During Tuesday night’s House vote to force the release of investigative files related to deceased sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, only one lawmaker was opposed: Rep. Clay Higgins (R-Louisiana).
“I have been a principled ‘NO’ on this bill from the beginning,” the Republican and staunch supporter of President Donald Trump wrote on social media.
“As written, this bill reveals and injures thousands of innocent people — witnesses, people who provided alibis, family members, etc.,” he continued. “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.”
In the end, the bill passed 427-1 in the House, and the Senate agreed to deem it passed as soon as it arrives in that chamber. Trump said Monday that he would sign the measure if it reaches his desk.
The vote came days after Trump, who had pushed Republicans for months to drop the Epstein inquiry, pivoted to endorsing the bill when it became clear the legislation would pass the House. But the Justice Department, which has custody of the files, has remained silent on how it would respond, and a bulk release of the files is unlikely to be imminent.
Higgins argued that he would support the bill if the Senate provided amendments “to properly address privacy of victims and other Americans, who are named but not criminally implicated.”
The text of the legislation allows for parts of the records to be withheld or redacted to protect Epstein’s victims — a number of whom have campaigned for the Justice Department to release all of the files.
According to his profile on the House website, Higgins is “widely regarded as one of the most conservative members of Congress” and is part of the hard-right House Freedom Caucus.
He first gained prominence as a spokesman for the St. Landry Parish Sheriff’s Office in Opelousas, Louisiana, where he earned the nickname “Cajun John Wayne” and an online following for his unconventional Crime Stoppers videos, which urged suspects to turn themselves in.
He resigned in 2016 after calling a group of predominantly Black gang members “thugs,” “heathens” and “animals” in a video that went viral.
Higgins continued to attract controversy with his social media posts after he entered Congress the following year.
Last year, he was confronted by House colleagues over racist comments he posted — and later deleted — that described Haitians as “thugs” and Haiti as the “nastiest country in the western hemisphere.”
Facebook removed a post from Higgins that threatened force against armed protesters in 2020, according to the Associated Press.
In Congress, Higgins chairs the House Oversight subcommittee that initiated a subpoena of the Justice Department for the Epstein case files. Democrats on the panel persuaded several Republicans to vote for the subpoena, but Higgins was one of the few who opposed it, according to the Associated Press.
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