Senate Clears Path for Epstein Records After Dramatic Turn in Momentum
No GOP senator stepped in to derail a procedural move that would have forced an immediate vote on compelling the release of Jeffrey Epstein–related files.
Within hours of the House’s overwhelming approval of the resolution, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., followed through on his promise to push it forward, bringing the matter to the Senate floor.
Schumer insisted there was no reason for the chamber to stall, declaring that the Senate “should pass this bill as soon as possible, as written and without a hint of delay.”
He warned Republicans not to meddle with the language, saying, “Republicans must not try to change this bill or bury it in committee, or slow walk it in any way. Any amendment to this bill would force it back to the House and risk further delay. Who knows what would happen over there?”
Once the House formally sends the measure across the Capitol, it will head directly to President Donald Trump for his signature.
The resolution, authored by Reps. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., and Ro Khanna, D-Calif., mandates that the Department of Justice publish every unclassified file, memo, communication, and investigatory document connected to Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell within 30 days of enactment, making them “publicly available in a searchable and downloadable format.”
Unlike the House — where the push for disclosure upended schedules and even triggered a temporary recess earlier this year under House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La. — the Senate has been far less volatile as the issue has moved forward.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., noted that Republicans were already evaluating the bill through the hotline process, the internal mechanism for vetting legislation before it reaches the floor. If it passed that stage, he said, the expectation was to bring it forward before lawmakers adjourn for the Thanksgiving break.
“We’ll see what the Democrats have to say,” Thune remarked. “But it’s the kind of thing, probably, that could perhaps move by unanimous consent.”
In the end, the measure advanced without needing a roll-call vote.
The landscape shifted considerably once President Donald Trump — who had spent months blasting efforts to force open the Epstein archives — unexpectedly embraced the Massie-Khanna proposal over the weekend.
He condemned the push as a “Democrat Hoax perpetrated by Radical Left Lunatics in order to deflect from the Great Success of the Republican Party.”
He added on Truth Social, “Nobody cared about Jeffrey Epstein when he was alive and, if the Democrats had anything, they would have released it before our Landslide Election Victory.”
Many Senate Republicans have long said they are open to making more information public but stress that victims must not be exposed in the process. House Speaker Johnson has urged lawmakers to add protections ensuring that identifying details remain shielded.
But Senate leadership signaled that such revisions are unlikely.
“I think when a bill comes out of the House 427 to one, and the president said he’d sign it, I’m not sure that amending it is in the cards,” Thune said.
