Epstein Docs Head to House Vote

We received genuine breaking news out of Washington, D.C., this weekend as President Donald Trump made it clear that he wants the House of Representatives to vote to release the Epstein files, claiming the Trump DOJ has “nothing to hide.” He also wants Attorney General Pam Bondi to go after prominent Democrat names tied to the files, including former President Bill Clinton.

As Reuters reports this morning:

U.S. President Donald Trump on Sunday urged his fellow Republicans in Congress to vote for the release of files related to the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, reversing his earlier resistance to such a move.

Trump’s post on his Truth Social came after House Speaker Mike Johnson said earlier that he believed a vote on releasing Justice Department documents in the Epstein case should help put to rest allegations that Trump had any connection to Epstein’s abuse and trafficking of underage girls.

“House Republicans should vote to release the Epstein files, because we have nothing to hide,” Trump wrote on Sunday night. “And it’s time to move on from this Democrat Hoax perpetrated by Radical Left Lunatics in order to deflect from the Great Success of the Republican Party, including our recent Victory on the Democrat ‘Shutdown’.”

Although Trump and Epstein were photographed together decades ago, the president has said the two men fell out before Epstein’s convictions. Emails released last week by a House committee showed the disgraced financier believed Trump “knew about the girls,” though it was not clear what that phrase meant.

Perhaps what’s most notable here is not just that there’ll be a vote on the files now, but how that vote came to be. It wasn’t because House leadership scheduled it, but because Members used a discharge petition to force it onto the floor. That only happens when rank-and-file Members – often those in the minority – want to force a vote on an issue without the party leadership’s blessing. They finally got the signatures, and now the vote is locked in.

All of this comes on the heels of far-Left Members of the House Judiciary Committee releasing a tranche of documents related to Jeffrey Epstein on the very day the House voted to reopen the government. But let’s be honest: These files have been a political football for years. And President Trump has been blunt about it: Why is this story dominating our national attention in the middle of major economic challenges and after the longest government shutdown in American history?

But by Friday night, the President reversed course:

Obviously, I don’t know what’s in those files any more than anyone, but it’s certainly worth noting that for all the talk about Trump supposedly wanting to hide something, his message now is unambiguous. Vote for it. Release the files. The real question now is: Once this vote happens and these documents go through the proper process and become public, can America move on? This story has been the football getting thrown back and forth so long that, without the distraction it has heretofore provided, there’s not much salacious news driving today’s media cycle. And now, with the President giving the green light, the last excuse evaporates.

That brings us to the other obvious question: If there was truly explosive evidence involving major political figures, why hasn’t it already leaked? Washington is not a place where big secrets stay hidden for years. Secrets are power. They’re the ace up the sleeve to destroy your political enemy. It sure seems to me that if it had a smoking gun, the far Left would have produced it long ago.

That, coupled with the fact that a judge previously blocked the release of grand jury materials even when the Trump Administration requested it, reminds us: Some information simply cannot be released under longstanding legal protections that exist to preserve the integrity of the grand jury process.

For now, the vote will happen. The documents will likely go to the committees. And the public will see what’s there, as well as what isn’t. My hope is that afterward, maybe, just maybe, Congress can get back to doing the work we elected them to do.

Today’s Sekulow broadcast included more analysis of President Trump’s surprising order to release the files. We were also joined by U.S. Special Presidential Envoy Ric Grenell to discuss the latest legislative fix being debated that would give U.S. Senators a legal “cause of action” to take bad actors in the DOJ or FBI to court and force transparency in the wake of the revelation that Biden DOJ Special Counsel Jack Smith used “Operation Arctic Frost”  to target U.S. Senators and conservative American citizens.

Watch the full broadcast below: