November 18, 2025 01:12 PM UTC

House Votes 427-1 to Release Epstein Files; Senate Follows

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• by: Colorado Pols

UPDATE: The U.S. Senate quickly followed suit and approved the Epstein Files Transparency Act, sending the bill to the desk of President Trump.

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House Speaker Mike Johnson kept the entire lower chamber away from Washington D.C. for 54 days in order to stall action on directing the Department of Justice to release the “Epstein Files.”

On Tuesday, the House overwhelmingly voted in favor of releasing the files. From ABC News:

Johnson has tried to avoid holding a vote in the lower chamber on the Epstein matter. In late July, Johnson sent the House home a day early for August recess because the House was paralyzed in a stalemate over the Epstein issue.

The speaker also sent the House home for more than 50 days during the longest government shutdown in U.S. history — delaying the swearing in of Democrat Adelita Grijalva. After the shutdown ended last week, the Arizona Democrat became the 218th signature on the Epstein discharge petition, compelling the speaker to bring a bill co-sponsored by Kentucky Republican Rep. Thomas Massie and California Democratic Rep. Ro Khanna to the floor for a vote this week.

On Tuesday morning, Johnson accused Democrats of “forcing a political show vote on the Epstein files” but confirmed he would be voting to move it forward.

Ahead of the vote, Johnson said on the House floor that the vote is a “political exercise” and that the bill has “serious deficiencies.” Johnson said he hoped the Senate makes changes to it.

“[Trump] has nothing to hide,” Johnson said.

The question here is obvious: If Trump truly has “nothing to hide,” then why wait months to hold this vote?

After last week’s unsuccessful last-minute efforts to sway Republicans such as Rep. Lauren Boebert, the writing was on the wall for today’s House vote. On Sunday, Trump did his version of waving a white flag by announcing that he WANTED the House to vote on releasing the files.

Before the vote today, Speaker Johnson delivered a rambling speech about why this vote was dumb — a diatribe that looks particularly silly given the 427-1 vote outcome. Johnson later encouraged the U.S. Senate to “fix” the bill he voted to approve.

Oh, and for those who are interested in knowing the answer to the trivia question, Louisiana Republican Rep. Clay Higgins [pictured] was the sole Member of the House of Representatives to vote ‘NO’ on releasing the Epstein files.