House Republicans Block Epstein Files Release To Public

The amendment, first proposed by Khanna, was voted down with six against five, with all Democrats voting for the release along with South Carolina Representative Ralph Norman. “The public’s been asking for it. I think there are files. All of a sudden not to have files is a little strange. We’ll see how it plays out … I think the president will do the right thing,” he said to Axios before the vote. It had been attached to a landmark bill detailing government regulations of stablecoins and cryptocurrency set to go before the House, and if passed, would’ve compelled the administration to make the Epstein files available on a “publicly accessible website” within 30 days of the approval.

The files have been the source of a major controversy after Attorney General Pam Bondi and the Department of Justice sent out an internal memo last week stating that there was no blackmail materials on elite figures or a client list. It contradicts what Bondi along with President Donald Trump and other loyalists in the administration have been saying about the files since Trump took office in January. The move has upset many among Trump’s supporters, including former ally and tech billionaire Elon Musk who called on the administration to release the files “as promised.” He had previously alleged in a post on X that Trump’s name is on the purported client list, and “That is the real reason they have not been made public.”

Republicans in Congress have largely followed in step behind Trump’s defense of Bondi and his calls for moving on from discussing Jeffrey Epstein and the files surrounding his death while in custody in 2019. But there are some who have joined his base of MAGA supporters in calling for the files to be released. “I think it’s perfectly understandable that the American people would like to know who he trafficked those women to and why they weren’t prosecuted,” said Louisiana Senator John Kennedy, adding: “I think the Justice Department is going to have to go back to the drawing board in answering those questions.”