Updated November 18, 2025 at 1:47 PM AKST
Both the House and the Senate have moved to send to President Trump's desk a measure that would compel the Department of Justice to make public its files regarding the convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
The measure advanced through both chambers Tuesday following a day of quick action by the standards of Congress. The measure first passed the House by a near unanimous margin of 427 to 1 late in the afternoon.
Less than three hours later, the Senate set up a process to approve the House measure without a formal vote after Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., offered a motion to pass the legislation as soon as it is received from the House. Once received, it will be deemed as passed. Schumer offered the measure by unanimous consent; no senators objected and the bill was approved.
The legislation's success illustrated a rare win for Republicans willing to defy Trump, who has held a tight grip on the GOP-led Congress since his return to office. Republicans who supported the measure said their party needed to make good on a campaign promise to release the files.
Tuesday's action followed an unexpected blessing for the measure from President Trump on Sunday. Trump's support was a dramatic reversal on a measure that previously deeply divided the GOP and has caused immense fighting among some of Trump's most ardent supporters.
Prior to Schumer's motion in the Senate, the measure passed in the House by a vote of 427 to 1.
The lone no vote came from Louisiana Republican Clay Higgins. In a post on social media, Higgins said the bill "abandons 250 years of criminal justice procedure," and he warned of potential harm for "witnesses, people who provided alibis, family members, etc."
"If enacted in its current form, this type of broad reveal of criminal investigative files, released to a rabid media, will absolutely result in innocent people being hurt," he wrote.
A vote that split Republicans for months
The bipartisan effort — led by Reps. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., and Ro Khanna, D-Calif. — was long fought by Trump and Republican leadership from reaching the House floor. As recently as last week, White House officials met with Rep. Lauren Boebert, R-Colo., about her support for releasing the files, but her position was unchanged after the meeting.
Ahead of Tuesday's vote in the House, Massie said that although it took four months to force the vote through a process known as a discharge petition, he was confident it would draw near unanimous support.
"We fought the president, the attorney general, the FBI director, the speaker of the House and the vice president to get this win," Massie said. But "they're on our side today ... they are finally on the side of justice."
Until his about face over the weekend, Trump spent months attacking Republicans for pushing the measure, including Massie and most recently Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga. On Sunday, after it became clear a vote in the House was likely to succeed, Trump said Republicans should approve the bill.
Ahead of Tuesday's vote, survivors joined Massie, Greene and Khanna in front of the Capitol and shared harrowing stories of getting pulled into the sex trafficking network as minors, and their subsequent fight for justice. Several took aim at President Trump, saying he had politicized their fight.
One survivor, Jena-Lisa Jones, said watching their push for transparency turn political has been painful to watch.
"We are hearing the administration say they intend to investigate various Democrats who were friends with Epstein. I beg you President Trump, please stop making this political. It is not about you," Jones told reporters. "You are our president, please start acting like it ... I voted for you, but your behavior on this issue has been a national embarrassment."
Greene also addressed the political fight over the Epstein files — and the president's criticism of her more specifically. She said her falling out with Trump "has torn MAGA apart."
"I was called a traitor by a man that I fought ... six years for, and I gave him my loyalty for free," she said. "He called me a traitor for standing with these women and refusing to take my name off the discharge petition."
The path to Trump's desk
On Monday, Trump told reporters at the White House that the Senate can take up the bill as well, and that he would sign it if it passes. Trump does not need legislation in order to approve the files for release, but he told reporters that Congress "can do whatever they want" on the vote.
"I'm all for it," Trump said from the Oval Office, but maintained it was a "hoax" that he didn't want to "detract" from his party's success.
His remarks came after a simple majority of House members signed onto what is known as a discharge petition — a workaround that forces votes without leadership or committee approval. Last week, the chamber's newest member, Rep. Adelita Grijalva, D-Ariz., became the decisive 218th signature on the petition.
Grijalva's swearing in was delayed for seven weeks after her election, galvanizing Democrats who accused Johnson of stalling in order to put off the vote. The Speaker rejected that claim, saying her oath of office would not be taken until the government shutdown fight was resolved.
Tuesday's vote also comes after a wave of Epstein files were released last week by members on the Republican-led House Oversight Committee. Democrats first released a set of three emails, followed by thousands of pages of new files released by the panel's chairman, James Comer, R-Ky. The documents triggered new questions about the extent of Trump's relationship with the disgraced financier and convicted sex offender before his death in 2019.
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