Epstein Files Transparency Act

Floor Speech

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Mr. ROY. Mr. Speaker, today a united Republican Party and a bipartisan supermajority is going to pass a bill to increase transparency regarding the egregious abuses by Jeffrey Epstein, a goal that anyone of conscience desires. That is in totality an important statement to check the rich and powerful.

Remember how we got here. After decades, it was President Trump's Department of Justice that indicted Jeffrey Epstein in July 2019. It was President Trump's DOJ that arrested and indicted Ms. Maxwell. It was the Republican-led Oversight Committee, through 13 subpoenas, that has released 65,000 pages of files in just 10 months.

Meanwhile, my colleagues on the other side of the aisle have largely ignored this issue. It was Democrats who redacted an email to mislead the American people about the truth of a witness that exonerated President Trump. It was a Democrat, Representative Plaskett, who literally texted with Jeffrey Epstein as we questioned Michael Cohen. It was Democrats who shut down the government, resulting in the delay of swearing in of Members.

As we vote to pass this legislation--and it will pass--it is impossible, however, to avoid problems with its politicization. One colleague has offensively gone so far as to say that to oppose this bill means you support pedophiles. Yet, I know good public servants, former law enforcement, and former prosecutors who never knew Epstein and never knew any visitors to his criminal enterprise who have genuine concerns about supporting this bill out of fear of creating new victims or harming existing victims or both.

That is what we have reduced Congress to, inserting itself into the prosecutorial process for political motivations, driven heavily by hatred of President Trump.

We should be concerned about victim privacy, risking disclosure of noncredible allegations of child sexual abuse materials, and future investigations. However, here is the deal: The leaders of this Nation must expose abuses by the rich and powerful. That is why President Trump and the House have been working for full transparency, but we should be motivated by truth and justice for all, not politics.

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