The Democratic congressman co-sponsoring bipartisan legislation to force a vote to release the Justice Department’s files on Jeffrey Epstein told The Independent that they plan to hold the vote as soon as the newest member of Congress takes her seat.
And that could be as soon as Monday.
On Tuesday, Arizona’s 7th district held a special election, which Adelita Grijalva won to replace her father, the late Raúl Grijalva. Grijalva said that she plans to immediately sign a discharge petition to force the vote.
Reps. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) and Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) filed a discharge petition in July to force the release of files related to Epstein. If a discharge petition receives the signature of a majority of members, they can force a vote without the consent of leadership.
Khanna told The Independent by text message on Friday that they expect to bring the discharge petition to the floor “As soon as shes sworn in!”
So far, every Democratic member of Congress has signed the petition and three Republicans have signed it, including Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia, Lauren Boebert of Colorado and Nancy Mace of South Carolina.
That left the petition with 216 votes since no other Democrats voted to release the files. House Speaker Mike Johnson called the House into August recess earlier than expected after Democrats continued to try and force amendments to release files related to Epstein through the House Rules Committee.
Since then, Democratic Rep. James Walkinshaw won a special election in Virginia’s 11th district to replace the late Rep. Gerry Connolly and he signed the petition immediately.
Democrats have hoped that they could make hay out of the issue after conservatives had long hoped that it would expose major Democratic politicians like former president Bill Clinton, a longtime friend of Epstein’s, and other donors to the Democratic Party.
But the investigation has become politically radioactive for conservatives after many of Trump’s surrogates–and Trump himself–said they would release files related to Epstein.
In July, the Department of Justice and the FBI caused a firestorm when they released a two-page memo saying that no “client list” existed and Epstein died in prison.
Trump has castigated efforts to release files related to Epstein, calling it “total bulls***.” When many of Epstein’s survivors visited Capitol Hill, he called he effort “a Democrat hoax that never ends.”
On Friday, Democrats on the House Oversight Committee released a trove of documents provided by Epstein’s estate that included meeting schedules that showed appointments between Epstein and figures like Trump consigliere Steve Bannon, Prince Andrew, venture capitalist Peter Thiel and Tesla executive and future Trump adviser Elon Musk.
