It’s been more than three weeks since Rep.-elect Adelita Grijalva won her special election to become the next congresswoman from Arizona.
She has spent weeks promising to become the final signature needed to approve a petition that would force the Trump administration to release its files on Jeffrey Epstein, leaving proponents of the measure fuming at the delay for her swearing-in ceremony.
“As I have said repeatedly, the House will follow customary practice by swearing in Rep-elect Grijalva when the House is in legislative session,” House Speaker Mike Johnson said Wednesday, failing to add that he was the one keeping the House in recess.
The government shutdown has given Republican leaders a new way to punt the Epstein files news cycle that had completely taken over Capitol Hill during the last weeks of summer. GOP leaders are dragging their feet on any moves to release the files, as President Donald Trump distanced himself from the scandal that once dominated headlines.
Despite pledging on the 2024 campaign trail to make the records public, Trump’s allies in Congress have stalled the process — a move that underscores how politically perilous the issue has become for the GOP as it tries to control the narrative.
With the House out of session indefinitely, Republican leaders have effectively paused the bipartisan discharge petition led by Reps. Thomas Massie and Ro Khanna that, if passed by the House, would compel the Justice Department to release all the files if also passed by the Senate. By refusing to swear in Grijalva, she cannot become the 218th signature on the discharge petition that would trigger the vote.
“The net effect of the Speaker’s intransigence is to delay justice for the victims of sex trafficking,” Massie told NOTUS Wednesday. “If he were to follow his own precedent by swearing in the new member during a pro forma session day, subsequent pro forma session days during the shutdown would count toward the seven legislative day waiting period before a vote would occur on releasing the Epstein files.”
It’s as if Johnson planned it this way, Democrats say.
“I find his explanation disingenuous at best,” Rep. Joe Morelle, the top Democrat on the Committee on House Administration, told NOTUS, adding that if Grijalva were sworn in, “We get one step closer to having the contents of those files revealed. And it must be earth-shattering for Johnson to be doing the president’s bidding to such an alarming degree. I cannot think of any other reason.”
After House Democrats caucused behind closed doors Tuesday evening, dozens — led by Grijalva herself – walked from a basement room to Johnson’s office suite to demand that he swear in Grijalva. The speaker was not in his office but at the White House for a ceremony honoring Charlie Kirk, a person familiar told NOTUS.
Grijalva told NOTUS that Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes plans to respond Thursday if she does not hear from Johnson.
“After that, I think that she’s gonna do something,” Grijalva said Wednesday in an interview. Earlier this week, Mayes penned a letter to the speaker demanding that Grijalva be sworn in and threatened legal action if she is not.
If Grijalva becomes the 218th signature on the discharge petition, it would bypass control of the floor schedule, one of the most dramatic procedures in the House.
Then it would need to “ripen,” which means it would get floor consideration after seven legislative days. Then any member who signed the petition could call up the measure on the second or fourth Monday of the month when the House is in session, as dictated by House rules.
Johnson has repeatedly said that he wants to let the House Oversight Committee proceed in its investigation of the Epstein files and estate and that there is no need to have a House vote on the issue in addition to that probe.
House Democrats disagree.
“House Republicans must end this White House cover-up and get to work for their constituents,” Robert Garcia, the top Democrat on the House Oversight Committee, said in a statement. “Speaker Johnson must swear in Adelita now.”
Rep. Jim McGovern, the top Democrat on the powerful Rules Committee, told NOTUS he worries Republicans will use the committee to “derail” the discharge petition once it ripens.
“If they do that, the nation will be outraged in a way that they haven’t seen before. Look, they’re the ones who have been saying for years that the Epstein file should be released. They’re in charge of everything,” McGovern added. “The President could do this on his own. He doesn’t need Congress, but he won’t. So I don’t know what the hell is in those files.”
Democrats are certain that Johnson and other senior Republicans would try to circumvent the process by using the Rules Committee to kill the measure, which is possible.
“It’s such a disservice to almost a million people to not have somebody to advocate for them here. That’s completely unacceptable. I was duly elected. My race is certified,” Grijalva told NOTUS. “They want me to get to work, and every day that he’s obstructing highlights, you have to ask yourself the reason. And I don’t think that it’s too hard to put those two pieces together.”