Last Hard ‘No’ GOP Vote On Releasing Epstein Files Flip Flops, Will Vote ‘Yes’
(Tom Williams/CQ Roll Call via AP Images)
Rep. Troy Nehls (R-Tx), who declared just days ago he was voting against compelling the Trump administration to release the Epstein files, has had a change of heart.
On Friday, Nehls posted to social media, “I’ll be voting NO on the Epstein Hoax.”
“The Democrats are using the Epstein Hoax to distract us from the winning of President Trump and his administration,” Nehls continued, adding:
My message to my Republican colleagues: Don’t let this noise keep us from delivering on the mandate the American people gave us. President Trump—I stand by you in the fight to save America. I’m not going to let this hoax, manufactured by Democrats, slow us down.
Over the weekend, however, Nehls changed his mind on the issue — as did President Donald Trump.
The New York Times’s Annie Karni revealed how she got the news.
“In a text message on Monday, Nehls said he would now vote to release the Epstein files, given that the president himself has urged Republicans to do so,” Karni wrote. “Nehls was viewed as potentially the sole Republican holdout to what is shaping up to be a possible unanimous vote to compel the Justice Department to release the files.”
On social media, Karni wrote, “This means [the vote] is likely unanimous” — as Nehls appeared to be the last holdout in the GOP.
During an Oval Office press conference on Monday, a reporter asked Donald Trump to clarify whether he will sign the bill to release the Epstein files if it gets to his desk.
“I do want to— Here’s what I want,” Trump began. “We have nothing to do with Epstein. The Democrats do. All of his friends were Democrats. You look at this Reid Hoffman, you look at this Larry Summers, Bill Clinton, they went to his island all the time, and many others who are all Democrats.”
Trump continued:
All I want is I want for people to recognize a great job that I have done on pricing, on affordability, because we brought the prices down. They are going way lower. On energy, on ending eight wars, and another one coming pretty soon, I believe. We have done a great job. And I hate to see that deflect from the great job we have done. So I am all for it.
House Speaker Mike Johnson is expected to call a vote on releasing the files this week.
