Arizona representative-elect Adelita Grijalva to be sworn in Wednesday after House speaker prevented her from taking her seat
Mike Johnson, the US House speaker, is expected to swear in Democratic representative-elect Adelita Grijalva on Wednesday afternoon, ending a seven-week standoff that prevented the incoming Arizona legislator from taking her congressional seat and clearing the path for a vote to release the Jeffrey Epstein files.
Johnson’s office announced Grijalva will take the oath of office at approximately 4pm EST on the House floor, ahead of a vote to reopen the federal government. The ceremony comes 49 days after Grijalva won a late September special election to succeed her father, longtime congressman Raúl Grijalva, who died in March.
Grijalva’s arrival does more than narrow the already razor-thin Republican majority. She has vowed to become the 218th and final signature on a discharge petition that would automatically trigger a House floor vote on legislation demanding the Justice Department release additional files on deceased sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
Already on Wednesday morning, House oversight Democrats released “never-before-seen” Epstein emails that mention Trump, including a 2011 message to Ghislaine Maxwell in which Epstein wrote that Trump “spent hours at my house” with a sex trafficking victim, calling Trump a “dog that hasn’t barked”.
