周二下午晚些时候，参议院一致同意批准众议院要求司法部发布杰弗里·爱泼斯坦档案法案的法案。
当该法案从众议院抵达时，它将被视为立即由参议院通过，并被送到唐纳德·特朗普总统的办公桌上。
少数党领袖查克·舒默在下午5:18来到会场，就在几个小时后众议院响亮地通过了法案，并要求一旦众议院处理完毕，该法案即被视为由参议院通过。
没有人反对。
参议院的一致行动意味着，不会像众议院议长·迈克·约翰逊和他的共和党领导团队的其他成员一直敦促的那样，对该法案进行修正或修改。
特朗普周一表示，如果该法案到达他的办公桌，他将签署该法案。
“我完全赞成，”特朗普说。
但周二下午，总统在社交媒体平台上发表帖子说，他不在乎“参议院何时通过众议院法案，无论是今晚还是不久的将来，”他希望共和党人继续关注他的议程。
“我只是不希望共和党人忽视我们已经取得的所有胜利，包括伟大美丽的法案，关闭边境，没有男人参加女子运动或每个人都是变性人，结束DEI，阻止拜登创纪录的通货膨胀，历史上最大的税收和监管削减，停止八场战争，重建我们的军队，受到世界上每个国家的尊重，在美国投资数万亿美元，创造了世界上任何地方“最热”的国家，甚至在政府关闭时给民主党带来了巨大的失败，”特朗普在年说
一名白宫高级官员后来告诉美国广播公司新闻，该法案将“无论何时到达白宫都会签署。”
特朗普不需要等待国会采取行动——他可以立即下令释放。
在国会山的守夜活动中，一群众议院民主党人和爱泼斯坦幸存者在得知参议院一致通过该法案后爆发出热烈的欢呼。
新墨西哥州民主党众议员特雷莎·莱格·费尔南德斯在讲台上宣布这一消息后，人群爆发出热烈的欢呼、掌声和微笑，其中一些人热泪盈眶。
有人看到民主党人拥抱幸存者。
该措施迫使司法部长帕姆·邦迪(Pam Bondi)在其颁布后30天内提供司法部掌握的与爱普斯坦有关的所有“非机密记录、文件、通信和调查材料”。
根据立法文本，如果这项立法签署成为法律，它可能会迫使公布关于爱泼斯坦及其被定罪的共犯吉斯莱恩·麦克斯韦尔(Ghislaine Maxwell)以及其他个人的联邦记录，包括政府官员在内，这些人被点名或提及与爱泼斯坦的“犯罪活动、民事和解、豁免权、认罪协议或调查程序”有关。根据众议院通过的法案文本，受害者的姓名和其他身份信息将被排除在外，任何可能描述或包含儿童性虐待材料的项目也是如此。
美国广播公司新闻频道尚未收到司法部对特朗普签署该法案后是否以及如何遵守该法案的问题的回应。
周五，邦迪宣布，司法部正在对高调的民主党人和爱泼斯坦之间的文件和潜在联系进行新的调查，就在特朗普命令她登录他的真实社交账户几个小时后。
尚不清楚它是否会援引这一声明，将大部分文件排除在公开披露之外，因为它们与新的调查有关，尽管DOJ和美国联邦调查局在7月的一份声明中明确表示，在审查文件时，没有发现任何证据支持对任何未被指控的个人进行调查。
据消息人士称，司法部不太可能公布整个爱泼斯坦的档案。任何与正在进行的调查或白宫声称的行政特权有关的材料都可能不会公开。
周二早些时候，图恩驳回了参议院将修改该法案的想法，尽管约翰逊敦促参议院这样做。
“我认为当众议院以427票对1票通过一项法案时，总统说他会签字我不确定修改它是否可行，”图恩说。
约翰逊对参议院不做修改就快速通过爱泼斯坦文件法案的前景并不热心。
“我刚刚给他发了短信，我们要聚一聚，”约翰逊谈到图恩时说。“我们会谈到这一点。”
“有一个简单的方法来修改立法，以确保我们不会对司法系统造成永久性损害，我将坚持这一点，”约翰逊补充说。“我们会和我们的参议院同事谈谈。”
Senate unanimously agrees to approve Epstein files bill
The Senate late Tuesday afternoon agreed to unanimously approve the House bill that calls for the Justice Department to release its Jeffrey Epstein files bill.
