Adelita Grijalva can force a vote on Epstein files, but she still hasn’t been sworn in: NPR

More than three weeks after winning her congressional race, Rep.-elect Adelita Grijalva never imagined her fight to be sworn in would take this long.

The Arizona Democrat has the keys to her office, but not much else.

“I don’t have any staff…The phones don’t work. There are no computers,” Grijalva says from his sparsely furnished office on Capitol Hill. “We don’t have government email.”

This bumpy start to Grijalva’s new political career in Washington was due to the same intense partisan tensions that came to dominate the 119th Congress.

House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., said he would not swear in Grijalva until the government shutdown is over.

“It’s the House process, we’ll do it as soon as we resume business,” he said.

It’s a departure for Johnson, who had already sworn in new members of both parties days after winning their races.

The president previously said he would swear in the winner of the race in Arizona whenever he wanted. He then said the winner should enjoy the “pomp and circumstance” that is part of the ceremony, but only available when the government is open.

As a result, Johnson faces accusations from both sides of the aisle that he is trying to avoid a vote to force the release of records from the Justice Department’s investigation into convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

Grijalva won his seat Sept. 23 in a special election to represent the state’s 7th Congressional District — a border district that includes parts of Tucson.

On the campaign trail, Grijalva promised to sign a bipartisan petition to force a vote in the House to release the Epstein files. His would mark the 218th signature to trigger that vote — an effort led by Reps. Thomas Massie, R-Ky., and Ro Khanna, D-Calif.

“I remember on election night, someone came up to me and said, ‘I don’t think they’re going to swear you in because of these Epstein files,'” Grijalva said. “And I was like, ‘oh my God, this is definitely a conspiracy theory. Like that’s not going to happen.’ And here we are.”

Johnson called allegations that he was trying to delay Grijalva’s swearing-in “a manufactured thing by partisans.”

He says Republicans are already working to release the records as part of an investigation by the Republican-led House Oversight Committee.

“The congressional bulldogs are on this committee, and they’re all coming together in a bipartisan way to dig through and release documents,” Johnson told reporters earlier this week.

Johnson’s explanation infuriated Grijalva’s supporters. Democrats descended on the room to ask him to sit down. On Tuesday, a group of lawmakers marched to Johnson’s office chanting, “Swear him in.”

The delay also angered those hoping for a vote on the Epstein files. Sen. Ruben Gallego, Democrat of Arizona, accused Johnson of “protecting pedophiles” and, in a tense exchange outside the president’s office last week, said Johnson was delaying the swearing-in because he didn’t want Grijalva to sign the release petition. Johnson called the allegation “completely absurd,” saying Democrats are “experts at red herrings.”

The impasse could head to the courts. On Tuesday, after the state certified Grijalva’s election results, Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes threatened legal action to try to force the oath of office.

Grijalva is the daughter of her predecessor, the late Rep. Raúl Grijalva, who held that seat for more than 20 years until his death from lung cancer in March.

Grijalva says her father set the bar high with his constituents, a bar she hopes to follow once she is finally seated.

She bursts into tears thinking about what he would think of her struggling to sit up.

“I think he would laugh a little,” she said, “and scratch his head that my kid, you know, is a sensation.”

Caitlyn Kim of Colorado Public Radio contributed to this report