President Donald Trump and Republican House leaders spent months trying to quash an effort to compel the release of all the government files related to Jeffrey Epstein. Only four GOP members of the chamber signed on to the petition that forced a vote on the issue; a number of others vocally opposed the push. But on Tuesday, when the measure came to the floor, only one Republican ultimately voted against it.
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Republican Rep. Clay Higgins of Louisiana was the sole member of the House to vote against the bill, which would require the Department of Justice to release all files connected to its investigation into the late sex offender.
“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,” Higgins posted on X on Tuesday. “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.” Higgins added that he would vote for an amended bill that would “properly address privacy of victims and other Americans, who are named but not criminally implicated.”
Despite Republicans’ months-long effort to avoid the vote, all the other GOP members of the chamber voted for the bill after Trump abruptly reversed his own position over the weekend and urged House Republicans to support it. The bill now heads to the Senate, where Majority Leader John Thune on Tuesday said lawmakers will try to pass the measure quickly and send it to Trump, despite some Republicans calling for changes. The President has said he would sign the measure if it reaches his desk.
“The petition itself is poorly written and it supports an endeavor that’s contrary to long standing criminal justice procedures in America so I have opposed it on that basis,” Higgins, a far-right member of the GOP, told NOTUS last week.
“I don’t judge them, they’re friends of mine,” he said of the petition’s leaders. He specifically named three of the four Republicans who signed the petition: Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia, Rep Lauren Boebert of Colorado, and Rep. Thomas Massie of Kentucky, the last of whom spearheaded the effort along with Democratic Rep. Ro Khanna of California. “Marjorie is my friend, and Lauren is my friend. Thomas Massie is my friend, but they’re all wrong. They’re wrong, wrong, wrong about this petition.”
The discharge petition, an infrequently used legislative maneuver allowing a majority of lawmakers to bypass the chamber’s leadership and bring a measure to the floor, forced the full House vote that led to the bill’s passage. Democratic Rep. Adelita Grijalva of Arizona added the 218th and final necessary signature to the petition after she was sworn in following weeks of delays from Speaker Mike Johnson, which Grijalva and other Democrats claimed were intended to stall the Epstein files vote. Johnson has denied his decision was connected to Epstein.
The Speaker said his ultimate vote in support of the bill on Tuesday was “not a reversal,” saying he has been in favor of “maximum transparency from the very beginning” but still had concerns with the legislation as written.
Trump reversed his own stance on the measure on Sunday, writing in a post on Truth Social that “we have nothing to hide,” and urging Republicans to pass the bill, setting the stage for its passage with an overwhelming majority of 427-1.
Trump and his Administration have faced widespread criticism in recent months over their failure to release more of the Epstein files, which members of the President’s inner circle long suggested would reveal serious crimes committed by powerful people. Trump’s own years-long relationship with Epstein has also faced heightened scrutiny, particularly as his name has appeared in multiple documents related to the case, including emails made public last week by House Democrats in which Epstein alleged Trump had “spent hours at my house” with one of the sex offender’s victims and that the President “knew about the girls.” Trump has repeatedly denied having any prior knowledge of Epstein’s crimes, and has never been charged with wrongdoing in connection with the disgraced financier.
“My understanding and I’ve looked into it extensively is that the president didn’t like that guy, he had no friendly relationships with him,” Higgins said to CNN last week, while noting he was a “vote against” the measure to release the files. “You can’t control who takes a picture with you.”
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