Petition to trigger House vote on release of Epstein files reaches required total
Shortly after Adelita Grijalva was sworn in as the newest member of the House of Representatives on Wednesday, the Arizona Democrat signed a petition which should force a vote in the House on legislation to require the full release of files from the federal investigation of Jeffrey Epstein, the late sex offender who socialized with Donald Trump for more than a decade.
With Grijalva’s signature, 218 members of Congress now back what is known as a discharge petition, which triggers a vote on legislation without needing the approval of the House speaker.
Ro Khanna, the California Democrat who introduced the petition with his Republican colleague Thomas Massie of Kentucky, released a statement on the success of the petition to force a vote on their bipartisan bill, the Epstein Files Transparency Act.
“This was made possible by the courageous survivors who have been speaking up for years,” Khanna said. “As Representative Massie and my bill heads to the floor for a vote, every member of Congress should ask themselves: are we going to stand with the survivors or the wealthy and powerful who are being protected? We must stand for transparency and justice for the survivors. We need to rebuild trust in government.”
In her speech after finally being sworn in, seven weeks after she was elected, Grijalva thanked two survivors of Epstein’s abuse who were present, and said: “Justice cannot wait another day.”
Key events
Chris Stein
Members of the Congressional Hispanic caucus are hammering the Republican speaker, Mike Johnson, for delaying Democrat Adelita Grijalva’s swearing in.
“Today, nearly 1 million Arizonans finally, finally regain their voice that has been illegally denied to them for far too long. Two months of delay was not just unprecedented, it was unacceptable. I think it was illegal,” the caucus’s chair, Adriano Espaillat, said at a press conference convened to welcome her to the group.
Pete Aguilar, who as caucus chair is the third-highest-ranking Democrat in the House, noted that Grijalva swiftly signed the discharge petition to force a vote on a bill to release files related to disgraced financier and one-time Donald Trump friend Jeffrey Epstein.
“We all know the real reason Donald Trump and Republican leadership are hellbent on keeping the Epstein files hidden from the American people … They’re running a pedophile protection program,” he said.
“Now, with representative Grijalva in Congress, we will have the votes necessary to force transparency and accountability, and importantly, Arizonans will finally have a member who is able to carry out their work, to represent their interests and to be their voice in Congress.”
Chris Stein
The Republican House speaker, Mike Johnson, waited an unprecedented 50 days to swear in Democrat Adelita Grijalva, but both he and the new congresswoman kept it civil when he administered her ceremonial oath off the chamber’s floor.
“I really like this lady. She’s going to be an excellent member of Congress. She’s a great person,” Johnson said. Referring to her late father, Raúl Grijalva, whose southern Arizona district she will now represent, he said: “I just told her, on the way in, that she fills her father’s shoes, or she’s going to try – no one can, no one can. He was a giant around here.”
“She has a proud family legacy, and we’re delighted to have her here,” he continued, before turning to the uncomfortable question of the lengthy delay she faced in actually being able to start the job she was elected to do.
“She may not agree with me, but we followed the custom of the House on the timetable, and we’ve had a little, as we say, in the deep south, some intense fellowship about that, OK. But she’s here now, and I promised that we would have the oath administered before we began legislative business, so she hasn’t missed a vote.”
Democrats may quibble with that last part, considering that in recent months, Johnson promptly sworn in two newly elected Florida Republicans, even when the House was out of session.
Petition to trigger House vote on release of Epstein files reaches required total
Shortly after Adelita Grijalva was sworn in as the newest member of the House of Representatives on Wednesday, the Arizona Democrat signed a petition which should force a vote in the House on legislation to require the full release of files from the federal investigation of Jeffrey Epstein, the late sex offender who socialized with Donald Trump for more than a decade.
With Grijalva’s signature, 218 members of Congress now back what is known as a discharge petition, which triggers a vote on legislation without needing the approval of the House speaker.
Ro Khanna, the California Democrat who introduced the petition with his Republican colleague Thomas Massie of Kentucky, released a statement on the success of the petition to force a vote on their bipartisan bill, the Epstein Files Transparency Act.
“This was made possible by the courageous survivors who have been speaking up for years,” Khanna said. “As Representative Massie and my bill heads to the floor for a vote, every member of Congress should ask themselves: are we going to stand with the survivors or the wealthy and powerful who are being protected? We must stand for transparency and justice for the survivors. We need to rebuild trust in government.”
In her speech after finally being sworn in, seven weeks after she was elected, Grijalva thanked two survivors of Epstein’s abuse who were present, and said: “Justice cannot wait another day.”
Lauren Gambino
Arizona Democrat Adelita Grijalva was sworn in by Mike Johnson, the US House speaker, on Wednesday, ending a seven-week standoff that prevented the incoming congresswoman from taking her seat and clearing the path for a vote to release the Jeffrey Epstein files.
