Donald Trump has signed a bill that will force the release of documents relating to the sex trafficking investigation into Jeffrey Epstein, after months of apparent obstruction
President Donald Trump signed a bill to release the Epstein files on Wednesday as he yielded to mounting pressure. The US President put pen to paper on legislation ordering the disclosure of documents related to the sex trafficking investigation into Jeffrey Epstein, after months of apparently obstructing the release of the Department of Justice documents.
The move comes after supporters of the legislation battled for months to overcome resistance from the President and Republican leaders, with both Trump and House Speaker Mike Johnson unsuccessful in their attempts to stop the vote.
After a 427-1 vote in the House, the Senate unanimously backed the measure, sending it to Trump for his signature. While announcing his approval of the bill, Trump said on social media: “Democrats have used the ‘Epstein’ issue, which affects them far more than the Republican Party, in order to try and distract from our AMAZING victories.”
The legislation now compels the Justice Department to reveal all documents and correspondence linked to Epstein, as well as any information about the investigation into his death at a federal facility in 2019, within 30 days. While redactions concerning Epstein’s victims are allowed for ongoing federal investigations, the DOJ cannot withhold information due to “embarrassment, reputational harm, or political sensitivity.”, reports the Mirror.
The determined, bipartisan efforts in Congress on Tuesday further highlighted the escalating pressure on MPs and the Trump administration to meet longstanding demands for the Justice Department to disclose its case files on Epstein, an influential financier who committed suicide in a Manhattan jail while awaiting trial in 2019 on charges of sexually abusing and trafficking underage girls.
“These women have fought the most horrific fight that no woman should have to fight. And they did it by banding together and never giving up,” declared Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, standing alongside some of the abuse survivors outside the Capitol on Tuesday morning.
“That’s what we did by fighting so hard against the most powerful people in the world, even the president of the United States, in order to make this vote happen today,” added Greene, a Georgia Republican and staunch Trump supporter.
The bill’s approval signifies a pivotal moment in a years-long campaign by the survivors for justice over Epstein’s abuse and a reckoning concerning how law enforcement officials failed to act across multiple presidential administrations.
Trump has insisted he cut ties with Epstein years ago, yet spent months trying to dodge the disclosure demands. However, a number of Republicans have consistently pushed for the documents to be made public.
This pressure ramped up when survivors of Epstein’s abuse assembled outside the Capitol on Tuesday morning. Bundled up against the November chill and holding pictures of their younger selves, they recounted their experiences of exploitation.
“We are exhausted from surviving the trauma and then surviving the politics that swirl around it,” one survivor expressed. Another, Jena-Lisa Jones, disclosed she had backed Trump and issued a direct plea to the president: “I beg you Donald Trump, please stop making this political.”
The group of women had previously met with Johnson and protested outside the Capitol in September, but were left hanging for months for the vote.
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