Minnesota congressional Republicans vote to release Epstein files

Minnesota’s Republican House members joined their colleagues in overwhelmingly approving a petition to release government files on deceased sexual predator Jeffrey Epstein.

The vote on Tuesday closes the chapter on months of drama in the House over the release of the files, which Republican leadership had delayed for months. President Donald Trump shifted his stance this week and gave Republicans permission to vote for the petition, saying he would sign it if it reached his desk.

“Jeffrey Epstein’s victims have experienced untold physical and emotional damage at the hands of powerful people. It’s these women, more than anyone, who deserve to know the truth,” Republican Rep. Brad Finstad said in a statement shortly after the vote. “I applaud the work the House Oversight Committee has done to release thousands of pages of material related to this investigation already.”

The state’s four Democrats in the House also voted in favor of releasing the files after signing the petition early on.

Republican Majority Leader John Thune told reporters he anticipates it will arrive in the Senate by Wednesday morning. No senators objected to Minority Leader Chuck Schumer’s request to move the bill forward unanimously without debate, meaning it will head to Trump’s desk for approval once it reaches the Senate. Ahead of Schumer’s move, both Sens. Amy Klobuchar and Tina Smith had planned to support the measure in the upper chamber.

Republican Rep. Tom Emmer, the House majority whip, said he ultimately chose to support the measure to let the “facts speak for themselves.” Before Trump changed his position, Emmer had said that he wouldn’t vote on the measure or push for votes either for or against the petition as whip.

“House Republicans have been consistent with our calls for transparency and accountability regarding Epstein. That is why I voted in favor of the Epstein Files Transparency Act this afternoon,” said Emmer, accusing Democrats of “using these victims as political leverage.”

Unlike the rest of the state’s GOP House members, Rep. Michelle Fischbach had to reject releasing the files multiple times from her position on the House Rules Committee.

Her votes angered some in the right-wing activist base that’s dominated Republican politics in her district, including the conservative group Action 4 Liberty (A4L), which warned that the Epstein issue could be “the straw that breaks the camel’s back” for conservatives. Fischbach avoided questions on the vote Tuesday from a Minnesota Star Tribune reporter.

She said in a statement later in the evening that her vote was “consistent with my previous support for transparency on the issue,” citing legislation she co-sponsored that would have released the Epstein files.

Rep. Pete Stauber told the Star Tribune on Tuesday he voted in favor of the petition because he wanted to see “transparency and accountability.”

“The Oversight Committee investigation, I also supported. They have brought over 60,000 pages out to the public,” Stauber said of the committee’s recent release of thousands of documents from the Epstein estate.

“None of us want to go on record and in any way be accused of not being for maximum transparency,” he said.

Rep. Ilhan Omar said she is optimistic Trump would sign the measure “because he has no other choice.”

“It has been really devastating to watch the Republicans turn into the pedophile protection party,” Omar said in a brief interview Tuesday on Capitol Hill.

Rep. Betty McCollum said Trump has the power to make the Epstein files public right away.