11 18 25 ABC News' Christiane Cordero on the House bill to release Epstein files

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Now on Colorado's Morning News. It's a critical day for
House lawmakers as they vote on whether to release the
FBI files on sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. And this comes
as newly released documents show President Trump mentioned in the
emails dating back to twenty eleven. Now, Trump says House
Republicans should vote to release the files, and I'll sign
the measure if it passes the Senate. Joining us on

(00:21):
the KWA Common Spirit Health Hotline live from Washington is
ABC News reporter Christianne Cordero. Christiana, appreciate your time this morning.
Explain a little bit about the process of what we
have to see before we could really see the release
of all the Epstein files.

Speaker 2 (00:36):
Yeah, good to be with you. And it is how
it has really been a process and it will continue
to be. But it does seem like there is a
clear path for this vote to happen and pass through
the House. But as far as a little bit of
the minutia goes, you know, Republicans have approved a couple
of critical rules. One is that this is up for

(00:58):
debate today for forty mon It's twenty minutes divided evenly
by each side, and it does need because of the
rules that we're set as supermajority to pass, and so
if every Democrat supports it, then on top of that,
it also needs support from seventy five Republicans because, as
you mentioned of the change of tune from the President
in the past couple of days, it does seem between

(01:19):
that and a couple of other things that this will
have the votes to get through the House and then
it's off to the Senate, where it's save is a
little bit less clear, but House vote first, Setate vote
at some point later down the road, and then it's
off to the President's that's where he has said he
will find it.

Speaker 1 (01:34):
Okay. So, Christiane, if we see the super majority today
and it gets passed off to the Senate, do you
think that we could see another change of tone for
the President of now talking to Senate Republicans and saying, Okay,
now it's your turn, make sure that you pass this
so it can get to my desk.

Speaker 2 (01:49):
Right. I think it'll be really interesting to see how
many votes it passes in the House today, because if
it is an overwhelming majority, then you have to think
of that adds a lot of pressure for Senate Majority
leader John Soon who as of right now, has been
pretty poker faced about the whole thing. He hasn't committed
to giving this a vote in the Senate, but I

(02:11):
do think to your point that that would probably change.
At the very least, he would face a lot more
pressure and have for conversations. You know, if there's any
indication that it's going to stall in the Senate.

Speaker 1 (02:22):
Do we have a timeline of the votes that will
be taking place today today?

Speaker 2 (02:26):
We have a very fluid timeline, so you can expect
the vote to happen at some point, perhaps this afternoon,
but that timing is subject to change. And then you know,
as far as the timeline on the back end, if
this does in fact get to the President's desk and
he is indicated he'll sign it, then that would compel
the DOJ to release the files within thirty days.

Speaker 1 (02:47):
Talking about those files, Christian, I believe it's like fifty
thousand documents have already been handed over to a House committee.
How will we really know if everything has been made public?
Do we know the exact number of how much more
could be released?

Speaker 2 (03:00):
I think because of the back and forth that we've
seen over the past few months that that has created
a lot of skepticism, at the very least concern within
a lot of people who have been waiting. You know,
of course, the people top of mind are the survivors
of Jeffrey Epstein, who have really been calling on on
by person leadership to release this whether it's the President himself,
who does, by the way, have the power to compel

(03:22):
Congress or compel the dj on his own. He does
not need an Act of Congress to do that, and
so we'll see. But as far as what is required goes,
if this bill does pass, then it is effectively all
of the files in the government's possession related to the
Jeffrey Epstein investigation. There are some there is some room

(03:45):
for redactments as far as private information goes, particularly when
you think about the victims, their personal information, things of
that nature. But you can bet that there will be
a lot of scrutiny if there is in fact this
trope of documents.

Speaker 1 (03:59):
That's really I'll continue following the latest with a House
vote expected later this afternoon. Live from Washington, it's ABC
News reporter Christian Cordero. Christian, appreciate your time this morning.