The Republican-controlled House of Representatives on Tuesday was set to overwhelmingly pass a bill demanding the release of the Jeffrey Epstein files on Tuesday after President Donald Trump abruptly reversed his strident opposition while still maintaining the scandal is a “Democrat hoax.”

As a group of Epstein’s victims made another emotional plea for more transparency, the House was expected to vote nearly unanimously to pass the bill that Trump and GOP leaders spent months unsuccessfully trying to block from even coming to the floor.

The bill is nearly certain to head to the Senate where Republicans will face massive pressure to also approve it.

“It’s time to put the political agendas and party affiliations to the side,” said Haley Robson, an Epstein survivor, told reporters on Capitol Hill. “This is a human issue. This is about children.”

Robson said she is “skeptical” of Trump’s motives in reversing course on the bill.

“I am traumatized. I am not stupid,” she said.

Lisa Phillips said survivors plan to build a movement to expose those who benefitted from or exploited Epstein’s sex trafficking ring and prevent future abuses.

“In a divided nation this is something we all share,” Phillips said. “We intend to change this nation for the better.”

GOP Senate Majority Leader John Thune has been tight-lipped about bringing the measure to the floor for a vote but said he would discuss the next steps after the House acts.

Democratic Senate Leader Chuck Schumer told the News Monday that he would use his legislative power to prevent Thune from bottling up the bill in a committee or deploying other delay tactics.

House Speaker Mike Johnson sought to spin his reversal on the bill as a push for transparency, and told GOP lawmakers to “vote their conscience” in a closed-doors meeting. He accused the proponents of the bill of rejecting his offer of talks to tweak the measure, negotiations they mock as another obstruction tactic.

Democrats declared victory over the GOP after a battle that stretched for months.

“It’s a complete and total surrender,” said Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, D-New York, the House minority leader..

The bill demands that the Justice Department release its case files on Epstein, a well-connected financier who died by suicide in 2019 while awaiting trial in a Manhattan jail on charges he sexually abused and trafficked underage girls for years.

A separate investigation conducted by the House Oversight Committee has released thousands of pages of emails and other documents from Epstein’s estate, showing his connections to global leaders, Wall Street powerbrokers, influential political figures and Trump himself.

Trump admits once being friends with Epstein but insists he cut ties years ago. Trump has never been accused of criminal wrongdoing in the Epstein scandal.

After campaigning on a vow to release all the Epstein files, Trump dramatically changed his tune last spring when Attorney General Pam Bondi reportedly told him that his name features prominently in the documents.

The stonewalling campaign sparked widespread discontent within Trump’s MAGA movement, which had previously included some of the most outspoken voices for full disclosure.

Trump unsuccessfully sought to keep a lid on the rebellion for months and Johnson assisted by blocking efforts to force a vote on the measure.

A bipartisan group of lawmakers gathered signatures for a discharge petition, a rare legislative call requiring a vote. It requires that a majority of the 435 members sign.

With four Republicans joining all Democrats, the petition was stuck just below the needed 218 number for months until Democrats won a special election to fill an Arizona seat left vacant by the death of Raúl Grijalva. Johnson delayed swearing in Grijalva’s wife, the newly elected Rep. Adelita Grijalva, D-Arizona, for several weeks, further stalling the petition.

The bill would force the release within 30 days of all files and communications related to Epstein, as well as any information about the investigation into his death in federal prison. Information about Epstein’s victims or continuing federal investigations would be allowed to be redacted, but not information due to “embarrassment, reputational harm, or political sensitivity, including to any government official, public figure, or foreign dignitary.”

It does permit the Justice Department to withhold materials in an ongoing investigation, a loophole that could prove significant now that Trump has also ordered up a new probe of Democrats he claims had ties to Epstein.

Even as Johnson prepared for a massive vote in favor of the bill, he said the Senate should “fix” the measure in some unspecified way.

Rep. Tom Massie, R-Kentucky, a rebel conservative Republican who helped lead the Epstein petition effort, countered that he wouldn’t accept any further delays or deflection tactics.

“It’ll backfire on the senators if they muck it up,” Massie said.

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