WASHINGTON — A House subcommittee on Wednesday voted to subpoena the Department of Justice for files in the sex trafficking investigation into Jeffrey Epstein after Democrats successfully goaded GOP lawmakers to defy Trump and Republican leadership to support the action.
Democrats on a subcommittee of the powerful House Committee on Oversight made a motion for the subpoena Wednesday afternoon, just hours before the House was scheduled to end its July work session and depart Washington for a monthlong break.
Three Republicans on the panel voted with Democrats for the subpoena, sending it through on an 8-2 vote tally.
The Republican subcommittee chairman, Rep. Clay Higgins of Louisiana, said that work was beginning to draft the subpoena but that it would take some time for both sides to work out the final language.
“If the Republican Party, if our colleagues on this committee don’t join us in this vote, then what