--- title: How the Fight Over the Epstein Files Bill Will Shake Out description: Thomas Massie's measure is likely to reach the needed 218 signatures later this month. But the bill will soon hit two more big obstacles. canonical: https://time.com/7315190/jeffrey-epstein-files-trump-congress/ author: Philip Elliott article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2025-09-08T11:00:00.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-10-19T08:10:50.246Z article:section: Politics og:title: How the Fight Over the Epstein Files Bill Will Shake Out og:description: It’s impossible to ignore how much effort GOP leaders have spent working to slow all this down og:url: https://time.com/7315190/jeffrey-epstein-files-trump-congress/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt91c6f7aeaa808616/6998c9957323afdc0e2bcd21/GettyImages-2226565237.jpg?branch=production&width=1024&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1024 og:image:height: 576 og:image:alt: President Trump Hosts A Reception For GOP Members Of Congress og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: How the Fight Over the Epstein Files Bill Will Shake Out twitter:description: It’s impossible to ignore how much effort GOP leaders have spent working to slow all this down twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt91c6f7aeaa808616/6998c9957323afdc0e2bcd21/GettyImages-2226565237.jpg?branch=production&width=1024&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # How the Fight Over the Epstein Disclosure Bill Will Likely Shake Out > Sponsored content. 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It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, twice a week. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-dcbrief-2026q3/newsletters?i=767d0c78-4a6c-43d7-b966-a27760dd636e&cr=time-nl-dcbrief-2026q3-v1) ## Video: White House Insists Trump Did Not Write Epstein Birthday Letter, Stops Short of Saying Documents Are Fake [Watch (HLS stream): White House Insists Trump Did Not Write Epstein Birthday Letter, Stops Short of Saying Documents Are Fake](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/NCsjiZAJ.m3u8) (3:22)  _Published 2025-09-09. Democrats on the House Oversight Committee have released a trove of letters from a birthday book made for the 50th birthday of late sex offender and financier Jeffrey Epstein in 2003. The White House continued to insist Tuesday that Democrats are pushing a "hoax" with the Epstein inquiries._  by [Philip Elliott](https://time.com/author/philip-elliott/)  ## Philip Elliott Senior Correspondent Sep 8, 2025 11:00 AM UTC Democrats on the House Oversight Committee have released a trove of letters from a birthday book made for the 50th birthday of late sex offender and financier Jeffrey Epstein in 2003\. The White House continued to insist Tuesday that Democrats are pushing a "hoax" with the Epstein inquiries.  by [Philip Elliott](https://time.com/author/philip-elliott/)  ## Philip Elliott Senior Correspondent Sep 8, 2025 11:00 AM UTC _This article is part of The D.C. Brief, TIME’s politics newsletter. Sign up_ [_here_](https://cloud.newsletters.time.com/signup?nln=dc-brief&source=dc%5Fonsite) _to get stories like this sent to your inbox._ So far, Speaker [Mike Johnson](https://time.com/7306839/speaker-mike-johnson-interview/) has proven remarkably adept at keeping his raucous tribe of rebels from throwing the House into chaos, a skill that last week once again thwarted efforts by a group of Republican firebrands to undermine the will of President Donald Trump. But the Speaker’s talent of necessity may find a breaking point as soon as the end of this month. Last Tuesday, Rep. Tom Massie of Kentucky introduced a measure that would force the full House to vote on a bill requiring the Department of Justice to release all it [knows](https://time.com/7302426/jeffrey-epstein-files-trump-takeaways/) related to disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein and those who have accused him of sexual abuse. A day later, Epstein’s alleged victims [stood on the steps of the Capitol](https://time.com/7314260/epstein-files-congress-victims-release/) to draw more attention to Massie’s discharge petition. It worked. The rally was the talk of Washington, as woman after woman spoke graphically about where their interactions with Epstein led, upping the ante on the House to move. “I ask you, President Trump and members of Congress: why do we continue to cover up sexual abuse and assault? Who are we covering for?” accuser Chauntae Davies said. “Let the public know the truth. We cannot heal without justice. We cannot protect the future if we refuse to confront the past.” Massie’s petition needs 218 signatures to force a vote. So far, only four Republicans—Massie, along with Reps. Lauren Boebert of Colorado, Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia, and Nancy Mace of South Carolina—have joined the coalition. It is widely assumed all 212 Democrats will join, putting the total at 216—just two short. There are four vacancies in the House and three are all-but-certain to break in Democrats’ favor. If Democrats can hold the late Rep. [Gerry Connolly](https://time.com/7287510/gerry-connolly-dies-federal-workers-advocacy/)’s district in Virginia and the late Rep. Raúl Grijalva’s district in Arizona, that’s the ballgame. Both special elections are this month. A third reliably Blue district, held until recently by the late Rep. [Sylvester Turner](https://www.texastribune.org/2025/03/26/greg-abbott-sylverster-turner-democrat-special-election/) of Texas, is up for a vote in November. Massie has earned a reputation as a House malcontent. Two years ago, he stood [alone](https://time.com/6178902/thomas-massie-anti-semitism-libertarian/) in opposing a resolution condemning anti-Semitism. In January, he was the only Republican to vote against [retaining](https://time.com/7204593/mike-johnson-speaker-house-vote/) Johnson as Speaker. Discharge petitions exist as long as its sponsor keeps it on the docket, meaning this may end up being a test of wills between Massie and a Speaker he did not vote for. While the release-the-files brigade may have the [momentum](https://time.com/7302426/jeffrey-epstein-files-trump-takeaways/), this remains Trump’s Washington, and the paths to blocking a bill he doesn’t support are vast. Even if the measure advances out of the House, the Senate remains a massive roadblock, one where Majority Leader John Thune holds great sway. Most bills still require 60 votes to creep forward, and there are no signs of that level of Senate support for so clearly defying Trump. And, of course, there’s no way Trump would bend and sign Massie’s bill into law, meaning this whole thing is a legislative folly. Yet that the measure remains a live ball is a sign that Trumpism is facing a fraught moment. From the campaign trail to the West Wing, Trump fed