WASHINGTON — Both Democrats and Republicans alike readied for a unanimous House vote Tuesday to pass a bill to force the release of the case files on the convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. But in the end, one lawmaker stood alone in opposition: Republican Rep. Clay Higgins.
Higgins, who is in his fifth term representing a congressional district in southwest Louisiana, explained in a lengthy statement that he was “a principled ‘NO’ on this bill from the beginning.” He raised some of the same objections that House Speaker Mike Johnson, another Louisiana Republican, had with the bill, yet even Johnson said Tuesday he would vote for it because, “None of us want to go on record and in any way be accused of not being for maximum transparency.”
For Higgins, a fervent Trump supporter and a member of the ultra-conservative House Freedom Caucus, that wasn’t a problem.
He refused to give in to the building pressure, both within the Republican base and from survivors of Epstein’s abuse, to pass the bill, even as both President Donald Trump and Johnson relented in their opposition to the legislation. He said that his concern with the bill was that it “reveals and injures thousands of innocent people – witnesses, people who provided alibis, family members, etc.”
“If enacted in its current form, this type of broad reveal of criminal investigative files, released to a rabid media, will absolutely result in innocent people being hurt,” he added.
Higgins suggested he would be open to voting for the bill if the Senate amended it to protect the privacy of those “who are named but not criminally implicated.” But just hours later, the Senate passed the bill through unanimous consent, leaving Higgins the only lawmaker in Congress on record against the legislation.
Yet Higgins is also no stranger to controversy. As a former law enforcement officer, he faced a series of allegations of misconduct and became politically involved after achieving viral fame by creating brash Crime Stoppers videos. It earned him the nickname by media outlets as “Cajun John Wayne,” and he’s followed up the moniker by challenging people on social media to fights.
In 2020, a social media post by the congressman — promising the use of force against armed protesters — was removed by Facebook for violating the company’s violence and incitement policies.
In Congress, he chairs the subcommittee of the House Oversight Committee that initiated a subpoena of the Department of Justice for the Epstein case files. But even when Democrats on the subcommittee convinced several Republicans to vote with them to issue the subpoena, Higgins was one of the few who stood opposed. He also pressed to have the subcommittee subpoena former President Bill Clinton.
“I’ve never handled a subpoena like this. This is some fascinating stuff,” Higgins said at the time. On Tuesday, he pointed to the oversight panel’s work to investigate the government’s handling of the Epstein, saying that it was being done “in a manner that provides all due protections for innocent Americans.”
Last year, Higgins also faced an attempt by Democrats to censure him for racist comments he had made about Haitian immigrants after Trump’s own comments about the Haitian community in Springfield, Ohio.
In a social media post, Higgins called Haitians “wild. Eating pets, vudu, nastiest country in the western hemisphere, cults, slapstick gangsters.”
But after members of the Congressional Black Caucus, a group of Democratic lawmakers, confronted him about the post, Higgins deleted it and partially walked back the comments, saying they were intended for gang members.
At the time, Johnson defended Higgins, calling him “a very frank and outspoken person.”
“He’s also a very principled man,” Johnson added.
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Associated Press writer Sara Cline in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, contributed to this report.
