Rep. Thomas Massie’s (R-KY) discharge petition on Wednesday garnered enough support to force a vote on legislation that would force the Justice Department to release more files related to the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
With Rep. John Garamendi’s (D-CA) signature, Massie and Rep. Ro Khanna’s (D-CA) Epstein Files II discharge petition reached the 218 names needed to force House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) to call a vote on the legislation, after the pair launched the effort in early September. Three other Republicans, Reps. Brian Fitzpatrick (R-PA), Nancy Mace (R-SC), and Ralph Norman (R-SC), joined Massie and all Democrats in signing the petition.
The development marks the second time in almost exactly one year that Massie is on track to force the government to release files by leveraging the procedural tactic. Massie said he is working with Reps. Pramila Jayapal (D-WA), Teresa Leger Fernández (D-NM), and Khanna to push the Epstein Files Transparency Act II to the floor “for a vote soon.” Massie and Khanna can now call a vote on the bill after seven legislative days, having reached the required threshold of petition signatures.
The legislation would hand state attorneys general, those who claim to be survivors of Epstein’s abuse, and members of Congress the ability to sue the U.S. attorney general to demand disclosure of documents the lawmakers believe the government is unlawfully withholding. It would also force the DOJ to hand alleged victims unredacted records relating to themselves and allow members of Congress to demand unredacted files from the department.
In addition, it would bar Attorney General Todd Blanche from withholding documents by using “deliberative process privilege.”
“You have to give us those internal memos about decisions on whether to prosecute, whether to investigate, because that’s central to this whole thing,” Massie told CNN. “What we do in the new bill is we say, ‘When we said you have to tell us about your decisions, that covered deliberative process privilege.’ But we’re saying it explicitly in this bill: ‘You can’t assert that deliberative process privilege.’”
Massie and Khanna’s latest effort comes as they similarly employed the discharge petition strategy in November 2025 to force a vote on a bill forcing the government to release files on Epstein.
That bill passed, leading the Trump administration to release millions of files linked to the New York financier, whom critics believe held sinister connections to a host of influential leaders across the globe.
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But Massie and Khanna were not satisfied, insisting officials are trying to hide information in still-unreleased or unredacted files. They believe the DOJ is withholding more than 3 million files that it is required to release under the November 2025 law and is “maintaining heavy redactions” on others.
That led to the new petition that passed the House on Wednesday.