House Democratic Whip Katherine Clark sent a letter to Speaker Mike Johnson on Monday, urging him to reschedule House votes this week so that Rep.-elect Adelita Grijalva can be officially sworn in.
Grijalva, a Democrat from Arizona, was elected last week to succeed her father, the late U.S. Rep. Raúl Grijalva. She has pledged to sign a discharge petition to compel the release of all federal files related to Jeffrey Epstein — a petition currently just one signature short of the required threshold.
“Any delay in swearing in Representative-elect Grijalva unnecessarily deprives her constituents of representation and calls into question if the motive behind the delay is to further avoid the release of the Epstein files,” wrote Clark.
The House is now on the verge of voting whether to keep the Epstein files under wraps, thanks to Grijalva’s win in a special election to fill her late father’s seat.
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 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.
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