The U.S. House of Representatives has voted in favour of forcing the Justice Department to release its files on the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
The bill will need approval from the Senate and U.S. President Donald Trump to become law. Donald Trump lost a rare power struggle on Capitol Hill Tuesday as the House passed a bill 427-1 demanding the public release of Justice Department records tied to Jeffrey Epstein.
The passage comes weeks after the president’s behind-the-scenes efforts to keep the legislation from ever reaching the floor. The overwhelming vote on the Epstein Files Transparency Act came after months of quiet maneuvering by Trump’s inner circle, who, according to Reuters, “for weeks tried to stall or head off a vote in Congress to force the release of investigative files” related to Epstein.
Even after Donald Trump reversed course and said he supported the measure, his team had still been “hoping to amend the bill in the Senate.” The bill went to the upper chamber, where they cleared a procedural hurdle Tuesday night with unanimous consent.