The Jeffrey Epstein Transparency Act passed through Congress on Tuesday much faster than the months-long bipartisan battle over releasing the millionaire pedophile's papers had suggested. It received almost unanimous support. Only one representative, Clay Higgins (a Trump supporter from Louisiana), voted against the bill. The remaining 427 members of Congress and 100 senators supported it. Moreover, the Senate used the"unanimous consent" mechanism, which allowed the bill to be sent directly to President Donald Trump's desk without debate.

The bill was scheduled to arrive at the White House on Wednesday morning, where it awaited Trump's signature. There was no signing ceremony on the day's schedule, and those plans remained unchanged throughout the morning. The US president has nevertheless promised to sign it, despite having obstructed the release of these documents for months, and on Monday he told reporters that he was prepared to"give it all" to those who have been demanding transparency for months."Let the Senate examine them. Let anyone examine them," he added.

But “everything” may not be enough for the victims. The law passed by Congress includes exceptions that allow the Department of Justice to withhold information that could turn this new declassification into another chapter in the story of accumulated disappointments in this case for those who want it clarified once and for all how far Epstein's sex trafficking network reached and which rich and powerful men participated in it or, at least, had knowledge of the crimes of the pedophile and his accomplice, Ghislaine Maxwell. She is serving a 20-year prison sentence in a minimum-security facility after cooperating with the Trump Administration last July.

The Epstein Files Transparency Act orders Attorney General Pam Bondi to release unclassified documents related to the millionaire sex offender. Bondi, who reversed her decision in July regarding the release of these materials after months of promising to free the Epstein papers, has 30 days from the date of the order to comply.

According to the rule, this disclosure must be"systematic" and include all documents held by the Department of Justice. It is a vast and varied collection of files, numbering in the millions, including flight logs, personal communications, internal reports, metadata, immunity agreements, contracts with the financier's employees, and emails with his inner circle.

Possible censorship

The law also requires that published material be easily accessible and downloadable. It authorizes the Department of Justice to censor information that could be compromising to victims, materials describing child sexual abuse, graphic images, or data that could jeopardize an ongoing investigation. Bondi is required to justify these censorships, and requires Congress to submit an additional report detailing the redactions within 15 days of publication.

“We will obey the law,” Bondi said three times on Wednesday in response to reporters’ questions. “Meanwhile, we will continue to protect victims and act with transparency.”

When asked what had changed since her department said in a July statement that they would not release any more materials, the attorney general offered a rushed response: “There is information, new information, additional information, but, again, we will simply obey the law.” Before that change of heart, and as was later revealed, Bondi had warned Trump at a White House meeting that his name appeared “all over” the files of the millionaire pedophile, with whom he had maintained a friendship for 15 years.

The victims, gathered Tuesday at the Capitol to support the passage of the new law, fear that the Trump Administration will release excessively redacted material or exploit the existence of these ongoing investigations. Specifically, they fear the investigation ordered by the President of the United States to Bondi last Friday. He asked Bondi to investigate Epstein's connections to some of the names that have repeatedly surfaced in the documents that have come to light over the years. He cited three, all Democrats: Bill Clinton, former Harvard President Larry Summers, and mega-donor Reid Hoffman.

Thomas Massie, a Kentucky Republican and sponsor of the new law, has threatened to read aloud in the House of Representatives all the names of Epstein's accomplices compiled by the victims. He vowed to do so if this declassification, which Washington is eagerly awaiting, does not satisfy the survivors' thirst for justice.