Republicans release 33,000 pages of Epstein files in move to avoid controversial vote to force Trump to hand over documents

The House Oversight Committee has released a massive trove of Justice Department files on Jeffrey Epstein, the same day lawmakers pushed a bill to force the document’s release.

The investigative panel under Chairman James Comer, R-Ky., has been reviewing the federal files related to the late pedophile’s 2019 death in federal custody while awaiting a sex trafficking trial, searching for additional methods to combat child trafficking and probing potential ethics violations among elected officials.

After Comer subpoenaed the DOJ for files related to Epstein in early August, the department turned over over 34,000 pages of documents. The Oversight Committee released 33,295 pages of Epstein-related records on Tuesday, Comer said. 

However, Democrats on the committee have claimed that the documents provided by the DOJ do not contain much new information. 

Rep. Summer Lee, D–Penn., claimed last week when the DOJ handed over the files that the ‘only new disclosure[s]’ are flight log locations of Epstein’s plane dating from 2000 to 2014, making up fewer than 1,000 pages of the documents. 

The publication of the highly sought-after documents comes the same day Reps. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., and Ro Khanna, D-Calif., introduced a discharge petition to force a House vote on the publication of the Justice Department’s Epstein files.

Using a discharge petition – a legislative vehicle to force a vote – Massie and Khanna may be able to circumvent party leadership and force a vote on the politically-charged documents.

Should this petition receive 218 signatures, half of the members of the House of Representatives, Massie and Khanna’s bill forcing the DOJ to release its Epstein documents would get a formal vote on the floor. If it passes, it would head to the Senate, where some lawmakers have signaled their willingness to press forward with efforts to unveil the financier’s files.

But GOP leadership may already be trying to crush the impending Epstein vote with the timing of this document drop. 

A schedule of this week’s legislative business, published on Tuesday, shows that Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson and his leadership team have a plan to vote on a separate Epstein-related measure.

The vote would simply instruct the House Oversight Committee, which is separately investigating Epstein, his network and potential government connections, to ‘continue its ongoing investigation.’

The committee, however, does not need a vote to continue investigating the late financier. Johnson’s bill would prompt the committee to release its findings publicly, though it already has declared its intention to publish them. 

The vote on Johnson’s Epstein-related package could provide political cover for some members to say, at the very least, that they are working on releasing the Epstein files.

‘@SpeakerJohnson just scheduled this meaningless vote to provide political cover for those members who don’t support our bipartisan legislation to force the release of the Epstein files,’ Massie wrote about the vote.

Johnson, who has been put in a tricky position between defending the executive branch’s own Epstein-related investigations, has been pressured by his constituents to bring up a vote on the Epstein saga.

The additional pressure from his Republican flank is not sitting well with the speaker.

‘I would describe virtually everything Thomas Massie says as related to this issue as meaningless,’ he told reporters on Tuesday afternoon after the Kentuckian filed his discharge petition.

But Massie told reporters the same day that ‘eventually people are not going to be satisfied with what’s happening in the Oversight Committee.’

‘It’s not going to bring the closure they’re looking for,’ he added. 

September will be a busy month on Capitol Hill when it comes to Epstein.

Survivors of the sex offenders’ crimes are meeting with lawmakers at the Capitol this afternoon.

The survivors will also meet with House Oversight Committee investigators, a source familiar with the matter told the Daily Mail this week.

On Wednesday, the survivors will hold a press conference with Massie and Khanna where they are expected to take questions.

In addition to the survivors, several top former government officials are expected to speak with the committee about Epstein.

In mid-September, former Labor Secretary Alex Acosta, who struck a deal with Epstein’s legal team during his 2007 Florida case, will interview with the committee.

Acosta, then a U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Florida, helped Epstein secure a plea deal that kept the financier from federal charges after months of negotiating.

The victims, who reportedly ranged in number up to three dozen, were not notified until after the deal was struck.

Former FBI Director Robert Mueller, who oversaw the agency during Epstein’s prostitution case in 2007, was also subpoenaed by the committee.

However, the former special counsel who investigated Trump’s connections to Russia cannot testify due to health issues.

Mueller’s family announced this weekend that the longtime FBI boss has Parkinson’s disease.

Former President Bill Clinton and his wife, Hillary Clinton, have been subpoenaed to sit for interviews with the panel in October, the committee has announced. 

Further, Comer sent a letter to Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent on Sunday requesting documents related to the late sex offender.

He asked the Trump administration to hand over any Suspicious Activity Reports (SARs) it may have regarding Epstein.

SARs are created by financial institutions and sent to the Treasury to flag potentially dubious transactions that may indicate criminal activity, like fraud, money laundering or terrorist financing.

The Treasury’s Financial Crime Enforcement Network (FinCEN) is tasked with investigating SARs and potential crimes, and Comer says he wants to investigate potential mismanagement.

‘The Committee requests that the U.S. Department of the Treasury (Treasury) produce certain Suspicious Activity Reports (SARs) relevant to the Committee’s investigation,’ Comer’s letter says.

The committee gave the Treasury a deadline of September 15 to hand over the SARs.