BREAKING: Thomas Massie Reads Names of Epstein Co-conspirators on House Floor, Launches New Push for Full File Release
Thomas Massie isn’t done fighting for transparency on the Epstein files, even after his own party tried to shut him down.
On the House floor Sunday night, the Kentucky Republican read the names of several individuals he says should be investigated and prosecuted in connection with Jeffrey Epstein’s crimes. He also announced he’s begun collecting signatures for a discharge petition, the same procedural tool he used successfully last year, to force a vote on the Epstein Files Transparency Act II.
This is Massie picking up a fight he’s been running for over a year. His original bill, co-authored with California Democrat Ro Khanna, passed the House nearly unanimously in November after Massie forced the vote using a discharge petition, overcoming resistance from both Republican leadership and Trump himself. Since then, Massie and Khanna have argued the Justice Department hasn’t actually complied with the law, withholding files that should have been public and botching redactions in ways that exposed survivors’ names instead of protecting them.
The follow-up bill, introduced this week, gives members of Congress, state officials, and Epstein’s own survivors the legal standing to challenge the DOJ in court when it fails to comply. “I never anticipated that the highest law enforcement officer in the land would not enforce the law once it became a law,” Massie said. “That’s what this addresses.”
Massie has been blunt about who he thinks is responsible for the stonewalling, accusing Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche and FBI Director Kash Patel of having “effectively both perjured themselves” by claiming there’s no one else named in the files. He’s continuing the fight even after losing his own primary in May, a defeat that hasn’t slowed him down at all.
A congressman who already forced one transparency bill into law through sheer persistence just started building the coalition to force a second one.