Petition on Epstein Files Gains Enough Signatures

GOP Rep. Thomas Massie is on his way to notching the 218 signatures required to end-run Speaker Mike Johnson and force a floor vote on his bipartisan legislation to release Jeffrey Epstein-related documents. Newly sworn-in Democratic Rep. James Walkinshaw, who won a special election in Virginia Tuesday night, signed the petition late Wednesday, he said in an interview. “The discharge petition in the House ... is really the only mechanism to circumvent that ironclad control that Donald Trump has over my Republican colleagues,” Walkinshaw told POLITICO afterward. Massie (R-Ky.) and Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) need only one more House member’s signature to clinch 218. The pair is set to hit that mark later this month — a Democrat is expected to win the Sept. 23 special election to replace the late Rep. Raúl Grijalva of Arizona. Republican Reps. Lauren Boebert of Colorado, Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia and Nancy Mace of South Carolina have already signed on to the petition and have indicated they won’t remove their names despite pressure from the White House. House Rules Chair Virginia Foxx has said her panel will not turn off the discharge petition, as a way to block a floor vote on the bipartisan Epstein bill. House GOP leaders indicated in private conversations with Republicans this week that they will not try to head off the discharge petition in the Rules Committee, and they acknowledged a floor vote is likely if Massie gets 218 signatures, according to three people with direct knowledge of the matter. But Johnson argues Massie’s effort is “moot,” given Republicans have approved a symbolic provision directing the Oversight Committee to continue its Epstein investigation. President Donald Trump has continued to call the Epstein episode a “hoax” perpetrated by Democrats, to the horror of some House Republicans.