Rep. Adelita Grijalva (D-AZ) has become the decisive 218th signatory of a discharge petition forcing a vote on a full release of the Jeffrey Epstein files, moments after being sworn in by House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA).
Grijalva has been in congressional limbo since Sept. 24, when she won her House seat in a special election. Johnson had pushed off swearing her in while the House remained out of session during the government shutdown. But with a deal finally being struck to reopen the government, she officially became a member of the 119th Congress on Wednesday afternoon.
Moments after being sworn in, she signed the discharge petition brought by Reps. Thomas Massie (R-KY) and Ro Khanna (D-CA). The petition had been sitting on 217 signatures, one short of the ability to call a vote after seven legislative days, and has been a thorn in the side of Johnson and President Donald Trump. Grijalva joins all Democrats in signing it, as well as Massie and Reps. Nancy Mace (R-SC), Lauren Boebert (R-CO), and Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA).
Rep. Greg Stanton (D-AZ) slammed the speaker for the delay in swearing in Grijalva on the House floor on Wednesday before she gave remarks thanking her family and constituents.
“It had been 50 days since the people of Arizona’s 7th Congressional District elected me to represent them, 50 days that over 800,000 Arizonans have been left without access to the basic services that every constituent deserves,” Grijalva, who was joined by two Epstein survivors in the chamber for her ceremony, said in her first speech on the House floor. “This is an abuse of power.”
Trump, House GOP leadership, and the Justice Department have sought to move past the Epstein files following public fallout from when the department announced after the July 4 weekend that it had no plans to make any further documents available and affirmed that Epstein died by suicide in 2019 while awaiting trial on charges related to the sex trafficking of minors.
In an effort to move past the issue, CNN reported that the White House planned to hold a meeting with Boebert before the petition could reach 218 signatures.
Boebert later confirmed the meeting did take place, thanking White House officials for meeting with her.
“Together, we remain committed to ensuring transparency for the American people,” Boebert said in a post to X.
House Oversight Committee ranking member Robert Garcia (D-CA) told reporters he was “very concerned” about the meeting with Boebert, while asking why the president is directing a “cover-up.”
“Donald Trump is now apparently calling Republican members of Congress directly, bringing them possibly to the White House to take them off the petition,” Garcia said.
When asked about Trump speaking with Boebert in a press conference, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt responded by asking, “Doesn’t it show transparency that members of the Trump administration are willing to brief members of Congress whenever they please?”
The House Oversight Committee has launched its own investigation into the Epstein files, issuing multiple subpoenas and releasing batches of documents from the DOJ and the Epstein estate.
Democrats on the committee released emails from Epstein about Trump, just hours before Grijalva was sworn in, in which the disgraced financier claimed that the president “spent hours at my house” and “of course he knew about the girls.”
“What we think is most important is that all the speculation about what happened or what may not have happened could end right now if Donald Trump releases the Epstein files,” Garcia told the Washington Examiner following the release of the emails.
As of late last month, the Arizona Democrat holds the record for the longest time between an election and swearing-in ceremony. Johnson continued to insist that she deserved the same “pomp and circumstance” as any other member and painted the picture of the House in session with her family in the balcony.
Grijalva “won her election after the House was out of session, so we have not had a full session,” Johnson said a few weeks ago. “She deserves to have all the pomp and circumstance that everybody else does.”
It has been a long journey for Democrats since Grijalva was elected on Sept. 23 to replace her late father, former Rep. Raúl Grijalva, who died earlier this year. Members of her party have demanded she be sworn in during pro forma sessions in the House, marched to Johnson’s office, and even approached the speaker in the Capitol.
Johnson interrupted Sens. Mark Kelly (D-AZ) and Ruben Gallego (D-AZ) after they made their way over to the lower chamber to speak with reporters last month on the issue of swearing her in. Johnson told the senators he would swear her in when they vote to end the government shutdown.
The current House GOP majority is two seats, with 219 Republicans and 214 Democrats, meaning Johnson can only afford to lose two GOP votes and still pass legislation along party lines. Grijalva did not change the margin due to House numbers.
The House returned to Washington following the Senate’s passage of its version of the continuing resolution, and many Democrats plan on voting against the measure. The upper chamber’s version extends the CR to Jan. 31, 2026, and includes a minibus of three appropriations bills that would fund the Departments of Veterans Affairs and Agriculture, among others. The bill does not include any extension of the Obamacare subsidies, which are set to expire at the end of this year, that Democrats have been fighting for.
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House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) denounced the new bill and has advised his members to vote against it because it does not address premium Obamacare subsidies they wanted extended as part of the shutdown fight.
“We will not support spending legislation advanced by Senate Republicans that fails to extend the Affordable Care Act tax credits,” Jeffries said in a statement.
