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After spending months in limbo, a proposal to compel the Justice Department’s release of files related to the Jeffrey Epstein case is suddenly on the fast track to President Donald Trump’s desk.
Minutes after the Epstein files bill cleared the House on a 427-1 vote on Tuesday, Senate Majority Leader John Thune said that his members are assessing whether it could pass unanimously and predicted it could move as soon as this week.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer later secured unanimous consent to pass it as soon as the House sends it across the Capitol later on Tuesday. Trump has said he would sign it.
Although House Speaker Mike Johnson wanted the Senate to make several changes that would allow DOJ to redact additional information from the files, the whopping House vote total on Tuesday afternoon ruled out that possibility.
Johnson said he had spoken to Thune about the matter this week, but Thune said the strong support for the resolution in the House made it hard to envision amending it.
“When a bill passes the House 427-1, and the president says he’ll sign it into law, I’m not sure there’s a need or desire for an amendment process over here,” Thune told reporters.
Rep. Thomas Massie, the Kentucky Republican who helped force the House vote, slammed the proposed edits as “protect[ing] perverts ... from embarrassment,” adding: “Do not let the Senate add an amendment to avoid disclosing these rich and powerful men.”
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It’s a head-spinning turn of events after Johnson kept the House out of session for weeks during the government shutdown, effectively blocking a petition that forced his hand on the Epstein proposal by not swearing in Rep. Adelita Grijalva, D-Ariz. Then, over the weekend, Trump about-faced to support the bipartisan Epstein files resolution from Massie and Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Calif.
Trump only moved after it became clear that Massie and three GOP co-signers of the petition would not abandon their support of the bill. The blowout vote in the House made Senate passage — a question mark as recently as this week — all but guaranteed.
Notable
- Trump’s former lawyer has predicted that the president’s decision to open an investigation into Epstein’s Democratic ties will give DOJ a reason to withhold certain files despite the bill’s passage, per USA Today.