Epstein Files Bill Heads to Trump’s Desk After Unanimous Senate Vote — But He Still Hasn’t Said a Word

Washington, D.C. – After a near-unanimous rebuke to months of White House resistance, both chambers of Congress on Tuesday sent legislation to President Donald Trump’s desk that will force the Department of Justice to release virtually every remaining file related to the federal sex-trafficking investigation of Jeffrey Epstein and the circumstances surrounding his 2019 death in federal custody.

The House of Representatives voted first, passing the measure 427–1 in the early afternoon, with the sole “no” vote coming from Rep. Clay Higgins (R-LA), a staunch Trump ally who argued in a statement that the bill could unfairly expose innocent individuals mentioned in the files.

Hours later, in a move that stunned even Capitol Hill veterans, Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-SD) brought the identical companion bill to the floor and secured unanimous consent, meaning not a single senator, Republican or Democrat, objected. The bill now awaits President Trump’s signature or veto.

As of Wednesday morning, the president has made no public statement about whether he will sign the legislation he fought for months to slow or stop. Instead, his most recent public activity has been lashing out at reporters: on Tuesday evening he attacked an ABC News correspondent on Truth Social, days after calling a female Bloomberg reporter “Piggy” and pointing in her face aboard Air Force One.

Just minutes before the Senate’s unanimous consent vote, Trump posted a cryptic message on Truth Social that appeared to downplay the bill’s significance: “I don’t care when the Senate passes the House Bill, whether tonight, or at some other time in the near future, I just don’t want Republicans to take their eyes off all of the Victories.”

White House officials have privately indicated in recent days that Trump now intends to sign the bill rather than risk the political fallout of a veto that would almost certainly be overridden.

The legislation requires the Justice Department to release, within 30 days of enactment, every document, communication, and piece of evidence related to Epstein’s federal sex-trafficking case and the investigation into his death, with only two narrow exceptions allowed: redactions to protect the identities of victims and redactions to shield ongoing federal investigations.

Explicitly prohibited are redactions based on “embarrassment, reputational harm, or political sensitivity,” language clearly aimed at preventing the withholding of material that might implicate powerful figures from multiple administrations.

The overwhelming congressional support marks a remarkable defeat for Trump and House Speaker Mike Johnson, both of whom had worked behind the scenes for months to delay or derail the measure.

Johnson’s office had circulated talking points as recently as last week urging Republicans to vote no or abstain, but the groundswell of support, fueled by Epstein survivors camping outside the Capitol and relentless pressure from both conservative and liberal members, proved too much to contain.

Outside the Capitol on Tuesday morning, bundled against the November cold and holding childhood photographs of themselves, several of Epstein’s survivors stood alongside Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA), once one of Trump’s fiercest defenders and now one of the bill’s most visible champions despite their public feud.

“These women have fought the most horrific fight that no woman should have to fight. And they did it by banding together and never giving up,” Greene told reporters, her voice cracking. “That’s what we did by fighting so hard against the most powerful people in the world, even the president of the United States, in order to make this vote happen today.”

One survivor, Jena-Lisa Jones, who said she had voted for Trump, looked directly into the cameras and delivered a personal plea: “I beg you Donald Trump, please stop making this political.”

Another survivor, visibly exhausted, added, “We are exhausted from surviving the trauma and then surviving the politics that swirl around it.”

The women had met privately with Speaker Johnson again on Tuesday morning and had rallied on the same steps in September, only to watch the vote repeatedly postponed.

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Tuesday’s outcome represented the culmination of years of advocacy that began long before Trump returned to office, but gained explosive momentum after the November 12 release of Epstein emails explicitly referencing Trump and suggesting he was aware of Epstein’s activities at Mar-a-Lago.

Trump has repeatedly insisted he cut ties with Epstein decades ago and banned him from Mar-a-Lago after learning of his behavior, but the steady drip of documents, combined with flight logs confirming seven trips on Epstein’s plane in the 1990s and the 2017 “dangerous” email to Larry Summers, has kept the issue alive among even parts of his own base.

With the bill now on his desk and a veto-proof majority all but guaranteed in both chambers, the president faces a choice that could define the final years of his second term: sign the transparency measure he once tried to block, or veto it and ignite a firestorm that would almost certainly see Congress override him within days.