November 18, 2025
The vote to force the release of the Epstein files just passed with more than a veto-proof majority in the House of Representatives. I cannot tell you how monumental this is – on so many fronts.
The final vote was – 427 to one. Five House members were not present and did not vote. That no vote was Representative Clay Higgins a Republican from Louisiana. He said he voted no because he was concerned that this bill would interfere with the ongoing oversight committee investigation.
So now what happens?
Well – that’s the question. The reality is with a vote this overwhelming in the House the Senate will have to do something with this bill. The political pressure is going to be too great to ignore it – which ignoring it — is definitely an option the Senate majority leader can choose. I don’t think he’s going to do that. But it doesn’t mean Senate majority leader John Thune will bring this specific bill to the floor. The Senate could actually – and may very well— change or amend this bill. During the debate on the house floor – the republicans may have previewed what some of those changes could be. Even the Speaker of the House said the Senate should amend the bill. It seems that Republicans believe that this bill would expose the names of victims. The question is – which victims are they talking about. The bill that just passed the House specifically says that victim names will be redacted meaning the names of the young girls who were trafficked and abused by Epstein and his rich and powerful friends…but what republicans seemed to be concerned about are the other names in the Epstein file.
See – when an investigation this huge happens – lots of names and contacts get put into the investigatory files. Those people may not have ever done anything wrong – but they may have come in contact with Jeffrey Epstein or they may have had a lunch with him or they may have emailed him and then that name gets put in the file. Plus there definitely names in there of rich and powerful men who were on Epstein’s island or were on his plane and were never charged and have never been disclosed.
This bill that just passed the house specifically says all of those names should be released regardless of if it embarrasses these people or businesses or makes them look bad. But during the debate on the House floor today multiple Republicans – including the Speaker were suggesting that those types of people who just had their names in the file and who were never charged with any wrong doing should also have their name redacted too. Because they shouldn’t be hurt by the release of their names. The co-sponsors of the bill Representatives Thomas Massie and Ro Khanna were pissed that the Speaker was leading this charge to change the bill this way. They say he is part of the coverup and is protecting those rich and powerful men.
So –back to what the Senate could do – besides ignore this bill or amend the bill the majority leader could just put the bill up for what’s called unanimous consent. Meaning he puts the bill on the Senate floor and all 100 senators have to agree to pass it. If one senator votes no – then it needs to go through regular order process. The strategy if Thune did that would be to just get this political hot potato bill out of his chamber as quickly as possible.
It’s unclear what choice Thune is going to make. We will see in the coming days. But the fact is – President Trump does not need this bill to pass in order to release the Epstein files. He could absolutely order the justice department to do it on his own.
See how your lawmaker voted and which lawmakers did not vote here.
Read about Speaker Johnson’s issues with this bill here.
Read Rep. Higgins’ reason for voting “no” here.
