TEXAS – On Wednesday, Texas House Minority Leader Rep. Gene Wu introduced an amendment to H.B. 4, 89(2), the congressional redistricting bill, that would block the state’s redistricting plan until the complete release of the Epstein files.
Wu said the amendment, which was blocked by Republicans, would have created a direct choice for Republicans to release the Epstein files.
“Trump is in those files, and that’s why he’s fighting to keep them hidden,” said Wu. “At the same time he’s demanding Abbott ram through racist maps, he’s making sure Congressional Republicans block the release of files that could expose his decades-long relationship with a child sex trafficker. This amendment forces Republicans to choose between their loyalty to Trump and their obligation to expose sexual predators.”
READ THE FULL TEXT OF THE AMENDMENT HERE.
A wealthy and well-connected financier, Epstein was found dead in his New York jail cell weeks after his 2019 arrest in what investigators ruled a suicide. His former girlfriend, Ghislaine Maxwell, was convicted in 2021 of helping lure teenage girls to be sexually abused by Epstein and is serving a 20-year prison sentence.
The House committee’s subpoena sought all documents and communications from the case files of Epstein and Maxwell. It also demanded records about communications between Democratic President Joe Biden’s administration and the Justice Department regarding Epstein, as well as documents related to an earlier federal investigation into Epstein in Florida that resulted in a non-prosecution agreement.
It was not clear exactly which or how many documents might be produced or whether the cooperation with Congress reflected a broader change in posture since last month, when the FBI and Justice Department abruptly announced that they would not be releasing any additional records from the Epstein investigation after determining that no “further disclosure would be appropriate or warranted.”
That announcement put the Trump administration on the defensive, with officials since then scrambling both to tamp down angry questions from the president’s base and also laboring to appear transparent.
The request for the files to be released by Wu comes as Democrats returned to the Capitol after their two-week walkout raised national attention to the GOP’s plan to fulfill Trump’s wish for Republicans to pick up five seats in the 2026 elections.
Seven Democrats slept in the Texas House chamber overnight to protest both the Republican plan for redrawing congressional districts that’s set for a vote on Wednesday and the GOP’s requirement for Democrats leaving the Capitol to be shadowed by police officers. Fort Worth Rep. Nicole Collier led the protest.
State law officers shadowed Democrats outside the Capitol, tailing them as they drove and shopped and watching their homes and apartments to ensure they’d show up Wednesday to give Republicans the quorum they need to approve the maps without any Democratic votes.