Vote to release all Epstein files nearly unanimous after Trump hit out at 'hoax

The US House of Representatives has voted 427-1 to release all files related to Jeffrey Epstein following US President Donald Trump hitting out at the "Democrat hoax". The vote, held this evening (November 18), favour of legislation ordering the US Justice Department to release all files it holds on the late convicted sex offender. Trump urged his supporters to dismiss the matter as a "hoax", but his words have not stopped an overwhelming majority calling for the release. But both Trump and House Speaker Mike Johnson failed in their efforts to prevent the vote. Now the president has bowed to the growing momentum behind the bill and even said he will sign it if it also passes the Senate. Only one represented voted no to the bill with Rep. Clay Higgins, a Louisiana Republican who is a fervent supporter of Trump. defending his decision on X (formerly Twitter). He said: "I have been a principled “NO” on this bill from the beginning. What was wrong with the bill three months ago is still wrong today. It abandons 250 years of criminal justice procedure in America. As written, this bill reveals and injures thousands of innocent people – 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. Not by my vote. The Oversight Committee is conducting a thorough investigation that has already released well over 60,000 pages of documents from the Epstein case. "That effort will continue in a manner that provides all due protections for innocent Americans. If the Senate amends the bill to properly address privacy of victims and other Americans, who are named but not criminally implicated, then I will vote for that bill when it comes back to the House." Higgins also chairs a subcommittee that initiated a subpoena on the Justice Department for the Epstein files. Tuesday's vote 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, who killed himself in a Manhattan jail while awaiting trial in 2019 on charges he sexually abused and trafficked underage girls. "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 and longtime Trump loyalist. A separate investigation conducted by the House Oversight Committee has released thousands of pages of emails and other documents from Epstein's estate, showing his connections to global leaders, Wall Street powerbrokers, influential political figures and Trump himself. Pushing for more accountability, the survivors of Epstein's abuse cast the current effort in Congress as a step towards accountability for Epstein's crimes after years of government failure under multiple presidential administrations. Trump has said he cut ties with Epstein years ago, but tried for months to move past the demands for disclosure. On Monday, he told reporters that Epstein was connected to more Democrats and that he didn't want the Epstein files to "detract from the great success of the Republican Party." Still, many in the Republican base have continued to demand the release of the files. Adding to that pressure, several 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 political conflicts that surround it," said Jena-Lisa Jones, one of the survivors. She added that she had voted for Trump, but had a message for the president: "I beg you Donald Trump, please stop making this political." The group of women also met with Johnson and rallied outside the Capitol in September, but have had to wait months for the vote. It's not clear how the Senate will handle the bill. For the latest breaking news and stories from across the globe from the Daily Star, sign up for our newsletters.