Reps. Thomas Massie and Ro Khanna said Thursday morning they had locked down the 218th signature on a discharge petition — the exact number needed to drag a second Epstein files bill onto the House floor whether Speaker Mike Johnson allows it or not. Four Republicans signed: Massie, Ralph Norman, Nancy Mace, Brian Fitzpatrick. Every House Democrat signed with them.
This bill has more teeth than the initial version. In the new one, survivors, lawmakers, and states could sue the Justice Department directly for hiding Epstein records under the new bill, the Epstein Files Transparency Act II — a legal weapon the first version never carried.
Trump signed the original Epstein Files Transparency Act into law on November 19 last year, after the House passed it 427–1, ordering DOJ to release everything by December 19. DOJ published roughly 3.5 million pages and called it done. Massie says DOJ has "flagrantly and consistently" ignored what the law actually required since the day Trump signed it.
Nobody built a law to punish the last one for not working.
