Democrats and Republicans alike anticipated a clean, unanimous vote on Tuesday to force the release of Jeffrey Epstein’s case files. But one member did not join the consensus: Republican Representative Clay Higgins of Louisiana.

His lone dissent highlighted his history of staking out positions on the extreme edge of the Republican Party.

The United States House approved the measure by an overwhelming margin of 427, including 216 Republicans. The bill then moved to the Senate, which unanimously approved it, clearing the way for it to be sent for President Donald Trump’s signature.

Here is what we know:

Who is Clay Higgins?

Higgins has represented Louisiana’s 3rd Congressional District since 2017. He is known as one of the most far-right members of the House and often takes positions that fall outside the Republican mainstream. He is also a strong Trump supporter.

Higgins has drawn national attention for years, often because of controversy. Before he entered Congress, he worked in law enforcement, where he faced several misconduct complaints. He later became well-known online for his dramatic, tough-talking Crime Stoppers videos, which went viral and helped launch his political career.

His outspoken style has continued in Washington. In 2020, he posted a message on Facebook threatening the use of force against armed protesters, alongside a photo of Black demonstrators carrying long guns. “If we recognise threat … you won’t walk away,” he wrote. Facebook later removed the post.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, Higgins was openly sceptical about the virus and claimed that the Chinese Communist Party had created and weaponised it.

In 2021, Higgins claimed that “ghost buses” – unmarked vehicles he said carried undercover agents or provocateurs – were sent to the US Capitol on January 6 to spark the violence. January 6 was the day a mob of Trump supporters stormed the Capitol to stop certification of the 2020 election. No evidence has ever supported the Higgins claim.

Higgins again drew backlash in 2024 after he made offensive comments about Haitian immigrants, echoing remarks Trump had made about the Haitian community in Springfield, Ohio, including the president’s unsubstantiated claim that Haitian immigrants were eating pets.

Higgins called Haiti “the nastiest country in the Western Hemisphere”. Members of the Congressional Black Caucus confronted him, after which he deleted a post on Haitians eating pets and said he was referring to gang members, not all Haitians.

Even before entering  Congress, Higgins was familiar with public criticism. He resigned from the St Landry Parish Sheriff’s Office in 2016 after facing backlash over one of his hardline anticrime videos.

Higgins is the seventh of eight children. He was born in New Orleans, and his family moved to Covington, Louisiana, when he was six.

In 2017, he said he was working 16- to 18-hour days and that he sometimes slept on an air mattress in his Washington, DC, office.

Higgins has been married four times. He currently lives in Port Barre, Louisiana, with his fourth wife, Becca.

Why did Higgins oppose?

Higgins had previously voiced his support for the investigation by the committee and was a lead investigator.

But in a post on X, Higgins explained his reasons for opposing the measure, saying the files could inadvertently entangle innocent people if they are released, and claimed that he had been opposed to making the documents public from the start.

“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. As written, this bill reveals and injures thousands of innocent people – witnesses, people who provided alibis, family members, etc,” Higgins wrote. “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. Not by my vote.”

His worries were similar to those voiced by House Speaker Mike Johnson and other lawmakers. Supporters of the bill pushed back, saying those fears were unfounded and that safeguards were already included to prevent any sensitive details from being released.

“The Oversight Committee is conducting a thorough investigation that has already released well over 60,000 pages of documents from the Epstein case. That effort will continue in a manner that provides all due protections for innocent Americans. If the Senate amends the bill to properly address [the] privacy of victims and other Americans, who are named but not criminally implicated, then I will vote for that bill when it comes back to the House,” he added.

In reality, however, the bill to release the files includes redactions of portions that would otherwise reveal the identities of witnesses, victims, their families and whistleblowers.

After the vote, Higgins appeared to raise his phone and take a photo of the House voting board listing his dissenting vote just before votes closed.