GOP-led House panel votes to subpoena Epstein files

• Many of the Republican members on the House Oversight Subcommittee on Federal Law Enforcement were caught in a bind after spending years being outspoken in favor of transparency around Epstein.
• Democrats have gleefully taken every opportunity to try to force their GOP colleagues into taking painful votes on the issue.

Driving the news: The panel voted 8 -2 in favor of the subpoena, with only Chair Clay Higgins (R-La.) and Rep. Andy Biggs (R-Ariz.) voting against it.

• Reps. Nancy Mace (R-S.C.), Scott Perry (R-Pa.) and Brian Jack (R-Ga.) voted for the subpoena along with the five Democrats on the panel.
• Several right-wing House Republicans, including Reps. Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.) and Paul Gosar (R-Ariz.), were absent from the vote.

What happened: Rep. Summer Lee (D-Pa.), the panel's ranking member, introduced the motion during an unrelated hearing on the "crisis of unaccompanied alien children."

• Rep. Robert Garcia (D-Calif.), the ranking member of the full Oversight Committee, told reporters ahead of the vote: "The Republican members of the committee, including the chair, have all called to release the Epstein files, so now they have an opportunity to make true on their words."
• Republican members of the panel were blindsided by Lee's move, which came just before members' five-week August recess.

The other side: Higgins told Axios he opposed the motion because it is overly broad and that the Justice Department has "an obligation to protect the integrity of the case files."

• "On the one hand, we do want full transparency and an investigation — on the other hand, we can't injure the integrity of that investigation by using blunt instrument enforcement," he said.

Editor's note: This story has been updated with additional reporting.