by Stefano Vaccara
NEW YORK (UNITED STATES) (ITALPRESS) – With a overwhelming vote of 427 to 1, the House of Representatives approved the law that orders the Department of Justice to publicize all federal files related to the case of Jeffrey Epstein, the financier who died in 2019 while he was in custody and accused of sexual trafficking of minors. A historical result that, beyond merit, represents one of the most clamorous political defeats of the Trump presidency. For months the White House and the Republican leadership had done everything to prevent this vote from coming to court. Trump had exerted direct pressure on parliamentarians defined as “rebels” and defined support for the proposal as “a hostile act” towards his administration. Republican Speaker Mike Johnson also tried to block the parliamentary procedure.
But the strategy came back against those who orchestrated it. A small group of Republicans – including Marjorie Taylor Greene – refused to withdraw their signature from the petition that forced leadership to bring the text to the vote. The necessary majority was reached last week, with the decisive signature of the newly elected Democratic MP of Arizona Adelita Grijalva. At that point, in the face of the inevitable humiliation of a classroom defeat, Trump suddenly changed his position, stating that he would sign the law. A late “conversion” that many Republicans accepted only to not appear in contrast with the president. Johnson himself, while having spent months denouncing the proposal as a dangerous and “written disease”, admitted the reason for his overturning: “No one of us wants to be accused of not supporting maximum transparency,” he said at the press conference before the vote. Tom Massie, a republican of Kentucky and co-author of the law, commented with eloquent words: “The Speaker has been dragged here to kick and scream, but here we are.”.
Marjorie Taylor Greene, who clamorously broke up with Trump on the affair, warned: “The real test will be if the Justice Department really releases files or if they are stuck in investigations.” The battle now moves to the Senate, controlled by Republicans, where leader John Thune has not yet secured a rapid vote. Democrat leader Chuck Schumer promised to force the times: “The Americans waited long enough,” he said. Despite the frenetic retromarcia of the White House, the political figure remains: the Epstein Files Act comes to the Senate despite, not thanks, the President’s will. And for Trump, who for months tried to block the vote, the passage to the House marks a visible weakening of his grip on the party.
– photo IPA Agency –
(ITALPRESS).
