Speaker Mike Johnson announced that the US House of Representatives will vote to force full disclosure of files related to the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson told reporters on Wednesday that the House of Commons will vote next week to require the Justice Department to release all documents relating to the disgraced investor.
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Johnson added that he “would like to remind everyone” that the Republican-led oversight committee is “working around the clock” on its own investigation into the incident.
Mr. Johnson made the comments after new Democratic Rep. Adelita Grijalva, who was sworn in to the House of Representatives on Wednesday, signed a petition to force a House vote on the issue.
The bipartisan expulsion petition, which allows most members to bypass House leadership, was filed by Republican Thomas Massie of Kentucky and Democrat Ro Khanna of California.
Grijalva won a special election in September to fill the Arizona seat held by his late father, Raul Grijalva.
Johnson has refused to take the oath of office since September 19, when Congress is in recess, prompting a lawsuit by the Arizona attorney general.
Grijalva and other Democrats said the delay was aimed at preventing her from adding signatures to Epstein’s petition.
Speaker Johnson is delaying my swearing-in to avoid releasing the Epstein files.
Please join us in demanding that Chairman Johnson:
Exit the shutdown.
Please swear.
Free the file.
Sign our petition 🔗 https://t.co/pmOaiFxQu6 pic.twitter.com/l2xzrVz1qI
— Adelita Grijalva (@AdelitaForAZ) October 9, 2025
Mr. Grijalva signed the petition shortly after taking the oath of office, giving it the 218 signatures needed to push it forward.
Her co-signers included all 214 House Democrats and four House Republicans: Massie, Marjorie Taylor Greene, Lauren Boebert, and Nancy Mace.
Republicans hold a narrow majority in the House of Representatives with 219 members.
In a speech on the House floor after taking his seat, Grijalva pledged to continue his father’s legacy of advocating progressive policies and ensuring that Congress provides “full checks and balances” to President Donald Trump’s administration.
“We can and must do better. What concerns us most is not what this administration has done, but what the majority of this organization has not done,” she said.
Mr. Grijalva’s second act on his busy first day at the Capitol was to vote with a majority of his Democratic colleagues to reject the government-passed reopening bill in the Senate.
Lawmakers voted 222-209 to move the funding package to President Trump’s desk for his signature, ending the longest federal government shutdown in history.
Jim McGovern, the top Democrat on the House Rules Committee, previously said he expected a vote on the Epstein bill in early December.
Johnson’s earlier-than-expected announcement of the vote signaled growing frustration among Republicans, many of whom face intense scrutiny from within their own party, Democrats and the American public over accusations that they shelter child molesters.
Tennessee Republican Tim Burchett told reporters Wednesday that he was “tired of messing around” with the issue.
“Democrats have had the Epstein files for four years, now they’ve had them for nine months, and they’re going to be dragged into a series of nonsense issues. Let’s bring it to the floor. Let’s vote. Let’s move on.”
Mr Burchett’s attempt to force an expedited vote to release the files on Wednesday was blocked for not following proper legislative process.
In the X video, Burchett blamed Democrats for blocking his efforts and denounced their “scheming” against Epstein.
Today they tried to release the Epstein files. Democrats blocked it. pic.twitter.com/oKo8y9RR3b
— Rep. Tim Burchett (@RepTimBurchett) November 12, 2025
The vote also comes amid renewed attention to the relationship between Mr. Trump and Mr. Epstein after Democrats on the House Oversight Committee released new emails on Wednesday that appear to further deepen the relationship between the two.
In one such exchange, Epstein told his ex-girlfriend, Ghislaine Maxwell, who is currently serving a 20-year sentence for sex trafficking, that Trump “spent hours” with one of the victims at his home.
The email, which is said to have been sent to Maxwell two years after Epstein served 13 months in prison for sex crimes, also said: “I want you to understand that Trump is the dog that didn’t bark.”
It’s unclear what Epstein was referring to in his comments.
Epstein said Trump “knew the girls” in another email sent in 2019.
In a post on his platform TruthSocial, President Trump dismissed the email as a “hoax” and accused Democrats of “doing anything they can to distract from how bad they did with the government shutdown.”
White House press secretary Caroline Levitt also dismissed the email, saying it “proves absolutely nothing, other than the fact that President Trump has done nothing wrong.”
“This administration has done more in terms of transparency than any previous administration when it comes to Jeffrey Epstein,” she said.
