The intensively discussed files related to the disgraced former financier and sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein passed a significant milestone on Tuesday when Congress voted overwhelmingly in favour of releasing them.
After months of deliberate delays and manoeuvres, the House of Representatives voted by 427 to one in favour of the Epstein Files Transparency Act, legislation which would, if enacted, require the justice department to release all unclassified materials on Epstein. The Senate unanimously approved the bill.
The move paves the way for the publication of thousands of documents, once US president Donald Trump signs them into law.
When will the Epstein files be released?
The bill calls for Pam Bondi, the US attorney general, to release the material no later than 30 days after the law is enacted. This countdown begins once Trump signs the bill into law, which may happen as early as today.
Teresa Leger Fernández, a Democratic member of the House of Representatives, celebrates with victims of Jefrey Epstein after receiving word that the Senate unanimously approved passage of the House’s Epstein Files Transparency Act. Photograph: Tierney L. Cross/The New York Times
Trump was opposed to releasing the files. Why the change of heart?
Trump’s volte-face followed the failure of intense White House efforts to persuade two female Republican members of Congress, Lauren Boebert and Nancy Mace, to withdraw their names from a discharge petition to force the House speaker, Mike Johnson, to hold a floor vote on releasing the files.
Faced with the prospect of numerous republicans defying his wishes by voting with Democrats in favour of releasing the files, the president decided to cut his losses by bowing to the inevitable. Before Trump changed his tune on the files, Thomas Massie, the maverick Republican representative from Kentucky – who had co-sponsored the bill along with Democrat Ro Khanna – had predicted that 100 republicans would vote for release.
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What are the potential hurdles for the release?
Trump told reporters on Monday that he would sign the bill if it arrives on his desk. Yet despite this pledge and his late U-turn on releasing the files, Trump could still use his presidential veto power to block passage – though doing so at such a late stage would surely fan suspicions that he has something to hide.
US president Donald Trump is being held captive to a news cycle he can’t avoid or defeat when it comes to the convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. Photograph: Pete Marovich/The New York Times
Could a presidential veto be overcome?
Yes. A presidential veto can be overridden if both chambers vote to do so by a two-thirds majority. Both chambers already surpassed that in spectacular fashion.
Are there other hurdles?
Even if Trump signs the bill – whether of his own volition or by force because House and Senate majorities override his veto – his recent announcement of a justice department investigation into prominent figures (other than himself) mentioned in last week’s trove of Epstein emails released by the House oversight committee have fuelled fears that any version of the files released could be incomplete or selective.
Last Friday, Trump instructed the US attorney general, Pam Bondi, to open an investigation into links between Epstein and former president Bill Clinton, Larry Summers, a former US treasury secretary and ex-president of Harvard University, Reid Hoffman, a venture capitalist noted for funding Democrats and liberal causes, and the bank JPMorgan Chase. The investigation could enable the justice department to withhold certain documents on the argument that releasing them would be prejudicial.
Republican Thomas Massie speaking at a news conference on the Epstein Files Transparency Act outside the Capitol in Washington, on Tuesday. Photograph: Tierney L. Cross/The New York Times
In the final analysis, Trump could have ended all uncertainty by ordering the files to be released without waiting for Congress to force his hand. – The Guardian
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