UNANIMOUS CONSENT

Well, with incredible swiftness yesterday, both houses of the U.S. Congress passed that controversial Epstein file release legislation.

• The House vote was 427 to 1.  Louisiana Republican Representative Clay Higgins cited his concern about innocent people being hurt.

• 
  Minority Leader Chuck Schumer brought up the bill on the floor of the Senate under a procedure called unanimous consent.  He had checked with the Republican party about this process, which allows no debate and no amendments, got concurrence and succeeded.  There was no congressional vote, so no one in the midterm election will get tainted.
• This measure is now on President Donald Trump's desk, and he has said he will sign it.

• 
  The bill requires Attorney General Pam Bondi to release “all unclassified records, documents, communications, and investigative materials” related to Epstein and his co-conspirator Ghislaine Maxwell no later than 30 days after the law is enacted.  The bill gives Bondi the power to withhold information that would jeopardise any active federal investigation or identifies any victims. Trump recently asked the justice department to investigate Epstein's alleged links to major banks and several prominent Democrats.
• 
  Some history.
• Epstein was first convicted with a hand slap in Florida in 2008.
• That leaked e-mail where Epstein wrote to Maxwell, I want you to realize that that dog that hasn't barked is Trump.. (VICTIM) spent hour at my house with him, occurred in 2011.

• 
  Epstein committed suicide in a New York prison cell in 2019.  This is controversial.
• Elon Musk was most recently responsible for this Epstein flare-up.
• He was in charge of the Department of Government Efficiency.

• 
  Trump mentioned something about Musk being on drugs.
• They had a falling out in June of this year.
• In spite, Musk resigned his role and, why, who knows, but indicated that Donald Trump is in the Jeffrey Epstein files.  His DOGE staff must have found something incriminating.
• Musk repeated this Epstein remark in July.
• According to Google AI:

Elon Musk publicly linked Donald Trump to the Jeffrey Epstein matter in June and July of 2025, after Musk had already left his short-lived, informal advisory role in the Trump White House. The specific event was not Musk storming out of the White House, but rather a public feud that unfolded on social media platform X (formerly Twitter) after he had left government service. In early June 2025, a public spat between Musk and Trump began over a "big, beautiful" spending bill that Musk criticized as "outrageous" and "pork-filled". This led to Trump criticizing Musk and suggesting that the government could sever contracts with his companies (like SpaceX). 

In response to this escalating feud, on June 5, 2025, Musk posted on X, without providing evidence: "@realDonaldTrump is in the Epstein files. That is the real reason they have not been made public". 

Musk later deleted that specific post, though he revisited the topic in mid-July 2025, accusing the administration's handling of the files as a "cover up". The White House dismissed Musk's initial claim as an "unfortunate episode" from someone unhappy that his policy preferences were not included in the spending bill. 

It is important to note that the event involved Musk having already exited his government role before making the specific Epstein-related accusations on social media. 

• In September, Musk made headlines about his Epstein relationship.

Interestingly enough, Elon Musk was one of the dignitaries who attended the dinner with Crown Prince MSB last night in the White House.  Also there Tim Cook, Jensen Huang, Jeff Bezos, Greg Brockman, William Clay Ford JR., Patrick T. (no, not me; he's from AMD), Lisa Su (also from AMD), Marc Benioff, and soccer player Cristiano Ronaldo, with his living partner Georgina Rodriguez, Bryson DeChambeau, among more than 100.

This matter of unanimous consent is interesting. I recall being on the Senate floor in 1979 when I first learned about this legislative move.

• The Senate began to first use it in 1789.
• The House picked this procedure up in the 1830s.
• Became a little more formalized in the 1840s, but still largely remained as a gentlemen's agreement.

• 
  The information somewhat obscure, but Senator William Allen of Ohio is credited with proposing the first formal use of unanimous consent in the Senate in 1846.
• Finally in 1914 was adopted by the Senate.
• In general, the Senate uses unanimous consent dozens of time per week, while the House uses the practice less frequently.

From Wikipedia on unanimous consent. 

• Generally, in a meeting of a deliberative assembly, business is conducted using a formal procedure of motion, debate, and vote.  In parliamentary procedure, unanimous consent, also known as general consent, or in the case of the parliaments under the Westminster system, leave of the house (or leave of the senate), is a situation in which no member present objects to a proposal.  
• 
  The procedure of asking for unanimous consent is used to expedite business by eliminating the need for formal votes on routine questions in which the existence of a consensus is likely.^[1] The principle behind it is that procedural safeguards designed to protect a minority can be waived when there is no minority to protect.^[1]

• 
  Action taken by unanimous consent does not necessarily mean that it was taken by a unanimous vote. It does not necessarily mean that every member of the body would have voted in favor of the proposal.^[9] It may mean that members feeling that it would be useless to oppose a matter would simply acquiesce.^[9]
• Unanimous consent is also used in other societal gatherings covered in Robert's Rules of Order.
• Unanimous consent is frequently used to approve the minutes.

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