Newly elected Dem claims Mike Johnson shutting her out of Congress over Epstein

House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) still hasn't sworn in an Arizona Democrat who won her special election last month, and she suspects he's blocking her to prevent the release of the Jeffrey Epstein files.

Rep.-elect Adelita Grijalva came to Washington last week after decisively winning her Sept. 23 election to replace her late father in Congress, but the Louisiana Republican still hasn't organized a swearing-in ceremony, and she told "CNN News Central" the delay is unusual.

"I try not to be a conspiracy theorist," Grijalva said. "I'm,like, okay, there has to be someplausible explanation, but in my case this speaker, Speaker Johnson, has sworn in three other members of Congress that were electedin a special [election], and two of them were Republican, April 1, and theywere sworn in April 2 in a proforma session, and then we haveRep. [James] Walkinshaw, a Democrat, sworn in about three weeks ago, elected on a Tuesday, sworn in less than 24 hours lateron Wednesday, and there was apro forma session."

"I was in D.C.and now I hear, 'Well, the nexttime that Congress is insession,' we were scheduled to bein session Sept. 29, [Sept.] 30, those were canceled, and wewere scheduled to be in sessionon the 7th of October," Grijalva added. "Thosewere also canceled, and now hehas indicated publicly that untilthe Senate does their, you know,passes something that the Housecan look at, then we're notcoming back. So I don't know,have any idea when I might getsworn in, and the Speaker'soffice has not had any directcommunication with me."

Democrats have speculated that Johnson is trying to prevent her from signing on to a discharge petition circulated by Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY) to force a vote on releasing evidence from Epstein's sex trafficking case, and Grijalva agreed that's possible.

"Iam going to be the 218th signerto the discharge petition, sothat is the only thing that mostpeople are pointing to," she said. "I mean,I am a woman of color, a Chicanafrom Tucson. None of thosefactors, I don't think, arereasons why I wouldn't be beingsworn in, other than pointing tothe Epstein files and thecomplete lack of transparencyfrom this administration inreleasing those files. The otheris Speaker Johnson has closeddown votes in the recent past toavoid a vote on the Epsteinfiles. So there does seem to bea connection."

- YouTubeyoutu.be