Congress acts swiftly to force release of Epstein files, and Trump
agrees to sign bill
[November 19, 2025]
By STEPHEN GROVES
WASHINGTON (AP) — Both the House and Senate acted decisively Tuesday to
pass a bill to force the Justice Department to publicly release its
files on the convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, a remarkable
display of approval for an effort that had struggled for months to
overcome opposition from President Donald Trump and Republican
leadership.
When a small, bipartisan group of House lawmakers introduced a petition
in July to maneuver around Speaker Mike Johnson’s control of the House
floor, it appeared a longshot effort — especially as Trump urged his
supporters to dismiss the matter as a “hoax.”
But both Trump and Johnson failed to prevent the vote. The president in
recent days bowed to political reality, saying he would sign the bill.
And just hours after the House vote, senators agreed to approve it
unanimously, skipping a formal roll call.
The decisive, bipartisan work in Congress Tuesday further showed the
pressure mounting on lawmakers and the Trump administration to meet
long-held demands that the Justice Department release its case files on
Epstein, a well-connected financier who killed himself in a Manhattan
jail while awaiting trial in 2019 on charges he sexually abused and
trafficked underage girls.
For survivors of Epstein’s abuse, passage of the bill was a watershed
moment in a years-long quest for accountability.
“These women have fought the most horrific fight that no woman should
have to fight. And they did it by banding together and never giving up,"
said Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene as she stood with some of the abuse
survivors outside the Capitol Tuesday morning.
“That’s what we did by fighting so hard against the most powerful people
in the world, even the president of the United States, in order to make
this vote happen today,” added Greene, a Georgia Republican.
In the end, only one lawmaker in Congress opposed the bill. Rep. Clay
Higgins, a Louisiana Republican who is a fervent supporter of Trump, was
the only “nay” vote in the House's 427-1 tally. He said he worried the
legislation could lead to the release of information on innocent people
mentioned in the federal investigation.
The bill forces the release within 30 days of all files and
communications related to Epstein, as well as any information about the
investigation into his death in federal prison. It would allow the
Justice Department to redact information about Epstein’s victims or
continuing federal investigations, but not information due to
“embarrassment, reputational harm, or political sensitivity.”
Even before the bill's passage Tuesday, thousands of pages of emails and
other documents from Epstein's estate have been released from an
investigation by the House Oversight Committee.
Those documents show Epstein's connections to global leaders, Wall
Street powerbrokers, influential political figures and Trump himself. In
the United Kingdom, King Charles III stripped his disgraced brother
Prince Andrew of his remaining titles and evicted him from his royal
residence after pressure to act over his relationship with Epstein.
Trump's reversal on the Epstein files
Trump has said he cut ties with Epstein years ago, but tried for months
to move past the demands for disclosure.
Still, many in the Republican base continued to demand the release of
the files. Adding to that pressure, survivors of Epstein's abuse rallied
outside the Capitol Tuesday morning. Bundled in jackets against the
November chill and holding photos of themselves as teenagers, they
recounted their stories of abuse.
“We are exhausted from surviving the trauma and then surviving the
politics that swirl around it," said one of the survivors.
Another, Jena-Lisa Jones, said she had voted for Trump and had a message
for the president: “I beg you Donald Trump, please stop making this
political.”
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This image from House Television shows the final vote in the House
to pass a bill to force the Justice Department to publicly release
its files on the convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, Tuesday,
Nov. 18, 2025, at the u.S. Capitol in Washington. (House Television
via AP)
The group of women also met with Johnson and rallied outside the
Capitol in September, but have had to wait months for the vote.
That's because Johnson kept the House closed for legislative
business for nearly two months and refused to swear-in Democratic
Rep. Adelita Grijalva of Arizona during the government shutdown.
After winning a special election on Sept. 23, Grijalva had pledged
to provide the crucial 218th vote to the petition for the Epstein
files bill. But only after she was sworn into office last week could
she sign her name to the discharge petition to give it majority
support in the 435-member House.
It quickly became obvious the bill would pass, and both Johnson and
Trump began to fold. Trump on Sunday said Republicans should vote
for the bill.
Yet Greene told reporters that Trump's decision to fight the bill
had betrayed his Make America Great Again political movement.
"Watching this turn into a fight has ripped MAGA apart,” she said.
How Johnson handled the bill
Rather than waiting until next week for the discharge position to
officially take effect, Johnson held the vote under a procedure that
requires a two-thirds majority.
But Johnson also spent a morning news conference listing off
problems that he sees with the legislation. He argued that the bill
could have unintended consequences by disclosing parts of federal
investigations that are usually kept private, including information
on victims.
“This is a raw and obvious political exercise," Johnson said.
Still, he voted for the bill. “None of us want to go on record and
in any way be accused of not being for maximum transparency,” he
explained.
Meanwhile, the bipartisan pair who sponsored the bill, Reps. Thomas
Massie, R-Ky., and Ro Khanna, D-Calif., warned senators against
doing anything that would “muck it up,” saying they would face the
same public uproar that forced both Trump and Johnson to back down.
“We’ve needlessly dragged this out for four months,” Massie said,
adding that those raising problems with the bill “are afraid that
people will be embarrassed. Well, that’s the whole point here.”
Senate acts quickly
Even as the bill cleared his chamber, Johnson pressed for the Senate
to amend it to protect the information of “victims and
whistleblowers.” But Senate Majority Leader John Thune quickly shut
down that notion.
As senators gathered in the chamber Tuesday evening for the first
votes of the week, it became clear no one would object to passing
the bill as written.
Just before Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer called to pass
the bill by unanimous consent, Oklahoma Sen. Markwayne Mullin, a
Republican who is close to Trump, walked in the chamber and gave
Schumer a thumbs-up. He then walked over to Schumer and shook his
hand.
“This is about giving the American people the transparency they’ve
been crying for,” said Schumer, D-N.Y. “This is about holding
accountable all the people in Jeffrey Epstein’s circle who raped,
groom, targeted and enabled the abuse of hundreds of girls for years
and years.”
___
Associated Press writers Kevin Freking, Joey Cappelletti, Matt
Brown, Lisa Mascaro and Mary Clare Jalonick contributed to this
report.
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