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The US House of Representatives on Wednesday adopted a procedural rule for legislation this week that directs the Oversight Committee to continue its investigation into the Jeffrey Epstein case.
Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson had been arguing that a concurrent investigation by the House Oversight Committee is the best way for Congress to deliver transparency in the case, even as a bipartisan discharge petition called for a vote on a bill that would require the Justice Department to release all the information in the Epstein files.
Republican Thomas Massie, who co-signed the plea, called Johnson’s move “the oldest trick in the swamp.”
“When you want to kill an issue, you introduce a placebo – a different bill that does nothing – and then you try to pull the wool over the eyes of the American people,” he said. “That’s not going to happen this time.”
House Republican leadership argued that the discharge petition effort is moot, given the large number of documents that were made public.
The discharge petition, co-signed by Massie and Democrat Ro Khanna, needs at least 218 signatures — half the members of the House to force a vote.
Four Republicans, including three women, —Representatives Nancy Mace, Lauren Boebert and Marjorie Taylor Greene have defied House GOP leadership and the White House in supporting the discharge petition.
Meanwhile, survivors and accusers of Jeffrey Epstein and his former girlfriend, Ghislaine Maxwell, gathered on the Capitol lawn on Wednesday along with hundreds of supporters to demand that the Trump administration provide transparency and accountability for what they endured as teenagers.
They demanded that the US Congress pass legislation forcing the release of all unclassified records related to Epstein held by the Trump administration.
“This is about ending secrecy wherever abuse of power takes root,” said Anouska De Georgiou, a former model and actress who was one of about 10 self-described Epstein victims who spoke about her experience at a press conference outside the US Capitol.
“The only reason that I am here is because it feels like the people that matter in this country finally care what we have to say,” said Marina Lacerda, an immigrant from Brazil who met Epstein when she was 14 after a friend told her she could make hundreds of dollars for massaging an older man.
The women said they supported legislation in the House of Representatives called the Epstein Files Transparency Bill requiring the release of records, including those held by the FBI and US attorneys’ offices.
“Survivors need protection, resources and legal support. If this Congress is serious about justice, then let this moment also affirm your commitment to provide victims with the legal aid they need,” De Georgiou said at a press conference organized by Republican Representatives Thomas Massie of Kentucky and Democrat Ro Khanna of California, who are trying to force a vote on that bill.
House Republican leaders are trying to head off a potentially difficult debate for their rank-and-file members on that legislation, which Trump says would provide no significant, new revelations on the long-running criminal case.
“Thousands of pages of documents have been given. But it’s really a Democrat hoax,” Trump said in a White House Oval Office appearance on Wednesday.
Survivors stressed that their stories are real.
The controversy over the Department of Justice withholding Epstein files has dogged Trump throughout much of this summer, with some of his core supporters demanding their release.
On Tuesday, a Republican-controlled House panel released more than 33,000 pages of files on Epstein, a convicted sex offender who committed suicide in 2019 while being held in jail.
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