House lawmakers are set to return to Washington this week and likely end the six-week government shutdown, which could open the door to the release of more government documents on Jeffrey Epstein.
Key data
House lawmakers are expected to vote Wednesday on legislation that would end the government shutdown, marking the first time in more than 50 days that the chamber will be in session.
Before the vote, House Speaker Mike Johnson is expected to swear in Rep.-elect Adelita Grijalva, who, despite winning a special election on Sept. 23, has not yet taken office.
Grijalva’s swearing-in has been seen as a critical point in the debate over Epstein’s files, as his vote will be key to moving forward with legislation that would release Epstein’s documents.
Reps. Thomas Massie and Ro Khanna have been trying to bring legislation to the House to release Epstein’s files, but their discharge petition, which would allow the bill to move forward, needs 218 votes, with Grijalva signing as the 218th signer.
Once Grijalva is sworn in and signs the discharge petition, a process will begin to bring the measure to a vote in the House, which Johnson has already said he will respect, although that does not guarantee that Epstein’s files will be released, as the bill would still have to pass the Senate and be signed by President Donald Trump.
Ending the shutdown could also help the House Oversight Committee, which has been receiving Epstein files from the Department of Justice (DOJ) and making them public, as reports indicate the DOJ has failed to turn over documents during the government shutdown.
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How does the release request work?
A discharge petition is a mechanism that allows legislation to bypass the traditional process of having to go through a committee before being brought to the House floor, allowing bills that would otherwise be rejected by a committee to still be approved by the full chamber. Once Grijalva becomes the 218th signatory of the discharge petition, she will be placed on a discharge schedule and must remain there for at least seven legislative days. After those seven days, a legislator who has signed the petition may notify the House of his intention to present the discharge motion, and Johnson must schedule it to be introduced on the floor within two legislative days. At that time, the House will consider whether to approve the legislation. Since the House will be out of session for part of November due to Thanksgiving, this process will likely lead to a vote on the Epstein files bill in early December, according to Politico.
Does the acquittal petition mean that Epstein’s files will be published?
Not necessarily. If the bill passes the House, Republican senators will likely face pressure to support it in the Senate, as polls suggest even two-thirds of Republicans want Epstein’s full files released. However, there is no guarantee that the Senate will pass the bill, and even if it does, Trump could choose to veto it.
What will happen to the House Oversight Committee?
The House Oversight Committee has subpoenaed the Justice Department to obtain all of Epstein’s files and has promised to make them public with redactions to protect the victims’ identities. The DOJ began delivering documents in August and some have already been made public—although many were already available—but delivery appears to have slowed in recent weeks due to the government shutdown. Politico reported in mid-October that committee staff had not heard from the DOJ about the subpoena since the start of the shutdown, and ranking member Robert Garcia wrote to Attorney General Pam Bondi on October 16 expressing “serious concern” that the agency had yet to turn over many important documents during the shutdown. “The DOJ has not provided substantive or clarifying information about when the Committee can expect further document submissions,” Garcia wrote. It is unclear how this will change once the government reopens and how long it will take the DOJ to hand over all of Epstein’s files. Republicans on the Oversight Committee have reiterated their commitment to the investigation while the government was shut down, with committee Chairman James Comer telling reporters that “the investigation has not stopped during the shutdown.”
Key context
The House’s efforts to release Epstein’s files respond to a resurgence of public interest in the financier, who died in prison in 2019 after being accused of sexually abusing more than 100 women. DOJ officials said over the summer that the agency would not voluntarily release more Epstein files, breaking promises earlier made by Bondi and other officials to make the documents public, prompting a public backlash even from those on the right. With the Trump administration still refusing to release the files on its own, House lawmakers have taken the lead in releasing the documents, with Republicans like Massie and Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene joining Democrats on measures such as the discharge petition and approving the subpoena to obtain the DOJ files. However, the push has been controversial among many Republicans, who have been more reluctant to release the files, and Johnson’s refusal to assign Grijalva during the shutdown has been criticized as a way to keep the release petition on hold. The House speaker has criticized Democrats’ demands to release the Epstein files, claiming in October that the Epstein drama is a “shiny object” that Democrats can “latch onto” and that left-wing lawmakers are “feigning outrage” by suggesting the files will be damaging to President Donald Trump.
This article was originally published on Forbes US
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