GOP lawmaker moves to force House vote on releasing Epstein files

Washington — Rep. Thomas Massie, a Kentucky Republican, filed a discharge petition on Tuesday to attempt to force a House vote on compelling the release of files related to late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, resurfacing the saga upon Congress' return.

Massie and Rep. Ro Khanna, a California Democrat, introduced legislation in July that would require the Justice Department to release the Epstein files within 30 days. They planned to force a vote on the bill once lawmakers returned from their lengthy August recess.

Although leadership controls the House's agenda and what legislation receives a vote, individual lawmakers can "discharge" legislation that has been sitting in committee. A discharge petition enables 218 members, a majority of the lower chamber, to provide their signatures and effectively bypass leadership to bring a bill before the full House for a vote.

Khanna told NPR News on Tuesday that he's "very confident" all 212 Democrats will support the petition, along with more than the six Republicans needed to force a vote in the House.

Before lawmakers left Washington, House Democrats and some Republicans had pushed for a floor vote to force the release of the files, but House Speaker Mike Johnson opted to send the House home early amid the pressure. As lawmakers returned to Washington on Tuesday, House Republican leadership added a bill to the House schedule for the week that would direct the House Oversight Committee to "continue its ongoing investigation into the possible mismanagement of the Federal government's investigation of Mr. Jeffrey Epstein and Ms. Ghislaine Maxwell," Epstein's co-conspirator who is serving a 20-year prison sentence.

Massie criticized the move, calling it a "meaningless vote to provide political cover for those members who don't support our bipartisan legislation to force the release of the Epstein files."

Johnson told reporters in response that he would describe "virtually everything Thomas Massie says related to this issue as meaningless." And the speaker defended how the administration and Congress have approached the documents so far, telling CBS News that "there's been a lot of things that transpired over the August district work period."

"The Oversight Committee is well underway, the administration is complying. The Department of Justice complied with all the subpoenas they received and are processing 34,000 documents already," Johnson said. "And we're going to move that along as quickly as possible so that all of this is pushed out to the public so the American people can make their own decisions."

Epstein was convicted of sex trafficking and died in federal custody in 2019 in what numerous investigations deemed a suicide. But the push to release the Epstein files reached a fever pitch, including among President Trump's base, after the Justice Department issued the findings of an internal review in July that found no "client list" or evidence that Epstein had blackmailed prominent figures. And the development has prompted calls for more transparency from both sides of the aisle.

Members of the House Oversight Committee are meeting with survivors of Epstein's abuse Tuesday. And Massie and Khanna are set to host a news conference at the Capitol on Wednesday alongside survivors.

The developments come after the Trump administration released transcripts of a two-day interview with Maxwell late last month. The Oversight Committee has also said it plans to make public records it received from the Justice Department related to Epstein after redactions have been made.

Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer, a Kentucky Republican, told Fox News on Sunday that "we're going to make this information public — that's what the American people want," while noting that "it's very complicated because there are victims of the Epstein files, and we want to listen to those victims and their families and their attorneys to see how best can we present this information."

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