Both chambers of US Congress have agreed to order the US justice department to release its files on late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
The House of Representatives overwhelmingly approved the measure in a 427-1 vote. The Senate said it would pass the bill before it officially received it.
President Donald Trump must ultimately sign off the measure, which he has said he will do. He recently reversed his position and urged fellow Republicans to vote to disclose the records, following pushback from many of his supporters.
Earlier on Tuesday, survivors of Epstein spoke in support of the measure at the US Capitol. One of them said they had suffered “institutional betrayal” for years.
The “Epstein files” refer to the vast trove of documents that were amassed during criminal investigations into the financier, including transcripts of interviews with victims and witnesses, and items confiscated from raids of his various properties.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune told CNN that he expected the upper chamber to receive the bill from the lower one on Wednesday morning, after which the bill would be passed and then sent to Trump for the presidential signature.
Trump said the timing did not matter to him and has continued to cast the issue as a distraction. “I just don’t want Republicans to take their eyes off all of the Victories that we’ve had,” he wrote in a social media post late on Tuesday afternoon.
Trump’s own historical relationship with Epstein has again been the subject of recent headlines after US lawmakers released more than 20,000 pages of documents from Epstein’s estate – including some that mention Trump and other prominent figures, without indicating any wrongdoing by those individuals.
Trump’s reversal at the weekend – from attacking those on Capitol Hill who wanted the files released to saying there was “nothing to hide” – surprised some in Washington.
Credit: bbc.com
