p>\n

The president\u2019s dramatic shift came after it became increasingly apparent that the bill will pass the GOP-controlled House, most likely with significant support from Republican lawmakers. Trump in recent days changed his approach from outright opposition to declarations of indifference.<\/p>\n

\u201cI DON\u2019T CARE!\u201d the president wrote in a social media post on Sunday. \u201cAll I do care about is that Republicans<\/a> get BACK ON POINT.\u201d<\/p>\n

Speaking in the Oval Office on Monday, Trump said he did not want the Epstein scandal to \u201cdeflect\u201d from the White House\u2019s successes, and claimed it was a \u201choax\u201d and \u201ca Democrat problem\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ll give them everything,\u201d he told reporters. \u201cLet the Senate look at it, let anybody look at it, but don\u2019t talk about it too much, because honestly, I don\u2019t want to take it away from us.\u201d<\/p>\n

Thomas Massie, an iconoclastic Republican congressman who frequently defies Trump and joined with Khanna to pursue the files\u2019 release, noted the president\u2019s reversal on the Epstein issue.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe fought the president, the attorney general, the FBI director, the speaker of the House and the vice president, to get this win,\u201d he said. \u201cBu they\u2019re on our side today, though, so let\u2019s give them some credit as well.\u201d<\/p>\n

In July, Khanna and Massie turned to a procedural tactic known as a discharge petition to circumvent House leadership and compel a vote on their bill, the Epstein Files Transparency Act, if a majority of the 435-member House signs on.<\/p>\n

House speaker Mike Johnson went to extraordinary lengths to avoid a vote on the the measure, which splintered his conference. Democrats accused the speaker of delaying the swearing-in of Arizona Democrat Adelita Grijalva to prevent her from becoming the decisive 218th signatory. She signed her name to the petition<\/a> moments after officially taking office last week.<\/p>\n

Following Trump\u2019s reversal, several House Republicans, including close allies<\/a> of the president, have publicly stated their intent to vote for the release of the files, raising the possibility that the measure could pass unanimously.<\/p>\n

If the House approves the resolution, it would move to the Senate, which would also need to vote on it before sending it to Trump to sign. Republican Senate majority leader John Thune \u2019s office declined to comment on what he planned to do about the bill.<\/p>\n

In an X post<\/a> directed to Trump, Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer wrote: \u201cLet\u2019s make this easier. Just release the files now.\u201d<\/p>\n

Massie encouraged the Senate not to make changes to the bill beyond perhaps strengthening protections for survivors of Epstein\u2019s alleged abuse. Any tweaks to its language would require the House to vote on the measure again.<\/p>\n

\u201cDo not muck it up in the Senate,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

As president, Trump has the authority to order the justice department to release the documents in its possession, as he has previously done with the government records related to the assassinations of Martin Luther King and John F Kennedy.<\/p>\n

Emails released last week by a House committee that has opened a separate inquiry into the scandal showed Epstein believed Trump \u201cknew about the girls\u201d, though it was not clear what that phrase meant. The White House said the released emails contained no proof of wrongdoing by Trump.<\/p>\n

Last week, the president instructed the justice department to investigate prominent Democrats\u2019 ties to Epstein. US attorney general Pam Bondi, who earlier this year said a review of the files revealed no further investigative leads, replied to Trump that she would get on it right away and has appointed a prosecutor to lead the effort.<\/p>\n

The Epstein scandal is a core issue for a swathe of Trump\u2019s rightwing base, some of whom believe in conspiracy theories that surround Epstein and his coterie of powerful friends and associates. Unlike many other issues, the Epstein files have prompted rebellions from Trump\u2019s supporters in politics and the media, calling on him to follow through on his campaign promise to release them.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, several Epstein survivors have ramped up pressure on Congress and Trump to advance the measure.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s time that we put the political agendas and party affiliations to the side. This is a human issue. This is about children,\u201d survivor Haley Robson said at the press conference. \u201cThere is no place in society for exploitation, sexual crimes or exploitation of women.\u201d<\/p>\n

She then addressed her comments to Trump, saying: \u201cWhile I do understand that your position has changed on the Epstein files, and I\u2019m grateful that you have pledged to sign this bill, I can\u2019t help to be skeptical of what the agenda is.\u201d<\/p>\n

On Monday night, activists projected an image of Trump and Epstein on to the justice department building, accompanied by the message: \u201cRelease the files now.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The US House of Representatives is expected to vote on Tuesday to force the release of investigative files…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":292947,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[64,63,134,427],"class_list":{"0":"post-292946","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tv","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-entertainment","11":"tag-tv"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/292946","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=292946"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/292946\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/292947"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=292946"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=292946"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=292946"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}