A House panel voted to subpoena information from the Justice Department related to the release of the Jeffrey Epstein files — the first time a congressional panel has voted affirmatively on the matter despite multiple attempts from members of both parties over the past few weeks to force the issue.
The House Oversight Subcommittee on Federal Law Enforcement voted Wednesday in favor of a motion from Rep. Summer Lee, a Pennsylvania Democrat, on Wednesday, after lawmakers had finished their last round of floor votes before the August recess.
Republican Reps. Andy Biggs of Arizona and Clay Higgins of Louisiana voted against the measure, and the implications of the vote are not immediately clear. House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chair James Comer must issue the subpoena, and the Kentucky Republican was not present for the vote. A spokesperson for Comer did not immediately return a request for comment.
Lee, the top Democrat on the subcommittee, made the request for the vote early on in an unrelated hearing on the topic of unaccompanied undocumented children at the border. Higgins, the subcommittee chair, postponed the vote until the end of the hearing, and appeared to take GOP members of the panel by surprise.
“Numerous members of this committee and this subcommittee have called for answers and transparency,” said Lee, the top Democrat on the subcommittee. “So let’s do something about it.”
Democrats have increasingly pushed their GOP colleague to act on calls from the MAGA base to release additional information about Epstein, the late-disgraced financier and convicted sex offender, and the Justice Department’s handling of the case.
In at least one other instance, Comer has agreed to the demands for transparency. In a separate subcommittee hearing Tuesday, a GOP-led vote to compel the House Oversight Committee to subpoena Epstein associate Ghislaine Maxwell was successful. Comer agreed and vowed his team would visit Maxwell in prison after they negotiate details with her lawyers.
