The US Senate on Tuesday gave swift approval to legislation that will force the release of investigative files related to the late paedophile Jeffrey Epstein, following a near-unanimous vote in the US House of Representatives and a reversal by president Donald Trump and his Republican allies who relented after months of trying to forestall the bipartisan effort involving a scandal that has dogged the president since his return to the White House.
The Senate acted by unanimous consent, which requires approval from each senator but does not require a formal roll call vote, expediting the process.
“The American people have waited long enough. Jeffrey Epstein’s victims have waited long enough,” Chuck Schumer, the top Senate Democrat, said in a floor speech on Tuesday, before asking the chamber to pass it unanimously. “Let the truth come out. Let transparency reign.”
The Bill next goes to Mr Trump for his signature. The president indicated on Monday that he would sign the measure.
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Earlier on Tuesday, the US House of Representatives voted overwhelmingly to force the department of justice to release its files on Epstein.
The Bill passed the Republican-controlled House 427-1. All but one Republican endorsed the measure.
It remains unclear how much material the department would be willing to make public. Tuesday’s votes are nevertheless a watershed moment for a long-running scandal that has piled political pressure on Trump and raised fresh questions about his links to the convicted child sex offender.
Trump and top Republican lawmakers have for months worked to avoid a vote on the so-called Epstein files, accusing Democrats of playing political games in an effort to tie the president to the disgraced financier.
However, the president made a U-turn late on Sunday, when he posted on social media that House Republicans should vote to release the files “because we have nothing to hide, and it’s time to move on”.
The change of tack came days after a congressional committee investigating Epstein published more than 20,000 previously unseen documents from the late financier’s estate, including a 2011 email in which Epstein said Trump was the “dog that hadn’t barked” and “spent hours at my house” with a woman later identified as a victim of sex trafficking.
But hours before the House vote, Trump bristled at a question from a reporter about the Epstein files.
“I have nothing to do with Jeffrey Epstein,” Mr Trump said. “I threw him out of my club many years ago because I thought he was a sick pervert.”
He has acknowledged he was once friends with Epstein, who was found hanging in a jail cell in August 2019, awaiting trial on federal charges for the sex trafficking of minors. But the president has also said the two men had a falling out more than two decades ago, and vehemently denied involvement in Epstein’s crimes.
Trump’s reluctance to release government files relating to Epstein has exposed sharp divisions among his supporters, leading to a dramatic split between the president and Georgia firebrand congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene.
Ms Greene, a long-time Trump supporter, had also been one of the rank-and-file Republican lawmakers agitating for a vote on the Epstein files. Earlier on Tuesday she told reporters that the fight over Epstein had “ripped Maga apart”, and questioned whether the justice department would ultimately follow through on releasing its documents relating to the convicted sex offender.
“Today you are going to see probably a unanimous vote in the House to release the Epstein files. But the fight, the real fight, will happen after that,” Greene said. “The real test will be: will the department of justice release the files? Or it will remain tied up in investigations?”
If signed into law, the bill would give US attorney-general Pam Bondi 30 days to release the documents in the government’s possession.
It remains unclear how long the department would take to unveil the material, or whether the administration would hold back certain documents. The bill would allow the department to withhold documents that are determined to jeopardise active federal investigations or pose national security concerns.
Additional reporting by Stefania Palma in Washington – Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2025/Guardian