the churn of innuendo that a global cabal was behind an Epstein-orchestrated sex ring. Once he was back in power, Trump [lost control ](https://time.com/7302426/jeffrey-epstein-files-trump-takeaways/)of the narrative, and his every effort to tamp it down has had the opposite effect. There’s just too much sizzle here: playboy billionaires, sex, and defenseless kids. Earlier this summer, Johnson [sent](https://www.cbsnews.com/news/johnson-house-recess-epstein-files-vote/) his troops home early for recess to dodge a dicey vote on an Epstein measure, buying him time he had hoped would let this die down. The boil proved durable. Last week, Johnson pushed forward a token measure to instruct the House oversight panel to keep up its work on its Epstein investigation. It was essentially a paper-over, but it worked for now. (On Friday, Johnson claimed Trump was an [FBI informant](https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2025/09/07/trump-epstein-johnson-fbi/) in the Epstein case, before walking that back.) It’s impossible to ignore how much effort GOP leaders have spent working to slow all this down. It’s even more striking when one considers what else is on the chamber’s agenda—don’t forget, the government runs out of money at the end of the month. For the moment, Trump seems to have gotten his way and Johnson cleared the deck. The brief spasm, though, betrays an unease in the incredibly slim majority Johnson controls and the volatility in his base. And there’s no way to know if this bill is dead or a zombie. Fanatics have been known to reanimate causes of all stripes. But in a chamber where so much revenge can be meted out by a Speaker, being the member to push something over to the edge can be career-ending. Two initial votes against Johnson’s Speakership flipped under intense lobbying from the White House. Massie did not cave and [lost](https://www.foxnews.com/politics/massie-removed-from-powerful-house-committee-after-vote-against-johnson) his gig on the powerful Rules Committee, although he cast it as a voluntary exit. Johnson has made clear he wants none of this on his watch. Trump has cast this rebellion as unacceptable. If Johnson were to let this fester much longer, Trump might well have his hide. _Make sense of what matters in Washington._ [_Sign up for the D.C. Brief newsletter_](https://cloud.newsletters.time.com/signup?nln=dc-brief&source=dc%5Fonsite)_._ ## Transcript The Epstein files are back in the news, because a lot of Americans feel that those that Jeffrey Epstein's victims never got justice. As the president care about these victims, do you think he can? Does he want to deliver more justice for them? And is he willing to meet with them? The president cares about victims of all crimes. And that's why Republicans in the Trump Department of Justice have done more in terms of transparency when it comes to the Epstein case than any prior administration. And why are the Democrats all of a sudden caring about this? It's because they are desperately trying to concoct a hoax to smear the president of the United States. With the white House support. A professional handwriting expert review of the document released yesterday to prove that it's not the president's signature. Sure, we would support that. And in fact, I have already seen many forensic analysts of signatures coming out. I believe it was the Daily Signal that published a piece with three separate signature analysts who said that this absolutely was not the president's authentic signature. And we have maintained that position all along. The president did not write this letter. He did not sign this letter. And that's why the president's external legal team is aggressively pursuing litigation against the Wall Street Journal. And they will continue to. You know, Mike Johnson came out and said that the president was an FBI informant. Do you know what he meant by that? If it's not true. I can affirm that is not true. I think the speaker was referring to the fact that President Trump kicked Jeffrey Epstein out of his Mar a Lago property, for reasons the president has already discussed. Just I want to follow up on something you said. You said Epstein documents are a hoax that Democrats are perpetrating against the president. You said he didn't sign that check, that he didn't sign the the birthday card that he allegedly signed. So what is the theory since these documents came from the Epstein estate? Who is who is, I guess, in your view, faking these documents? I did not say the documents are hoax. I said the entire narrative surrounding Jeffrey Epstein right now that is absorbing many of the liberal cable channels on on television is a hoax that is being perpetuated by opportunistic Democrats like Ro Khanna and the others whom you saw on that press conference outside of Capitol Hill who are trying to push this hoax against the president of the United States. What exactly is the hoax? I'm just trying to understand what's fake. What's fake is not the document. The hoax is the Democrats pretending to care about victims of crime when they do not care about victims of crime, when they have done nothing to solve crimes, when they have done nothing to lock up child pedophiles and child rapists across the country, and when they are now using victims as political props to try and again smear the president of the United States and drag on this bad story about him, it is a distraction. The Democrats view this story as nothing more than an attempt to distract from the accomplishments and the achievements of this administration, and that is what we mean when we call it a hoax. He didn't sign these. If you said he didn't sign the birthday card, he didn't do this. He also didn't do the check. Those were in documents from the estate. So what is the working theory as to why he's in them? The president has one of the most famous signatures in the world, and he has for many, many years. You know that, Maggie. You've covered him for a long time. Long before he assumed this office, when he was a businessman in New York. The president did not write that letter. He did not sign those documents. He maintains that position. And that position will be argued in court by his lawyers. The president is very confident he is going to win this case. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/7315190/jeffrey-epstein-files-trump-congress/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/7315190/jeffrey-epstein-files-trump-congress/"},"headline":"How the Fight Over the Epstein Disclosure Bill Will Likely Shake Out","datePublished":"2025-09-08T11:00:00.000Z","dateModified":"2026-10-19T08:10:50.246Z","description":"Even if the measure advances out of the House, the Senate remains a massive roadblock","url":"https://time.com/7315190/jeffrey-epstein-files-trump-congress/","keywords":["The D.C. 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