Republicans block effort to force release of Epstein files in Congress

Independent

15-07-2025

House Republicans have blocked a Democratic lawmaker's push to force the Trump administration to release the 'FULL' Jeffrey Epstein files.
Seizing on growing MAGA infighting, California Representative Ro Khanna introduced an amendment to the GENIUS Act on Monday, calling on Attorney General Pam Bondi to compile and release all Epstein records within 30 days.
Late Monday evening, the House Rules Committee voted 7–5 to block the proposal from reaching the lower chamber.
South Carolina Representative Ralph Norman, who previously remarked that 'the Epstein files are bound to come out,' broke with his party and was the only one of nine Republicans on the committee to vote in favor of the amendment.
Texas Representative Chip Roy, another committee member who sometimes defies party lines, opted not to vote.
'Rules voted 5-7 to block the full House from voting on my amendment to have a FULL release of the Epstein file,' Khanna wrote on X just before midnight.
'People are fed up. They are fed up. Thanks ⁦@RepRalphNorman⁩. Need to put the American people before party!'
In another post, Khanna said that he will 'keep fighting for transparency,' adding that the 'public will not be gaslit.'
While largely expected, the decision outraged Massachusetts Representative Jim McGovern, the top Democrat on the Rules Committee.
'I want to know what the hell is in these files,' he told Axios, accusing the Republicans of 'backtracking' after Donald Trump pledged on the 2024 presidential campaign trail that he would make the unredacted Epstein files public.
Conspiracy theories have swirled around the Epstein case for years, after the sex offender took his own life in a Manhattan jail cell in August 2019.
The Trump administration faced furor last week after the DOJ and FBI's memo concluded that there was no evidence of the disgraced financier's so-called 'client list.'
It was compounded by the release of an 11-hour video of Epstein's final hours before he died by suicide in New York's Metropolitan Correctional Center almost six years ago, with one minute of the footage missing and forensic experts concluding that the clip had been 'modified.'
The memo is at odds with the conspiracy theories promoted by the president himself and some of his most senior staff members, sparking unprecedented division within his own support base.
As scrutiny over the Trump administration's handling of the Epstein investigation intensified Monday, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries told reporters on Capitol Hill that Trump and Bondi are 'MAGA extremists' who have been 'fanning the flames' around the Epstein case for years.
'The American people deserve to know the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth as it relates to this whole sordid Jeffrey Epstein matter,' he said.
'Now the chickens are coming home to roost...What, if anything, is the Trump administration and the Department of Justice hiding? What are you hiding?'
FBI Director Kash Patel and his deputy, Dan Bongino, have privately expressed frustration with the DOJ's handling of the case, sources told CNN.
According to people familiar with the matter, Bongino is reportedly weighing whether to resign. At the same time, Patel posted on X that the 'conspiracy theories' around Epstein's death are untrue and 'never have been.'
It's not the first time Trump and Bondi have faced MAGA backlash over the sex offender's case.
After promising to release the 'first phase' of declassified Epstein files on February 27, the attorney general was sharply criticized when the documents turned out to contain information already publicly available.