By David Morgan and Nolan D. McCaskill
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -The Republican-controlled U.S. House of Representatives voted almost unanimously on Tuesday to force the release of Justice Department files on the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, an outcome President Donald Trump had fought for months before ending his opposition.
Two days after Trump’s abrupt about-face, the vote passed by 427-1, sending a resolution requiring the release of all unclassified records on Epstein to the Republican-majority Senate for consideration. Senate Majority Leader John Thune told reporters the resolution could pass his chamber by unanimous consent, possibly later on Tuesday.
The public and increasingly bitter feud among Republicans over the Epstein files had fractured relations between Trump and some of his most ardent supporters.
Before the vote, about two dozen survivors of Epstein’s alleged abuse joined a trio of Democratic and Republican lawmakers outside the U.S. Capitol to urge the release of the records. The women held photographs of their younger selves, the age at which they said they first encountered Epstein, a New York financier who fraternized with some of the most powerful men in the country.
After the vote, they stood to applaud lawmakers from the House’s public gallery, some of them crying and hugging each other.
The Epstein scandal has been a political thorn in Trump’s side for months, partly because he amplified conspiracy theories about Epstein to his own supporters. Many Trump voters believe his administration has covered up Epstein’s ties to powerful figures and obscured details surrounding his death, which was ruled a suicide, in a Manhattan jail in 2019.
TRUMP LASHES OUT OVER EPSTEIN QUESTION
Despite his changed position on the bill, the Republican president remains angry about the attention paid to the Epstein matter. On Tuesday, he called a reporter who asked about it in the Oval Office a “terrible person” and said the television network the journalist worked for should have its license revoked.
“I have nothing to do with Jeffrey Epstein,” Trump told reporters while hosting a visit by Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. “I threw him out of my club many years ago because I thought he was a sick pervert.”
Trump socialized and partied with Epstein in the 1990s and 2000s before what he calls a rift, but the old friendship has become a rare weak spot for the president with his supporters. A Reuters/Ipsos poll concluded on Monday found that 44% of Republicans approve of Trump’s handling of the matter, well below the 82% who approve of his overall performance.
“Please stop making this political, it is not about you, President Trump,” Jena-Lisa Jones, who said Epstein sexually abused her when she was 14, told a press conference outside the Capitol a few hours before the vote. “I voted for you, but your behavior on this issue has been a national embarrassment.”
Trump has said he had no connection to Epstein’s crimes and has begun calling the issue a “Democratic hoax,” despite some Republicans being among the loudest voices calling for the release of the records from criminal investigations of Epstein.
Representative Thomas Massie, the Kentucky Republican who led the effort to force the vote, accused the Justice Department from the House floor of “protecting pedophiles and sex traffickers.”
“How will we know if this bill has been successful?” he said before the vote. “We will know when there are men, rich men, in handcuffs, being perp-walked to the jail. And until then, this is still a cover-up.”
SPEAKER JOHNSON RESISTED MASSIE’S MOVE
Johnson had for months resisted a drive for disclosure spearheaded by Massie, who collected signatures from 218 House members for a discharge petition to force the vote. Only one lawmaker dissented in Tuesday’s vote: Clay Higgins, a Republican from Louisiana.
Trump’s opposition soured relations with one of his strongest Republican supporters in Congress, Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene, who has expressed anger at the Justice Department not releasing more details on Epstein. She said Trump pressured her to withdraw her support for the resolution and publicly called her a traitor after she doubled down.
She joined Massie and Democratic Representative Ro Khanna at the Capitol before voting in favor of the resolution, telling reporters: “A traitor is an American that serves foreign countries and themselves. A patriot is an American that serves the United States of America and Americans like the women standing behind me.”
Trump said his about-face on Sunday was an effort to get Republicans to move on from a damaging feud about Epstein and “because we have nothing to hide.” Trump has the power to order the release of Justice Department records himself, and does not need a congressional resolution compelling him to do so.
Epstein pleaded guilty to a Florida state felony prostitution charge in 2008 and served 13 months in jail. The U.S. Justice Department charged him with sex trafficking of minors in 2019. Epstein pleaded not guilty to those charges before his death.
The family of Virginia Giuffre, one of Epstein’s most prominent accusers, emerged from the vote with tears of gratitude. She died by suicide earlier this year.
Her brother, Sky Roberts, called on Trump not to delay.
“The reality is, right now, he could release the files today if he really wanted to,” he said. “So if he really cares about it, why even send it to the Senate? Why don’t we just go ahead and release the files?”
(Reporting by David Morgan and Nolan McCaskill in Washington and Jonathan Allen in New York; Additional reporting by Richard Cowan, Bo Erickson, Katharine Jackson; Writing by David Morgan and Jonathan Allen; editing by Scott Malone and Rod Nickel)
Disclaimer: This report is auto generated from the Reuters news service. ThePrint holds no responsibility for its content.