Why Pa. Republican Scott Perry says he supported a Pa. Democrat’s motion to subpoena the Epstein files

U.S. Rep. Scott Perry (R., Pa.) voted for a Democratic motion to subpoena the Department of Justice for files related to Jeffrey Epstein, a day after a billboard calling for him to “release all the Epstein files” went up in his swing district.

Perry, who represents York County, was one of three Republicans on the GOP-led House Oversight Subcommittee on Federal Law Enforcement to support the motion, introduced by Rep. Summer Lee (D., Pa.). The measure passed 8-2.

Republican committee members, including Perry, also voted to add additional subpoenas, including former President Bill Clinton and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

The subcommittee vote came a day after Speaker Mike Johnson (R., La.) announced that representatives would be sent home early for the summer, to avoid a full House vote on whether to release the Epstein files.

Controversy over Epstein, the notorious sex offender who died while in federal custody in 2019, continues to divide Republicans in Washington and test their support for President Donald Trump, whose name appears in the files, according to reporting by the Wall Street Journal. Although a longtime Trump ally, Perry has repeatedly called for the files to be released.

Earlier this month, he penned a letter to U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi, urging her to launch an investigation into the federal government’s handling of the case and to release sealed grand jury records from a case against Epstein in Florida in 2006. This week, Perry also requested protective custody for Epstein associate and convicted sex offender Ghislaine Maxwell, ahead of her testimony before the House Oversight Committee in August.

“I have never wavered on my position on this,” Perry told The Inquirer. “I’m doing exactly what I think is right, as I’ve always done.”

Democrats have recently seized on the Epstein issue, pushing for the files to be released and targeting Republican lawmakers with attack ads. The billboard in Harrisburg, which calls for the files’ release next to images of Perry and Trump’s faces in black, white, and red, was paid for by progressive nonprofit Indivisible.

Perry represents one of four Republican-held districts in Pennsylvania that Democrats are targeting for the 2026 midterms. He won reelection last year by a little more than a percentage point.

Other billboards, targeting Reps. Virginia Foxx (R., N.C.), Derrick Van Orden (R., Wis.), Nancy Mace (R., S.C.), and Johnson, also went up in their respective home states.

And even after the subcommittee vote, Indivisible’s leaders say Perry hasn’t done enough to push for the release of the files.

“He’s done nothing to demand the House stay in session for a full floor vote, instead pathetically following the lead of Mike Johnson to shut down Congress in order to continue the President’s cover-up,” said Dani Negrete, Indivisible’s national political director, in a statement to The Inquirer. “Because of that complicity, it will be weeks before we see anything as a result of that one committee vote.”

But Perry said Democrats’ new interest in the Epstein files is “all theater.”

“They have had plenty of opportunities to care about children who have been kidnapped and abused,” he said, arguing that Democrats should also investigate former President Joe Biden.

“As a matter of fact, I’ve done more than all the Democrats have done about it,” he said. “None of these people that are paying for billboards and are saying these things care one whit about these children or this issue.”

Perry also said “there are reasonable arguments” for Republicans to not vote for Democrats’ resolutions to release the files, saying that some of the attempts to force the release of the files haven’t taken enough steps to protect the anonymity of victims.

“I’d like to make sure that those who are innocent are presumed innocent until otherwise proven and those who are potentially victims are not revictimized,” Perry said.