In recent weeks and months, congressional efforts to force disclosure of the Jeffrey Epstein files have largely concentrated in the House, where there is a bipartisan discharge petition seeking signatures. But as it turns out, the upper chamber can tackle the controversy, too, despite the Republican majority. NBC News reported:
The Republican-led Senate narrowly voted Wednesday to defeat an amendment introduced by Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., to compel the Justice Department to release all of the Jeffrey Epstein files. The vote was 51-49 in favor of tabling the amendment. Two Republicans — Rand Paul of Kentucky and Josh Hawley of Missouri — joined all 47 Democrats in voting against tabling the amendment.
For much of the year, GOP senators have been content to avoid the Epstein scandal, which made it all the more notable when Schumer surprised his colleagues. Taking advantage of senators’ work on a sweeping defense policy package, known as the National Defense Authorization Act (or NDAA), the New York Democrat teed up a procedural vote on an amendment to direct Attorney General Pam Bondi to make public any available documents that the Justice Department possesses related to Epstein and his associates.
“There’s been so much lying, obfuscation, cover-ups — the American people need to see everything that’s in the Epstein file,” Schumer told reporters Wednesday.
Not surprisingly, the effort fell short, but the fact that two Senate Republicans voted with Democrats on this was a timely reminder about the divisions within the GOP over an issue that Donald Trump can’t make go away.
What’s more, the minority leader is hardly the only Democrat working on the Epstein controversy. The New York Times reported:
Senator Ron Wyden, the Oregon Democrat who has led an investigation into some of Jeffrey Epstein’s financial dealings, introduced a bill to compel the Treasury Department to turn over copies of all suspicious activity reports filed by banks for thousands of transactions by Epstein and dozens of his associates or business partners. Wyden, the Senate Finance Committee’s ranking member, previously sent letters to Treasury officials demanding copies of the reports but was rebuffed. Among the banks whose reports Wyden is trying to obtain is JPMorgan Chase, which served as Epstein’s primary banker for many years and has been accused of helping to enable Epstein’s activities. (The bank has denied any wrongdoing.) As for the other end of Capitol Hill, Congress’ newest member, Democratic Rep. James Walkinshaw of Virginia, was sworn in the day after winning this week’s special election, and he promptly signed the pending discharge petition related to disclosing the Epstein files. As Politico reported, the bipartisan duo spearheading the effort — Republican Rep. Thomas Massie of Kentucky and Democratic Rep. Ro Khanna of California — now need only one more House member’s signature to clinch 218 signatures, which would trigger a process House GOP leaders would be powerless to stop. Proponents are expected to reach the benchmark later this month with a Sept. 23 special election in Arizona to replace the late Rep. Raúl Grijalva, although it’s possible that some of the Republicans who’ve already signed onto the discharge petition could be pressured to change their minds. Watch this space.
Steve Benen is a producer for "The Rachel Maddow Show," the editor of MaddowBlog and an MS NOW political contributor. He's also the bestselling author of "Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans' War on the Recent Past."
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