What's next for Epstein files as House plans vote on bill next week

Dave Goldiner, New York Daily News on Nov 13, 2025

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A bill ordering the release of all files related to the Jeffrey Epstein case is expected to come to a vote in the House of Representatives next week and is shaping up to win lopsided, bipartisan approval despite President Donald Trump’s steadfast resistance.

Republican Speaker Mike Johnson, who has resisted the measure at Trump’s behest for months, pulled a U-turn late Wednesday and vowed to schedule a vote within a few days after critics reached the needed 218 signatures on an unusual legislative petition.

After a flurry of Epstein emails mentioning Trump were released Wednesday, several GOP lawmakers said they will vote for the measure. Supporters of the bill predicted scores of Republican votes will eventually defect, even if Trump continues to ratchet up pressure on them to oppose it.

The bill would then head to the Senate where Democrats would seek to mount a similar pressure campaign to force Majority Leader Sen. John Thune, R-S.D., to permit a vote, which would require a 60-vote supermajority to pass over a filibuster in the chamber that Republicans control 53-47.

Trump, who has sought to turn the page on the Epstein scandal and slammed Republicans for supporting the bill, refused to take questions from reporters who were invited into the Oval Office to watch him sign legislation ending the government shutdown.

“Democrats are using the Jeffrey Epstein Hoax to try and deflect from their massive failures,” Trump wrote on his social media site.

Liberal Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Calif., and conservative Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., both predicted Republicans will wind up voting en masse for their Epstein file disclosure bill once it lands on the House floor.

Even Republican congressional leaders predict up to half of the 219 House Republicans may wind up voting for the measure when it hits the floor for an up-or-down vote.

Johnson had dug in his heels for months on the Epstein files bill even after the discharge petition to force a vote gained support of four Republicans along with all 213 Democrats. It hit the needed majority of 218 when the government shutdown ended and Johnson finally swore in Rep. Adelita Grijalva, D-Ariz., 50 days after she won a special election to become the 214th House Democrat.

Some Capitol Hill insiders had expected Johnson to continue to delay a vote until sometime in December with some byzantine procedural roadblocks while Trump and GOP leaders sought to flip some of the Republican defectors.

Trump even summoned one of the lawmakers who signed the petition, Rep. Lauren Boebert, R-Colo., to a meeting in the White House situation room with top officials in hopes of getting her to back down. But she refused.

If the bill passes the House by a wide margin, it could put pressure on Senate Republicans to also approve it.

Even if they did so, Trump could veto the measure and it’s unlikely enough GOP rebels would stick to their guns to produce a needed two-thirds vote in both chambers to override his action.

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