The US will publish documents on the Epstein case. What the media is writing
In one day, the US Congress passed a bill on the publication of files related to the case of Jeffrey Epstein, convicted of sexual crimes. Only one member of the House of Representatives voted against it. The law will be finally adopted after the signature of US President Donald Trump. How the world's media are reacting to the new twist in the Epstein scandal — in the Izvestia digest.
Axios: The US Senate sent Trump a bill on Epstein's files
The U.S. Senate has unanimously passed a bill obliging the Department of Justice to release all files related to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein and sent it to President Donald Trump's desk. He had previously stated that he would sign the bill, but the files might not be published in the near future.
Axios
Trump's approval of Epstein's bill helped secure widespread support for the measure from Republicans in Congress. Only one member of the House of Representatives, Clay Higgins (Republican from Louisiana), spoke out against it. Democrats claim that Trump decided to support this measure only to save face when it became clear that the bill would be passed, and this step made the opposition of the Republican Party virtually untenable.
The bill allows the Justice Department to conceal information that could interfere with an ongoing federal investigation. This means that Trump's recent demand to investigate Epstein's ties to other powerful figures could halt this process. The Justice Ministry may argue that publishing the files now would jeopardize new investigations.
CNN: The Senate refused to amend Epstein's bill
Even Speaker Johnson and his team of Republicans supported the bill, despite the fact that all summer and fall they tried to overcome Washington's obsession with the Epstein case, insisting that the bill does not sufficiently protect the privacy of victims. In the Senate, Republican leader John Thune did not obstruct Democratic leader Chuck Schumer's request for "unanimous consent" to adopt the bill, sending it directly to Trump after receiving it from the House of Representatives.
CNN
Earlier on Tuesday, Johnson said he was calling on his colleague in the Senate to add key provisions on protecting victims' privacy, which would slow down consideration of the bill, but Thune said he was unlikely to amend the bill, which was passed by the House of Representatives almost unanimously. "I think when the bill leaves the House of Representatives by 427 votes to one, and the president declares that he will sign it, I'm not sure that amendments ... are possible," he told reporters.
This was a significant turn of events for Trump and Republican leaders in Washington, who unsuccessfully tried to stop the bill proposed by the party's campaigner, Congressman Thomas Massey, and warmly supported by Democrats. But by this weekend, ahead of the House vote, Trump and his team feared an embarrassing defeat and agreed to make concessions, effectively allowing Republicans to vote for Massey's bill.
Reuters: Epstein's victims called for the bill to be passed
Before the vote in the House of Representatives, about two dozen women survivors of alleged abuse by Epstein joined three lawmakers outside the Capitol building to demand the release of documents. The women kept photos of themselves in their youth, the age when, according to them, they first encountered Epstein. After the vote, they stood up and applauded from the public gallery of the House of Representatives, some of them crying and hugging each other.
Reuters
Despite the changed position on the bill, Trump remains unhappy with the attention being paid to the Epstein case. On Tuesday, he called the reporter who asked this question in the Oval Office a "terrible person" and said that the TV channel for which this journalist works should have its license revoked. "I have nothing to do with Jeffrey Epstein," the Republican president told reporters during a visit by Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. "I kicked him out of my club many years ago because I thought he was a sick pervert."
According to two people with direct knowledge of the situation, the White House was caught off guard by how quickly the bill passed through Congress, as it was expected to take longer to be considered in the Senate. The fight over Epstein's documents has had a negative impact on Trump's public approval rating, which has dropped to 38%, the lowest level this year. The poll showed that only one out of five voters generally approve of his actions on this issue.
Associated Press: Who is the only one who voted against publishing Epstein's files
Both Democrats and Republicans were preparing for a unanimous vote by the House of Representatives on a bill obliging them to disclose the materials of the Epstein case. But in the end, one lawmaker remained in opposition: Republican Clay Higgins, who has already served his fifth term representing a constituency in southwestern Louisiana. He stated that "from the very beginning he was a principled opponent of this bill."
Associated Press
He raised some of the same objections as Speaker of the House of Representatives Mike Johnson, another Republican from Louisiana, about the bill, but even Johnson said on Tuesday that he would vote for it because "none of us wants to openly declare this and in any way be accused of failing to comply with the requirements of the maximum transparency".
Higgins refused to succumb to mounting pressure from both the Republican base and victims of Epstein's abuse to pass the bill, despite both President Trump and Johnson softening their opposition to the law. He stated that he is concerned about the bill because it "exposes and injures thousands of innocent people — witnesses, people who provided alibis, family members." Higgins noted that he would be ready to vote for the bill if the Senate amended it to protect the privacy of those "who are not involved in a criminal offense."
The New York Times: Republicans doubt the publication of Epstein's files
Even after voting to demand disclosure of the files, Republican leaders rejected the measure, calling it a "political show" organized by Democrats who only imitated interest in Epstein's story in the hope of causing political damage to Trump. And although the president has stated that he will sign the bill if it gets to his desk, his supporters have expressed doubts about whether the Ministry of Justice will eventually publish these files.
The New York Times
"I've always been against this," Speaker Mike Johnson said at a morning press conference before the vote, standing next to a five—point poster listing the "dangers" of the measure, which he eventually supported along with his entire faction.
Unwilling to be defeated in the House of Representatives, Trump changed his position on the issue and called on his party to support the publication of the files. Many Republicans in Congress followed his call and voted for the bill, which they said they had supported all along. In their topsy-turvy account of events, Trump consistently fought for the release of Epstein's documents, just like they did.
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