House GOP braces for Epstein files vote as concerns remain despite Trump's green light
House Republicans are cautiously supportive of a bipartisan bill aimed at forcing the Department of Justice (DOJ) to release all its files on Jeffrey Epstein’s case after President Donald Trump...
By Fox News · Fox News
House Republicans are cautiously supportive of a bipartisan bill aimed at forcing the Department of Justice (DOJ) to release all its files on Jeffrey Epstein’s case after President Donald Trump gave the bill his stamp of approval on Sunday night. GOP lawmakers who spoke with Fox News Digital Monday evening said they would vote for the bill and were optimistic their colleagues would as well — though many of them said they still had concerns about how it was written. It comes after Speaker Mike Johnson , R-La., who had been against the bill but pushing parallel transparency efforts in Epstein’s case, said he hoped it would undergo material changes when it reached the Senate to give more protection for innocent people whose names may appear in the files against their wishes. "I have real concerns about the discharge language in the House draft," Johnson said. "But I do have some comfort that, I think if and when it's processed in the Senate, that they'll be able to correct some of those concerns, if we have the protection of victims and whistleblowers and all the rest." HOUSE REPUBLICANS SAY DEMS TWISTING EPSTEIN PROBE TO SMEAR TRUMP IN NEW MEMO The legislation is coming to the House floor on Tuesday afternoon via a mechanism called a discharge petition led by Rep Ro. Khanna, D-Calif., and Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky. The latter has found himself at odds with both Johnson and Trump on several key issues this year. A discharge petition allows a bill to get a House-wide vote against leaders’ wishes, provided the petition gets support from most lawmakers in the chamber — which in this case, it did last week. Rep. Byron Donalds, R-Fla., a Trump ally who is running for governor in Florida, said he would vote for the bill but shared Johnson’s concerns. "Number one, Congress has never released criminal files ever in the history of Congress. Two, there are victims, and I know we're supposed to be trying to do what we can to sanitize their names or cover their names or redact the…