U.S. Rep. Adelita Grijalva, R-Ariz., was sworn into office on November 12, 2025, by House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La. (Screenshot courtesy of C-SPAN)
WASHINGTON — Democratic Rep. Adelita Grijalva was sworn in Wednesday after a delay that House Speaker Mike Johnson attributed to the lengthy government shutdown, but critics say it was because the Arizona legislator promised to be the deciding sign on a petition to release the so-called Epstein file.
Grijalva, elected on Sept. 23, publicly promised to add her name to a bipartisan measure that would force the House to vote on whether to release records from the government’s investigation into sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, who died in 2019 while awaiting trial on federal sex trafficking charges.
The Trump administration said in July it would not release further information on the matter. President Donald Trump campaigned on file sharing.
Grijalva, the first Latina elected in Arizona, called the delayed ceremony an “abuse of power.”
“It’s been 50 days since the people of Arizona’s 7th Congressional District elected me as their representative.[…]“No person should be able to unilaterally obstruct the inauguration of a duly elected member of Congress for political reasons,” said Grijalva, who took the seat held by her father, Raúl Grijalva, who died earlier this year.
“Our democracy only works when everyone has a voice. This includes the millions of people across the country who have experienced violence and exploitation, including Liz Stein and Jessica Michaels, both survivors of Jeffrey Epstein’s abuse,” Grijalva said. “They are with us in the gallery tonight.”
To cheers from her Democratic colleagues in the chamber, Grijalva announced she would sign the petition “right now.”
Massie and Khanna lead a petition drive
From the beginning of September application for dismissalLed by Reps. Thomas Massie, D-Calif., and Ro Khanna, D-Calif., collected the signatures of all Democrats and four Republicans, leaving the petition with just one of the 218 signatures needed to bypass Johnson and force a vote in the House.
The three Republicans who joined Massie in signing the agreement were Reps. Lauren Boebert of Colorado, Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia and Nancy Mace of South Carolina.
The petition forces Massie’s sponsor to speak out, probably in the next few weeks resolution since July, it has been forcing the Justice Department to “disclose all unclassified records, documents, communications and investigative materials in its possession relating to Epstein” and his co-conspirator Ghislaine Maxwell, who has been convicted on federal sex trafficking charges.
The resolution attracted 50 co-sponsors, nearly a dozen of them Republicans.
Johnson defends the delay
Grijalva and her supporters directly accused Johnson of delaying his inauguration because of Epstein’s petition.
“When Americans vote, this House respects their will and seats them immediately. Politics should never come into play,” Republican Greg Stanton of Arizona said on the House floor moments before Johnson administered the oath of office to Grijalva.
Democrats pointed out that Johnson had previously administered the oath of office to other lawmakers when the House was not in session.
In mid-October, Johnson argued that Grijalva had not yet been sworn in because she won the special election after the House returned home on September 19, and the government shutdown occurred shortly thereafter on October 1. “As soon as (Sen.) Chuck Schumer opens the government … we’ll have it as soon as we get back to work,” he said.
At an Oct. 15 news conference, Arizona Democratic Sen. Ruben Gallego accused Johnson of protecting “pedophiles, whether they involve Donald Trump or any of his rich, elite friends.”
Trump had a well-documented friendship with Epstein. Trump maintains kicked Epstein out of his private Mar-a-Lago club in Florida because the financier was stealing from teenage female employees.
The deluge of Epstein documents
New emails Details about Trump and Epstein’s relationship were revealed on Wednesday. Democrats on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee released three exchanges that suggest Trump was aware of Epstein’s abuse of underage girls.
Soon, Republican leaders on the committee released more than 20,000 documents received from the Epstein estate.
There have also been reports that the Trump administration has done this he reached out to two GOP lawmakers, Boebert and Mace, regarding removing their names from the petition.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt appeared to confirm during Wednesday’s briefing that Trump met with Boebert in the Situation Room, the president’s secure domestic and global information center.
“I won’t go into detail about the conversations that took place in the situation room,” Leavitt said when asked whether Trump had asked Boebert to remove her name.
Boebert’s office pointed “States Newsroom” to the lawmaker’s social media this afternoon post that read: “I want to thank White House officials for meeting with me today. Together, we continue to strive to provide transparency for the American people.”
Mace’s office did not respond to questions confirming that the White House had contacted the South Carolina lawmaker. Rather, Mace communications director Sydney Long said, “The congresswoman is not removing her name from the discharge petition because of her personal history.”
Mace shared her own story of sexual assault publicly.
