Only Lawmaker Against Epstein Files Release Defends Decision: 'Not By My Vote'

By Chris Spiker From Daily Voice

Congress almost unanimously passed a bill to force the release of all unclassified files tied to notorious pedophile Jeffrey Epstein, with just one House lawmaker in opposition.

Rep. Clay Higgins was the only member in the House to vote against the Epstein Files Transparency Act on Tuesday, Nov. 18. The Senate passed the bill a few hours later through unanimous consent.

The bill orders the Justice Department to publish thousands of records from the disgraced New York financier's case within 30 days. The materials include flight logs, internal DOJ memos, immunity agreements, and other files related to Epstein’s detention and death.

Higgins, a Louisiana Republican, said he has been "a principled NO" since the bill was first written.

"It abandons 250 years of criminal justice procedure in America," he wrote in a Facebook post. "As written, this bill reveals and injures thousands of innocent people – witnesses, people who provided alibis, family members, etc. If enacted in its current form, this type of broad reveal of criminal investigative files, released to a rabid media, will absolutely result in innocent people being hurt. Not by my vote."

Rep. Clay Higgins (R-LA) and President Donald Trump at the White House.

Facebook - Congressman Clay Higgins

The bill awaits the signature of President Donald Trump, who has been reluctant to release files in the case and has falsely labelled it a "Democrat hoax" despite campaigning on full transparency about Epstein, a convicted child sex offender who died in 2019. Trump has also faced widespread criticism over his longstanding friendship with Epstein from the late 1980s through the mid-2000s.

Trump shifted his stance on the bill once it became clear Republicans would overwhelmingly pass it. He has criticized many reporters for asking him questions about the case, even calling a female Bloomberg correspondent "piggy" aboard Air Force One when she asked why he was pushing back on releasing the files.

After the House cleared the bill 427-1, Trump downplayed the legislation on his social media platform Truth Social.

"I don't care when the Senate passes the House Bill, whether tonight, or at some other time in the near future," he posted. "I just don't want Republicans to take their eyes off all of the Victories that we've had."

The House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform has already released more than 20,000 emails from Epstein's estate, revealing years of correspondence with high-profile figures. Larry Summers, a former Treasury Secretary and Harvard University president, resigned from OpenAI's board after his controversial emails with Epstein became public. 

Higgins, who chairs the subcommittee on federal law enforcement, said he supports the documents that have already been made public.

"The Oversight Committee is conducting a thorough investigation that has already released well over 60,000 pages of documents from the Epstein case," Higgins wrote. "That effort will continue in a manner that provides all due protections for innocent Americans."

Higgins also said that he believed Trump didn’t have a “good relationship” with Epstein and that he wasn't trying to kill the bill.

“It’s not the White House and the president, it’s people that stand for longstanding criminal justice procedures that this bill does not observe," he told CNN.

In his biography, Higgins claimed to be "widely regarded as one of the most conservative members of Congress." He previously stirred up controversies by making racist posts about Trump and Vice President JD Vance's false claims of Haitian immigrants eating cats and dogs, pushing debunked conspiracy theories about the Jan. 6 insurrection, and supporting Trump's efforts to overturn the 2020 Presidential election results.

Higgins, 64, was first elected to the House in 2016.