House meets threshold to force vote on Epstein files

Epstein victims demand release of files

Epstein victims gathered on Capitol Hill and proclaimed "we are compiling our own list!" The House Oversight Committee posted nuemeous files it has received from the Justice Department on the sex trafficking investigations into Jeffrey Epstein and his former girlfriend Ghislaine Maxwell. Survivors gathered in D.C. calling for the release of all files.

The U.S. House will soon have enough support to maneuver around Republican leadership and force a vote compelling the Justice Department to release all of the Jeffrey Epstein case files.

Adelita Grijalva’s win Tuesday in a special House election in southern Arizona gives Democrats one more supporter for a procedure — called a discharge petition — to circumvent Republican leadership’s control of the House floor and hold a vote on Epstein legislation. 

Four Republicans have also signed on to the discharge petition. 

RELATED: Statue of Donald Trump and Jeffrey Epstein removed from National Mall after less than a day

What’s the latest with the Epstein files? 

What we know:

The legislation, sponsored by Republican Rep. Thomas Massie and Democratic Rep. Ro Khanna, would force the Justice Department to post every record the agency has related to the Epstein investigations. It would also have to be searchable online. 

A billboard in Times Square calls for the release of the Epstein files on July 23, 2025 in New York City. (Photo by Adam Gray/Getty Images)

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Every Democrat in the House supports the measure, along with Massie and Republican Reps. Nancy Mace, Marjorie Taylor Greene and Lauren Boebert. 

What they're saying:

"I do believe that Trump is not implicated," Massie said, per The Hill. "I believe that Trump is trying to protect rich and powerful people who are his friends, and that is why this material is not getting released."

Will the Epstein files be released? 

Timeline:

Grijalva has said she’ll sign the discharge petition as soon as she’s sworn in, which means action toward an Epstein vote could start by late October, according to The Hill. But it’s still unclear when exactly a vote could take place, and even if the House passes the bill, it would still need Senate approval and Trump’s signature. 

Trump was FBI informant in Epstein case, Johnson says

House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) spoke to reporters on Friday, saying "[President Trump] was an FBI informant to try to take this stuff down" in reference to the Epstein case.

House Speaker Mike Johnson, a Louisiana Republican, objects to the measure and has worked to keep it off the House floor. When the discharge petition comes up for a vote next month, Johnson may try to "table" it as part of a preceding rule, The Hill reports. But that would mean the four Republicans who support the measure would have to back down, and that doesn’t appear likely as of now. 

The backstory:

The calls for disclosure in Epstein’s case has at moments consumed Congress, looming over politics even more than when Epstein killed himself in a Manhattan jail while awaiting trial in 2019 on charges that he sexually abused and trafficked dozens of underage girls. The case was brought more than a decade after he secretly cut a deal with federal prosecutors in Florida to dispose of nearly identical allegations. Epstein was accused of paying underage girls hundreds of dollars in cash for massages and then molesting them.

On July 7, the Trump administration said there was no list of Epstein’s clients and no evidence that compelled them to reopen the case and go after uncharged third parties. According to The Wall Street Journal, Attorney General Pam Bondi informed Trump in May that his name was mentioned multiple times in the "truckload" of documents from Epstein's case.

Earlier this month, the Justice Department released over 33,000 files related to the sex trafficking investigations into Epstein and his former girlfriend Ghislaine Maxwell, who’s serving a lengthy prison sentence for helping Epstein traffic young girls. Most, if not all, of the text documents released by DOJ had already been made public.

Dig deeper:

Many in the Republican base — as well as some victims of Epstein’s abuse — have been unsatisfied with what the Justice Department has so far released.

Lawmakers push release of all Epstein files

Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY) filed a discharge petition Tuesday to force a floor vote compelling the DOJ to release all the files from the Jeffrey Epstein case. LiveNOW's Carel Lajara discusses the latest on Capitol Hill with Lauren Green, a congressional reporter for the Washington Examiner.

Trump signaled as he was running for president that he was open to releasing a full accounting of the case, but is now trying to frame the push as a "Democrat hoax." Trump has been dismissive of the conservatives in his base who support releasing more Epstein files. 

"Let these weaklings continue forward and do the Democrats work, don’t even think about talking of our incredible and unprecedented success, because I don’t want their support anymore!" Trump posted on Truth Social in August.