Who is Clay Higgins, the only House Republican to vote against releasing the Epstein files?

U.S. Rep. Clay Higgins, R-La., was the lone House member to vote against a bill that would force the Justice Department to release its files related to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

“I have been a principled ‘NO’ on this bill from the beginning. What was wrong with the bill three months ago is still wrong today. It abandons 250 years of criminal justice procedure in America,” Higgins wrote Tuesday afternoon on social media.

“As written, this bill reveals and injures thousands of innocent people — witnesses, people who provided alibis, family members, etc.,” Higgins added. “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.”

Higgins said he would vote for the bill if the Senate amends it to “properly address privacy of victims and other Americans who are named but not criminally implicated.”

Clay has represented a congressional district in southwestern Louisiana since 2017.

He serves on the House Oversight Committee (along with U.S. Rep. Summer Lee, D-Swissvale) and the House Armed Services Committee (along with U.S. Rep. Chris Deluzio, D-Fox Chapel). He also is a member of the conservative Freedom Caucus and the Republican Study Committee.

Higgins is regarded as one of the most conservative members of the House. In its 2024 rating of members based on their voting records, the Conservative Political Action Conference gave Higgins and 10 other House members 100% ratings.

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.

He chairs the House Oversight subcommittee that initiated a subpoena of the Justice Department for the Epstein case files — a motion made by Lee. While several Republicans on the subcommittee voted with Democrats 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.

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 (sic), nastiest country in the western hemisphere, cults, slapstick gangsters.”

After members of the Congressional Black Caucus confronted him about the post, Higgins deleted it and partially walked back the comments, saying they were intended for gang members.

The Associated Press contributed.