In an unexpected move, the Senate late in the day on Nov. 18 by unanimous consent approved the bill to force release of the Epstein files that the House had only a couple of hours before passed by a vote of 427 to 1. Senate Minority Leader Church Schumer took to the Senate floor to urge that the bill be approved immediately, skipping the usual process of debate and a roll call vote in which each senator would be required to go on the record. The Senate had not even formally received the legislation from the House when it decided to approve and immediately forward the bill to the White House as soon as it is received.
The action by the Senate means that the legislation will quickly go to the White House where President Trump is expected to sign it, but will do so with the knowledge that he recently ordered Attorney General Pam Bondi to begin investigations into Democrats who knew Epstein and that such investigations could be used as an excuse to continue delaying release of various Epstein files. Trump has repeatedly named Former Treasury Secretary Larry Summers as a Democrat with alleged ties to Epstein. By opening one or more such investigations Bondi will be ignoring a previous Justice Department decision that there was no evidence to justify additional investigations. However, having an open investigation could be used as a reason to refuse to release some or all of the Epstein files, or to heavily redact any files that are released. It is standard operating procedure for the Justice Department not to release details about on-going investigations.
In the end, even House Speaker Mike Johnson and his leadership team backed the measure, despite spending the summer and fall trying to quash Washington’s obsession with the Epstein files, while insisting the bill did not do enough to protect victims’ privacy. Johnson said Tuesday he is urging his Senate counterpart, Majority Leader John Thune, to add key protections if he does decide to take up the measure. The Senate acted without making changes to the House bill.
“I’m going to vote to move this forward,” Johnson said at a press conference ahead of the vote, adding that “all the Republicans want to go on record to show they’re for maximum transparency.”
Republican Rep. Thomas Massie was a leader in the effort to pass the legislation and was strongly backed by Democrats. But by this weekend, with a House vote looming, Trump and his team did an about face and instead of continuing to resist the release of the files tried to get ahead of the controversy by coming out in favor of releasing them.
“This is an overdue moment,” Massie said Tuesday, ahead of the vote. “We’ve fought the president, the attorney general, the FBI director, the speaker of the House and the vice president to get this win,” the Kentucky Republican said during a news conference on Capitol Hill, quickly adding that they are now “on our side today.”
Massie has been on the receiving end of attacks by Trump and his loyalists in recent weeks, including personal attacks on his marriage and a campaign to primary him in his district.
CNN reported that Johnson and GOP leaders are hopeful that they can soon turn the page from the months-long Epstein saga within their own conference, which has led to bitter feuds — like the one between Trump and his once-close ally, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene. Greene in recent months has joined Massie in pushing for the release of the files, prompting Trump himself to call her a “traitor” and call for her to be ousted in a primary race.
The House’s investigative committees have launched their own inquiries into the Epstein matter
When asked by a conservative podcast host in 2023 why the so-called Epstein list of clients had not been released, FBI Director Kash Patel suggested it was being kept hidden “because of who’s on that list.” Attorney General Pam Bondi said in February of this year that the Epstein client list was sitting on her desk.
The Epstein issue was quickly creating a major rift between Trump and his MAGA base. Many of his supporters were loudly complaining that the administration was failing to release what Trump once promised he would: the complete set of government files on Epstein.
Soon after, Massie, along with his Democratic partner, Rep. Ro Khanna, launched a rogue push to go around the speaker and bring a bill to the floor without GOP leaders’ approval. A handful of other Republicans — all women, including Greene — signed on, too.
Democratic Rep. Adelita Grijalva of Arizona, who provided the 218th needed signature on a petition to force a floor vote in the House insisted on Tuesday it was not just a Democrat or Republican push.
“This is a demand from the nation. This is not a partisan issue,” Grijalva said.
(Material from The-CNN-Wire ™ & © 2025 Cable News Network, Inc., a Warner Bros. Discovery Company, contributed to this article.)
