Democrats win midterms, push new Epstein files vote and probes
Archived — this story has rotated out of today’s deck. It is kept here in full.
The gist
After Democrats won both chambers, Rep. Thomas Massie said a second Epstein Files Transparency Act will get 218 signatures.
Millions of pages remain withheld, and Leon Black is suing a congressman over Epstein remarks.
Background
Jeffrey Epstein was a financier whose sex-crimes case and death spawned years of document releases and litigation. The Epstein Files Transparency Act, a bipartisan law, forced the Justice Department to release files; Rep. Thomas Massie, a Kentucky Republican leaving Congress in January, co-sponsored a follow-up with Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.). The issue featured heavily in the midterms, with at least $70 million in TV ads mentioning Epstein between Sept. 1 and Oct. 21, per AdImpact data.
How it unfolded
- Nov 3, 2026Democrats won control of both the House and the Senate in Tuesday's midterm elections.
- Nov 4, 2026Billionaire Leon Black filed a federal defamation suit against Rep. Robert Garcia (D-Calif.) over comments tying him to Epstein, seeking $7.25 million and a jury trial.
- Nov 4, 2026An Epstein sex abuse survivor gave a tour of a traveling exhibit in Fort Lauderdale displaying roughly 3.5 million pages of DOJ files.
- Nov 5, 2026Rep. Massie said the push for a vote on a second Epstein Files Transparency Act would secure the needed 218 signatures when the House returns.
- Nov 5, 2026Rep. Garcia announced his bid for House Oversight Committee chair, listing Epstein as one of four investigative priorities.
- Nov 5, 2026Democratic Senate Finance Committee staffers intend to focus on how JPMorgan Chase executives, including Mary Erdoes, handled Epstein, a source told CNBC.
- Nov 6, 2026Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-Ill.) said Congress may issue subpoenas and that over two million pages remain unreleased.
Key terms
- midterms
- US general elections held near the midpoint of a president's four-year term, when all House seats and about a third of Senate seats are contested.
- 218 signatures
- A procedure to bring a bill out of committee to the floor without a committee report.
- subpoenas
- The legal authority to issue a writ compelling a witness to testify or produce evidence under penalty of punishment.
Source: Wikipedia
Who’s saying what
- Democrats
- Rep. Krishnamoorthi called for public televised survivor hearings and subpoenas, saying 'They have not received a single iota of justice.'
- Support
- A survivor said of Democrats, 'They stood with us then. We're hoping they stand with us in January when they take office.'
- Official
- Leon Black's lawyers say Garcia's statements were false and malicious and caused threats and harm to his business and philanthropy.
- Caution
- The White House called the House Judiciary report politically motivated and said Trump had already been exonerated.
Still unverified
The planned Senate Finance Committee probe of JPMorgan and Mary Erdoes has not been announced; the source spoke anonymously. The White House disputed the women's accounts in the House Judiciary report as false.