Epstein files set to be released

Samuel Perkins

Lead Reporter

After its introduction in July, the Epstein Files Transparency Act was finally passed by both the House and Senate yesterday and is set to be sent to President Trump's desk. He is set to sign the bill into law.

This vote has been delayed five months due to Speaker Mike Johnson and other Republican leaders attempting to block the vote on the bill. Both Democrats and Republicans agreed, in some way, that this was wrong and the vote should proceed. 

This led the House to push for a discharge petition. A vote that allowed the House to push for a vote without committee approval. This vote was one vote away from passing, and neither Democrats nor Republicans were willing to budge. The one vote that would change this was Representative Adelita Grijalva. Her swearing into the house was delayed due to the government shutdown and other factors.

These delays finally came to an end after Representative Adelita Grijalva was sworn in on Nov. 12th. This led to House leadership being forced to schedule a vote on the release of the Epstein files. The vote was scheduled for next week.

Before the vote, Trump changed his long-standing position on the vote, telling all Republicans to support the bill. This is mainly because it was clear most of the party and house members would vote in favor of the bill, and telling people not to vote for it would do nothing but hurt him.

The vote passed in an overwhelmingly bipartisan vote of 427-1. The only person to vote against the bill was Representative Clay Higgins from Louisiana, a strong supporter of Trump. Later the same day, seeing no need for a vote, the Senate passed the bill unanimously without a vote.

The bill then arrived on President Trump’s desk, where it was signed into law.

According to the bill, the Department of Justice must release all unclassified records, documents, communications, and investigative materials within 30 days. All of the files must be in a searchable and downloadable format.