U.S. Representative Adelita Grijalva, D-Arizona, 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 into office Wednesday after a delay that U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson blamed on the long government shutdown. But critics claim this is because the Arizona lawmaker pledged to be the key signatory of a petition to release the so-called Epstein files.
Grijalva, who was elected Sept. 23, has publicly vowed to add her name to a bipartisan measure that would force the House to vote on releasing files 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 about the case. President Donald Trump had advocated for the files to be made public.
Grijalva, Arizona’s first elected Latina, called the delayed ceremony an “abuse of power.”
“It has been 50 days since the people of Arizona’s 7th Congressional District elected me as their representative. … An individual should not be able to unilaterally obstruct the swearing-in of a duly elected member of Congress for political reasons,” said Grijalva, who filled the seat of her delayed father, Raúl Grijalva, who died earlier this year.
“Our democracy only works when everyone has a voice. That 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. “You’ll be with us here in the gallery tonight.”
To cheers from her Democratic colleagues in the chamber, Grijalva said she would sign the petition “immediately.”
Massie and Khanna are leading the petition drive
From the beginning of September it is Dismissal applicationled by Reps. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., and Ro Khanna, D-Calif., had collected the signatures of all Democrats and four Republicans, leaving the petition just one shy of 218 signatures needed to bypass Johnson and force a vote in the House.
The three Republicans who joined Massie at the signing were Reps. Lauren Boebert of Colorado, Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia and Nancy Mace of South Carolina.
The petition will likely be heard by someone sponsored by Massie sometime in the next few weeks resolution starting in July, requiring 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 was convicted of federal sex trafficking charges.
The resolution had 50 co-sponsors, including nearly a dozen Republicans.
Johnson defends delay
Grijalva and her supporters have flatly accused Johnson of delaying the swearing-in because of the Epstein petition.
“When the American people vote, this chamber respects their will and implements it immediately. Politics should never come into play,” Rep. Greg Stanton, D-Ariz., said on the House floor shortly before Johnson administered the oath to Grijalva.
Democrats pointed out that Johnson had previously sworn in other lawmakers when the House was not in session.
Johnson argued in mid-October that Grijalva had not yet been sworn in because she won her special election after the House went home on September 19, which was quickly followed by a government shutdown on October 1. “As soon as (Senator) Chuck Schumer opens the government … we’ll have this as soon as we get back to work,” he said.
At a news conference on Oct. 15, Arizona Democratic Sen. Ruben Gallego accused Johnson of protecting “pedophiles, whether it’s Donald Trump or one of his elite rich friends.”
Trump had a well-documented friendship with Epstein. Trump maintains He kicked Epstein out of his private club Mar-a-Lago in Florida because the financier had poached newborn female employees.
A flood of Epstein documents
New emails Revealing details about the relationship between Trump and Epstein emerged on Wednesday. Democrats on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee released three exchanges with content suggesting Trump was aware of Epstein’s abuse of underage girls.
Republican leaders on the committee soon released more than 20,000 documents they had obtained from the Epstein estate.
Reports also emerged that the Trump administration had done this stretched out to two Republican representatives, Boebert and Mace, for 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, a secure center for presidential national and global information.
“I’m not going to go into detail about the conversations that took place in the Situation Room,” Leavitt said when asked if Trump had reached out to Boebert to remove her name.
Boebert’s office referred the state’s newsroom to the lawmaker’s afternoon social media post It read: “I want to thank White House officials for meeting with me today. Together, we remain committed to ensuring transparency for the American people.”
Mace’s office did not respond to questions to confirm that the White House had contacted the South Carolina lawmaker. Rather, Sydney Long, Mace’s communications director, said, “The congresswoman is not removing her name from the dismissal petition because of her personal history.”
Mace has publicly shared her own story of sexual assault.
