Both chambers of Congress have voted to compel the US justice department to release its files on convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, a decision that has sent ripples through Washington and reignited questions about the financier’s connections.
The House of Representatives passed the measure with a resounding 427-1 vote, while the Senate moved it forward using a fast-track procedure that required no formal vote or debate.
The momentum followed President Donald Trump’s sudden reversal on the issue. After initially criticising calls to release the records, he urged Congress to proceed following growing public pressure, including from his own supporters.
The shift came just days after more than 20,000 pages of documents, some referencing Trump, were released to the public. The White House denied any wrongdoing.
Republican Clay Higgins of Louisiana cast the sole “no” vote in the House, saying he feared the release could result in “innocent people being hurt.”
Trump’s change of heart, telling reporters there was “nothing to hide”, caught Washington by surprise. Republican leaders on Capitol Hill had aligned with the president for weeks, opposing full disclosure of the files and dismissing it as a partisan distraction.
House Speaker Mike Johnson had repeatedly labelled the push to release the Epstein files a “Democrat hoax”. But after the overwhelming vote in the House, the measure reached the Senate far sooner than expected.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer introduced the bill under unanimous consent. With no objections in the chamber, the legislation advanced without debate or amendments.
It now heads to the president’s desk, where he is expected to sign it into law. Notably, a congressional vote was never required — Trump could have ordered the release himself at any time.
Under the bill, Attorney General Pam Bondi must make public “all unclassified records, documents, communications, and investigative materials” related to Epstein and his associate Ghislaine Maxwell within 30 days of enactment. These include internal communications, flight logs, and information on individuals and entities linked to the pair.
However, Bondi will retain the authority to withhold material that could compromise active investigations or reveal the identities of victims.
Epstein died in 2019 while awaiting trial, found in his New York jail cell in what a coroner ruled was suicide. He had previously been convicted in 2008 of soliciting prostitution from a minor and was under federal investigation again for sex trafficking at the time of his death.
Thousands of documents were collected across two criminal probes, including victim and witness interviews that have never been fully released.
Trump and Epstein once socialised in similar circles, though the former president has said he severed ties long before Epstein’s 2008 conviction. He has repeatedly denied any knowledge of criminal activity.
Last week, Democrats on the House Oversight Committee released three email chains between Epstein and Maxwell, who is serving a 20-year sentence. One 2011 message referred directly to Trump, with Epstein writing: “I want you to realize that that dog that hasn’t barked is Trump.. [VICTIM] spent hours at my house with him.”
The White House said the victim referenced was Virginia Giuffre, one of Epstein’s most prominent accusers.
Giuffre, who died in April, always maintained she never saw Trump engage in abusive behaviour. The emails contain no allegations of wrongdoing by Trump.
Following the House vote, Giuffre’s brother Sky Roberts praised her efforts in helping survivors come forward. “She did it, she paved the way… and we won’t stop,” he said.
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt accused Democrats of leaking selective emails to create a “fake narrative to smear President Trump”.
The push to release the files was led by Republican Thomas Massie of Kentucky and Democrat Ro Khanna of California.
Massie, who has faced criticism from Trump, defended his stance, telling ABC News: “In 2030, he’s not going to be the president.” He added that Republicans opposing disclosure “will have voted to protect paedophiles”.
Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene has also called for full release of the documents. Once a staunch Trump ally, she has since clashed with him over the issue, with the president now calling her a “traitor”.
At a news conference on Tuesday, Greene said she was speaking on behalf of Epstein’s survivors, directly challenging Trump’s stance.
“Let me tell you what a traitor is. A traitor serves foreign countries and themselves. A patriot serves the United States and Americans like the women standing behind me,” she said.
She called the Epstein controversy one of the “most destructive issues” to hit the Make America Great Again movement since Trump’s 2016 election.
Several Epstein survivors also spoke at the news conference, urging lawmakers, and the president, to release the files. Annie Farmer, one of those survivors, said keeping them sealed amounted to “institutional betrayal”.
“Because these crimes were not properly investigated, so many more girls and women were harmed,” she said.
If signed into law, the countdown to release begins, and Washington may face answers it has avoided for years.
