Congress is in chaos over the Jeffrey Epstein files, and the Republican Party looks like it’s eating itself from the inside. After months of stonewalling, back-room tussles, and desperate spins, the push to release the damning investigative documents tied to Epstein has turned into one of the ugliest political freak-outs of the Trump era.
At the heart of it: the Epstein Files Transparency Act, a law passed with near-unanimous support — 427–1 in the House and unanimous consent in the Senate — that forces the Justice Department to publish all unclassified files related to Epstein within 30 days of signing. President Donald Trump signed it in November after Congress shoved it across his desk.
As of now, however, the DOJ has released barely 1% of the documents, totaling a fraction of the more than 2 million pages lawmakers say exist. That’s not transparency — it’s a bureaucratic stonewall.
Even more explosive is the political split this has exposed within the GOP. House Speaker Mike Johnson and many party leaders tried to throttle early efforts to force the release, arguing procedural or privacy concerns. At the same time, a chunk of Republicans — led by Rep. Thomas Massie — joined with Democrats to push the discharge petition that *forced* the files bill to a vote.
Some Republicans openly questioned Trump’s motives, wondering whether his administration’s slow rollout is designed to protect allies or donors caught up in the files. In televised interviews, Massie suggested Trump’s recent claims about investigating Democrats with ties to Epstein might be a “smokescreen” to delay the release of documents the law requires.
Meanwhile, the lone GOP lawmaker who voted against the Transparency Act, Clay Higgins (R-LA), defended his stance, claiming the bill “abandons 250 years of criminal justice procedure” by broadly dumping investigative files on the public without sufficient privacy safeguards.
Republicans aren’t just divided — they’re fighting on multiple fronts. Some are furious that Trump initially called efforts to release the files a “Democrat hoax” before reversing course and urging House Republicans to vote for disclosure. Others see this whole circus as a self-inflicted disaster that undermines GOP claims about transparency and accountability.
If Republicans wanted to look unified or trustworthy, they failed. And let’s not forget the larger spectacle: these files aren’t just bureaucratic PDFs locked in a database. They contain decades of evidence, logs, and emails tied to one of the most notorious sex trafficking networks in recent history — documents that could implicate powerful figures and expose failures by multiple institutions.
