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House Subcommittee Demands the Epstein Files! [1]

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Date: 2025-07-23

Mike Johnson didn’t move quite fast enough to stop this one: House Subcommittee Votes To Subpoena Justice Department For Epstein Files.

A House subcommittee on Wednesday voted to subpoena the Department of Justice for files in the sex trafficking investigation into Jeffrey Epstein after Democrats successfully goaded GOP lawmakers to defy Trump and Republican leadership to support the action. Democrats on a subcommittee of the powerful House Committee on Oversight made a motion for the subpoena Wednesday afternoon, just hours before the House was scheduled to end its July work session and depart Washington for a monthlong break.

Since the GOP has a majority on all committees, the Democrats couldn’t have done this on their own.

Three Republicans on the panel voted with Democrats for the subpoena, sending it through on an 8-2 vote tally.

This is a BFD — Johnson forced the House to retire early so Republicans wouldn’t have to vote on a resolution (non-binding, no less!) calling for the release of the files. But the subcommittee managed to vote for a subpoena just before the recess went into effect. That means enough Republicans were willing to brave the Wrath of Trump™ and found an end run around Johnson’s attempt to stonewall the call.

This is only the beginning, of course. Trump has a history of ignoring little inconveniences like Congressional demands. But the fact that his tamed and cowed Congress was willing to defy him even this little shows some of the staying power and damage power of the Epstein Files. And it is more significant than the earlier subpoena for Ghislane Maxwell:

[T]hose lawmakers who want Congress to take a stronger role in the Epstein files have cautioned that Maxwell, who is serving a prison sentence for helping Epstein sexually abuse underage girls, may be an unreliable witness. “It’s a good idea, but it’s not enough. It’s not nearly enough,” said Rep. Thomas Massie, a Kentucky Republican who has pushed the bipartisan bill to pry the records from the Justice Department.

This isn’t going away just because the House is in recess. James Comer, chair of the Oversight Committee, will have to sign it before it becomes effective. It’s not clear from the reporting whether he has any choice in the matter, but expect Trump to lean on (bellow at) him anyway,

CNN has the names of the three Republicans:

GOP Reps. Nancy Mace, Scott Perry and Brian Jack joined with the subpanel’s four Democrats and the full committee’s ranking member Robert Garcia to approve the subpoena in a defiant move of House GOP leadership that wanted to leave the handling of the Epstein files to the Trump administration.

[1535 PDT] Some further info is coming to light. From Politico. The subcommittee is the The House Oversight Subcommittee on Federal Law Enforcement, and

A spokesperson for House Oversight Chair James Comer (R-Ky.) said the chamber’s rules demand that the subpoena now be issued.

The measure was introduced at the last minute by Summer Lee (D-PA), the ranking subcommittee member. And while the Republicans (3 out of 5) did vote for it, they added a few things:

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[1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2025/7/23/2334880/-House-Subcommittee-Demands-the-Epstein-Files?pm_campaign=front_page&pm_source=trending&pm_medium=web

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