Epstein abuse survivor Lisa Phillips speaks throughout a information convention with lawmakers on the Epstein Recordsdata Transparency Act exterior the U.S. Capitol on November 18, 2025 in Washington, DC.
Heather Diehl | Getty Photographs
The Senate on Tuesday night agreed to cross a bipartisan invoice ordering the Division of Justice to launch all of its information on infamous intercourse offender Jeffrey Epstein, paving the best way for President Donald Trump to signal it into legislation.
A senior White Home official informed the Reuters information service that Trump will signal the Epstein invoice “every time it will get to the White Home.”
The invoice will robotically cross the Senate as quickly as it’s transferred from the Home of Representatives, which earlier Tuesday permitted the laws practically unanimously
Senate Minority Chief Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., launched a unanimous consent movement to think about the invoice handed with out debate. No senators objected to the movement.
The Senate “has now handed the Epstein invoice as quickly because it comes over from the Home,” Schumer mentioned with a smile. “I yield the ground.”
The Home invoice, introduced by Reps. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., and Ro Khanna, D-Calif., had handed 427-1.
Rep. Clay Higgins, R-La., the one Home member to oppose the laws, mentioned in an X submit after the vote that he has “been a principled ‘NO’ on this invoice from the start.”
“If enacted in its present kind, any such broad reveal of prison investigative information, launched to a rabid media, will completely end in harmless folks being harm,” Higgins wrote.
The push to launch the Epstein information had beforehand confronted opposition from extra GOP lawmakers, following the lead of Trump, whose White Home had warned that backing the hassle could be thought of a “hostile act.”
Whereas Trump, in a significant shift on Sunday night time, urged Home Republicans to vote in favor of the invoice, he has continued to fume concerning the continued deal with Epstein within the media and on Capitol Hill.
When ABC Information reporter Mary Bruce requested Trump concerning the Epstein information earlier Tuesday afternoon, he lashed out, repeatedly insulting her and calling for ABC’s broadcast license to be revoked.
He reiterated that the Epstein matter “is a Democrat hoax to attempt to get me not to have the ability to discuss” his administration’s accomplishments.
In a Fact Social submit despatched across the identical time that the Senate agreed to cross the invoice, Trump wrote, “I simply don’t desire Republicans to take their eyes off the entire Victories that we have had.”
Plaskett censure measure follows Epstein invoice
After the Home’s uncommon show of near-unity, lawmakers resumed preventing alongside partisan traces, as Rep. Ralph Norman, R-S.C., launched a measure to censure Democratic Del. Stacey Plaskett of the U.S. Virgin Islands over her connections to Epstein.
The Washington Publish final week first reported that Plaskett exchanged texts with Epstein throughout a congressional listening to in February 2019 with Michael Cohen, Trump’s former private lawyer and fixer.
Copies of the texts have been revealed when the Home Oversight Committee launched hundreds of paperwork from Epstein’s property. The paperwork embody quite a few emails from Epstein discussing Trump.
Plaskett, defending herself towards the censure measure on the Home ground, mentioned that the messages from Epstein have been amongst “innumerable texts” she acquired after one among her remarks within the listening to “went viral.”
Epstein at the moment “was my constituent,” and it “was not public data at the moment that he was underneath federal investigation,” Plaskett mentioned.
Epstein invoice gathers momentum
A discharge petition that may have compelled a vote on the invoice earlier was delayed for weeks as Home Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., stored representatives out of session through the authorities shutdown. The extended absence additionally delayed the swearing-in of Democratic Rep. Adelita Grijalva of Arizona, the ultimate signature wanted to maneuver the petition ahead.
The shutdown ended final Wednesday and Grijalva, after being sworn in, signed the discharge petition. However, with strain mounting, Johnson mentioned he would carry the Epstein invoice to a vote sooner than anticipated.
WASHINGTON, DC – NOVEMBER 18: U.S. Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY) (C) speaks throughout a information convention with Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) and U.S. Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA) on the Epstein Recordsdata Transparency Act exterior the U.S. Capitol on November 18, 2025 in Washington, DC.
Heather Diehl | Getty Photographs
“At the moment, we stand in a second that may determine whether or not our authorities nonetheless belongs to the American folks, or to those that prey on them,” mentioned a survivor of Epstein’s abuse who spoke alongside a bunch of others at a information convention exterior the U.S. Capitol on Tuesday morning.
The survivors have been joined by Massie, Khanna and GOP Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia, a longtime Trump loyalist who has just lately grow to be one among his critics.
“He known as me a traitor for standing with these girls and refusing to take my title off the discharge petition,” Greene mentioned of Trump on the presser.
“At the moment, you’ll see, in all probability a unanimous vote within the Home to launch the Epstein information. However the battle, the actual battle, will occur after that,” she mentioned.
Johnson mentioned later Tuesday morning that he would vote for the invoice, which he acknowledged may get unanimous assist. However he nonetheless accused Democrats of “forcing a political present vote on the Epstein information,” and spoke at size about his points with the discharge petition.
One among his critiques has been that Epstein’s victims is probably not adequately protected. Massie, requested earlier Tuesday about Johnson’s stance, known as it a “pink herring.”
“The survivors have at all times been in favor of this laws,” he mentioned, noting that the invoice instructs the DOJ to redact victims’ names and figuring out data.
Speaker of the Home Mike Johnson (R-LA) speaks throughout a press convention on Capitol Hill on November 18, 2025 in Washington, DC. Johnson addressed the “Epstein Recordsdata” forward of a Home vote on laws which instructs the U.S. Division of Justice to launch all information associated to the late accused intercourse trafficker Jeffrey Epstein.
Roberto Schmidt | Getty Photographs
Trump, a former good friend of Epstein’s who had a falling out with him years earlier, mentioned on the marketing campaign path that he would assist releasing the federal government’s information from its investigations into the rich and well-connected financier. Epstein died in jail in 2019 whereas dealing with federal intercourse trafficking prices.
However Trump’s DOJ mentioned in a July 6 memo that it had performed an “exhaustive evaluation” of Epstein-related issues and decided “that no additional disclosure could be applicable or warranted.”
That dedication, and Trump’s repeated insistence that the deal with Epstein was a Democratic “hoax,” has spurred outrage throughout the political spectrum, together with from a few of Trump’s personal supporters.
