(Washington) Democrat Adelita Grijalva will be sworn in on Wednesday in the US Congress, announced Republican leader Mike Johnson, who was accused by the opposition of having delayed this swearing-in for more than a month and a half in order to avoid a vote on the Epstein affair.
The ceremony will take place at 4 p.m. (4 p.m. Eastern time) at the Capitol in Washington, Mike Johnson, Speaker of the House of Representatives, said in a statement Tuesday, a few hours before an expected vote to lift the current budgetary paralysis in the United States.
Adelita Grijalva will then become the 214e elected Democrat in the chamber, against 219 Republicans.
It is expected to become the final necessary signature on a petition that, under House rules, would force a vote on legislation aimed at forcing the Trump administration to release records it possesses on Jeffrey Epstein.
The Epstein affair, named after this New York financier who died in prison in 2019 before his trial for sex crimes, has ignited the United States since the government of Donald Trump announced in early July that it had not discovered any new elements justifying the publication of additional documents in this case.
Adelita Grijalva announced after her election in a partial legislative election on September 23 that her first decision once invested would be to sign this petition, also supported by four Republican elected officials.
Mike Johnson explained that he did not swear in the elected representative from Arizona earlier because of the budgetary paralysis. According to him, this pushed him to decree the Chamber in parliamentary recess until the Senate had unblocked the situation, something that had been done since Monday.
PHOTO SAUL LOEB, AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE ARCHIVES
Republican leader Mike Johnson
He further opposes the petition, saying he prefers to support government initiatives to shed light on the matter. But with 218 signatures, he could no longer oppose holding a vote.
Which explains this delay, according to the leader of the Democratic minority, Hakeem Jeffries.
“The Republicans are running a pedophile protection program, they are deliberately hiding the documents on Jeffrey Epstein,” he said during a press conference on Tuesday.
The death, according to authorities, of Jeffrey Epstein has fueled countless conspiracy theories, according to which he was murdered to prevent him from implicating high-profile figures.
After promising his supporters during his presidential campaign shattering revelations, Donald Trump is today trying to put an end to the controversy, which he has repeatedly described as a “hoax” set up by the Democratic opposition.
