FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

November 18, 2025

MEDIA CONTACT:

e: jessica.myers@mail.house.gov

c: 202.913.0126

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Congresswoman Yvette D. Clarke (NY-09) issued the following statement:

“Following Donald Trump’s and House Republicans’ long struggle to stall, impede, and obstruct the Epstein Files Discharge Petition by all means available to them, today, I voted unanimously alongside my Democratic colleagues to release the files. We should have had the opportunity to do so months ago. Despite the GOP’s Trump-ordered heel turn at the eleventh hour, their role in delaying the petition outweighs any superficial part they played in its passage. It was only when the president recognized how severely he was losing this fight and how poorly his opposition reflected upon him that he instructed his Congressional puppets to adjust their course. This was a tactical retreat, not a meaningful reversal. While my colleagues may have changed their votes, their goal remains the same: to cover up heinous sex crimes in service of the most powerful, most despicable men in America. That truth is best reflected in their master’s refusal to release the Epstein Files despite campaigning on that very promise. If Donald Trump is innocent, he has all the power to prove it. Given his unwillingness to do so, he has evidently decided the only way to clear his name is to wipe all the dirt off it first, no matter how many criminals elude accountability along the way. His party is more than willing to assist him in that malicious mission. They will fail. When they do, both the pedophiles they protected and the victims they abandoned will know justice.”

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