Trump threatens to pull ABC’s license after clash with reporter over Epstein files
President Donald Trump sparred with an ABC News reporter who pressed him about the Jeffrey Epstein files during his meeting with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman at the White House.
No Senate Republicans blocked an attempt to force a vote on a resolution that would compel the release of documents and files related to Jeffrey Epstein.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., made good on his vow to force a vote on the resolution just hours after it passed through the House behind a near unanimous wave of support.
Schumer argued on the floor that the Senate "should pass this bill as soon as possible, as written and without a hint of delay."
"Republicans must not try to change this bill or bury it in committee, or slow walk it in any way," he said. "Any amendment to this bill would force it back to the House and risk further delay. Who knows what would happen over there?"
HOUSE VOTES OVERWHELMINGLY TO FORCE DOJ TO RELEASE JEFFREY EPSTEIN FILES
Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell were both indicted on federal sex trafficking charges stemming from Epstein's years of abuse of underage girls. (Joe Schildhorn/Patrick McMullan via Getty Images)
Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., said that Republicans were already mulling the bill through the hotline process, which is where legislation is considered among lawmakers before making it to the floor. Thune said the plan, if the bill clears the hotline, would be to have it on the floor before lawmakers leave for Thanksgiving recess at the end of this week.
"We'll see what the Democrats have to say," he said. "But it's the kind of thing, probably, that could perhaps move by unanimous consent."
That ended up not being necessary, with bill making its way through the upper chamber without a full vote.
The calculus surrounding the Epstein bill changed in the Senate, too, given that President Donald Trump, who for months railed against attempts to release the files, threw his support behind Massie and Khanna’s legislation over the weekend.
He charged that it was a "Democrat Hoax perpetrated by Radical Left Lunatics in order to deflect from the Great Success of the Republican Party."
HOUSE GOP BRACES FOR EPSTEIN FILES VOTE AS CONCERNS REMAIN DESPITE TRUMP'S GREEN LIGHT
President Donald Trump in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington on Nov. 6, 2025. (Aaron Schwartz/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
"Nobody cared about Jeffrey Epstein when he was alive and, if the Democrats had anything, they would have released it before our Landslide Election Victory," he said in a post on Truth Social.
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Senate Republicans, like their counterparts in the House, wanted more transparency on the issue when the Epstein saga resurfaced over the summer but cautioned that no materials should be released until the names or identifying traits of victims are combed through and kept safe.
But, despite calls from Johnson to amend the bill to include those kinds of guardrails in the legislation, it's unlikely to happen in the Senate.
"I think when a bill comes out of the House 427 to one, and the President said he sign it, I'm not sure that amending it is in the cards," Thune said.
Alex Miller is a writer for Fox News Digital covering the U.S. Senate.
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/senate-unanimously-agrees-send-bill-demanding-epstein-file-release-trumps-desk