By Nick Karmia/Cronkite News
WASHINGTON – The House is now on the verge of voting on whether to keep the Epstein files under wraps, thanks to Adelita Grijalva’s win in a special election to fill her late father’s seat.
Speaker Mike Johnson has resisted such a vote, but a discharge petition to circumvent him is just one signature short – and the Tucson Democrat intends to sign.
Every Democrat plus four Republicans are on board.
“There’s an old saying in politics that ‘when your opponent is drowning, throw them an anchor,’” said Todd Belt, director of the graduate political management program at George Washington University. “That’s exactly what Democrats are doing here. This is something that is dividing the Republican Party, and we have not seen anything divide the Republican Party since Donald Trump has taken over.”
Grijalva won in a landslide on Tuesday. The House isn’t scheduled to be in session again until Oct. 7, but she may be sworn in before then. She announced plans to arrive in Washington on Monday.
Jeffrey Epstein, a wealthy financier and convicted sex offender, died in jail in 2019, awaiting federal trial for trafficking young women and girls for sex. His assistant, Ghislaine Maxwell, is serving a 20-year term for her role in his abuse of minors.
For Trump, who has acknowledged a 15-year friendship with Epstein, the House petition is a sharp political headache.
He campaigned last year on a promise to make all of the Epstein records public.
But Attorney General Pam Bondi announced in July that no more materials would be released, infuriating many in the conservative base, where rumors have long swirled about the rich and powerful names contained in the files.
Trump dismissed the push for more disclosure as a Democratic “hoax” and urged his supporters to move on.
The petition effort is led by a Republican, Rep. Thomas Massie of Kentucky. He says Trump and Republican leaders are blocking the release to protect wealthy friends.
“I don’t think … he’s implicated in these files,” Massie told reporters earlier this month. “But I think his donors are. I think his friends are.”
Grijalva’s father, Raúl Grijalva, was elected to Congress in 2002. He won a 12th term last November but died in March after a battle with cancer.
His daughter served on the Tucson Unified School District board and the Pima County Board of Supervisors. She was serving as chair when she stepped down to run for Congress shortly after her father’s death.
Discharge petitions almost never succeed. Research from the Brookings Institution and records from the Clerk of the House show that only seven petitions have gained a majority of signatures since 2000.
Belt said that rarity is no accident.
“If you’re in the House, you generally don’t want to pick a fight with the speaker,” he said.
Belt noted that the unusual alignment around the Epstein files underscores how politically tricky the issue has become.
Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Calif., is Massie’s co-sponsor on a bill that would require the Justice Department to publish online every record related to its investigations of Epstein and Maxwell.
Trump has blasted the Republicans behind the petition, posting on his Truth Social site that they are “doing the Democrats’ work.” He also distanced himself from Massie and the others, writing: “I don’t want their support anymore!”
Besides Massie, the Republicans who’ve signed are Reps. Nancy Mace, who is running for governor in South Carolina; Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia; and Lauren Boebert of Colorado.
Once Grijalva signs, House rules require a waiting period of seven legislative days.
After that, the speaker must allow a vote within two legislative days. If Grijalva signs on Oct. 7, the vote could come as early as Oct. 20.
To derail the effort, GOP leaders would have to persuade at least one lawmaker to withdraw their signature – or to join a procedural move to kill their own effort.
Supporters say the full Epstein files could reveal much more about his network, including the names of people identified by some of his victims. At a recent hearing, Massie pressed FBI Director Kash Patel about reports of at least 20 such names.
Johnson, R-La., says the petition is the wrong path because even if the House votes to release the files, the GOP Senate would have to go along, and Trump holds veto power.
Instead, Johnson prefers an ongoing investigation led by House Oversight Chair James Comer, R-Ky.
That committee has already released thousands of pages of Epstein-related files, including a “birthday book” that made headlines for a lewd greeting apparently signed by Trump. Trump denies the signature is his and sued The Wall Street Journal for $10 billion for reporting on it.
The Journal called the lawsuit “an affront to the First Amendment” and on Monday asked a federal judge in Florida to dismiss it. That request is pending.
The debate over the Epstein files is unfolding against the backdrop of a looming government shutdown. Lawmakers are under pressure to strike a deal by midnight Tuesday, when fiscal year 2024 spending authority expires.
Even if the petition succeeds, Belt predicted, the outcome will not satisfy everyone.
“I don’t think that this will ever be settled. I think that for a lot of people, no matter what is in the files, they will suspect that there’s something bigger being held back,” he said. “I think that’s true on both sides.”
