Rep. Clay Higgins (R-La.), the lone “no” vote on the near-unanimous House legislation to force a release of the Justice Department’s files on the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, said on Tuesday that he opposed it on privacy grounds.
“It abandons 250 years of criminal justice procedure in America,” Higgins wrote on X. “As written, this bill reveals and injures thousands of innocent people — witnesses, people who provided alibis, family members, etc. If enacted in its current form, this type of broad reveal of criminal investigative files, released to a rabid media, will absolutely result in innocent people being hurt.”
Four hundred and twenty-seven House lawmakers — including 216 Republicans — voted in favor of the legislation on Tuesday, two days after President Donald Trump urged his party to support it on Truth Social.
The White House had spent months lobbying against the effort.
Higgins, a staunch supporter of the president, nevertheless voted against it. But this isn’t his final word on the matter, he said.
“If the Senate amends the bill to properly address privacy of victims and other Americans, who are named but not criminally implicated, then I will vote for that bill when it comes back to the House,” he said.
The Senate could soon clear the bill. Majority Leader John Thune told reporters that the chamber could potentially pass it by unanimous consent as soon as later Tuesday.
