Only One Republican Votes in Favor of Releasing Epstein Files

House Republicans shut down a Democratic bid to unseal the Jeffrey Epstein files Monday night, as the MAGA base tears itself apart over the controversy.

The House Rules Committee voted 6-5 against attaching a Democratic amendment to cryptocurrency legislation that would compel the Justice Department to release all documents related to Epstein on a publicly accessible website.

It had not been expected to pass, but was designed to expose GOP hypocrisies on the matter.

Rep. Ro Khanna, a California Democrat, submitted the measure. Approving it in committee would allow it to advance to a full floor vote.

“Trump is posting that we should all just move on. Well, I want to know what the hell is in these files,” Rep. Jim McGovern, the top Democrat on the committee, said while arguing in favor of the move.

“And I think we all want to know why Trump is suddenly changing his tune and is so desperate to sweep this under the rug.”

“Republicans said, ‘Trust us. Vote for us and we will release these files.’ And here we are, they are backtracking,” he added.

Rep. Virginia Foxx, the North Carolina Republican who chairs the committee, said after the vote that “most of us believe what’s appropriate will be released when it is time for the president to release it,” according to Axios.

Khanna on MSNBC afterwards that a House floor vote would have allowed lawmakers to answer the question: “Whose side are you on?”

“It’s not just about knowing who’s being protected—the rich and the powerful—in terms of who had interaction with Jeffrey Epstein,” he said. “It’s the sense that people have that the government is too beholden to certain interests who have their thumb on the scale.”

Trump said on the campaign trail that he would make the Epstein files public if elected, catering to a slice of his base that contends the government covered up Epstein’s ties to powerful figures and doubts he died by suicide while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges in 2019.

His attorney general, Pam Bondi, suggested in February she was in possession of an Epstein “client list.” Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle encouraged her to release the files at the time.

A firestorm ignited last Monday when the DOJ and FBI, in a joint memo, announced that no further documents would be released. It said there was no “client list” and an investigation found he had died by suicide.

The issue has set off vicious infighting in MAGA ranks, as many Trump supporters slam the reversal. Trump has adopted a “nothing to see here” attitude, defending Bondi and calling on supporters to drop it.