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. New Mexico Attorney General Raul Torrez sued the department over exactly those rules in August, alleging that it ran the state through Touhy requests for unredacted files on Epstein's Zorro Ranch, where New Mexico has reopened its investigation.
When he introduced the bill on July 15, Massie said the department "has flagrantly and consistently ignored EFTA's disclosure requirements" and "continues to unlawfully withhold over 3 million Epstein files." Khanna, his Democratic co-author on both bills, and Sens. Jeff Merkley (D-OR) and Ben Ray Luján (D-NM) introduced it with him in both chambers.
On Jan. 30 the Justice Department published over 3 million more pages, with more than 2,000 videos and 180,000 images, bringing its total to "nearly 3.5 million pages released in compliance with the Act," more than a month after the law's December deadline. Pam Bondi told the House Oversight Committee in May that "to the best of my knowledge, the Department produced everything required" (while admitting redaction errors), and Attorney General Todd Blanche said last month there is "not some tranche of super-secret documents about Jeffrey Epstein that we're withholding" - even as an FBI inventory lists CDs of classified material, as we reported this month.
Massie and Khanna used the same maneuver last year. Their first discharge petition forced the original Epstein Files Transparency Act to the floor, Trump dropped his opposition, and the bill passed the House 427-1 before the Senate cleared it by unanimous consent and Trump signed it on Nov. 19, 2025.
Massie is pushing this one as a lame duck: Trump-backed Ed Gallrein beat him in Kentucky's May 19 primary, and this week he was the only Republican to side with Democrats as the House shelved his articles of impeachment against Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, 211-204. Asked about the Epstein files, the White House pointed Newsweek to Trump's Truth Social post on that vote instead: "Every single Republican, except Thomas Massie, a major LOSER, voted in favor of Pete."
Under House rules the petition now sits for seven legislative days before a signer can call it up, and the Speaker then has two legislative days to act on it. ABC News puts the earliest floor action after the Thanksgiving recess, as soon as Dec. 2 or 3, before the new Congress is sworn in in January. Last year Speaker Mike Johnson scheduled the vote on the first bill before that clock ran out.
A House win would send the bill to the Senate, where Merkley and Luján carry the companion. From there it would go to Trump, who signed the first Epstein bill only after dropping his opposition to it.