The sole Republican who voted against releasing Epstein files
Subcommittee Chair Rep. Clay Higgins (R-LA) looks on as the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform Subcommittee on Federal Law Enforcement meets in the Rayburn House Office Building on July 23, 2025 in Washington, DC (Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images)
The House of Representatives overwhelmingly passed the Epstein Files Transparency Act, a bill compelling the Justice Department to release the Epstein files, Tuesday.
The final vote was 427-1, indicating broad support among lawmakers, but Republican Representative Clay Higgins of Louisiana, a fervent supporter of Trump, was the only member to vote against the bill's passage.
“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,” he wrote in a post on X after the vote. “It abandons 250 years of criminal justice procedure in America.”
He continued, “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.”
Rumors are already begining to circulate that Clay is on the files himself, with many people connecting him to the man identified in emails as "The Clay Brick" whos preference was in prebucenent boys.
The Epstein Files Transparency Act will now proceed to the Senate for further consideration.
