BRIDGEWATER, Va.– On Nov. 20, President Donald Trump signed a bill requiring the Department of Justice to release the Epstein files publicly, a bill that Representative Clay Higgins, R-La. voted against and criticized on social media on Nov. 18.
According to NPR, the police in Palm Beach, Fla. opened a criminal investigation on businessman Jeffrey Epstein in 2005 after Epstein tried to pay a minor for a massage. He was later accused by multiple other women of crimes involving minors.
Epstein was convicted in 2019 in New York with one count of sex trafficking of minors and one count of conspiracy to commit sex trafficking of minors. He was later found hanged in his jail cell on Aug. 10, 2019.
Bobbi Gentry, a political science professor at Bridgewater College, said the Epstein files are a series of documents compiled and kept by Epstein that include names of people with whom he engaged in various types of illegal activity including non-consensual sex with minors. The Department of Justice has the files and is using them for further investigations into people affiliated with Epstein.
According to ABC News, two days before Congress voted to release the files, Trump asked Republican lawmakers to vote in favor of releasing the files. This was a reversal of his previous stance.
The vote in Congress to release the files was 427-1. The sole vote against releasing the files was from Representative Higgins.
When asked for a statement, Higgins’ Communications Director Mac Malloy referred BC Voice to Higgins’ statement on social media following the vote.
According to a LiveNOW from FOX video posted on YouTube on Nov. 18, Higgins states that it is the duty of the body of congress to, “determine the means by which our colleagues shall be reprimanded.”
According to Article one Section five of the Constitution, Congress has the power to censure members, even when they have not been convicted of a crime. House Republicans have already introduced one bill aimed at censuring a member who was associated with Epstein.
According to PBS, Stacy Plaskett, a Democrat who represents the US Virgin Islands, texted Jeffrey Epstein during a congressional hearing. On Nov. 20, Republicans wrote a bill to censure her and remove her from the House Intelligence committee.
PBS states that, while the bill failed, an investigation to censure Rep. Cory Mills, R-Fla. is ongoing.
As the files are released, Gentry speculates that more people may be named and, in response, more censorship may be attempted in the house.
“Some people’s political careers will be over because those individuals would be shown to have done illegal activity or at least were affiliated with someone who engaged in grooming or sexual exploitation of young girls,” Gentry said.
A correction was made on Dec. 11, 2025: An earlier version of this article misrepresented Rep. Higgin’s social media post. The full text of the post is now included. A reference to a LiveNOW from FOX video was also added to better connect Higgin’s stated position to the remainder of the story. The lead was also edited to accurately depict the timing and direction of Higgin’s criticism. The original secondary headline was deleted.
