As southern Arizona voters in the state’s 7th congressional district head to the polls Tuesday to fill a vacancy in the U.S. House, they are poised to revive a major headache for House Speaker Mike Johnson and the Trump administration.
Both the Democratic frontrunner, Adelita Grijalva, and her Republican challenger, Daniel Butierez, have publicly expressed their intent to provide the deciding signature on the discharge petition to circumvent Johnson and force a House vote on releasing the Jeffrey Epstein files.
“The days of turning a blind eye to Trump must end,” Grijalva told Politico. The government’s lack of transparency surrounding the late notorious sex criminal “has definitely come up” during the campaign, she told CNN, as voters say “they believe the survivors deserve justice, and Congress must fulfill its duty to check the executive branch and hold Trump accountable.”
Butierez would “absolutely” sign on to the petition too, he said earlier this month in the Arizona Daily Star, which first reported Grijalva’s commitment as well.
With the House’s current make-up, Representatives Thomas Massie, a Republican, and Ro Khanna, a Democrat, are just one signature shy on their bid to force a vote—which would likely go to the House floor and pass with Grijalva’s or Butierez’s signature. While Johnson can try to block it via the House Rules Committee, he and the committee chair, Virginia Foxx, have both reportedly said they wouldn’t do so.
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