Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) says there are no plans for the upper chamber to vote on legislation to direct the Department of Justice to release all files related to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, despite a fervent push in the House to do just that.
Thune told reporters Thursday that he’s not aware of any Senate resolution that would direct the Trump administration to release Epstein-related files, which Attorney General Pam Bondi says are being held back to protect victims and innocent third parties.
“Has anyone even filed a piece of legislation like that?” Thune said. “I’m sure the Democrats are interested in it.”
Thune said “the Justice Department is releasing a lot of that information and I’ve encouraged them to be as transparent as possible.”
“There’s a pile of records already out there on that. There are thousands of pages, I think, that have already been released,” he added.
The House Oversight Committee on Tuesday released tens of thousands of pages of Epstein files after receiving the documents from the Justice Department after issuing subpoena. But the documents released this week didn’t reveal much new information.
Rep. Robert Garcia (D-Calif.), the ranking member on the House Oversight Committee, complained that most of the 33,000 documents released were already public information.
He said that 97 percent of the material was already public and didn’t include “any client list or anything that improves transparency or justice for victims.”
Reps. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) and Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) are circulating a discharge petition in the House to force a vote on legislation to direct the Justice Department to release all files it possesses related to Epstein and the case against him.
The petition needs 218 signatures to succeed but hasn’t met that threshold yet.
Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) urged Republican lawmakers in a closed-door meeting Wednesday not to sign the petition.
