| | | PEDOPHILE POS trump: Effort to Force a House Vote on Epstein Files Nears Success
Supporters are on the brink of collecting the 218 signatures to proceed, but House Republican leaders and the White House are trying to stop it.
nytimes.com
Representative Thomas Massie, Republican of Kentucky, introduced a discharge petition last week to bring the bill calling for the release of the Epstein files to a vote on the House floor.Credit...Eric Lee for The New York Times
By Michael Gold
Reporting from the Capitol
Sept. 9, 2025Updated 1:28 p.m. ET
The release this week of new information from the estate of the convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, including a suggestive note to him apparently signed by Donald J. Trump, has not quieted the clamor on Capitol Hill for full transparency from the Justice Department about Mr. Epstein’s case.
Despite staunch opposition from the White House and Republican leaders, a bipartisan resolution directing the Justice Department to release all of its investigative files on Mr. Epstein is still on track.
Its proponents, Representatives Thomas Massie, Republican of Kentucky, and Ro Khanna, Democrat of California, appear poised within weeks to draw enough backers to force action on the House floor, provided Democrats win special elections this month in districts where they are heavily favored.
But while their effort is expected to continue being a political headache for Republican leaders and the White House, there is still no guarantee it will receive a vote, and little chance that the House would compel the Justice Department to comply even if it passed.
Here’s how it works.
A House majority can force action, even if leaders object.Speaker Mike Johnson and Trump administration officials had hoped they could thwart Mr. Massie and Mr. Khanna’s effort to force their measure to the floor.
But Mr. Massie, a frequent Trump antagonist, is on the brink of drawing enough support from the House to move forward. Last week, he introduced what is known as a discharge petition, a maneuver that allows lawmakers to circumvent party leaders and bring a bill to the floor if 218 lawmakers demand it.
By the time the House Oversight Committee investigating the handling of Mr. Epstein’s case released a 2003 drawing and note that appeared to contain Mr. Trump’s signature, the petition had 216 signatures. Just four are from Republican representatives: Mr. Massie and Representatives Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia, Lauren Boebert of Colorado and Nancy Mace of South Carolina.
Mr. Johnson has made his opposition to the discharge petition explicit, and Mr. Massie has said that the White House has been pressuring lawmakers not to sign. Several Republicans who supported Mr. Massie’s resolution have withdrawn, and the effort to win more appeared to stall.
But the two signatures that Mr. Massie needs could come later this month from newly elected Democrats, who are projected this month to win special elections in deep-blue districts to succeed lawmakers who died in office this year.
James Walkinshaw is the favorite to win an election on Tuesday in a Northern Virginia district left vacant since May by the death of Representative Gerald E. Connolly, whom he served as chief of staff. Mr. Walkinshaw has promised to sign Mr. Massie’s discharge petition if he is elected.
Two weeks later, Adelita Grijalva is expected to win a special election in a solidly Democratic district in Arizona to succeed her father, Representative Raul M. Grijalva, a 12-term congressman who died in March. She is also expected to join the rest of her party in signing Mr. Massie’s petition.
A vote would be politically toxic for the G.O.P.Should both Democrats win and sign, Republican leaders would find themselves in a political jam as they continue to navigate competing demands from Mr. Trump.
After his administration promised shocking revelations in the case, the president has weathered a backlash for its sudden reversal and refusal to make public its investigative files. He has condemned the continued fallout as a Democratic hoax, and lashed out at his own supporters for demanding more information on the investigation into Mr. Epstein, the disgraced financier who died in federal prison in 2019 while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges.
If the measure were to pass, it is not clear whether the Republican-led Congress, which has deferred to Mr. Trump at every turn, would take any action if the Justice Department declined to comply with its demand for the files. That would require a separate vote to hold Attorney General Pam Bondi in contempt of Congress.
But a vote on whether to compel the release of the files would be politically painful for Republicans who have echoed the calls of constituents who have long clamored for the material. They would have to choose between backing the voters who elected them or backing Mr. Trump in his desire to keep the matter closed.
Republican leaders are still trying avoid a vote.Even if the petition were to receive the requisite 218 signatures to force action, there is no guarantee it would proceed to the floor. House leaders have a range of procedural maneuvers they can use to thwart legislation even if it has the support of a majority of the House.
The White House is also expected to continue trying to pressure the Republicans who have signed the discharge petition to remove their names. And Republican leaders have pointed to the Oversight Committee’s investigation and recent release of files as evidence that no vote by the full House is needed to assure transparency on the Epstein case. |
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