CBS News (“Epstein discharge petition secures final signature needed to force House vote on releasing files“):
An effort to force a House vote on compelling the Justice Department to release materials related to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein secured the final signature it needed Wednesday after House Speaker Mike Johnson delayed the swearing-in of a newly elected Democrat for seven weeks.
The effort, known as a discharge petition, defies House GOP leaders, who have opposed putting legislation backed by Democratic Rep. Ro Khanna of California and Republican Rep. Thomas Massie of Kentucky on the floor. Khanna and Massie introduced the measure, titled the Epstein Files Transparency Act, in July as pressure intensified on the Trump administration to release more Epstein-related files.
[…]
A discharge petition enables members of the lower chamber to bypass House leadership if they can get a majority of members — 218 — to sign on.
All House Democrats and four Republicans have added their names. Besides Massie, GOP Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia, Nancy Mace of South Carolina and Lauren Boebert of Colorado have signed on. Two special elections in Virginia and Arizona in September provided the final two signatures from Democrats to reach the 218 threshold.
Rep. Adelita Grijalva, who was elected on Sept. 23 to fill the seat of her late father Raul, added her name to the petition on Wednesday, shortly after she was sworn in. She pointed to Epstein survivors in the House gallery who she said were present for her swearing-in.
“Just this morning, House Democrats released more emails showing that Trump knew more about Epstein’s abuses than he previously acknowledged,” Grijalva said. “It’s past time for Congress to restore its role as a check and balance on this administration and fight for we, the American people.”
[…]
Her signature on Wednesday starts the clock on a waiting period of seven legislative days before a member can motion to bring it to the floor. After that, leadership has two legislative days to schedule a vote, which could happen as soon as early December.
It’s unclear if the Senate would take it up if it clears the House.
“I believe we’re going to get 40, 50 Republicans voting with us on the release,” Khanna told reporters Wednesday. “And if we get that kind of overwhelming vote, that’s going to push the Senate and it’s going to push for a release of the files from the Justice Department.”
While calls to release the files have been something of a meme for months, I must confess to not having spent much time researching the propriety of doing so. Were President Trump and other high-profile figures not potentially implicated, my instinct would be that releasing the details of Justice Department investigations is inflammatory at least and dangerous at worst. One imagines most of the information contained therein was gathered under the promise of confidentiality. Further, the victims here deserve privacy.
Obviously, the fact that the sitting president is a matter of interest complicates matters. Ordinarily, I would say that Congress has enormous investigative powers and could conduct its own investigation. But we’re well past the point where anyone trusts Congress to conduct an impartial inquiry.
