00:00Nearly every Republican in the US House of Representatives supported a bill
00:12compelling the release of documents tied to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
00:16The final vote? 427 to 1. And that lone no vote came from Representative Clay
00:22Higgins, a Republican from Louisiana. Here's the question. Why did Higgins, one
00:28Republican congressman, vote no on releasing the Epstein files, while 427 lawmakers voted yes?
00:37Higgins has described his vote as a principled stand. In a post on X he wrote,
00:42What was wrong with the bill three months ago is still wrong today. It abandons 250
00:48years of criminal justice procedure in America. The overwhelming bipartisan vote marks a rare
00:54moment of unity on Capitol Hill. And just hours later, the US Senate passed the legislation
01:00unanimously. The bill now heads to President Donald Trump, who has said he will sign it.
01:07For Higgins, however, the issue wasn't political. It was procedural and personal.
01:12His primary concern? The risk that releasing investigative files could expose innocent
01:18people, including victims. As written, this bill reveals and injures thousands of innocent people,
01:24witnesses, people who provided alibis, family members, etc. If enacted in its current form,
01:32this type of broad reveal of criminal investigative files released to a rabid media will absolutely
01:38result in innocent people being hurt. Higgins said he would support the bill if it were amended
01:45by the Senate. But Republican Senate Majority Leader John Thune made it clear that changes were unlikely.
01:54When a bill comes out of the House 4-27-1 and the President said he's going to sign it,
02:00I'm not sure that amending it is in the cards.
02:05Before the House vote, only four Republicans had signed a petition to force the vote.
02:11Thomas Massey, Lauren Boebert, Nancy Mace, Marjorie Taylor Greene. Democrats supported the petition
02:18unanimously. But the breakthrough came when President Trump dropped his opposition,
02:23clearing the way for broad Republican support.
02:27Clay Higgins, who has represented Louisiana's third district since 2017,
02:32is widely known as one of the most conservative members of Congress.
02:36And this isn't the first time he has taken positions that set him apart from his party.
02:42In 2024, House Republicans voted to censure Higgins over offensive remarks about Haiti.
02:48He called the country,
02:49the nastiest country in the Western Hemisphere,
02:52and described Haitians as eating pets and slapstick gangsters.
02:57He wrote,
02:58All these thugs better get their mind right and their ass out of our country before January 20th.
03:06His social media posts have sparked controversy before.
03:10In 2020, Facebook removed two posts in which Higgins wrote,
03:14he would drop any ten of you where you stand,
03:17aimed at armed protesters planning to attend a demonstration against police brutality.
03:22Facebook said the posts violated policies against inciting violence.
03:27Before entering Congress,
03:29Higgins served in the St. Landry Parish Sheriff's Office in Louisiana.
03:32He resigned in 2016 after backlash over a widely criticized anti-crime video
03:38where he was seen holding a rifle and issuing threats toward gang members.
03:44So, as the nation awaits President Trump's signature on the bipartisan Epstein Files bill,
03:49one question remains at the center.
03:52Was Higgins protecting due process and innocent people,
03:56or standing in the way of transparency?
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