Epstein Files Transparency Act

Floor Speech

Mr. Speaker, today, 4 months and 3 days after Mr. Khanna and Mr. Massie introduced their discharge petition, perhaps the most famous discharge petition in American history, the people's House unites across party lines to draw a moral line. We draw a line against the rape and sexual violation of children. We draw a line against the global criminal trafficking of girls and young women to service the pleasure of rich and powerful men who believe they are beyond all law and all morality. We draw a line to put the voices of the victims and the survivors first.

We ask the Senate to join us without changes rather than obstruct this bill with dilatory amendments, legislative graffiti, and self- dealing, million-dollar jackpot provisions for lucky Senators.

Just pass the bill.

We are finally voting today because a bipartisan discharge petition, led by Representatives Massie and Khanna and signed by 218 of us, overthrew the determined obstruction of the Speaker. This forced vote means the House will no longer acquiesce in this astonishing real-time coverup of a multibillion-dollar global sex trafficking and child rape ring that has ravaged the lives of more than a thousand girls and young women.

We are here today because these victims, these survivors, these citizens, these inspiring women who have come to Washington are demanding nothing less than justice and the complete truth about who is responsible for their vicious abuse, including those responsible for enabling it, ignoring it, bankrolling it, and covering it up.

We join them today in rejecting any more dangerous lies about the crimes they suffered. No, child sex abuse is not a hoax. It is a crime. Human trafficking is not a hoax. It is a crime.

These crimes are a curse on children and young people across America, in universities and elementary schools, in churches and mosques and synagogues, in Boy Scout troops and college sports teams, in summer camps, anywhere the powerful and the rich believe they have the opportunity and the impunity to exploit the young, the poor, the powerless, and the vulnerable.

We must face the truth and find the coconspirators still at large in one of America's most extensive and sophisticated sex trafficking and child abuse rings in history.

Release of the file will expose the role of everybody who facilitated and covered up these crimes like JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America, Deutsche Bank, and Bank of New York Mellon, which executed billions of dollars in transactions related to these offenses, as well as any bank executives who participated in the sexual abuse of girls and young women.

We must expose everyone who covered up these crimes like Alex Acosta, the former U.S. attorney in Miami, Donald Trump's Labor Secretary, who gave Jeffrey Epstein an unbelievable sweetheart plea deal, immunized unnamed conspirators, and killed an investigation into Epstein's financial crimes that could have brought down the entire criminal network.

Mr. Speaker, I should just point out that we have heard now from the two distinguished chairmen of the Committee on the Judiciary and the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, and they have spoken almost exclusively to denounce Democrats.

We have a bipartisan coalition here demanding the truth about the largest child sex abuse and trafficking ring perhaps in American history, certainly in this century, and they want to just throw stones at the Democrats. What a remarkable failure of leadership we are seeing from the other side.

I imagine that the chairman of the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform will follow up his spectacular failure in trying to impeach President Biden with his spectacular failure in trying to block the resolution we brought to the floor today.
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Mr. RASKIN. Jayapal), a member of the Committee on the Judiciary.

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Mr. RASKIN. Kamlager-Dove).

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Mr. RASKIN. Clark), the minority whip.

Just very quickly, what happened under the Biden administration? Well, under the Biden administration, Ghislaine Maxwell was prosecuted for conspiring to sexually abuse and traffic girls in 2020. In 2021, she was convicted, in December of 2021, after a month-long trial in Judge Nathan's courtroom. In 2022, Maxwell was sentenced to 20 years in prison under the Biden administration for sex trafficking and sexual abuse of minors.

When President Trump took office in January of 2025, they killed the investigation. They assembled all the materials, they got all the prosecutors together, and they terminated the investigation.

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Mr. RASKIN. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for his eloquent remarks. Pardons are for people who are contrite. Pardons are for people who are repentant. Pardons are not for people who lie. Every Member of this body should immediately, verbally, vocally denounce the idea of clemency, commutation, or pardon for Ghislaine Maxwell.

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Mr. RASKIN. Leger Fernandez).

Ms. LEGER FERNANDEZ. Mr. Speaker, there were thousands of girls and young women abused, trafficked, and used by Epstein and the elite and the powerful who believed they could get away with it.

Epstein told the young victims that he controlled the banks and the government.

Those women refused to be silenced. Today, they have pierced the dark with their light.

Anytime any girl is trafficked, molested, or abused, the world must stand up. Today, the House proves Jeffrey Epstein wrong. The Senate must do the same tomorrow.

This whole bill is about protecting the innocent. Mr. Speaker, the Senate must pass the bill, as we are passing it today and as the President has said he would sign it, after changing his position on the bill over the weekend when he could see the tidal wave of public opinion moving against him. Let's pass this bill. Pass it in the Senate. Sign the bill, and let's go ahead and release the complete file.

Ansari).

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Mr. RASKIN. Mr. Speaker, I have never heard a more defensive presentation in my life than we are hearing from over there. The gentleman should spend a little less time pointing out hypocrisy and a little more time trying to ferret out cruelty, humiliation, and rape. That is what we are working on.

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