The United States House of Representatives is set to vote on Tuesday to release all the remaining files related to the late accused sex trafficker and convicted sex offender, Jeffrey Epstein.

Several tranches of files relating to the prosecutions of Epstein – first for sexual offences against a minor and later for sex trafficking – have already been released to the public, but many more remain sealed.

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Epstein was known for socialising with celebrities and politicians and the content of these files has become a source of huge speculation in the US – not least among US President Donald Trump’s own MAGA support base.

Tuesday’s vote was scheduled after Trump, shifting his position on the issue, urged House Republicans to vote in favour of releasing the documents.

Here is what we know about the upcoming House vote.

When is the House voting on the Epstein files?

According to the website of House majority leader, Republican Steve Scalise, the House will convene on Tuesday at 10am (15:00 GMT). The first votes are expected to take place at 2pm (19:00 GMT) and the last votes are expected at 8:15pm (01:15 GMT on Wednesday).

Why is the House voting on releasing the rest of the Epstein files?

The House is voting on this bill now because Trump said he will not veto it if it passes in Congress.

Late on Sunday, Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform: “We have nothing to hide, and it’s time to move on from this Democrat Hoax perpetrated by Radical Left Lunatics in order to deflect from the Great Success of the Republican Party.”

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On Monday, Trump doubled down, telling a reporter in the Oval Office that he would sign the bill if it got through the Senate. “Sure, I would. Let the Senate look at it. Let anyone look at it, but don’t talk about it too much,” he said.

This is a divergence from Trump’s earlier position on the Epstein files. Trump has previously called the Epstein files a “Democratic hoax” and advised Republicans not “to fall for it”.

On November 12, during the recent 43-day government shutdown, Trump posted on Truth Social: “There should be no deflections to Epstein or anything else, and any Republicans involved should be focused only on opening up our Country, and fixing the massive damage caused by the Democrats!”

Have the Epstein files caused a rift in the Republican Party?

Yes. While some agreed with Trump’s earlier stance that the Epstein files were a distraction by the Democrats, many Republicans have joined the Democrats in pushing for all of them to be made public.

On November 12, Democrats and some Republicans gathered 218 signatures in favour of releasing the files within 30 days, enough to force a floor vote on a bill.

On the same day, email records from Epstein’s estate were released by Democrats on the House Oversight Committee, which has been charged with investigating Epstein. Some of these mentioned Trump’s name, and some emails gave the impression that Trump had known about Epstein’s sexual misconduct with young girls – something he denies.

Republicans on the committee said Democrats had “cherry-picked” information, deliberately painting Trump in a bad light. So, in turn, they released 20,000 documents from Epstein’s estate, they said, to provide balance. Many of the Republican documents also mention Trump, but generally in relation to his political career rather than about any misconduct.

The Republicans who have joined the Democrats in pushing for a bill to release all records relating to Epstein are Thomas Massie of Kentucky, Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia, Lauren Boebert of Colorado and Nancy Mace of South Carolina. Massie was the sponsor of the bill alongside Democrat Ro Khanna of California. They first introduced the discharge bill in July.

A simple majority of 218 votes is required to pass a measure in the House, where there are currently 219 Republicans, 214 Democrats and two empty seats.

The Epstein documents began to create a rift among the Republican party in July when the Justice Department and the FBI released a memo stating that a government review had found no evidence that Epstein had a specific “secret client list”.

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That memo also reaffirmed that Epstein had died by suicide in 2019 in a Manhattan jail cell – another focus of great speculation online in the US.

This angered right-wing activists and influencers who have pushed conspiracy theories that Epstein did not actually die by suicide, but was instead silenced by unknown people. Attorney General Pam Bondi also came under fire for appearing to state earlier that a list of Epstein clients was sitting “on her desk”.

Who was Jeffrey Epstein?

Epstein was a millionaire financier born and raised in New York who was known for socialising with celebrities and politicians.

He was accused of sexually assaulting a 14-year-old girl in 2005 after her parents reported it to the police. The police interviewed other girls who made similar allegations.

In 2008, Epstein pleaded guilty to charges of soliciting prostitution and soliciting prostitution from a minor in relation to a single victim. He spent 13 months in prison on a work-release programme, which allowed him to leave jail to go to work during the day and return at night. In 2019, federal prosecutors charged him with sex trafficking, but he died by suicide in a Manhattan jail cell before that case could be heard.

The US attorney in Manhattan also prosecuted Epstein’s former girlfriend, Ghislaine Maxwell, who was accused of being Epstein’s co-conspirator in his sexual abuse scheme. Maxwell was convicted in 2021 and is currently serving a 20-year prison sentence that she received in 2022.

What is Trump’s connection to Epstein?

Trump and Epstein were friends in the 1980s,1990s and early 2000s, when they mingled in the same social circles and attended the same parties.

In 2004, the two fell out over a foreclosed oceanfront mansion in Palm Beach. The Washington Post reported that Trump had outbid Epstein on the property. Since that date, there has been sparse public evidence of the two men interacting.

In January 2024, about 950 pages of court documents associated with Epstein’s prosecutions were publicised. These documents contained accounts by Epstein’s victims saying that they saw prominent figures, including musicians, academics and politicians, in Epstein’s company, from Michael Jackson to Bill Clinton.

The mention of someone’s name in these testimonies does not mean that they are guilty of any wrongdoing – only that they were seen in the company of Epstein or were somehow linked to him or people he knew. Trump was mentioned in these documents, but not accused of anything.

There was no sign of an Epstein “client list” and rumours of the existence of this have continued to mount.

This year, The Wall Street Journal published a letter, allegedly written by Trump to Epstein on his birthday in 2003. The letter, which Trump denies writing, featured a drawing of a woman’s breasts and was signed “Donald”. In July, Trump launched a $10bn lawsuit against The Wall Street Journal’s parent company Dow Jones and its owner, Rupert Murdoch, over the story.

In a 2011 email – one of those released by Democrats last week – Epstein told Maxwell that Trump had “spent hours” at his house with one victim, whose name had been redacted from the release by the Democrats.

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However, in the documents cache released by the Republicans on the House Oversight Committee, the name is shown as Virginia Giuffre, who sued disgraced Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor (formerly Prince Andrew of the United Kingdom, before he was stripped of his royal titles last month) for rape and sexual assault before she died by suicide in April this year.

The White House then confirmed the victim was Giuffre in a statement sent to US media on November 12.

Will the Epstein vote pass?

Massie told US media on Sunday that “there could be 100 or more” votes from Republicans in favour of releasing all the remaining files relating to Epstein. “I’m hoping to get a veto-proof majority on this legislation when it comes up for a vote.”

Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson said he also believes the House will reliably back the bill.

“We’ll just get this done and move it on. There’s nothing to hide,” Johnson said.

Johnson has also flip-flopped his position on releasing the Epstein files, however. In July, he called for the Justice Department to release all its files on Epstein. However, later that month, he cut a House session short to avoid a vote on the release. Last month, he said he would not block a vote on making the files public.

Khanna has also voiced hopes that Republicans will back the bill, but his estimates were more modest than Massie’s. He expects some 40 Republicans to do so.

If the House passes the vote on Tuesday, it will move to the Senate for approval. Once passed by the Senate, it will go to Trump for his signature.