US House to Vote on Full Release of Jeffrey Epstein Files Next Week

The US House of Representatives will vote next week on a measure requiring the Department of Justice to release all files related to the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, Speaker Mike Johnson announced on Wednesday.

Johnson told reporters that the long-awaited vote would ensure “full transparency” and noted that the Republican-led Oversight Committee had been “working around the clock” on its own parallel investigation into Epstein’s connections and activities.

The announcement came shortly after newly sworn-in Arizona Democrat Adelita Grijalva, who won a special election to replace her late father, Congressman Raul Grijalva, gave the final signature needed to trigger the vote.

Grijalva’s signature brought the bipartisan discharge petition to the required 218 lawmakers, allowing members to bypass House leadership and bring the issue directly to the floor. The petition was spearheaded by Republican Thomas Massie of Kentucky and Democrat Ro Khanna of California, with co-signatures from all 214 House Democrats and four Republicans: Massie, Marjorie Taylor Greene, Lauren Boebert, and Nancy Mace.

The House currently has 219 Republicans, giving the party only a slim majority.

Grijalva’s swearing-in had been delayed for weeks while the chamber was out of session, a move Democrats said was designed to stop her from joining the Epstein petition. Arizona’s attorney general filed a lawsuit over the delay.

In her first floor speech after taking office, Grijalva pledged to continue her father’s progressive legacy and act as a “check and balance” on President Donald Trump’s administration.

“We can and must do better,” she said. “What is most concerning is not what this administration has done, but what the majority of this body has failed to do.”

The same day, Grijalva voted with most Democrats to reject the Senate’s government funding bill, which ultimately passed the House 222–209, ending the longest federal shutdown in US history once Trump signed it into law.

House Rules Committee ranking Democrat Jim McGovern had previously suggested that a vote on the Epstein disclosure bill would not occur until December. Johnson’s move to accelerate the timeline appears to reflect mounting frustration within the GOP, where some lawmakers are under pressure to show progress on the issue.

Tennessee Republican Tim Burchett, a vocal advocate for releasing the files, expressed exasperation.

“The Democrats have had the Epstein files for four years, and now we’ve got it for nine months, and it’s going to be dragged into a bunch of nonsense,” he said. “Let’s just take it to the floor. Let’s vote on it. Let’s get on with it.”

An attempt by Burchett to fast-track the vote on Wednesday was blocked on procedural grounds. Later, in a video posted on X, he accused Democrats of “gamesmanship” and political delay.