Bay Area Congressman's Measure For Transparency Surrounding Epstein Files Passes: Report

FREMONT, CA — A measure sponsored by Rep. Ro Khanna demanding the U.S. Department of Justice release the Jeffrey Epstein case files passed the House and Senate Tuesday, thwarting a president who had worked for months to keep the files from going public.

Hours before, however, Khanna, D-Fremont, stood in front of trafficking survivors and groups of reporters outside the U.S. Capitol on Tuesday morning, and he thanked an unlikely ally for helping push his measure: Marjorie Taylor Greene, according to a report by the San Francisco Chronicle.

“This would not have certainly been possible if it were not for the courage of Marjorie Taylor Greene,” Khanna said Tuesday morning, according to the report. “Because there was so much pressure against us. So much attacks against her. But she stood with the survivors.”

The bill passed the House with an overwhelming 427-1 vote and was unanimously passed through the Senate. The bill will now go to Trump's desk for his signature, according to the report.

Green on X Tuesday said the bill had passed despite efforts to intimidate her and other Republican representatives.

"Today’s vote to finally force the release of the Epstein files is a major victory for the survivors who’ve waited decades for the truth," Greene said on X Tuesday. "Americans are done being lied to. These survivors deserve full transparency. Every document, every truth, every name. And if those names reach me, I will read them on the House floor."

Greene, R-Georgia, has been one of President Donald Trump's biggest supporters in the past, but she openly defied him in urging the release of the files, prompting him to call her a traitor.

On Sunday, she condemned Trump on X, accusing him of "unwarranted and vicious attacks" against her.

She said in the post that Trump's attacks on her were inspiring "dangerous radicals" and that a pipe bomb had been sent to her construction company's office.

"I love America and the American people, and I swore an oath to uphold the Constitution and always do so, " Greene said Sunday on X. "I am not a traitor. However, when the President of the United States irresponsibly calls a Member of Congress of his own party, traitor, he is signaling what must be done to a traitor."

Facing enough mass GOP defections to pass the bill this week, Trump reversed course and urged his party to pass the bill.

House Speaker Mike Johnson, who kept the bill from reaching the floor for months, admitted defeat Tuesday as he cast a vote for the bill.

“I’ve been opposed to it all along,” Johnson told The New York Times.

Once the bill reached the floor, however, he said he had little choice but to vote in favor of it.

“None of us want to go on record and in any way be accused of not being for maximum transparency,” he added.

Read more from the San Francisco Chronicle.