House Republicans defy Trump as Democrats force vote to subpoena Epstein files

Three GOP lawmakers joined Democrats to subpoena Justice Department records and summon Ghislaine Maxwell to testify.

The House Committee on Oversight also issued a subpoena on Wednesday for Ghislaine Maxwell (far right), a convicted sex offender and girlfriend of the late Epstein, to testify. Picture: Davidoff Studios/Getty Images

A House subcommittee on Wednesday voted to subpoena the Department of Justice for files in the sex trafficking investigation into Jeffrey Epstein after Democrats successfully goaded GOP lawmakers to defy President Donald Trump and Republican leadership to support the action.

The vote showed the intensifying push for disclosures in the Epstein investigation even as House Speaker Mike Johnson – caught between demands from Trump and clamouring from his own members for the House to act – was sending lawmakers home a day early for its August recess.

The powerful House Committee on Oversight also issued a subpoena on Wednesday for Ghislaine Maxwell, a convicted sex offender and girlfriend of the late Epstein, to testify before committee officials in August.

Meanwhile, Democrats on a subcommittee of the House Committee on Oversight made a motion for the subpoena on Wednesday afternoon. Three Republicans on the panel voted with Democrats for the subpoena, sending it through on an 8-2 vote tally.

Subcommittee chair Clay Higgins speaks to reporters about the Epstein files. Picture: Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images/AFP

The Republican subcommittee chairman, Clay Higgins of Louisiana, said work was beginning to draft the subpoena but did not give a timeline for when it would be issued.

“I've never handled a subpoena like this. This is some fascinating stuff,” said Higgins, who voted against the motion.

Democrats cheered the action as proof that their push for disclosures in the Epstein investigation was growing stronger.

The committee agreed to redact information on victims, yet Democrats successfully blocked a push by Republicans to only subpoena information that was deemed to be “credible” – language that Trump has also used when discussing what he would support releasing.

“Democrats are focused on transparency and are pushing back against the corruption against Donald Trump. What is Donald Trump hiding that he won't release the Epstein files?” said Robert Garcia, the top Democrat on the oversight committee.

Democrats push for disclosure of the Epstein files

Earlier on Wednesday, Johnson had said there was no need to vote on a separate piece of bipartisan legislation calling for the release of the Epstein files this week because the Trump administration was “already doing everything within their power to release them”.

Yet Democrats have delighted in pressing Republicans to support the release of the files.

Their efforts halted the GOP's legislative agenda for the week and turned attention to an issue that Trump has unsuccessfully implored his supporters to forget about.

President Trump: Release All the Epstein Files is projected on to the US Department of Commerce headquarters in Washington DC. Picture: Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images/AFP

“They're fleeing our work, our job and sending us back home because they don't want to vote to release these files. This is something that they ran on. This is something that they talked about: the importance of transparency, holding pedophiles accountable,” said Summer Lee, the Pennsylvania Democrat who pushed for the subpoena.

Democrats have seized on Epstein files to divide GOP

Democratic leaders are hoping to make the issue about much more than just Epstein, who died in his New York jail cell six years ago while he awaited trial on sex trafficking charges.

Ranking Member Summer Lee. Picture: Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images/AFP

“Why haven't Republicans released the Epstein files to the American people?” said House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries.

“It's reasonable to conclude that Republicans are continuing to protect the lifestyles of the rich and the shameless, even if that includes pedophiles.

“So it's all connected.”

Both parties are gearing up to take their messaging to voters on Trump’s big multitrillion-dollar tax breaks and spending cuts bill.

For Republicans, it is “beautiful” legislation that will spark economic growth; for Democrats, it is an “ugly” gift mostly to the richest Americans that undermines health care for low-income people.

Yet as furore has grown on the right over the Trump administration’s reversal on promises related to Epstein, several Democrats have seized on the opportunity to divide Republicans on the issue.

“This goes to a fundamental sense of, ‘Is our government co-opted by rich and powerful people that isn’t looking out for ordinary Americans? Or can we have a government that looks out for ordinary Americans?’” said Ro Khanna, a California Democrat who has put forward a bipartisan bill meant to force the release of the files.

Republican leaders accuse Democrats of caring about the issue purely for political gain. They point out that the Department of Justice held on to the Epstein investigation through the presidency of Democrat Joe Biden.

Trump's Justice Department has also sought the release of testimony from secret grand jury proceedings in the Epstein case, but a federal judge in Florida rejected that request on Wednesday. A similar records request is still pending in New York.

Associated Press