President Donald Trump's attempt to prevent a congressional vote on disclosing federal files tied to Jeffrey Epstein collapsed Tuesday, after a bipartisan petition surpassed the 218 signatures required to force action on the House floor. The failure capped a day of frantic White House lobbying, internal divisions, and a rare public rebuke of the administration's influence.
According to multiple congressional aides, the White House spent the day pressuring Republican lawmakers to withdraw from the discharge petition that would compel the release of unclassified Department of Justice records. The effort fell apart hours after Democrats released three private emails from Epstein's estate referencing Trump, triggering renewed calls for transparency.
The pivotal moment came when Rep.-elect Adelita Grijalva was sworn in and added her signature to the petition, giving it the final vote necessary to advance. The move effectively doomed the administration's efforts to halt the measure and left senior aides scrambling to contain political fallout.
White House officials convened a private meeting with Rep. Lauren Boebert in a last-ditch attempt to persuade her to remove her name from the petition-a meeting that took place inside the Situation Room, a space typically reserved for national security deliberations. Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt defended the meeting, saying the administration was willing to "sit down with members of Congress and address their concerns."
Critics said the optics of using a high-security venue for political persuasion underscored the administration's desperation. The intervention failed within hours, as Grijalva's swearing-in and signature made the vote unavoidable. Republican leaders, who had delayed her induction during the government shutdown standoff, could not reverse the outcome once regular proceedings resumed.
The immediate catalyst for the White House's scramble was the release of three email exchanges from Epstein's estate. In one message, Epstein wrote that a woman had "spent hours at my house" with Trump, while another said Trump "knew about the girls." The emails prompted Democrats to demand full disclosure of the "Epstein files," while victims' advocates called for a comprehensive accounting of Epstein's ties to influential figures.
The Oversight Committee later released 20,000 pages of related material from Epstein's estate. Republican lawmakers countered with their own batch of documents, accusing Democrats of selectively releasing information to damage the President politically.
Trump responded on Truth Social, calling the controversy a "Democratic hoax" and accusing opponents of using Epstein's name to distract from the ongoing government shutdown. "Focus on reopening the government," he wrote, urging Republicans to stay united.
That message did little to calm tensions. Multiple outlets reported that senior aides and Justice Department officials had quietly urged lawmakers to slow the petition's momentum, a move that critics framed as an attempt to suppress transparency. By day's end, the White House appeared cornered-its intervention both exposed and ineffective.
The upcoming House vote will force lawmakers to take a public stance on whether to release additional Epstein-related files, a step that could extend the scandal into another political crisis for the administration. Speaker Mike Johnson confirmed that the vote will take place next week, setting the stage for a dramatic test of party unity and presidential influence.
