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House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) will swear in Rep.-elect Adelita Grijalva (D-Ariz.) Wednesday, who is expected to become the final signatory on a measure to force a vote on the release of government files related to convicted pedophile Jeffrey Epstein.
Grijalva will be sworn in more than seven weeks after she won a special election to replace her late father as the representative of southern Arizona’s 7th Congressional District.
“After seven weeks of waiting, I almost can’t believe it’s true,” Grijalva said in a video posted on X.
“Release the files,” reads part of the banner on the incoming congresswoman’s X page.
Reps. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) and Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) have secured the signatures of 217 congressional lawmakers, including Republican Reps. Lauren Boebert of Colorado, Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia and Nancy Mace of South Carolina, for their discharge petition related to the so-called Epstein files.
When the 218-signature threshold is met, the House speaker would be compelled to bring a resolution directing the Justice Department to release unclassified records related to Epstein and his convicted accomplice, Ghislaine Maxwell, up for a vote.
“If she signs it tomorrow, it should ripe[n] in early December, so we could expect to vote,” House Rules Committee ranking member Jim McGovern (D-Mass.) told reporters Tuesday.
“That doesn’t mean that the speaker of the House may try to do some, you know, shenanigans with the discharge petition but if all goes the way we want it to go, early December,” he added.
A spokesperson for Grijalva did not immediately respond to The Post’s request for comment on if or when she will sign the discharge petition.
Democrats have accused Johnson of delaying Grijalva’s swearing-in ceremony to avoid a potential House floor vote on releasing the Epstein files, which President Trump has described as a Democratic-led “hoax.”
The House speaker has denied that the discharge petition has anything to do with the timing of when Grijalva will be seated in the lower chamber.
Last month, Johnson said he was “following the Pelosi precedent” of not administering the oath of office to winners of special elections when the House is out of session, which it has been since before the record-long government shutdown.
“I will administer the oath to her on the first day we come back [to] legislative session,” Johnson said. “I’m willing and anxious to do that.”
Grijalva noted on X that she is “really upset that one of the first votes that I will take is on a bill that does nothing for affordable healthcare or the American people,” referring to the Senate-passed measure to reopen the federal government.
“We have to do something to make sure that one person cannot silence the voices of 813,000 people,” she added, referring to the delay in her swearing-in. “This can never happen again to another member-elect that is waiting in the wings because someone doesn’t want to do their job or because they are playing politics.”
The soon-to-be-congresswoman’s father, late Rep. Raul Grijalva (D-Ariz.), died in March of complications from lung cancer treatment.
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