The House is on track to vote on disclosing files related to the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein after a newly sworn-in Democrat completed a bipartisan effort Wednesday to sidestep Republican leaders over the opposition of President Donald Trump.
Rep. Adelita Grijalva of Arizona signed the discharge petition immediately after she was sworn in by Speaker Mike Johnson after a record 50-day wait and delivered remarks critical of the GOP attempts to keep Justice Department files under wraps.
“It’s past time for Congress to restore its role as a check and balance on this administration,” she said, adding, “That is why I will sign the discharge petition right now to release the Epstein files — justice cannot wait another day.”
The vote is expected in early December, according to aides from both parties.
Grijalva had expressed no special interest in the Epstein case prior to her Sept. 23 election. But she became intertwined in the fate of a bipartisan effort to disclose Justice Department files related to the disgraced financier after it became clear she could provide the final necessary signature on a discharge petition forcing a House vote on the matter.
She has had to wait seven weeks to do that, however, with Johnson refusing to seat her as the House stayed out of session for the duration of the government shutdown.
Democrats have railed against the speaker, accusing him of seeking to propagate an Epstein coverup on behalf of Trump. Johnson, in turn, said the wait had nothing to do with Epstein and everything to do with Senate Democrats’ refusal to pass a House-approved measure to reopen the government. The lengthy delay prompted a lawsuit by the Arizona attorney general that is now rendered moot.
Grijalva played down her connection to the Epstein push in a brief interview Wednesday, saying it was “not what I was elected to do.” But she added that she still planned to sign: “It sort of continues this push that the American people have to really demand transparency and consequences, legal consequences for anyone implicated in those files.”
Her addition to the House also narrows Republicans’ majority to 219-214, meaning Johnson can now lose only two votes if all members are voting. Grijalva’s first votes will be on the funding package to end the shutdown.
Grijalva, a former member of the Pima County Board of Supervisors, won a special election to fill the seat held by her late father Rep. Raúl Grijalva, a longtime progressive leader, who died in March at 77.
Mia McCarthy contributed to this report.
