An effort to force the release of the files on child sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein failed in a close vote in the U.S. Senate on Friday as Mississippi’s two Republican senators voted to block it.
U.S. Sens. Cindy Hyde-Smith and Roger Wicker voted to table the amendment that would have required U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi to fully release the government’s records on Epstein, who died by suicide in 2019.
Senate Amendment 3959 would have directed Bondi “to make publicly available documents related to Jeffrey Epstein.” The motion to table the amendment succeeded by a 51-49 vote. Tabling an amendment can postpone its consideration until a later date or indefinitely.
Mississippi Democratic Party Chairman Rep. Cheikh Taylor, D-Starkville, condemned Hyde-Smith’s vote in a Thursday press release.
“As Mississippians and the Epstein survivors demand transparency and answers, their calls have fallen on deaf ears with Senator Cindy Hyde-Smith,” he said, focusing only on the senator who is up for reelection in 2026. “Last night, Hyde-Smith gave a gleeful thumbs-up as she voted against releasing the Epstein files. Her disturbing vote to cover up the documents related to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein shows once again that Cindy Hyde-Smith is working for the rich and powerful, not Mississippians.”
Neither Hyde-Smith nor Wicker responded to a request for comment.
Several candidates have already announced plans to run against Hyde-Smith next year, including Democrat Scott Colom, Democrat Priscilla Williams-Till and independent candidate Ty Pinkins.
Epstein died by suicide in a Manhattan jail in 2019 while he was awaiting trial for charges of sexual abuse and human trafficking of dozens of underage girls. Prosecutors accused him of giving underage girls hundreds of dollars in cash for massages that ended in him sexually assaulting them.
In 2021, a jury convicted Ghislaine Maxwell, his former girlfriend and coconspirator, and sentenced her to 20 years in prison.