An Arizona Democrat who was elected to Congress in September but still hasn’t been sworn into office is gaining new support from Republican lawmakers as House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) faces growing scrutiny over an alleged attempt to block the release of files related to Jeffrey Epstein.
“We're all hoping that Speaker Johnson is going to read the tea leaves and get to work, swear me in so we don't have to go seek judicial support in him doing his job, but that's where we are,” Adelita Grijalva, who won her election on Sept. 23 and has since launched a lawsuit to force her swearing in, told MSNBC Saturday.
Grijalva and others have accused Johnson of delaying her swearing in to avoid the passage of a discharge petition that would compel the Justice Department to release all of its files on Epstein, who died in 2019 awaiting trial on sex-trafficking charges. The petition, which currently has 217 signatures, needs 218 signatures to force the House to vote on the matter — and Grijalva has pledged to sign it.
Grijalva told MSNBC’s “The Weekend” that a growing number of Republican lawmakers have joined her cause, however, including Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA), who told CNN recently that Grijalva “should be sworn in.”
“If I were Republican, I would have been sworn in already – I think everybody knows that,” Grijalva said. “And we've had several Republicans come out and say, 'it's crazy, she should have been sworn in a long time ago.'”
Johnson has said that he would swear Grijalva into office once the government re-opens. However, the House has held several meetings amid the ongoing shutdown – known as “pro forma sessions” – in which Grijalva could have been sworn in, she argued.
“There have been over 10 [House] pro forma sessions that I could have easily been sworn in,” she said. “Speaker Johnson painted himself into a corner with saying [he] won't swear [me] in until [the government] re-opens, [and now] I'm stuck in this box that he created.”
On her legal case against Johnson, Grijalva said that a judge was recently assigned to the case, and that the lawsuit may be expedited as early as next week. Asked whether she had any confidence that Johnson would even adhere to a court order should a judge rule in her favor, Grijalva said that she didn’t.
“I think that he'll dig his heels in,” she said. “But let's be real, this administration, it doesn't really matter what court decisions come down, what the rule of law is, they get to make their own decisions, that's sort of what their [modus operandi] has been, and so it is very frustrating.”