Reps. Thomas Massie and Ro Khanna announced Thursday that they have amassed enough signatures to bring a vote on a second bill to force the release of files related to the disgraced financier and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
Four Republicans, including Massie, of Kentucky, Reps. Ralph Norman and Nancy Mace, both of South Carolina, and Brian Fitzpatrick of Pennsylvania, have agreed to sign on to a discharge petition for a measure dubbed the Epstein Files Transparency Act II — joining every Democrat, Massie said in a social media post.
The chamber, however, won’t be able to vote on the bill until after November’s midterm elections. House Speaker Mike Johnson and Republican leadership cut the legislative session short by one day this week, just days after Massie proposed a privileged resolution to impeach Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth. Under House rules, the measure would have come up for a vote by Thursday had the House’s workweek not been cut short.
“Thomas Massie and I have defied history a second time, securing commitments for 218 signatures on Epstein 2.0,” Khanna, a California Democrat, wrote on X. “Two Democrats were sick and will sign the day Johnson calls us back in.”
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In July, Massie and Khanna introduced the Epstein Files Transparency Act II — named after another bill passed last year which mandated the release of millions of documents pertaining to the Epstein case. The new bill gives victims, lawmakers and states the power to sue the Justice Department for unlawfully concealing Epstein-related files.
That bill has since stalled in committee, but a discharge petition with 218 signatures will allow Massie and Khanna to bring it directly to the floor for a vote without the approval of House leadership.
That same number of votes — a simple majority — is all that’s needed to send the bill to the Senate.
“We will not rest until the Epstein abusers are held accountable and there is justice,” Khanna said.
The House passed the first Epstein Files Transparency Act in a stunning, near-unanimous November vote, following months of resistance from Republicans and President Donald Trump.
The DOJ has since produced millions of documents, emails and financial records related to the Epstein case, though the release was met with widespread accusations of a government cover-up, concerns about botched redactions and political fights over omitted records. Massie and Khanna maintain the department has “grossly failed” to meet legal requirements.
Attorney General Todd Blanche and the Justice Department are also the targets of a lawsuit filed by Katie Phang, a lawyer and political commentator, to force the release of additional files related to Epstein. On Wednesday, a federal judge warned Blanche that he could be held in contempt if he failed to comply with court orders to produce unreleased FBI interview notes and foreign-language materials that were omitted from the department’s initial release.
A spokesperson for the DOJ brushed off the warning in a Thursday statement to The Washington Sun, saying that department leadership “is not ‘concerned’ about this case, and our filings will speak for themselves.”
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