Speaker Mike Johnson to be hit with new lawsuit 'within minutes'

Last week, Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes sent Speaker Mike Johnson a letter about swearing in Rep.-elect Adelita Grijalva (D-AZ). She was ignored, so now she's filing a lawsuit.

Speaking to ABC15 on Tuesday, Mayes said she was "within minutes" of filing her lawsuit against Johnson, political reporter Rachel Louise Just posted on X.

"Whether it's the fact that she's said she's going to be the final vote on the [Jeffrey] Epstein files or he just doesn't want to have one more Democrat in office, whatever his motives are they're totally illigitimate and it's totally unconstitutional and the case law is on our side as well. So, we feel like we're going to win this, but obviously we'll be making the best arguments we can," said Mayes.

It has been a month since Grijalva was elected, and Johnson has refused to swear her into the post. He has previously been willing to swear in other members when Congress was not in session, however. Two Florida Republicans were sworn into their posts during a pro-forma session. Johnson could do that again here, but has chosen not to.

While Grijalva was given keys to her official office in Washington, she doesn't have access to phones or email, meaning they can't receive or respond to constituent questions or requests.

Grijalva alleges that the real reason is that she would be the final vote needed on a discharge petition to force a vote on the immediate release of the files around the Epstein sex trafficking investigation.

She told MSNBC, "I do feel like they're going to do everything they possibly can to have things permanently redacted. The longer these files are, sort of, sitting, you wonder who has access to them, how much of any of that is going to be complete when the American people finally see it."