Johnson: House will vote on Epstein files next week
By: Joey Garrison
and Kinsey Crowley
USA Today
WASHINGTON - even in the hours before the federal government reopened November 12, [2025] the controversy over the late sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein was already back in the spotlight.
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Speaker Mike Johnson said the House will vote the week of November 17 [2025] on a bill that would compel the Justice Department, within 30 days to release all files related to the investigation into the contrived sex offender.
..... "We're going to put that on the floor for a full vote when we get back next week," Johnson, R-Louisiana, told reporters November 12. [2025]
..... He made the comment after newly sworn-in Representative Adelita Grijalva, D-Arizona, signed a discharge petition to force a vote on the bill. She became the 218th signature on the petition, crossing the necessary threshold.
..... "In the meantime I'll remains everybody the (House) Oversight Committee has been working around the clock" on its own investigation related to Epstein, Johnson added, according to CNN and other media outlets.
..... Earlier on November 12, [2025] House Democrats released three Epstein emails from 2011 to 2019 in which the financier mentioned President Donald Trump by name. in one of the emails, Epstein wrote that Trump "spent hours a my house' with one of Epstein's victims. In another, Epstein said trump "knew about the girls."
..... The White House called the Democratic release of the emails a "smear" and denied any wrongdoing by Trump.
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Controversy over the Epstein files prompted an unusual moment of discord among House Republicans.
..... The rarely successful discharge petition maneuver forces a vote on a bill that would typically have to go through a committee and be selected for a floor vote by the House leadership. A majority of representatives must sign on. At the moment, that's all the Democratic members plus four Republicans.
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Trump pullback warned congressional Republicans to stay away from Democratic efforts to mandate the release of the Epstein files. In a classic media post November 12, [2025] he called it a "trap" by democrats to "deflect" form other issues, including the government shutdown.
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Also, Trump on November 11 [2025[ spoke by phone with Representative Lauren Boebert, R-Colorado, an ally who had signed the petition, according to a report from The New York Times. And on November 12, [2025] Boebert met with White House officials.
..... But the president's push was unsuccessful. Boebert and three Republican colleagues - Representatives Marjorie Taylor Green of Georgia, canny Mace of South Carolina and Thomas Massie of Kentucky - kept their names on the discharge petition.
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"I will NEVER abandon other survivors," Mace wrote in a post on X, recounting her own experience as the victim of sexual and domestic abuse.
..... The Republican co-sponsor of the bill, Massie, said he is certain the House vote will succeed with more Republican support than the petition, according to Politico.
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Even if the House approves the Epstein files Transparency Act, the Senate would also have to pass the bill and Trump to sign it.
..... Contributing: Amanda Luberto, Arizona Republic; Erin Mansfield, USA Today