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WASHINGTON ― As the two parties square off over an imminent government shutdown, Democrats are accusing House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) of keeping the House of Representatives out of session to delay a vote on the Epstein files.
The House had been scheduled to vote on Monday and Tuesday, but Johnson canceled the votes in order to put more pressure on Senate Democrats to accept a government funding bill Republicans pushed through the House earlier this month.
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The canceled votes are also pushing back the swearing-in of Rep.-elect Adelita Grijalva, a Democrat who won a special election last week to fill her late father’s Arizona seat. Grijalva would provide the crucial 218th signature on a “discharge petition” forcing a vote on legislation to make the Justice Department release its investigatory files on the late sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein.
“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,” Rep. Katherine Clark (Mass.), the No. 2 Democrat in the House, complained in a letter to Johnson on Monday.
In a statement, a Johnson spokesman suggested Grijalva’s swearing-in would have to wait until the House returns for business, though it’s not clear when that will be.
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“As is standard practice, with the House now having received the appropriate paperwork from the state, the Speaker’s Office intends to schedule a swearing in for the Representative-elect when the House returns to session,” the spokesman said.
Clark said Johnson should swear in Grijalva during a pro forma House session on Tuesday. Usually nothing happens during pro forma sessions except a single member shows up and gavels the House in and out of session. It’s a parliamentary ruse to prevent the president from making recess appointments.
Clark noted that in April, Reps. Randy Fine (R-Fla.) and Jimmy Patronis (R-Fla.) were sworn in almost immediately after their special election victories.
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“Democrats will be in Washington, D.C. this week to fund the government in a manner that strengthens the health care of millions of Americans and protects the most vulnerable from harmful cuts to critical services,” Clark said. “We ask that you reverse your decision to cancel votes on Tuesday, September 30. If you remain unwilling to call the House into session, Representative-elect Grijalva should be sworn in during the pro forma session on Tuesday.”
Once Grijalva is sworn in, she can lend her signature to a discharge petition by Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) that would force the House to vote on legislation calling on the Justice Department to release its Epstein files. The petition currently has 217 signatures, including four Republicans, and only one more is needed for it to succeed.
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President Donald Trump, who was friends with Epstein and is reportedly mentioned in the files, has called the uproar over his administration’s refusal to release the Epstein files a “Democrat hoax.” Speaker Johnson has said the House Oversight Committee’s work obtaining some the files from the Justice Department has made the Massie bill irrelevant.
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Even if the House passes Massie’s bill, it would still need to clear the Senate, and lawmakers would likely need to overcome opposition from the president as well.