Incoming Democrats are poised to advance legislation forcing the Trump administration to release all the federal files on Jeffrey Epstein, the late financier and convicted sex offender.
Up to now, the focus on Capitol Hill has been on which Republicans might buck President Trump and GOP leaders and endorse a procedural tool, known as a discharge petition, to force that proposal to the floor even over the objections of Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.). The effort, sponsored by Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.), has the support of 216 lawmakers — two shy of the number needed to compel the vote.
But there are currently four vacant seats in the House, and three of them cover deep blue districts where the Democrat is expected to prevail in special elections slated for later this year. Two of those elections will happen this month, and both of the Democratic candidates are vowing to sign the petition as soon as they arrive on Capitol Hill — enough to hit the magical 218 number required to force the Epstein bill to the floor.
In Virginia, Democrat James Walkinshaw is running to replace the late Rep. Gerry Connolly (D-Va.) in a special election scheduled for Sept. 9. After a number of Epstein accusers appeared on Capitol Hill this week to urge Congress to pass the bill, Walkinshaw made clear that he would help in the effort.
“We cannot ignore the calls from these survivors,” he posted Wednesday on social platform X. “If elected, I will sign the Epstein Files discharge petition to a vote on releasing the files.”
Walkinshaw then challenged his GOP opponent, Stewart Whitson, to do the same.
In Arizona, the special election to replace the late Rep. Raúl Grijalva (D-Ariz.) is slated for Sept. 23. The favorite in that blue district is his daughter, Adelita Grijalva, whose office said this week that she’s also on board.
“Adelita would sign the discharge petition,” a spokesperson for Grijalva’s campaign said Thursday in an email.
A third special election to replace the late Rep. Sylvester Turner (Texas) in a deep-blue Houston district is slated for Nov. 4.
The Walkinshaw and Grijalva signatures alone would put the discharge petition over the top with 218 endorsements — unless one or more of the Republican supporters pull their name off before the Democrats arrive.
Currently, there are four GOP lawmakers on the petition: Massie, Nancy Mace (S.C.), Marjorie Taylor Greene (Ga.) and Lauren Boebert (Colo.). But Johnson and the White House have both been pressing other GOP lawmakers not to add their names, and Greene said that lobbying campaign extends to those who have already endorsed.
“I got a lot of pushback. I got phone call after phone call last night,” Greene said in an interview with Real America’s Voice on Wednesday, a day after she had endorsed the petition. “[The White House] didn’t want me to sign the discharge petition. They want to focus on the Oversight investigation.”
The Oversight Committee investigation, led by Chairman James Comer (R-Ky.), is the preferred route of Johnson, Trump and other GOP leaders. The panel has already subpoenaed the Justice Department and the Epstein estate for documents. Earlier this week, Comer released more than 30,000 files turned over by the DOJ.
Supporters of that strategy say it’s the better route because, unlike Massie’s effort, it can proceed unilaterally, without the House and Senate having to pass it.
“It goes further, and it has the force of law, because we have subpoena authorities. It makes the discharge irrelevant and unnecessary,” Johnson said this week.
The Speaker also predicted that Massie won’t succeed in finding the additional two signatures he needs to compel his legislation to the floor.
“I don’t expect he will,” he said.
Massie has rejected those arguments. He says the Oversight investigation is a farce because the vast majority of the DOJ files turned over to the committee had already been made public, and they were heavily redacted. He also accused the Trump administration of selectively “curating” those releases to avoid any embarrassing revelations about the president’s friends and donors.
“The DOJ release to the Oversight Committee was completely managed by the White House,” Massie said this week. “It’s not like they refused to give over the documents they were subpoenaed, and the Oversight Committee went over and seized those documents. No. They said, ‘Listen, that’s a pain and it’s not necessary. Here, why don’t we give you some documents; we’ll make the redactions we want to make; and that subpoena will be unnecessary.'”
The Kentucky Republican added, “That’s what’s happening. It’s a negotiated exchange.”
Massie’s legislation, sponsored with Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.), would require the DOJ to release virtually all its files on investigation into Epstein, a convicted sex offender who killed himself in prison in 2019, and his longtime associate, Ghislaine Maxwell, who is serving 20 years in prison for crimes related to the sexual abuse of minors.
Massie did not mention the looming special elections poised to send more Democrats to Capitol Hill. But he predicted he’ll cross the threshold of signatures — and he’s ready to play the long game.
“I think it’s a matter of time,” the lawmaker said. “But this discharge petition is going to be live until the end of Congress, and it’s going to be sitting there. And it just needs two signatures.”
