Adelita Grijalva Adds Name To Epstein Files Discharge Petition

WASHINGTON – After finally being sworn in by House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.), Rep. Adelita Grijalva (D-Ariz.) immediately added her signature to the “discharge petition” that could force a House vote on releasing the notorious “Epstein files.”

Grijalva added her signature after gesturing to survivors of the late sex predator’s abuse, who were watching from a gallery in the House chamber.

“It’s past time for Congress to restore its role as a check and balance on this administration and fight for we, the American people,” Grijalva said shortly before signing the petition. “That is why I will sign the discharge petition right now to release the Epstein files. Justice cannot wait another day.”

The signing had been delayed for weeks as Johnson held the House out of session during the government shutdown, preventing Grijalva from being sworn in.

The discharge petition process allows regular House members to bring bills to the floor over the opposition of House leadership. Grijalva adding the final 218th signature sets up a long-awaited showdown that will greatly annoy President Donald Trump.

Discharge Petition No. 9 will force floor action on a bill by Reps. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) and Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) requiring the Justice Department to make a public, searchable database of its investigatory files on the late financier, sexual predator and former Trump friend Jeffrey Epstein.

House rules say that once a discharge petition gets 218 signatures, it can get a vote after seven legislative days, meaning the soonest chance for the Massie-Khanna bill to get a vote would likely be early December.

If it passes the House, the bill would still have to clear the Senate and overcome a likely veto from Trump, who has said the recent fixation on his association with Epstein is a “Democrat hoax.” So it’s not likely the bill will become law.

Still, a House vote would be symbolic — a show of Trump’s diminished power over members of his own party in his second term.

All House Democrats signed the petition, but it was four Republicans who made it possible — Massie, along with Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene (Ga.), Nancy Mace (S.C.) and Lauren Boebert (Colo.). The White House pressured them to withdraw their signatures but failed.

Even if the Massie legislation ultimately fails, more documents related to Epstein have been coming out anyway. Through subpoenas to the Epstein estate, the House Oversight Committee obtained a creepy tribute Trump paid Epstein in 2003, and on Wednesday, the committee released more documents, including an email in which Epstein wrote Trump “knew about the girls.”

Epstein died in prison in 2019 while facing federal charges of sex trafficking minors.