When lawmakers returned to Capitol Hill in early September 2025, the issue that dominated the corridors wasn’t a new budget or foreign policy crisis, but a familiar and deeply controversial topic: the Jeffrey Epstein files. Despite Congress not being in session during August, the Epstein controversy smoldered throughout the summer, refusing to fade into the background. Instead, it erupted into the first order of business as the House reconvened, with bipartisan calls for transparency clashing against high-profile resistance from the top echelons of government.
On September 1, 2025, Rep. Debbie Dingell (D-Mich.) summed up the mounting public and institutional pressure: “I think that when we return, there’ll be enormous pressure again for the Epstein files to be made public.” Dingell, who has long advocated for survivors of sexual assault, voiced the fear and hope of many victims. “Many of them are afraid,” she told CNN’s Audie Cornish, “but if people hear their stories in the way that I think they are likely to, because they wouldn’t be going on the Capitol steps, they’re very real stories, and I think it will touch the hearts of many Americans. And Americans are going to continue to say, ‘Release those files.’”
The bipartisan push for disclosure is being spearheaded by Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) and Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.), who have introduced a bill to force a vote requiring the Department of Justice to release all documents related to Epstein. Their efforts culminated in a joint press conference outside the U.S. Capitol on September 3, 2025, joined by survivors of Epstein and his longtime associate, Ghislaine Maxwell. According to NBC’s “Meet the Press,” Khanna described the event as “explosive,” noting that “many” of the victims speaking out had never done so publicly before. The press conference drew a crowd so large that U.S. Capitol Police had to restrict access, a testament to the issue’s resonance and the public’s hunger for answers.
Among those sharing their harrowing experiences were Haley Robson and Chauntae Davies. Robson recounted, “When I got into the massage room, Jeffrey Epstein undressed and asked me to do things to him, my eyes welled up with tears. And I have never been more scared in my life.” Davies added, “I was even taken on a trip to Africa with former President Bill Clinton and other notable figures. In those moments, I realized how powerless I was.” Their testimonies underscored the trauma endured by survivors and the stakes of the ongoing fight for transparency.
The political maneuvering around the files has been nothing short of labyrinthine. Before the summer recess, the Epstein controversy had already paralyzed much of Congress, with House Republicans adjourning early to avoid confronting the issue. When lawmakers returned, House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) and other GOP leaders quickly prepared a resolution to formalize the House Oversight Committee’s investigation—an attempt, critics say, to address the controversy without a direct vote that might anger President Donald Trump or alienate constituents. The Oversight Committee released approximately 33,000 pages of Epstein-related documents, though much of the text had already been made public. New video footage, known as the “missing minute,” filled in gaps from the night Epstein died in his New York jail cell in 2019—a death the DOJ and FBI have officially ruled a suicide.
Yet, for many lawmakers and survivors, the release of redacted documents wasn’t nearly enough. Massie accused the committee of redacting information “to protect the reputations of people,” not just the privacy of victims. He and Khanna launched a discharge petition—a rarely successful parliamentary maneuver that, if it garners 218 signatures, could force a direct vote on their bill to release the files. This bold move has rattled House leadership, who fear the political fallout of a public roll call on such a charged topic.
President Trump, meanwhile, has dismissed the push for disclosure as a partisan attack. On September 5, 2025, he called the effort “a Democrat hoax that never ends,” adding, “I think it’s enough because I think we should talk about the greatness of our country and the success that we’re having…not the Epstein hoax.” According to CNN, Trump’s remarks reflect his longstanding claim that Democrats are weaponizing the issue to undermine his presidency. Yet Trump’s critics point out that he previously campaigned on promises of transparency regarding the Epstein files, leading to accusations of political backtracking.
House Speaker Mike Johnson has sought to clarify Trump’s position, telling reporters, “What Trump is referring to is the hoax that the Democrats are using to try to attack him. It’s been misrepresented. He’s not saying that what Epstein did is a hoax. It’s a terrible, unspeakable evil; he believes that himself. When he first heard the rumor, he kicked him out of Mar-a-Lago.” Johnson even claimed, for the first time publicly, that Trump had acted as an FBI informant to help “take this stuff down,” though the White House has not commented on this assertion.
The political crossfire has left House Republicans in a bind. Johnson’s resolution, buried within an unrelated measure, gives members plausible deniability—they can claim to have supported transparency without having to cross the president or inflame their base. Massie, unconvinced, called the move “political cover” and suggested that Johnson is “wrestling with [whether] he’s going to have to choose between supporting Donald Trump’s new position that the files shouldn’t be released, or finding justice for these victims and survivors.”
The controversy has drawn in other high-profile figures as well. At the press conference, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) threatened to publicly name those linked to Epstein, declaring, “I’m not afraid to name names. So if they want to give me a list, I will walk into that Capitol on the House floor, and I’ll say every damn name that abused these women.” The show of bipartisan unity, with progressive Khanna and conservative Greene standing together, highlighted the rare cross-aisle consensus on the need for answers—though their motivations and rhetoric often diverged sharply.
Meanwhile, the survivors themselves are considering taking matters into their own hands. According to Fox News, some victims have said they’ll compile and release their own list of individuals linked to Epstein if Congress fails to act. “Stay tuned,” one survivor warned, signaling that the pressure for transparency is unlikely to subside.
As the House continues to wrestle with the issue, the Epstein files saga threatens to overshadow routine legislative business and deepen partisan divides. The question now is whether the political will exists to bring the full truth to light—or whether the controversy will remain mired in redactions, procedural maneuvers, and bitter recriminations.
For the survivors who stood on the Capitol steps, the stakes are clear. Their stories, once hidden in fear and shame, are now reshaping the national conversation. The next chapter in the Epstein files battle is set to unfold not just in congressional chambers, but in the court of public opinion—and, perhaps, on the House floor itself.
