Louisiana Rep. Clay Higgins was the only House Republican to vote against the Epstein File Transparency Act.
A lawmaker voted against releasing the Epstein files.
Rep. Clay Higgins (R-Louisiana) was the only one to vote against the Epstein File Transparency Act.
WASHINGTON – On Tuesday, November 18, nearly everyone on both sides of the aisle in the U.S. House of Representatives voted in favor of passing the Epstein File Transparency Act. The bill would require the federal government to release as much information as possible about the late accused sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein.
However, one lawmaker was adamantly against it.
Rep. Clay Higgins, a former police officer, was the only vote against the bill. It was a politically unusual choice for Louisiana Republicans, who typically vote with other conservatives. But he said that was due to privacy concerns.
Protecting the personal information of Epstein’s many victims was a key issue in Epstein’s bill, even though most Republicans joined Democrats in supporting it in recent days, following President Donald Trump’s lead.
“As written, this bill exposes and harms thousands of innocent people, including witnesses, people who provided alibis, and family members,” Higgins wrote on social media after the vote. “If enacted in its current form, this kind of wholesale disclosure of criminal investigative files, to a fanatical media, would undoubtedly harm innocent people.”
The bill’s bipartisan authors, Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) and Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.), emphasized that the bill does not expose victims. The law allows the Justice Department to withhold certain information, including victims’ personal information and materials that would impede a federal investigation.
However, the Justice Department cannot redact information for reasons of “embarrassment, reputational damage, or political considerations.”
Zachary Schermele is a Congressional reporter for USA TODAY. You can email us at zschermele@usatoday.com. Follow him on X at @ZachSchermele and on Bluesky at @zachschermele.bsky.social..