When the bill arrives from the House, it will be deemed immediately passed by the Senate and sent to President Donald Trump's desk.
Minority Leader Chuck Schumer came to the floor at 5:18 p.m., just hours after theHouse resoundingly passed the bill, and asked for it to be deemed passed by the Senate as soon as it was processed by the House.
No one objected.
The unanimous action by the Senate means there will be no amendments or changes to the bill as House Speaker Mike Johnson and other members of his Republican leadership team had been urging.
Trump said on Monday that he will sign the bill should it reach his desk.
"I'm all for it," Trump said.
But in a post on his social media platform Tuesday afternoon, the president said he doesn't "care when the Senate passes the House Bill, whether tonight, or at some other time in the near future," and that he wants Republicans to stay focused on his agenda.
"I just don’t want Republicans to take their eyes off all of the Victories that we’ve had, including THE GREAT BIG BEAUTIFUL BILL, Closed Borders, No Men in Women’s Sports or Transgender for Everyone, ending DEI, stopping Biden’s Record Setting Inflation, Biggest Tax and Regulation Cuts in History, stopping EIGHT Wars, rebuilding our Military, being RESPECTED by every Country in the World, having Trillions of Dollars INVESTED in the U.S.A., having created the “HOTTEST” Country anywhere in the World, and even delivering a HUGE DEFEAT to the Democrats on the Shutdown," Trump said in his post.
A senior White House official later told ABC News that the bill will "be signed whenever it gets to the White House."
Trump did not need to wait for Congress to act -- he could order the release immediately.
At a vigil on Capitol Hill, a group of House Democrats and Epstein survivors broke out in loud cheers upon learning that the Senate unanimously approved the bill.
After New Mexico Democratic Rep. Teresa Leger Fernandez made the announcement from the podium, the group broke out in loud cheers, claps and smiles -- some of them tearing up.
Democrats were seen hugging the survivors.
The measure compels Attorney General Pam Bondi to make available all "unclassified records, documents, communications and investigative materials" in the Department of Justice's possession related to Epstein within 30 days of its enactment.
If the legislation is signed into law, it could compel the release of federal records on Epstein and his convicted accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell, as well as other individuals, including government officials, named or referenced in connection with Epstein's "criminal activities, civil settlements, immunity, plea agreements or investigatory proceedings," according to the legislation text. Victims' names and other identifying information would be excluded from disclosure, as would any items that may depict or contain child sex abuse material, according to the text of the House-passed bill.
ABC News has not received a response from the Justice Department to questions about whether and how it plans to comply with the bill once it has been signed by Trump.
On Friday, Bondi announced the Justice Department was initiating a renewed investigation into the files and potential ties between high-profile Democrats and Epstein just hours after Trump ordered her to on his Truth Social account.
It's unclear whether it will seek to cite that announcement as exempting much of the files from public disclosure due to their relevance to the new investigation, despite DOJ and FBI stating unequivocally in a July statement that it uncovered no evidence in a review of the files that would support a predicated investigation against any uncharged individuals.
It's unlikely the Justice Department would release the entire Epstein file, according to sources. Any materials related to ongoing investigations or White House claims of executive privilege will likely remain out of public view.
Earlier Tuesday, Thune dismissed the idea that the Senate would amend the bill despite Johnson urging the Senate to do so.
"I think when a bill comes out of the House 427 to 1 and the presidentsaid he was going to sign it, I'm not sure that amending it is in the cards," Thune said.
Johnson was not enthusiastic about the prospect of the Senate fast-tracking passage of the Epstein files bill in the upper chamber without making changes.
"I just texted him, we're going to get together," Johnson said about Thune. "We'll talk about that."
"There's an easy way to amend the legislation to make sure that we don't do permanent damage to the justice system, and I'm going to insist upon that," Johnson added."We'll talk to our Senate colleagues."
