House Orders Release of Jeffrey Epstein Records — Trump, Lawmakers and Survivors Respond

The U.S. House of Representatives voted to compel the Department of Justice to release records related to the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, prompting sharp reactions from President Donald Trump, lawmakers across the political spectrum and several of Epstein's accusers. The debate mixed political accusations with emotional appeals from survivors seeking transparency and accountability.

Key reactions from the Capitol

U.S. President Donald Trump

"I have nothing to do with Jeffrey Epstein. I threw him out of my club many years ago because I thought he was a sick pervert."

Jena-Lisa Jones, who says Epstein sexually abused her when she was 14

"Please stop making this political. It is not about you, President Trump. I voted for you, but your behavior on this issue has been a national embarrassment."

Representative Thomas Massie (R-Ky.)

"The DOJ is protecting pedophiles and sex traffickers. The time for that to stop is now. How will we know if this bill has been successful? We will know when there are men, rich men, in handcuffs, being perp-walked to the jail. And until then, this is still a cover-up."

Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.)

"This was a fight that we should have never had to wage. It should have been the easiest thing for every single member of Congress, the Speaker of the House and the President of the United States to release all the information, every single file, on behalf of these American women."

Wendy Davis, one of Epstein's accusers

"None of us here signed up for this political warfare. We never asked to be dragged into battles between people who never protected us in the first place. We are exhausted from surviving the trauma and then surviving the politics that swirl around it."

"When survivors travel to speak, to advocate, to stand for the truth, we do it with our own money from our own pockets, carrying our own fear, shaking in our own bodies. There is no team. There is no paycheck. It's just us hoping our voices make a difference. Standing on the right side of history is not comfortable — it never has been."

Representative Ro Khanna (D-Calif.)

"These rich, greedy men abused American values. They abused what's sacred about this country, and it is time that they face a reckoning. The Epstein class is going to go, and the reason is that people across the political spectrum are finally waking up against this rotten system."

Haley Robson, an accuser, outside the Capitol

"I want everybody to take a look. I know everybody sees us today as grown adults, but we are fighting for the children that were abandoned and left behind in the reckoning. This is who you're fighting for. This is who Congress must fight for."

The vote to force the DOJ to release Epstein-related records drew bipartisan criticism of past institutional failures and emotional testimony from survivors urging lawmakers to treat the files as part of a broader effort to hold powerful abusers and those who protected them to account.

Compiled by Jonathan Allen, Nolan McCaskill and David Morgan; Edited by Lisa Shumaker.