Hawai‘i's lawmakers voted in line with virtually every other lawmaker in the U.S. House and Senate to publish files relating to Jeffrey Epstein.
Both chambers of Congress overwhelmingly voted in favor of the Epstein Files Transparency Act, a measure introduced in July by California Democrat Rep. Ro Khanna calling for the U.S. Attorney General to release all Department of Justice documents and records relating to the late Epstein, convicted sex offender and one-time financier.
Specifically, the bill calls for the release of all materials relating to Epstein, his associate Ghislaine Maxwell, their flight logs and travel records, names of all individuals or entities associated with Epstein’s criminal activities and the nature of any immunity deals or sealed settlements involving such people or entities.
On top of this, the measure also demands all internal DOJ communications regarding the investigation into Epstein, all communications — including metadata — surrounding possible destroyed or deleted data involving Epstein, and all documentation surrounding Epstein’s imprisonment at the New York Metropolitan Correctional Center and his subsequent death, which was ruled as a suicide.
None of this data would be allowed to be withheld “on the basis of embarrassment, reputational harm or political sensitivity” for any person, the bill states.
The only redactions permitted by the bill would be personal details and files concerning victims, images of death or physical injury, child sexual abuse materials, data that would compromise and active federal investigation, and classified information “established by an Executive order to be kept secret in the interest of national defense or foreign policy.”
All this data would be made available within 30 days of the bill’s final passage.
Hawai‘i Reps Ed Case and Jill Tokuda did not speak Tuesday as the House held more than an hour of discussion over the measure. But at the bill’s sole roll-call vote in their chamber, they joined nearly every other representative to vote for its passage.
The measure passed 427-1. The sole dissenting vote came from Louisiana Republican Clay Higgins, who later posted on X that he believes the bill “reveals and injures thousands of innocent people” whose names will be exposed to “a rabid media.”
The bill went before the Senate just a few hours later, with the entire body voting unanimously in favor of its passage.
Hawai‘i senator Brian Schatz made a brief statement following the Senate vote: “Now that Congress has weighed in on a bipartisan basis, it is the job of the Department of Justice to actually release these files and not cook up a new set of excuses.”
With the Senate’s support, the bill next goes before the desk of President Donald Trump.
The House also will proceed with a motion to censure Stacey Plaskett, Democratic delegate for the U.S. Virgin Islands for having been in contact with Epstein in 2019 during a hearing with lawyer Michael Cohen, often described as “fixer” to President Donald Trump.
According to a resolution discussed on Tuesday, Plaskett had received text messages from Epstein that appeared to be coaching her on questions to ask Cohen during a hearing where Cohen was testifying before the House Oversight Committee.
House Democrats proposed a motion on Tuesday to refer the matter to the House Ethics Committee for further discussion. Republicans largely rejected that motion, calling for Plaskett to be removed from the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence.
All House Democrats, including Case and Tokuda, voted in favor of the motion to refer the Plaskett issue to the Ethics Committee. But despite two Republicans breaking ranks with their party to side with the Democrats, the motion failed 214-213.
Whether Plaskett actually will be censured will be decided in a future vote.
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