US House pushes forward on Epstein vote

After Trump reversal
Washington
The Republican-controlled US House of Representatives will vote on Tuesday on forcing the release of investigative files on the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, with passage seen as all but guaranteed after President Donald Trump dropped his long-standing opposition.
Trump’s reversal late on Sunday came days after a House petition gathered enough support to force a vote, a rare instance of House Republicans defying the president’s wishes.
Until the weekend, Trump and his staff had lobbied hard to prevent any further release of files from the criminal investigation by the US Department of Justice into Epstein, a wealthy New York financier who was, for a time, friends with Trump.
“House Republicans should vote to release the Epstein files, because we have nothing to hide,” the Republican president wrote late on Sunday on social media, calling the matter a “hoax” perpetuated by Democrats.
Democrats, and even some of Trump’s supporters, say there is nothing hoax-like in the release of authentic Justice Department records. Epstein was convicted on Florida state and federal charges related to his sexual abuse and trafficking of teenaged girls. He died in a federal jail cell in Manhattan in 2019 in what was ruled a suicide, a few weeks after he was arrested on new federal charges of sex trafficking children.
California Representative Robert Garcia, the senior Democrat on the House Oversight Committee, said Trump failed in his effort to quash the House’s Epstein investigation and changed course because “he’s panicking and has realised he is about to lose this Epstein vote.”
Trump reverses position
Trump’s change of heart came about because he had grown exasperated with Republicans’ fixation on the Epstein files and wanted them to focus on the cost of living and other issues that matter more to voters, a senior White House official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
House Speaker Mike Johnson said he believed a vote on releasing the files should help put to rest allegations that Trump had any connection to Epstein’s abuse. He later told reporters the vote would be held on Tuesday afternoon.
“He’s never had anything to hide,” Johnson told reporters on Monday, referring to Trump. “He and I had the same concern, that we wanted to ensure that victims of these heinous crimes are completely protected from disclosure.”
Supporters of the files’ release say they also share this concern, and the resolution on which House lawmakers will vote says the Justice Department may withhold or redact the identifying information of victims.
Representative Thomas Massie, a Kentucky Republican who has led the push to release the files, said the House was likely to follow a procedure that would require a two-thirds vote to pass, but that he expects the bill to clear that hurdle, perhaps even unanimously.
If the bill is ultimately agreed to by the Senate, Massie said he was worried the Justice Department might slow-walk the release of documents by citing exemptions for an ongoing investigation. Trump recently directed the department to conduct one targeting Democrats.