Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) on Tuesday stated he would attempt to use a long-shot procedural gambit to pressure a vote on requiring the Division of Justice to launch recordsdata associated to convicted intercourse offender Jeffrey Epstein.
The transfer comes as President Trump and his administration face blowback from many inside the GOP base over their dealing with of details about the disgraced financier, and Trump makes an attempt to tamp down the quantity of consideration the problem is receiving.
“All of us should know what’s within the Epstein recordsdata, who’s implicated, and the way deep this corruption goes. Individuals had been promised justice and transparency,” Massie stated in a post on the social platform X Tuesday.
“We’re introducing a discharge petition to pressure a vote within the US Home of Representatives on releasing the COMPLETE recordsdata,” he added.
Massie’s decision, co-sponsored by Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.), would require Legal professional Basic Pam Bondi to “make publicly accessible in a searchable and downloadable format all unclassified information, paperwork, communications, and investigative supplies within the possession of the Division of Justice, together with the Federal Bureau of Investigation and United States Attorneys’ Places of work” which have hyperlinks with Epstein inside 30 days of the measure turning into regulation.
It additionally says the recordsdata can not “be withheld, delayed, or redacted” within the case that they trigger “embarrassment, reputational hurt, or political sensitivity, together with to any authorities official, public determine, or international dignitary.”
A discharge petition requires 218 signatures to bypass Home management and pressure a vote on a measure. It’s not often profitable, with members of the bulk typically hesitant to buck their very own leaders, and it’s uncommon to see a member of the bulk lead the cost on such an effort.
Massie, nonetheless, hasn’t been shy about bucking each Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) and Trump. He has most lately opposed the White Home’s strikes on Iran and voted in opposition to Trump’s “large, lovely invoice,” main Trump to threaten an effort to oust him within the midterms.
Khanna, in the meantime, has led the charge on the Democratic side in calling for a Home vote to launch the Epstein recordsdata.
Proper-wing influencers who’ve lengthy pushed conspiracy theories about Epstein lately turned their fury towards the Trump administration, particularly Bondi, as a consequence of a latest Justice Division memo seeking to dispel those theories.
The memo from final week stated no proof existed that Epstein had a “consumer checklist” or that he tried to blackmail highly effective figures implicated in his crimes. It additionally concluded Epstein’s loss of life was as a consequence of suicide, pushing again in opposition to theories that he was killed in his jail cell.
The Hill has reached out to the Division of Justice for remark.