US House votes to force release of Epstein files
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The Republican-controlled US House of Representatives has voted to force the release of Justice Department files on the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, an outcome President Donald Trump opposed for months before giving his approval.
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 Senate.
The public and increasingly bitter feud among Republicans over the Epstein files has 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 US Capitol to urge the release of the records.
The women held photographs of themselves at the age at which they first encountered Epstein, a New York financier who fraternised 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.
Many Trump voters believe his administration has covered up Epstein’s ties to powerful figures and obscured details surrounding his death, which New York City’s medical examiner called a suicide, in a Manhattan jail in 2019.
“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 behaviour on this issue has been a national embarrassment.”
Despite his changed position on the bill, the 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 licence 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 socialised 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 on Monday found that 44 per cent of Republicans approve of Trump’s handling of the matter, well below the 82 per cent who approve of his overall performance.
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.
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?”
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Reuters
