Rep. Massie, Dems, plan to force a House vote on releasing the Epstein files after the August recess

After years of absolute silence on the issue, Democrats have now loudly joined the handful of elected Republicans who’ve been consistently demanding that the government publicly release its files on the late convicted pedophile and accused sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein, such as Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY).

On Sunday, Massie spoke about his plan to work with House Democrats to force House Republican leadership to hold a vote on a bill to compel the release of the Epstein files after Congress’s August recess concludes, Breitbart reported.

The Kentucky congressman’s plan to bypass House leadership and force a vote on his Epstein files bill involves what is known as a discharge petition, which requires only the signatures of a simple majority of members to achieve success.

Massie’s plan to force the release of the Epstein files

Earlier this month, amid disputed media reports that President Donald Trump once wrote a letter that was included in a special birthday book for Epstein — years before Epstein’s scandalous behavior with underage girls and related criminal trouble became broadly public knowledge — Democrats suddenly began howling for the public release of all government files on the deceased former financier.

Seizing on the moment, Rep. Massie joined forces with Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA) to introduce the Epstein Files Transparency Act, which would force the House to vote on a resolution demanding the government release its files on Epstein. Coinciding with the filing of that bill was a threat to seek a discharge petition if a vote was not held within seven legislative days.

“We all deserve to know what’s in the Epstein files, who’s implicated, and how deep this corruption goes,” Massie said of his bill. “Americans were promised justice and transparency.”

“We’re introducing a discharge petition to force a vote in the U.S. House of Representatives on releasing the complete files,” he added. “If your Representative won’t sign the discharge petition, ask why.”

Plan to force a vote after the August recess

On Sunday, Reps. Massie and Khanna appeared on ABC’s “This Week” with host Jonathan Karl to talk about their bipartisan push to force a vote on the public release of the Epstein files.

“Well, I think we should get a lot more than just the book,” Massie said of what should be released. “Let’s get the financial records of the estate, follow the money, as they say up here. We should look at the plea-bargain, open that up, see what was the deal, what was the deal that was cut.”

“I think there’s a lot more than just that letter,” he continued. “That letter is also sort of representative of something that’s embarrassing but not illegal, another reason why these files may be sealed and stay sealed, but we’re going to force a vote on this when we get back from the August recess.”

Massie believes he has enough support for the discharge petition

“Ro Khanna and I are using a procedure called a discharge petition, whereby if we get 218 votes, and we’re well on our way to that, 218 signatures, then we can force the vote,” Rep. Massie said.

Karl observed that, given the partisan split in the House, some Republican members would need to sign the discharge petition to reach the 218-signature threshold, to which Massie replied, “If every Democrat signs this, I have 12 Republican co-sponsors, and I only need six to sign it.”

The host asked about the possibility of that actually occurring, “Because that’s taking control of the House schedule away from the speaker.”

“I think the pressure will build over August recess. I don’t think it will dissipate like the speaker hopes that it will,” Massie predicted. “If merely just half the people who have co-sponsored this legislation follow through and sign it, then it’s going to come to the floor for a vote.”

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