Epstein files advance

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MYRNA BROWN, HOST: Up next, releasing the Epstein files.

A bill ordering the Department of Justice to release a trove of documents about Jeffrey Epstein hit President Trump’s desk on Wednesday…after sailing through the House and Senate.

What happens when the bill becomes law?

Washington Reporter Carolina Lumetta has the story.

CHAIR: The gentlelady from Georgia is recognized for five minutes.

CAROLINA LUMETTA: This week Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene walked over to the Democrat side of the aisle to open the vote on the Epstein files discharge petition.

GREENE: I proudly rise today in a bipartisan effort to release the Epstein files finally after five administrations have covered it up.

Greene was one of only four Republicans to trigger the petition, but after it cleared the procedural hurdle, nearly every GOP lawmaker in both the House and the Senate joined. It now forces the Justice Department to release hundreds of thousands of documents based on decades of investigations into convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. The millionaire was estimated to have abused more than 1,000 women in a sex trafficking ring and was connected to scores of politicians, wealthy elites, and world leaders. He was found dead in his federal prison cell in 2019.

GREENE: You want to know what the Epstein files represents? The coverup represents to average Americans? it represents the failures of the federal government and Congress to the American people. And that is what people rose up about in 2024.

It was a long road to get here. Back in February, the White House gave conservative social media influencers bulky white binders titled “Epstein Files: Phase 1.” But the binders were full of previously released information or redacted pages. Attorney General Pam Bondi later said there was nothing more to show, and President Trump told America to move on from Epstein:

TRUMP: He's dead for a long time. He was never a big factor in terms of life. I don't understand what the interest or what the fascination is.

But many in Trump’s base continued to demand public disclosure. So in July, the House Oversight Committee launched its own probe into the Epstein investigations and subpoenaed the DOJ for its documents. Since then, more than 50,000 have been released to the committee, which has slowly begun to publish them online. But Trump still opposed the effort and the Republicans who backed it. Reporters asked him about it in the Oval Office in July.

TRUMP: It's all been a big hoax. It's perpetrated by the Democrats and some stupid Republicans and foolish Republicans fall into the net. And so they try and do the Democrats' work.

Based on the documents released so far, Epstein and Trump did have a friendship in the 1990s, with Epstein visiting Mar-a-Lago many times for parties. But the two broke off their friendship in the mid-2000s, Trump says, because Epstein was poaching his staff. Some documents, leaked by committee Democrats, allegedly show that Trump drew a lewd picture in a birthday book for Epstein in 2003. Trump says the document is fake, and denies any wrongdoing or knowledge of the trafficking ring. In a news conference last week, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt defended the administration’s actions thus far.

LEAVITT: This administration has done more with respect to transparency when it comes to Jeffrey Epstein than any administration ever. In fact, this administration, the Department of Justice, has turned over tens of thousands of documents to the American people. We are cooperating and showing support for the House Oversight Committee.

But some lawmakers wanted to speed up the process…with a discharge petition. The procedure, requiring 218 signatures, forces a floor vote on the bill and bypasses the standard committee process. After months of delays and debates, Democratic Congresswoman Adelita Grijalva of Arizona added the decisive signature to the petition last week.

Days before it passed, Trump went after the handful of Republicans who joined Democrats to sign the petition. He pressured Colorado Congresswoman Lauren Boebert and Georgia Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene to rescind their signatures, but they refused to back down. Then, President Trump reversed course in his opposition to release the files and said he would sign the bill. Here he is in the Oval Office last week.

TRUMP: I would let the Senate look at it, let anybody look at it, but don't talk about it too much, because honestly, I don’t want to take it away from us.

The president added that he does not want ongoing discussion about Epstein to distract from his administration’s achievements, including peace and trade deals.

TRUMP: What I just don't want Epstein to do is detract from the great success of the Republican Party.

The bill passed the House by 427 votes to 1. Republican Congressman Clay Higgins of Louisiana was the only nay vote. On Tuesday night, the Senate unanimously agreed to automatically pass the House bill as soon as it arrived with no amendments. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer filed the unanimous consent request. While speaking to reporters after, he was asked why Democrats did not pursue similar legislation years ago.

REPORTER: Was it just that it was an open investigation and they didn’t want to tip their–

SCHUMER: Look, the difference is real. President Trump campaigned on this, he promised to get this done. He’s the one who backed off on this, period. Yes.

The bill requires the DOJ to provide the documents on Epstein’s crimes and death in prison in a downloadable and searchable format with redactions only for victim privacy and any illegal material like evidence of child pornography. It must do so within 30 days of becoming law. Survivors of Epstein’s abuses joined a news conference at the Capitol on Tuesday.

JONES: The world should see the files to know who Jeffrey Epstein was and how the system catered to him and failed us.

Jena-Lisa Jones says Epstein abused her when she was 14 years old. She voted for Trump in 2024 and called on him this week not to make the files political.

JENA-LISA JONES: Sexual abuse is not a Republican issue. This it is not a Republican or a Democratic issue. It is also not a hoax. We are here as American survivors of a man who used his wealth and power to hurt young girls and women.

But there is one snag to the pending release. Last week, Trump directed Attorney General Pam Bondi to investigate several banks and high-level Democrats who are mentioned in what’s been released already as having affiliations with Epstein. That list includes former Treasury Secretary Larry Summers, JP Morgan Chase & Company, and former President Bill Clinton. The DOJ is allowed to withhold documents that pertain to pending investigations, including the Epstein files that Congress voted to release.

Reporting for WORLD, I’m Carolina Lumetta.

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