House Democrats burst into applause on the House floor when Grijalva took the oath of office during a ceremonial swearing-in, shortly before the chamber was poised to take up legislation that would end the longest federal government shutdown in US history. The ceremony comes 49 days after Grijalva won a late September special election to succeed her father, the longtime congressman Raúl Grijalva, who died in March.
Grijalva’s arrival does more than narrow the already razor-thin Republican majority. She has vowed to become the 218th and final signature on a discharge petition that would automatically trigger a House floor vote on legislation demanding the justice department release additional files on deceased sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
Here’s a recap of the day so far
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A new batch of emails released by House Democrats on the oversight committee seemed to suggest that Donald Trump was aware of Jeffrey Epstein’s conduct. In the three emails released, Epstein apparently told his accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell that Trump “spent hours” at his house with one of Epstein’s victims. In two other emails to author Michael Wolff, Epstein wrote that “of course he knew about the girls”, referring to the Trump. According to the exchanges, Epstein also solicited Wolff’s advice about how he should handle Trump discussing their friendship in an interview with CNN. “I think you should let him hang himself,” Wolff writes. “If he says he hasn’t been on the plane or to the house, then that gives you a valuable PR and political currency.”
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Later, the committee’s Republican majority countered by releasing its own tranche of 23,000 documents, accusing Democrats of “cherrypicking” the memos “to generate clickbait”. The GOP members also insisted the redacted victim that the late sex-offender refers to in his emails was actually one of his most prominent accusers – Virginia Giuffre.
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At the White House today, the press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, said that the new correspondence released today “proves absolutely nothing other than the fact that President Trump did nothing wrong”. She repeated Republicans’ claims that Giuffre was the unnamed victim. “She maintained that there was nothing inappropriate she ever witnessed, that President Trump was always extremely professional and friendly to her,” Leavitt added.
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For his part, Trump labelled the move by Democrats as “deflection” for their performance during the record-breaking government shutdown. In a post on Truth Social, the president wrote: “There should be no deflections to Epstein or anything else, and any Republicans involved should be focused only on opening up our Country, and fixing the massive damage caused by the Democrats!”
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The Epstein investigation is likely to receive revived interest as the House prepares to return from recess and vote on a bill to reopen the federal government, as Mike Johnson is set to swear in representative-elect Adelita Grijalva after seven weeks of waiting. The soon-to-be Democratic lawmaker is set to be the 218th signature needed on a discharge petition, a procedural tool that would force a vote on the House floor to release the full tranche of Epstein investigation records.
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While the news of the Epstein email drop dominated the day, the House is set to vote on a funding bill to finally reopen the federal government today. Republican leaders, as well as Trump, expect the bill to pass. The extension would extend government funding at current levels through January 2026, along with three year-long provisions that will fund programs at the Department of Veterans Affairs, the USDA and the FDA, and legislative branch operations. It would also reinstate all fired workers that were let go during the shutdown and guarantee back pay for those furloughed.
At 4pm ET, we can expect the House to reconvene after more than 50 days of recess, and for the Republican speaker, Mike Johnson, to swear in representative-elect Adelita Grijalva.
Johnson has staved off the ceremony for the soon-to-be Arizona Democrat for weeks while the government shutdown continued. She’s expected to be the final, and 218th, signature needed to force a vote on the House floor for the full release of the Epstein files.
White House appears to confirm meeting with Republican congresswoman over Epstein files
Earlier, CNN reported that top Trump administration officials were planning to meet today to discuss the discharge petition that would force a vote on the House floor to release the complete Epstein files.
According to CNN’s source, the planned meeting would include the US attorney general, Pam Bondi; the deputy attorney general, Todd Blanche; Kash Patel, the FBI director; and Lauren Boebert, a Republican Colorado congresswoman and a Trump loyalist who has signed on to the effort for the records to be released.
In the White House briefing room, the press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, appeared to confirm the meeting, branding it as the latest example of the administration’s commitment to “transparency”.
My colleague Adam Gabbatt has put together a helpful timeline of some of the most significant developments in the Epstein saga that continues to dog the administration. Starting in 2019, when Epstein was charged with federal sex-trafficking crimes, and taking us up to the batch of Epstein’s emails released today that suggest Trump knew about the late financier’s conduct.
Trump says Democrats released Epstein emails to ‘deflect’ from performance during government shutdown
In a post on Truth Social, the president has addressed the batch of emails released by House Democrats on the oversight committee.
“The Democrats are trying to bring up the Jeffrey Epstein Hoax again because they’ll do anything at all to deflect on how badly they’ve done on the Shutdown,” Trump wrote. “There should be no deflections to Epstein or anything else, and any Republicans involved should be focused only on opening up our Country, and fixing the massive damage caused by the Democrats!”
