Congressman Riley Moore (R-West Virginia) put out a press release last week titled – Congressman Moore Votes to Release Epstein Files.
One problem – he didn’t actually vote to release the key Epstein files at the center of a firestorm in Congress.
Instead, Moore voted for a “fraud” and a “placebo” – those the words of fellow MAGA Republican Thomas Massie (R-Kentucky) who is leading the effort to get 218 signatures on a discharge petition that would force a vote on the floor of the House to release the Epstein files controlled by the Department of Justice.
Moore’s press release misled his constituents and even major news outlets. Politico reporters were forced to run a correction to an article on the Epstein files. (The Politico correction on September 2, 2025 read: An earlier version of this story misstated Rep. Riley Moore’s support for a discharge petition to force a vote on a resolution to release the Jeffrey Epstein files.)
But by putting out his press release and mailing it to constituents throughout the district, Moore appeased his MAGA base, the majority of whom want all the information released and let the chips fall where they may.
Moore did vote for House Resolution 668 put forth by the House Republican leadership.
But Massie told reporters outside the Capitol that the resolution “does absolutely nothing.”
“The Speaker of the House just offered a fig leaf to my colleagues,” Massie said.. “They’re gonna vote on a non-binding resolution today that does absolutely nothing. I appreciate the efforts of my colleague James Comer, who’s leading the Oversight Committee. They may find some information, but they’re allowing the Department of Justice to curate all of the information that the Department is giving them. If you’ve looked at the pages they’ve released so far, they’re heavily redacted. Some pages are entirely redacted, and 97 percent of this is already in the public domain.”
Massie says he has the 218 votes needed to force a vote on the House floor.
