Massie Gets the 218 Signatures to Force a House Vote on More Epstein Files

Republican Rep. Thomas Massie of Kentucky has secured enough support in the House to force a vote on legislation that would compel the release of the remaining Justice Department files on Jeffrey Epstein. His discharge petition reached the required 218 signatures on Wednesday, according to CBS News.

Massie launched the petition over the summer to get around House leadership, which controls what reaches the floor. The bill is called the Epstein Files Transparency Act II. A discharge petition lets a majority of the House bring a measure to a vote even when leaders refuse to schedule it, and 218 is the majority of the 435-member chamber.

All Democrats have signed, along with four Republicans. Besides Massie, the Republicans are Reps. Brian Fitzgerald of Pennsylvania, and Nancy Mace and Ralph Norman, both of South Carolina. That combination was enough to clear the bar.

The underlying bill would let members of Congress, state attorneys general and Epstein survivors sue the Justice Department for failing to comply with the original Epstein Files Transparency Act. That law was signed nearly a year ago after lawmakers used the same maneuver to force it through over leadership resistance. The new bill is aimed at enforcement rather than disclosure alone, giving outsiders a way to go to court if the department keeps holding material back.

Massie has accused the Justice Department of "flagrantly and consistently" ignoring the disclosure requirements of the earlier law. In a July statement he said the department "continues to unlawfully withhold over 3 million Epstein files that should be released to the public." He added that the department is "unlawfully maintaining heavy redactions on the files it is releasing."

The vote lands in a changed political climate. Democrats won control of the House in the midterm elections last week, and the party has been claiming 254 seats as counting continues. Republican leadership, which has resisted the push, is also in turmoil: House Republicans have just elected Jim Jordan as their minority leader after the party's losses.

The next step is procedural. Once a discharge petition has its signatures, supporters can ask for the bill to be called up on the floor after a waiting period set by House rules. Leadership will have limited ability to stop a vote, though it can still try to amend the text or delay it. If the bill passes the House, it must still clear the Senate and be signed by the president before it becomes law.

The Justice Department has not yet said how it will respond to the new bill. The fight over the Epstein records has been one of the few issues on which a small group of Republicans has repeatedly broken with their own party's leadership, and Wednesday's signatures show that group is large enough, with Democrats, to force the House to go on the record.