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The House of Representatives on Wednesday approved a resolution formally authorizing the Oversight Committee’s ongoing probe into Jeffrey Epstein.
The legislation also authorized the committee’s release of “all unclassified committee records received from the Attorney General, the Secretary of the Treasury, and the Epstein estate, and any other custodians related to the investigation described in this resolution, as well as any written declarations, or other evidence that relates to the investigation described in this resolution,” according to its text.
It’s a largely symbolic move that’s been done to quell a burgeoning war of words in the House over how to pursue transparency in Epstein’s case.
The Department of Justice’s (DOJ) handling of Epstein’s case and dueling efforts to pursue that transparency are issues that have dominated Capitol Hill in the two days lawmakers have been back in Washington, D.C., after returning from their annual August recess.
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House Oversight Committee Chair James Comer, R-Ky., made some 33,000 pages of Epstein-related documents public in a surprise move on Tuesday evening.
The documents are the first tranche sent over by the DOJ, which Comer subpoenaed in early August as part of the panel’s bipartisan Epstein probe.
The resolution was approved in a 212 to 208 vote on Wednesday, with one House Republican, Rep. Kevin Kiley, R-Calif., voting “present.” No Democrat voted in favor.
But Democrats’ opposition to Wednesday’s vote was not unexpected given House GOP leaders’ decision to pair the resolution with a “rule vote,” a procedural hurdle that allows the House to debate several unrelated bills before voting on the measures themselves at a later time. “Rule votes” traditionally fall along party lines.
House leaders instead opted to deem the Epstein resolution approved upon passage of the rule, a method for fast-tracking legislation by considering the measure itself passed when the procedural hurdle is finished.
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The probe itself is bipartisan, stemming from an effort during an unrelated House Oversight Committee meeting that saw both Democrats and Republicans vote to compel Comer to begin the investigation.
The vote and the Oversight Committee’s release appear to be a bid to neutralize an effort by Reps. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., and Ro Khanna, D-Calif., to force a vote on their own bill directing the DOJ to release all records on Epstein.
They’re pressuring House Republicans to sign onto what’s called a “discharge petition,” a mechanism to get a chamber-wide vote on legislation normally opposed by House leaders, provided the petition gets a majority of lawmaker signatures.
Just six Republicans would be needed to trigger the vote – there are four currently signed on. Nearly all Democrats also signed on.
Massie and Khanna held a press conference with several of Epstein’s victims on Wednesday morning in a bid to push two more Republicans to join their effort.
“I hope my colleagues are watching this press conference. I want them to think, what if this was your sister? What if this was your daughter?” Massie said during the press conference.
“Now, the Speaker of the House just offered a fig leaf to my colleagues. They’re going to vote on a non-binding resolution today that does absolutely nothing. I appreciate the efforts of my colleague James Comer, who’s leading the Oversight Committee. They may find some information, but they’re allowing the DOJ to curate all of the information that the DOJ is giving them.”
Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., who met with the victims behind closed doors alongside Comer and members of the Oversight Committee on Tuesday, previously accused Massie of politicizing the Epstein matter.
“I would describe virtually everything Thomas Massie says, as related to this issue, as meaningless,” Johnson said, arguing that House Republicans were all committed to transparency.
Johnson is backing Comer’s probe, which, in addition to subpoenaing the DOJ, also saw former Attorney General Bill Barr deposed.
Comer also sent subpoenas to multiple former attorneys general, ex-Federal Bureau of Investigation directors, and former first couple Bill and Hillary Clinton. He subpoenaed Epstein’s estate late last month.
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