Trump Tries To Stay Ahead Of  Scandal, House To Vote On Khanna-Massie Bill On Epstein Files

India-West News Desk

WASHINGTON, DC – Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA) and Rep. Thomas Massie (D-KY), who have spent weeks pressuring the Justice Department to release its remaining Jeffrey Epstein-related records, are now preparing to showcase that effort publicly. According to The Hill, the two lawmakers along with Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) will headline a November 17 morning press conference on Capitol Hill alongside survivors of Epstein’s abuse.

Khanna and Massie crossed party lines to assemble a discharge petition requiring the House to vote on releasing any Epstein documents still held by the Justice Department. The petition hit the crucial 218-signature threshold last week, clearing the way for a floor vote. Both lawmakers had expected a large wave of GOP support as the vote approached, with Massie predicting “a deluge of Republicans” potentially more than a hundred, he told the media would ultimately back the bill.

President Donald Trump, reacting to his MAGA base’s anger and the tumult in Congress made an abrupt U-turn and after months of resisting it, announced that the Epstein files will be released if Congress wants it. His efforts to stop the files going public included giving directives to the DoJ to target Democrats. His efforts to stall has divided even his loyalists.

Political talking heads are already saying that his direction to GOP congressional representatives to vote for its release is in anticipation of the vote going that way anyway but so he can claim later that he had been open and he still has the power to sway the party.

Khanna stressed in an NBC interview, prior to Trump’s announcement that he “never said that these files will implicate Donald Trump,” adding, “I really don’t think that they will.”

The upcoming vote follows the release of tens of thousands of emails from the Epstein estate by the House Oversight Committee which detail Epstein’s vast web of political, media and celebrity contacts, including references to Trump, Bill Clinton and others.

Khanna and Massie’s bill is expected to reach the House floor on November 17. If it passes, the Senate would need to take it up next, and Massie has urged Senate Majority Leader John Thune to “do the right thing” and schedule a vote.