Home Minority Chief Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) on Monday went after President Trump and Republican leaders over the Jeffrey Epstein case, saying their refusal to press for the discharge of the federal government information on the convicted youngster intercourse offender is tantamount to defending pedophiles.
Jeffries pointed particularly to Speaker Mike Johnson’s (R-La.) determination to not seat Rep.-elect Adelita Grijalva (D) as proof of his cost. Grijalva received a particular election in Arizona on Sept. 23 and is vowing to be the deciding signature on a discharge petition that will pressure the Justice Division to launch the undisclosed Epstein paperwork — every time she’s sworn in.
“The Trump administration and Mike Johnson are working a pedophile safety program,” Jeffries advised reporters within the Capitol. “That’s what they’ve been doing, and that’s the reason why they refuse to swear in Rep.-elect Adelita Grijalva, for weeks now.”
Johnson has repeatedly rejected these accusations. He says the higher technique for attending to the underside of Epstein’s associations is thru the Home Oversight and Authorities Reform Committee, which launched a probe months in the past and has already launched hundreds of information from each the Justice Division and the Epstein property.
The Speaker says he’s not seating Grijalva as a result of the Home, which he’s saved on recess since Sept. 20, just isn’t working in regular session throughout the federal government shutdown. When the shutdown ends, and Home lawmakers return to Washington, Johnson says he’ll then seat Grijalva with all of the “pomp” she deserves.
Grijalva, for her half, says she doesn’t need the pomp; she desires to be sworn in throughout one of many procedural periods, referred to as professional forma periods, which have occurred each three days all through the shutdown. Johnson used a professional forma session to seat two Home Republicans in April after they received particular elections in Florida.
Democrats say the excellence has every thing to do with Epstein.
“She was elected in late September, decisively,” Jeffries mentioned Monday. “And Rep.-elect Adelita Grijalva still hasn’t been sworn in, because she’ll become the 218th vote on an up-or-down piece of legislation that will require the Department of Justice to release the Epstein files.”
Though Epstein died in jail in 2019 whereas awaiting trial on fees associated to youngster intercourse trafficking, curiosity in his case took off in the course of the 2024 presidential marketing campaign when distinguished Trump supporters aired their theories that the federal government was shielding a number of rich, highly effective elites who had related to Epstein — and might need dedicated crimes involving minors.
Trump had given voice to these considerations, saying he would launch the information if elected to a second time period. And his appointment of Pam Bondi as U.S. lawyer basic and Kash Patel as FBI director fueled hopes among the many MAGA trustworthy that the paperwork could be unveiled shortly this 12 months. Bondi, in February, mentioned she had Epstein’s “client list” on her desk for assessment.
Trump, nonetheless, had his personal associations with Epstein many years in the past. And Bondi, after taking cost of the Division of Justice (DOJ) this 12 months, advised Trump that his identify seems within the undisclosed information, in line with The Wall Road Journal.
Extra just lately, the DOJ issued an unsigned memo saying the division had reviewed the Epstein case exhaustively, and located no proof that anybody however Epstein and his longtime girlfriend, Ghislaine Maxwell, who’s serving a 20-year jail time period for fees associated to the intercourse trafficking of minors, must be charged within the case.
The memo infuriated lots of Trump’s supporters, who mentioned they felt betrayed by the reversal. Trump responded by saying he doesn’t want their assist — and the case is closed.
To compel the DOJ to launch the information, Reps. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) and Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) have teamed up on laws to pressure the administration’s hand. As a result of Johnson and Trump oppose the invoice, GOP leaders received’t deliver it to the ground.
Khanna and Massie have sought to go round that blockade with a discharge petition, which is able to pressure the vote over the objections of GOP leaders if it may well safe the endorsement of 218 lawmakers — a easy majority of the Home.
The petition at the moment has 217 signatures, together with 4 Republicans.
