WASHINGTON, D.C. — Wyoming Republican U.S. Rep. Harriet Hageman joined nearly all House members Tuesday voting in favor of a bill to require President Donald Trump’s administration to release the full files on Jeffrey Epstein, the now-deceased financier who sex trafficked minors.
U.S. Rep. Clay Higgins, R-Louisiana, was the lone lawmaker to oppose the bill, while three Republicans and two Democrats did not vote. The 427-1 tally, with Hageman on board, masks a full-on partisan war over the issue, which is far from over as the bill moves to the Senate.
Democrats plus four rank-and-file Republicans signed a discharge petition to force Tuesday’s House vote, and Speaker Mike Johnson, R-Louisiana, demanded that the Senate make changes to the bill.
Scores of House Republicans said Tuesday that Democrats’ real motive behind the bill is to smear President Trump, while many Democrats, along with the Republicans who signed the discharge petition, said Epstein's victims support the effort to release the files.
Seldom Used Tactic
A rarely employed discharge petition bypasses House leadership by forcing a bill out of committee, where it would otherwise die.
Trump, Johnson and other high-ranking House Republicans had opposed the discharge effort on the Epstein files legislation. Later, they said they backed the bill, though Johnson said it is heavily flawed.
Along with all Democrats, U.S. Republican Reps. Thomas Massie of Kentucky, Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia, Nancy Mace of South Carolina and Lauren Boebert of Colorado signed the discharge petition.
The swearing-in Nov. 12 of U.S. Rep. Adelita Grijalva, an Arizona Democrat who won a special election, provided backers with the 218th signature to force the floor vote.
House lawmakers from both parties insisted Tuesday they cared about holding accountable those responsible for the sex abuses tied to Epstein.
Democrats refuted Republicans’ claims of a political witch hunt, and Republicans denied Democrats’ allegations of a GOP coverup.
Johnson complained that the bill as currently written could make public the identity of victims against their wishes, as well as expose whistleblowers and grand jury proceedings, among other defects.
“We understand the dangers of how haphazardly this was drawn up,” Johnson said of the bill, adding that it “must be amended” by the Senate.
Bill backers including Massie said the measure does in fact have language to protect the privacy of victims, plus other safeguards to preserve judicial process integrity.
“I urge my Senate colleagues: Don’t muck up this bill,” Massie said.
Barrasso: We’ll See
The Senate’s second-ranking Republican, John Barrasso of Wyoming, is noncommittal on whether the Senate will even take up the measure, let alone amend it as Johnson wants.
A Barrasso spokeswoman said the senator was traveling Tuesday and unavailable for comment, but she pointed to his remarks Sunday on NBC’s “Meet the Press.”
“We’ll see if they send something to the Senate, and if they do, we’ll take a look at that if it passes the House and we’ll see what it says,” Barrasso said on the program.
If it passes the House, “The Senate will have a discussion about it and make a decision from there,” he said.
Barrasso said he favors transparency and accountability with regard to Epstein’s sex crimes, but that he senses politics is in play.
“I fully believe that had there been something here that the Biden administration could have used to go after President Trump the last four years, they’d have gone after him with double barrels,” Barrasso said.
“I think there’s a lot more important things to talk about right now to get the country back on track, to lower prices for the American people, and that’s what we need to do … make life more affordable,” Barrasso said. “The president and the Senate and the House need to be functioning and working on that, not on what’s happened to a convicted sex offender who is now dead.”
But Barrasso also said, “If there is information [in the files] about other individuals that need to be prosecuted, they need to be prosecuted.”
Lummis, Hageman
U.S. Sen. Cynthia Lummis, R-Wyoming, said she supports the release of the files.
"As I have previously said, I think sunlight is the best disinfectant,” she told Cowboy State Daily on Tuesday. “The Epstein files should be fully released, and I’m glad that the Trump administration agrees with that position. If it is brought up for a vote in the Senate, I'll support it.”
A Lummis spokesman called attention to recent news that a House Democrat, Stacey Plaskett, exchanged texts with Epstein while she participated in a House committee hearing investigating the sex-trafficking scandal in 2019.
Fox News and The Washington Post recently reported on the texts involving Plaskett, a non-voting member of Congress known as a delegate who represents the U.S. Virgin Islands.
Hageman also referenced the issue in a statement to Cowboy State Daily on Tuesday. Hageman said the texts show Epstein was feeding Plaskett questions to ask at the hearing.
"I voted in favor of releasing the [Department of Justice] Epstein files,” Hageman told Cowboy State Daily. “Americans deserve full transparency, and I expect we will get to the bottom of why a convicted sex felon was planting questions with a member of the Democrat caucus during a House Oversight hearing.”
House members were planning a vote Tuesday on censuring Plaskett.
Sean Barry can be reached at sean@cowboystatedaily.com.
