Epstein Files Transparency Act
The Epstein Files Transparency Act is a law passed by the 119th United States Congress and signed by President Donald Trump on November19, 2025. It requires the United States attorney general to "make publicly available in a searchable and downloadable format" all files pertaining to the prosecution of the deceased child sex offender Jeffrey Epstein within 30 days of passage, and then to give the Judiciary Committees in both the House of Representatives and the Senate an unredacted "list of all government officials and politically exposed persons" named in the files.
In September 2025, Representative Thomas Massie, a member of the Republican Party, filed a discharge petition in support of the bill. On November12, the discharge petition received the minimum-required 218 signatures needed, from 4Republican representatives and 214Democratic Party representatives, forcing a House vote on the bill.
The House of Representatives voted 427–1 to pass the act on November18, 2025, with Republican representative Clay Higgins casting the lone nay vote. The next day, the Senate passed the bill via unanimous consent, and Trump signed the bill into law. The law gave the attorney general 30 days to release the documents.
On December 19, the U.S. Department of Justice released the first batch of Epstein files, violating U.S. law in failing to release all the files by that day. This failure received bipartisan criticism. Many documents contained extensive redactions, with hundreds of pages entirely blacked out. Following a delayed and heavily criticized rollout, the Department of Justice released additional files in waves, with a final release on January 30, 2026. Following this, the Department claimed they had fufilled their legal obligation and released all available files, amounting to over 3.5 million pages. This announcement received political push-back, with some reports indicating the full Epstein files consist of over 6 million pages.
The release of the Epstein files led to the resignations of figures including Miroslav Lajčák and Peter Mandelson; as well as potential contempt of congress charges against Bill and Hillary Clinton, following a House investigation into the former's relationship with Epstein.
Background
During the 2024 presidential election, the Republican nominee and former president Donald Trump, when asked by Rachel Campos-Duffy on Fox News in June 2024 whether he would release the Epstein files as president, answered "yeah, I would." In September, while appearing on Lex Fridman's podcast, Trump promised to release the Epstein files if elected. Trump won the 2024 election in November.In February 2025, the U.S. attorney general, Pam Bondi, stated in a Fox News interview that the Epstein client list was "sitting on my desk right now to review." Later that month, the White House gave binders to several prominent conservative and right-wing figures, including Liz Wheeler and Scott Presler, reading "Epstein Files: Phase 1" and "Declassified". Later that day, Representative Anna Paulina Luna criticized the event, stating that they released "old info".
On July7, Bondi released a statement saying that the U.S. Department of Justice found "no incriminating 'client list, contradicting her February statement. That day, DOJ and the Federal Bureau of Investigation announced that no further files from the Epstein investigation would be released. Bondi's statement drew outrage from conservative figures; Wheeler called it "unforgivable behavior", while the Hodgetwins called for Trump to fire Bondi.
On July11, reports emerged that Dan Bongino, the deputy director of the FBI, had a heated confrontation with Bondi over her handling of the files, and was considering resigning. Bongino was later demoted to Co-Deputy Director on September 15, 2025; he later announced his upcoming resignation on December 17, 2025.
On July12, Trump defended Bondi and referred to Epstein as "somebody that nobody cares about." On July16, Trump referred to the Epstein files as "a big hoax." On July23, reports emerged that earlier in May, Bondi and her deputy Todd Blanche informed Trump that his name was "among many in the Epstein files." Trump denied this report.
Trump's change in position drew criticism from prominent podcasters close to Trump, as well as many conservatives. Joe Rogan accused the Trump administration of gaslighting the public, while Andrew Schulz said Trump was "insulting our intelligence".
In August 2025, Judge Paul A. Engelmayer denied Bondi's request to unseal grand jury files from the Ghislaine Maxwell prosecution case.
Legislative history
Discharge petition
On September 2, 2025, Representative Thomas Massie moved to force the House to vote to require the Justice Department to release the files, through a discharge petition. Trump and other Republicans launched a pressure campaign to prevent the release of the files, with one anonymous official calling voting for Massie's discharge petition a "very hostile act to the administration".Within several days, Nancy Mace, Lauren Boebert, and Marjorie Taylor Greene signed the discharge petition, alongside many Democrats. Later that month, Greene tweeted: "The Epstein rape and pedophile network must be exposed.... Release all the Epstein information by any means possible." She added that "if something happens to me, I ask you all to find out" who might be trying "to stop the information from coming out."
