Senate Republicans reject Schumer’s ‘political stunt,’ kill move to release Epstein files

Senate Republicans late Wednesday killed an amendment filed by Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer to the annual defense authorization bill to force the Justice Department to release its files on the Jeffrey Epstein sex trafficking case.

“It’s a political stunt and we’ll dispose of it,” Senate Majority Leader John Thune, South Dakota Republican, said ahead of the vote to table the measure. 

The 51-49 vote fell mostly along party lines, but two Republicans, Sens. Josh Hawley of Missouri and Rand Paul of Kentucky, voted with all Democrats in opposition to killing the amendment. 

While any senator can offer an amendment to a bill that’s open for debate, typically the Senate majority leader fills the “amendment tree” to block that from occurring. The amendment tree was not filled on the defense bill as Republicans worked with Democrats to negotiate a bipartisan package of amendments to consider.

Mr. Schumer said he filed the amendment because of “lying, obfuscation, cover-ups” in the Epstein case. 

“If Republicans vote no, you’ll be saying to the American people that they should not see the Epstein files,” the New York Democrat said. 

When asked why he didn’t demand release of the Epstein files during President Biden’s tenure, Mr. Schumer pointed to increasing demands from the American people and “apparent” lies from President Trump and his Justice Department about the files. 

“The need is greater than ever now,” he said. 

Mr. Schumer specifically accused Mr. Trump of lying when he previously denied the existence of a birthday card he allegedly sent to Epstein with a drawing of a figure of a woman and references to secrets kept between them.

The card was released earlier this week with files the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee obtained from the Epstein estate. Mr. Trump says he did not create the card and that the signature on it with his name is a fraud.

Mr. Schumer’s Epstein amendment mirrored a bill in the House from Reps. Thomas Massie, Kentucky Republican, and Ro Khanna, California Democrat, who are using the discharge petition process to force a vote in their chamber. The discharge petition will get the 218th signature needed to do so after a Sept. 23 special election in Arizona, presuming the Democratic candidate wins as expected.

Mr. Thune declined to comment when asked Tuesday whether he would bring that bill up for a vote if it passed the House, but said he is “all for transparency, disclosure and whatever makes that possible.”

“The Department of Justice has already released tons of files,” Mr. Thune said, referring to a release of more than 34,000 to the House Oversight Committee, which later made those partially redacted files public.