BREAKING: How House Members Voted on Epstein Files Release

The Epstein files are one step closer to being released after the House of Representatives voted to pass legislation releasing them to the public on Tuesday.

The House passed the Epstein Files Transparency Act by a vote of 427 to 1. Rep. Clay Higgins, R-La., did not support the measure.

“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. It abandons 250 years of criminal justice procedure in America. As written, this bill reveals and injures thousands of innocent people – witnesses, people who provided alibis, family members, etc,” Higgins posted on X 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,” he added. [Emphasis in original.]

Five members did not participate in the vote. There are currently two vacancies in the House.

“Today’s vote to finally force the release of the Epstein files is a major victory for the survivors who’ve waited decades for the truth,” Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene posted on X.

Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., also posted on X, writing, “We must deliver justice for the victims.”

The bill as currently written would require Attorney General Pam Bondi to release to the public “all unclassified records, documents, communications, and investigative materials in the possession of the Department of Justice, including the Federal Bureau of Investigation and United States Attorneys’ Offices” related to the notorious sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein. The bill allows for the withholding of information under a few circumstances such as the privacy of victims and national security concerns.

The legislation now heads to the Senate. President Donald Trump has said he would sign the bill if it made it to his desk and had encouraged House Republicans to support the legislation last Sunday in a social media post.

Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, R-La., has said that he has discussed some modifications to the legislation in the upper chamber with Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D.

“I’m very confident that when this moves forward in the process, if and when it is processed in the Senate, which is no certainty that it will be, that they will take the time methodically to do what we have not been allowed to do in the House,” Johnson told the press on Tuesday. 

At a Tuesday press conference, the speaker had expressed concerns that the legislation as written could violate the privacy of innocent people, undermine national security, and reveal the identities of some of Epstein’s victims against their wishes.

>>> WATCH: Rob Bluey weighs in on why President Trump now advocates releasing the Epstein files.

This is a breaking news article and it may be updated.

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