Republicans ‘own the mess’ in the United States, says top House Democrat
Ahead of the House preparing to vote on a Senate-passed bill to reopen the government, Democrats in the lower chamber held a press conference on the steps of the Capitol.
“Republicans control the House, the Senate and the presidency,” said the House minority leader, Hakeem Jeffries. “They own the mess that has been created in the United States of America.”
Today’s legislation includes none of the healthcare provisions that Democrats made a centerpiece of their fight with the GOP when the government shut down. After some senators in the Democratic caucus broke ranks and voted to pass the bill, much of the party slammed their decision.
Today, Jeffries offered more fighting words:
We work for the American people as we stand on the Capitol steps, ready to continue this battle on the House floor, a battle that we waged week after week after week, and that will continue regardless of the outcome … We’ll continue to fight to stand up for the Affordable Care Act and an extension of the tax credits. We’ll continue to fight for your hospitals. We’ll continue to fight for your nursing homes.
Largest union representing federal workers urges House to pass funding bill to reopen government
As the House prepares to vote on a funding bill that would end the longest government shutdown on record, the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) has sent a letter to lawmakers in the lower chamber urging them to pass the legislation.
“Passing this bill will reopen the government and allow federal employees to return to the work of serving the American people. It will ensure safety and security for our vital transportation systems,” wrote Daniel Horowitz, legislative director of the largest union representing federal workers.
The AFGE argues that Senate-passed resolution includes several provisions beneficial for civil servants affected by the shutdown. This includes ensuring back pay to furloughed workers, reinstating those terminated from their positions by wide-scale reductions in force when the government shuttered, and preventing further layoffs while the continuing resolution keeps agencies open through January.
Leavitt said that she hadn’t spoken to the president about whether he believes that Andrew Mountbatten Windsor, the former prince, should sit for an interview with congressional lawmakers on the House oversight committee, after they requested his cooperation in their ongoing investigation into Jeffrey Epstein.
‘These emails prove absolutely nothing,’ White House press secretary says of new batch of Epstein emails
Responding to question about the validity of the emails released by House oversight Democrats, Leavitt responded plainly. “These emails prove absolutely nothing other than the fact that President Trump did nothing wrong,” the press secretary said. “Jeffrey Epstein was a member at Mar-a-Lago until President Trump kicked him out because Jeffrey Epstein was a pedophile and he was a creep.”
Leavitt repeated Republicans’ statements identifying the redacted name in the batch of emails as Virginia Giuffre. “She maintained that there was nothing inappropriate she ever witnessed, that president Trump was always extremely professional and friendly to her,” Leavitt reiterated, of the outspoken victim of Epstein’s abuse, who died by suicide earlier this year.
Leavitt is spending most of her opening remarks blaming Democrats for the longest shutdown on record, as the House prepares to vote on a bill to reopen the government.
“The Democrats’ weakness and their unwillingness to buck the fringe members of their party dragged this harmful shutdown on for seven weeks and inflicted massive pain on to the American public,” she said.
White House briefing begins, as emails from Jeffrey Epstein allege that Trump ‘spent hours’ at late sex-offender’s home
The White House briefing has begun, and we’ll bring you the latest from Karoline Leavitt as she’ll face questions from reporters.
Dominating the news of the day: a small batch of emails released by House Democrats on the oversight committee in which the disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein said that Donald Trump “spent hours” at his home in an email to Ghislaine Maxwell – the late sex offender’s accomplice.
Andrew told Epstein and Maxwell ‘I can’t take any more of this’, email chain reveals
In one of the email chains in the larger tranche released by the House oversight committee, Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor (formerly known as Prince Andrew) appeared to tell Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell, “I can’t take any more of this,” in March 2011 after a newspaper said they would be running a story about the trio.
In the email chain, Maxwell was initially forwarded the press inquiry from the Mail on Sunday from somebody named Mark Cohen, who told her: “FYI, following up on my email of this morning. Again, I have no intention of responding unless you direct otherwise.”
After the email was forwarded from Maxwell to Epstein, and then from Epstein to somebody listed as “The Duke” on 4 March 2011, Andrew appears to respond: “What? I don’t know any of this. How are you responding?”
Epstein responds: “Just got it two minutes ago. I’ve asked g [sic] lawyers to send a letter. Not sure … it’s so salcisous [sic] and ridiculous, im [sic] not sure how to respond, the only person she didn’t have sex with was Elvis.”
Andrew then appears to reply to Epstein, saying:
Please make sure that every statement or legal letter states clearly that I am NOT involved and that I knew and know NOTHING about any of these allegations. I can’t take any more of this my end.
