Congress acts swiftly to force release of Epstein files

WASHINGTON — The United States Congress voted almost unanimously on Tuesday to force the release of Justice Department files on the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, an outcome President Donald Trump had fought for months before ending his opposition.

Two days after Trump's abrupt about-face, the House of Representatives passed the measure with a vote of 427-1, sending a resolution requiring the release of all unclassified records on Epstein to the Republican-majority Senate, which swiftly approved it. The bill could now go to Trump for his signature as soon as Wednesday. A senior White House official said Trump plans to sign the bill when it reaches his desk.

The Epstein scandal has been a political thorn in Trump's side for months, partly because he amplified conspiracy theories about Epstein to his own supporters. Many Trump voters believe his administration has covered up Epstein's ties to powerful figures and obscured details surrounding his death — which was ruled a suicide — in a Manhattan jail in 2019.

Epstein was a New York financier who fraternized with some of the most powerful figures in the country.

Before the House vote, about two dozen survivors of Epstein's alleged abuse joined a trio of Democratic and Republican lawmakers outside the Capitol to urge the release of the records. The women held photographs of their younger selves, the age at which they said they first encountered Epstein.

After the vote, they stood to applaud lawmakers from the House's public gallery, some of them crying and hugging each other.

Despite his changed position on the bill, Trump remains angry about the attention paid to the Epstein matter. On Tuesday, he called a reporter who asked about it in the Oval Office a "terrible person" and said the television network the journalist works for should have its license revoked.

"I have nothing to do with Jeffrey Epstein," the Republican president told reporters. "I threw him out of my club many years ago because I thought he was a sick pervert."

The White House was caught off guard by how quickly the measure passed through Congress, having expected it to take longer in the Senate, according to two people with direct knowledge of the matter.

The fight over the Epstein papers has taken a toll on Trump's public approval, which fell to its lowest point this year in a Reuters/Ipsos poll concluded on Monday.

The survey found that just one in five voters overall approved of his handling of the matter. Among Republicans, just 44 percent thought Trump was handling the situation well.

Agencies Via Xinhua