Massie's Last Stand: Epstein Files Petition Hits 218 - And Doesn't Need Speaker Signoff

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Massie's Last Stand: Epstein Files Petition Hits 218 - And Doesn't Need Speaker Signoff Rep. Thomas Massie's (R-KY) discharge petition for a second Epstein files bill reached 218…

Rep. Thomas Massie's (R-KY) discharge petition for a second Epstein files bill reached 218 signatures on Wednesday morning, less than two months before he leaves Congress - enough to force a House vote on legislation that would let Epstein's victims, state prosecutors and members of Congress sue the Justice Department over records it is still holding back.

Rep. John Garamendi (D-CA) supplied the 218th signature, a day after Rep. Adam Smith (D-WA) signed. The petition carries all 214 House Democrats and four Republicans: Massie, Nancy Mace and Ralph Norman of South Carolina, and Brian Fitzpatrick of Pennsylvania, none of whom returns in the next Congress. Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-CO), who backed last year's petition, did not sign this one.

The bill, the Epstein Files Transparency Act II (H.R. 9694), goes after the gaps in last year's law. It lets a state attorney general or district attorney, a victim, or a member of Congress sue the attorney general over the "unlawful withholding, redaction, delay, removal, concealment" of Epstein records, and it bars the Justice Department from invoking deliberative process, attorney-client, work product or law enforcement privilege to keep material back.

Victims could demand the full, unredacted records that relate to them, FBI interview reports (FD-302s) included. Members of Congress would get unredacted access within seven calendar days of a written request, and classified records would have to be made available in a secure facility, with no refusal allowed on the grounds that they are classified. DOJ, FBI and US attorney's office personnel who conceal, destroy, falsify or withhold the records would face the existing federal penalties for false statements, obstruction and destroying records.

The bill also switches off the Justice Department's Touhy regulations, the rules it uses to decide whether to hand records to outsiders, for any request under the Act.

When he introduced the bill on July 15, Massie said the department "has…

On Jan.

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