A House Oversight subcommittee voted Wednesday to subpoena the Department of Justice to release files related to Jeffrey Epstein. House Oversight Chair James Comer will be required to sign the subpoena before it can officially be issued, according to committee rules.

       The motion to subpoena the Trump DOJ for all records related to the Epstein investigation passed, 8-2.

       GOP Reps. Nancy Mace, Scott Perry and Brian Jack joined with the subpanel’s four Democrats and the full committee’s ranking member Robert Garcia to approve the subpoena in a defiant move of House GOP leadership that wanted to leave the handling of the Epstein files to the Trump administration.

       Rep. Summer Lee, the subcommittee’s top Democrat, had offered the motion.

       Asked by CNN whether this is an issue that constituents care about, Lee replied, “Yes, I think the American people want transparency.”

       “At the end of the day, we have to send a message that whether you are the littlest guy or you are the most powerful person in this nation, that if you commit a crime, if you do things that we aren’t supposed to do, that there will be some accountability. Right now, if we don’t vote on this, or if we don’t release these files, we’re sending a message that if you are a powerful abuser, then you will have, you’ll be covered, right,” she told CNN ahead of the hearing.