Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer (N.Y.) ambushed Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) and the rest of the Senate Republican leadership on Wednesday morning by filing an amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) to direct Attorney General Pam Bondi to make public all unclassified records, documents and communications related to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
Schumer offered his amendment to Senate Armed Services Committee Chair Roger Wicker’s (R-Miss.) substitute amendment to the annual defense authorization bill, which Thune hopes to pass before Congress leaves town for the Rosh Hashanah recess later this month.
“Just a few minutes ago, I filed an amendment that would require the attorney general to release all the Epstein files and Republicans are going to have to vote on it. We’re going to keep fighting until these files are fully released,” Schumer said in a post on X, the social media site.
Schumer’s amendment is the same bill that Reps. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) and Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) are pushing in the House to force the Justice Department to release all the Epstein files in its possession.
Schumer took advantage of Republicans not immediately filling the amendment tree to the defense authorization measure.
Thune and his leadership team were in the process of negotiating amendments when Schumer jumped in front of the line by offering his Epstein-related proposal.
“This will be viewed as a hostile act by our folks,” said a source familiar with Republicans’ reaction to the move. “We were engaged in bipartisan talks on amendments, and this could jeopardize that.”
Thune has pledged to bring regular order back to the Senate by letting rank-and-file members have more opportunity to offer and debate amendments to pending legislation.
Thune told reporters on Tuesday that he supports full “transparency” for the Epstein-related documents but he stopped short of saying whether the Senate would vote on legislation directing the Trump administration to release the Epstein files if such a measure passed the House.
“What I can tell you is, and I think this is my position and my colleagues can speak for themselves, but I believe transparency is always best and you should get as much information out there as you possibly can, in a way that obviously protects the rights of the victims,” he said.
“I’m all for transparency, disclosure and whatever makes that possible but I think the Department of Justice has already released tons of files related to this matter,” he added. “I trust them in terms of having the confidence that they’ll get as much information out there as possible in a way that protects the rights of the victims.”
“Whether or not we would take some action on it, I think is a hypothetical question,” he added.
Thune said he would entrust Republican committee chairmen that have jurisdiction over the subject to deal with Epstein-related matters if they saw fit to do so.
Republicans did not expect Democrats would force a vote on the Epstein files during the debate on the defense bill, which is a top GOP priority.