On September 9, the House Rules Committee rejected a motion 8-4, from Democratic representative Jim McGovern, to request to vote on the Epstein Files Transparency Act in the House, along party lines.
The petition's final two signatures came from Democrats: James Walkinshaw, who won the Virginia 11th District special election on September 9 and was sworn in the next day, and Adelita Grijalva, who won the Arizona 7th congressional district special election on September 23 and was sworn in on November 12.
In the hours before Grijalva was sworn in, Bondi, Blanche, and FBI director Kash Patel met with Boebert regarding the House effort. However, Boebert did not remove her name from the petition, and once Grijalva was sworn in and provided the 218th signature, it was no longer procedurally allowable for any signatories to remove their names.
Mike Johnson, the speaker of the House of Representatives, had delayed Grijalva's swearing-in, generally attributing his decision to the 2025 government shutdown, arguing that the House could not swear in new members during pro forma sessions or during a government shutdown. However, some critics noted that Johnson had sworn in two Republican members, Jimmy Patronis and Randy Fine, during a pro forma session in April. On October 21, the Arizona attorney general, Kris Mayes, sued Johnson, seeking to force him to swear in Grijalva. That day, Johnson told Fox Business that the delay "has zero to do with Epstein", given that "the Epstein files are being released".
Interval period
On November 12, 2025, Johnson stated that the House would vote on the bill the following week.In the following days, Republican representatives Don Bacon, Andy Biggs, Rob Bresnahan, Tim Burchett, Eli Crane, Warren Davidson, Carlos A. Giménez, Nicole Malliotakis, Max Miller, and Derrick Van Orden, none of whom signed the discharge petition, stated that they will vote in favor of the legislation. Representative María Elvira Salazar stated when asked that she was still "thinking" over her vote.
Politico reported that, according to anonymous sources, over 100 Republicans were expected to defect from Johnson and vote for the bill. Representative Ro Khanna predicted that 40–50 Republicans might vote for release, while Massie similarly anticipated that Republican support could "snowball", later predicting a deluge of "100 or more" Republican votes.
On November 15, Trump ordered the DOJ to investigate Epstein's involvement with banks and prominent Democratic figures, including Bill Clinton, Lawrence Summers, and Reid Hoffman. On Truth Social, Trump wrote: "This is another Russia, Russia, Russia Scam, with all arrows pointing to the Democrats". Bondi subsequently assigned the investigation to U.S. attorney Jay Clayton.
On November16, Massie commented on the DOJ's new investigation ordered by Trump, saying:
The president's been saying this is a hoax. He's been saying that for months. Well, he's just now decided to investigate a hoax, if it's a hoax... I have another concern about these investigations... If they have ongoing investigations in certain areas, those documents can't be released. So, this might be a big smoke screen, these investigations, to open a bunch of them... as a last-ditch effort to prevent the release of the Epstein files.
Massie also added that he does not believe Trump himself is implicated in the files, but "instead is trying to protect a bunch of rich and powerful friends, billionaires, donors to his campaign, friends in his social circles".
Several hours later, Trump posted on Truth Social, reversing his stance, writing that "House Republicans should vote to release the Epstein files... it's time to move on from this Democrat Hoax". Representative Robert Garcia commented on Trump's reversal, arguing Trump was "panicking... he is about to lose this Epstein vote to force the Department of Justice to release the files... Trump has the power to release all the files today... instead, he wants to continue this cover-up and launch bogus new investigations to deflect and slow down our investigation." Massie also responded, commenting that Trump "got tired of me winning."
On November17, Trump said that he would sign the bill, but did not want it to "take it away from us". Massie responded to Trump on Twitter, writing: "Looking forward to attending this bill signing." That day, Johnson also stated that he might support it, if it could be improved in the Senate to better protect victims' identities. Additionally, on that day, Mark Epstein, the brother of Jeffrey Epstein, claimed there was an active coverup to "sanitize" the files by "scrubbing the files to take Republican names out." Mark Epstein claimed he had heard as such from a "pretty good source" and it was the reason for Trump's sudden shift on releasing the files.
On November18, Massie, Khanna, and Greene hosted a press conference at Capitol Hill alongside Epstein abuse survivors.