More Epstein files could, in theory, be coming soon.
That’s because, at 4 p.m. ET on Wednesday, House Speaker Mike Johnson finally swore in Rep. Adelita Grijalva, the Arizona Democrat who has promised to provide the final congressional signature on a discharge petition to force a vote on a bipartisan bill to release government files from the Jeffrey Epstein investigation.
That would include flight logs, names of people and entities with ties to Epstein, sealed settlements, and internal Department of Justice (DOJ) communications related to the case.
The discharge petition—introduced by Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) and Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.)—back in July, allows members to bypass House leadership and force a floor vote once 218 members have signed on. It currently has 217 signatures, with four Republicans—Massie, Rep. Nancy Mace (R-S.C.), Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.), and Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.)—among them.
Grijalva, who won her House seat in a special election in September, will provide the critical 218th vote to move the vote forward; she told Semafor that signing the petition was the first thing she planned to do after being sworn in.
The rules of the House stipulate that members can initiate a floor vote seven days after filing a successful discharge petition, and that the Speaker must schedule a floor vote within two days of getting that notice, which Johnson has committed to doing. Top aides told Politico they expect the House vote will take place just after Thanksgiving.
In the nearly two months since Grijalva won the election to fill her late father’s seat, Johnson had refused to swear her in—pointing to the government shut down and his own decision to largely keep the House out of session as justification for his obstructionism.
Last month, Grijalva and Arizona’s attorney general filed a lawsuit against the House, alleging that the delay was unconstitutionally leaving Grijalva’s district without representation.
Survivors of sex abuse and trafficking by Epstein and his co-conspirator, Ghislaine Maxwell, also called for Grijalva’s swearing-in, alleging the delay “appears to be a deliberate attempt to block her participation in the discharge petition that would force a vote to unseal the Epstein/Maxwell files.”
Johnson has denied claims that he delayed Grijalva’s swearing in due to the files and has called the discharge petition a “gambit,” arguing the GOP-controlled House Oversight Committee is already working on releasing the files. The committee has, indeed, released more than 33,000 pages of documents that it secured by subpoenaing the DOJ, and it released another 20,000 pages on Wednesday morning provided by Epstein’s estate.
Democrats and Epstein survivors have pointed out that some of the documents released by the committee had already been made public through prior court cases. Rep. Robert Garcia (D-Calif.), the committee’s ranking Democrat, said Wednesday that the DOJ has more files and alleged that the White House is behind a “cover up” to prevent their release.
