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The U.S. Senate has unanimously voted in favor of a bill backed by the House, which mandates the Justice Department to disclose its files related to the Epstein case. This decision will take effect as soon as the bill is received from the House.
Since the Senate approved the bill through unanimous consent, no additional action is required, and it will be sent directly to President Donald Trump for signing as soon as it reaches the Senate.
The exact timing of when the Senate will receive the legislation remains uncertain.
Typically, transferring legislation between chambers can take some time—ranging from a few hours to longer.
Additionally, House Speaker Mike Johnson has the option to delay sending the bill until the first week of December if he chooses, aligning with when the House’s discharge petition would become active.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer made the request on the floor, and since no senator objected, it was passed without the Senate needing to take a roll call vote.
“The Senate has now passed the Epstein bill — as soon as it comes over from the House,” Schumer announced.
The speed with which the bill moved through both chambers of Congress today marked a stark reversal from recent months when Trump and GOP leaders worked furiously to quash it.
But Trump ultimately decided to allow his party to back the measure as pressure mounted within the GOP.
Trump previously said he would sign the measure if it reached his desk.
The president said he would sign the bill if Congress passed it, after months of calling the issue a “Democratic hoax”.
Sky Roberts, the brother of prominent Epstein victim Virginia Giuffre, said Epstein and Maxwell trafficked her to “a network of the rich and powerful princes, prime ministers, politicians, financiers and lawyers” who “committed unspeakable acts against her”.
“My sister is not a political tool for you to use. These survivors are not political tools for you to use. These are real stories, real trauma,” he said, clearly emotional.
“We will not let Virginia’s fight be in vain together. We will not let the predators win together.”
Long-time Trump supporter Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene stood with some of the abuse survivors outside the Capitol on Tuesday morning (early Wednesday AEDT).
“These women have fought the most horrific fight that no woman should have to fight, and they did it by banding together and never giving up,” she said.
“And that’s what we did by fighting so hard against the most powerful people in the world, even the President of the United States.
“In order to make this vote happen today, I was called a traitor by a man that I fought for five, no, actually, six years for, and I gave him my loyalty for free.”
A separate investigation conducted by the House Oversight Committee has released thousands of pages of emails and other documents from Epstein’s estate, showing his connections to global leaders, Wall Street powerbrokers, influential political figures and Trump himself.
Trump has said he cut ties with Epstein years ago, but tried for months to move past the demands for disclosure.
On Monday, he told reporters that Epstein was connected to more Democrats and that he didn’t want the Epstein files to “detract from the great success of the Republican Party”.
Still, many in the Republican base have continued to demand the release of the files.