By STEPHEN GROVES, MATT BROWN and JOEY CAPPELLETTI Associated Press
The House is heading toward a vote on a bill to force the Justice Department to release the case files it has collected on the late financier Jeffrey Epstein. Lawmakers are pushing past a monthslong effort by President Donald Trump and Republican leaders to stop the effort. Many lawmakers say the Justice Department needs to release its case files on Epstein. They argue that the release could show that other people were aware or complicit in Epstein's sexual abuse. House Democrats and a few key Republicans have been able to force a vote on the bill to do that by using a rarely successful measure called a discharge petition.
Donald Trump has made a triumphant return to Capitol Hill to meet with House and Senate Republicans for the first time since the Jan. 6, 2021 attack. GOP lawmakers find themselves newly energized and reinvigorated by Trump's bid to retake the White House. This is despite the federal charges against Trump for conspiring to overturn the 2020 election and his recent guilty verdict in an unrelated hush money trial. He held an hour-long closed-door morning meeting with House Republicans and then was meeting with Senate Republicans at campaign headquarters near the Capitol to discuss party priorities. It's his first visit as the party's presumptive nominee.
