Both houses of the US Congress passed a bill on Tuesday forcing the Justice Department to release all documents on late financier and sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
Lawmakers in the House voted almost unanimously in favor of the measure, with only one Republican dissenting against it.
A few hours later, the Senate also agreed by unanimous consent to consider the bill passed after coming through the House.
That means no vote is required in the Senate and it will be sent without debate to President Donald Trump, who has promised to sign it into law.
Vote came after Trump’s U-turn
While the vote had been opposed for months by Trump and House Speaker Mike Johnson as it became clear that most Republicans were ready to disregard him, Trump reversed his stance over the weekend, calling on Republicans to vote to release the files.
The president’s critics accused him of attempting to block his release by hiding any possible reference to him in the files.
Epstein died by suicide in prison in 2019 while awaiting trial on charges in a federal sex trafficking investigation.
He was previously convicted of inciting prostitution of a girl under 19 years of age.
Last week, the House Oversight Committee released thousands of emails and documents obtained by subpoenaing Epstein’s estate earlier this year.
Trump’s name appeared in a 2019 Epstein email addressed to a journalist, in which the financier says Trump “knew about the girls.”
The White House has accused Democrats of selectively leaking emails in the political campaign against Trump.
Trump has denied any wrongdoing and urged his supporters to dismiss the affair as a “hoax”.
‘Epstein files’ bill supported by group of Republicans, Democrats
The vote on the “Epstein Files Transparency Act” comes after a small group of lawmakers from both parties introduced a petition in July asking to circumvent the House Speaker’s control over which bills can be voted on.
Republican and former MAGA loyalist Marjorie Taylor Greene, who has recently fallen from Trump’s graces, stood with some sexual assault survivors outside the Capitol on Tuesday morning in part because of her support for releasing the files.
She said, “These women have fought the most terrible battle that no woman should have to fight. And they did so by standing united and never giving up.”
The bill was sponsored by a bipartisan pair of Representatives: Democrat Ro Khanna and Republican Thomas Massie.
Before the vote, Massie said he was concerned that the Justice Department might slow down the release of documents by citing exemptions for ongoing investigations.
“If they’re breaking the law for any purpose, like embarrassment, which we’ve excluded, then they’re breaking the law,” Massey told reporters, referring to measures used to protect victims in the files.
Edited by: Wesley Rahn