Nov. 12, 2025
As the Arizona Democrat becomes the newest member of Congress, the White House still hopes to kill the discharge petition she’s poised to sign.
When Democrat Adelita Grijalva cruised to a landslide victory in September, winning her congressional special election by roughly 40 points, it was widely assumed that she would soon be sworn in as Arizona’s first Latina congresswoman. That didn’t happen.
In fact, for the last seven weeks, the congresswoman-elect pleaded with House Speaker Mike Johnson and the chamber’s Republican leadership to let her get to work. But they refused, pointing to dubious claims regarding the government shutdown.
As the shutdown nears its end, and with GOP leaders out of excuses, the wait is finally over: On Wednesday afternoon, Grijalva took the oath of office, becoming Congress’ newest member. The House now has a 219-member Republican majority, working alongside a 214-member Democratic minority.
For Grijalva — who succeeds her father, the late Democratic Rep. Raúl Grijalva — it’s a breakthrough moment and a career milestone. But for the rest of the political world, there’s a related element to the congresswoman’s swearing-in that’s of great interest.
There’s a pending discharge petition to force disclosure of the Jeffrey Epstein files, currently being held back by Donald Trump’s Justice Department. As Wednesday got underway, proponents of the effort were one member short of the 218 signatures needed to trigger a vote. Before Wednesday ends, Grijalva is poised to join the signatories and achieve the long-sought threshold.
So what happens now? One of two things.
The first and most likely scenario is that a complex legislative process is poised to unfold, starting with a waiting period of seven legislative days. Soon after, the House will, at long last, hold a floor vote on the bipartisan resolution on the Epstein files, which would be expected to pass.
The other scenario is that the discharge petition will be derailed — because of one its Republican supporters will be persuaded to change his or her mind.
As things stand, only four House GOP members — Reps. Thomas Massie of Kentucky, Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia, Lauren Boebert of Colorado and Nancy Mace of South Carolina — have joined with Democrats in support of the discharge petition. If all four of them stick to their guns, the process will move forward. If one (or more) of the quartet reverses course, the effort will collapse.
With this in mind, The New York Times reported:
President Trump and his administration on Wednesday ramped up a pressure campaign on congressional Republicans who are pushing for a full release of the Justice Department’s files about the convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, rushing to head off a House vote on the matter. Top officials met in the White House Situation Room on Wednesday with Representative Lauren Boebert, a Colorado Republican who is backing an effort to force a House vote on whether to demand the release of the files.
While MSNBC hasn’t independently verified this reporting, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt effectively confirmed the account, acknowledging the meeting. (Why this was held in the White House Situation Room is unclear.)
Q: Given you answers about transparency, why are WH officials meeting with Boebert in an effort to get her to not sign the Epstein files petition? LEAVITT: Doesn’t it show transparency that members of the Trump administration are willing to brief members of Congress?
[image or embed]— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar.com) November 12, 2025 at 7:45 PM
Around the same time, the president published an item to his social media platform, calling the scandal a “hoax,” arguing that “only a very bad, or stupid, Republican” would take the controversy seriously, and concluding: “There should be no deflections to Epstein or anything else.”
Or put another way, the White House sure does seem nervous about the discharge petition. Watch this space.
“Q: Given you answers about transparency, why are WH officials meeting with Boebert in an effort to get her to not sign the Epstein files petition? LEAVITT: Doesn’t it show transparency that members of the Trump administration are willing to brief members of Congress?”
Leave-itt to Beaver speaks like the cheap wh*re that she is, protecting a child rapist.
No, this is no transparency and this is not a briefing. This is an attempted coercion, plain and simple … or maybe even a bribe?
Taco and his gang are afraid. They are in panic mode, because now that Mrs. Adelita Grijalva is FINALLY sworn in, after that little mongrel, Johnson, delayed it (unconstitutionally) for weeks and weeks, the signing of the discharge petition to release the Epstein files is finally within grasp. The proverbial can of worms is hopefully about to be opened.
“While MSNBC hasn’t independently verified this reporting…
lol…
“White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt effectively confirmed the account, acknowledging the meeting.”
This was also reported by a number of other sources, including Time Magazine.
“Trump Presses House Republicans to Stop Vote on Epstein Files Release”
https://time.com/7333455/epstein-trump-boebert-situation-room/
It’s also been reported by a number of other sources, including Time:
https://tinyurl.com/3putct57
(I had to use “tinyurl” because the link includes “Boeьert”, and anything including “вert” is blocked. Sigh…)
That’s odd…
You may recall that we used to have a member “вert” who posted some rather rude things to Sir Red. He was banned, apparently along with any mention of him.
I’d think that since anonymous posts are no longer allowed, the ban on anything containing “ьert” could be dropped. It’s annoying when you write a long post and then it doesn’t show up because you’re not at liьerty to use the word “liьerty”.
Bert.
You must have higher privileges than an ordinary user. I just tried it, and my post didn’t show up. You might find it “binned”.
Is this a little dictatorship now???
“arsegiver”
Just out of curiosity… 🙂
😉
Does not mean it’s not true. Lol.
BREAKING: Shocking new emails show Jeffrey Epstein was in contact with Russian officials and giving them dirt about Trump!
POLITICO reports that “I think you might suggest to putin that lavrov can get insight on talking to me,” Epstein wrote in a June 24, 2018, email to Thorbjorn Jagland, a former prime minister of Norway. “Lavrov” is a reference to Sergei Lavrov, the Russian foreign minister.
Other emails show Epstein having discussed Trump with Vitaly Churkin, the Russian ambassador to the UN before he died abruptly in 2017.
“Churkin was great. He understood trump after our conversations. it is not complex. he must be seen to get something its that simple.”
These stunning revelations open up a whole new can of worms about Trump and his relationship with the Russians. The Russians notoriously interfered in the 2016 election on his behalf, their hackers accessing DNC servers and waging a widespread propaganda campaign on social media.
Trump’s campaign members had many links to Russian officials and throughout the years, he has behaved unusually deferentially to Russia, fanning the flames of conspiracy about whether or not the Russians were blackmailing him with “kompromat.”
Who would have more blackmail material than Trump’s longtime friend Jeffery Epstein, who notoriously had cameras throughout his house and had a public falling out with Trump, allegedly because Epstein “stole” a young woman from Mar-a-Lago to be sex trafficked?
Thanks for the link and info, Larry, it’s in all the news. No one knows the depth and breadth of Taco’s swamp, but a part is finally being exposed.