A bipartisan group of lawmakers defied House GOP leadership and voted in support of an effort to force the Justice Department to turn over the Jeffrey Epstein files to Congress.
The last-minute motion was introduced by Pennsylvania Democratic Rep. Summer Lee, ranking member on a House Oversight Subcommittee on Federal Law Enforcement, during a hearing on Wednesday, upping the pressure on the Trump administration.
It was one of several efforts made by Democrats before the House heads out on a six-week recess to vote for the release of the files.
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Lee’s motion passed eight to two with bipartisan support on the subcommittee that has several Republican members who have been calling for the files to be released.
“The House subcommittee just PASSED my motion to subpoena the Epstein files. The DOJ must now release them to the Oversight Committee,” posted Lee on X after the vote.
“The American people deserve transparency and accountability, and his victims deserve justice. The wealthy and powerful are not above the law,” she added.
A subcommittee staffer said while it passed, the Justice Department must release the files, but the timing remains unclear.
The vote on the motion was held for the end of the day. Republicans Nancy Mace and Scott Perry joined Democrats supporting the motion while subcommittee Chair Clay Higgins voted against it.
“Right now, Speaker Johnson is helping Donald Trump block the release of all the files relating to child sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein,” Lee said in her opening statement at the hearing Wednesday afternoon. “If you want to take a stand against child trafficking, let’s do it together.”
“When powerful people exploit children, they must be held accountable for their actions., and if they try to mislead the public and hide evidence, we can’t let them get away with it. We cannot allow individuals, especially those at the highest level of our government, to protect child sex traffickers,” Lee added.
She specifically called out GOP colleagues on the subcommittee in her remarks who have called for answers in the Epstein case.
“This will force Chairman Comer to issue the subpoena,” wrote House Oversight ranking member Robert Garcia on X. “This is an enormous win by Oversight Democrats.”
Right after the vote, the subcommittee went to recess. It was a final effort by Democrats who have been calling for the release of the Epstein files after the Trump administration failed to deliver on a campaign promise to release them.
The push to access the files has paralyzed Congress and prompted Republican House leaders to scrap votes on Thursday before their six-week recess.
Democrats accused House Republicans of fleeing Washington early rather than vote for the files to be released.
House Speaker Mike Johnson insisted that lawmakers were not skipping town early to avoid a vote and repeated that he believes Congress should give the Trump administration more time to address the files.
He also pointed to the Justice Department requesting the release of grand jury testimony, a step taken by department officials in an effort to quell outrage in MAGA world.
However, a judge on Wednesday denied the Justice Department’s request for that testimony to be released.
In a 12-page order, Judge Robin Rosenberg wrote that the court’s “hands are tied,” noting the request did not come to help with litigation but so evidence can be released to the public.
In a separate move on Wednesday, Republican Oversight Committee Chair James Comer issued a subpoena for Epstein’s partner Ghislaine Maxwell to testify.
Lawmakers are seeking to question her on August 11 at the federal prison where she is serving time after being convicted of child sex-trafficking in 2021 in connection to the disgraced financier.
