Clay Higgins, a Republican who fellow lawmakers once sought to censure due to ‘bigotry and racism’, was the lone House of Representatives member to vote against the measure
The historic Jeffrey Epstein files bill has passed with overwhelming bipartisan support from the House of Representatives – aside from a lone voter who has claimed it could impact «thousands of innocent people».
Democrats and Republicans clubbed together to pass the «Epstein Files Transparency Act» this evening. The act, which passed with the support of 427 members of the US House of Representatives, compels Donald Trump’s Justice Department to release all files relating to the disgraced paedophile financier that it has in its possession, and will now go to the Senate for a second vote before landing on the US President’s desk to be signed into law.
The vote comes after Trump – who had previously railed against efforts to release the documents – called on Republicans to pass the bill, but one member of his party went against the grain.
READ MORE: Epstein files vote: Andrew in ‘trouble’ as all files naming him could be released
The lone voter was Clay Higgins, the controversial far-right Republican representative of Louisiana’s third Congressional district, who claimed he was taking a principled stand with his lone «Nay» vote. He said in a statement posted on X, formerly Twitter, that it «abandons 250 years of justice procedure» in the US.
Mr Higgins said: «I have been a principled ‘NO’ on this bill from the beginning. What was wrong with the bill three months ago is still wrong today. It abandons 250 years of criminal justice procedure in America.
«As written, this bill reveals and injures thousands of innocent people – witnesses, people who provided alibis, family members, etc. If enacted in its current form, this type of broad reveal of criminal investigative files, released to a rabid media, will absolutely result in innocent people being hurt.
«Not by my vote. The Oversight Committee is conducting a thorough investigation that has already released well over 60,000 pages of documents from the Epstein case.»
«That effort will continue in a manner that provides all due protections for innocent Americans. If the Senate amends the bill to properly address privacy of victims and other Americans, who are named but not criminally implicated, then I will vote for that bill when it comes back to the House.»
Now that the bill has passed through the House with such a massive margin, it is unlikely to come back, with John Thune, the Senate leader, telling the press this evening that Congress would not have a chance to make changes.
Mr Thune promised to «move quickly» in the upper chamber, saying that, while House of Representatives Speaker would likely want to make changes, this was «not likely to happen. He said: «I think there’s some things he’d like to change but a 427-1 vote, it’s not likely to happen.»
