While the U.S. House voted nearly unanimously in favor of a bill that demands the release the Epstein files on Tuesday, Nov. 18, one congressman broke rank to oppose the legislation.
Rep. Clay Higgins, a Republican from Louisiana, voted against releasing the files, while 427 of his colleagues on both sides of the aisle voted to do so.
In a post shared to X on Tuesday, Higgins explained that he had been “a principled ‘NO’ on this bill from the beginning.”
What was wrong with the bill three months ago is still wrong today. It abandons 250 years of criminal justice procedure in America,” he claimed. “As written, this bill reveals and injures thousands of innocent people – witnesses, people who provided alibis, family members, etc.”
The lawmaker then wrote in bold text, “If enacted in its current form, this type of broad reveal of criminal investigative files, released to a rabid media, will absolutely result in innocent people being hurt,” adding, “Not by my vote.”
Higgins, 64, went on to reference the release of thousands of documents last week by the House Oversight Committee, including emails from Epstein in which he described the president as “borderline insane” and claimed Trump “knew about the girls.”
Higgins wrote on X, “The Oversight Committee is conducting a thorough investigation that has already released well over 60,000 pages of documents from the Epstein case. That effort will continue in a manner that provides all due protections for innocent Americans.”
“If the Senate amends the bill to properly address privacy of victims and other Americans, who are named but not criminally implicated, then I will vote for that bill when it comes back to the House,” he added.