House petition gets key signature

A petition in the House of Representatives to force a vote to release the so-called Jeffrey Epstein files on Wednesday secured the last signature required to trigger that action.

Rep. Adelita Grilalva, D-Ariz., provided the 218th signature needed to approve the petition shortly after she was sworn in as a House member, after weeks of delay.

The Trump administration has been under fire for months for reneging on promises to release investigative files related to Epstein, a convicted sex offender who killed himself in 2019 after his arrest on child sex trafficking charges.

Epstein had been a friend of President Donald Trump for years before they had a falling out in the early 2000s.

House Democrats earlier Wednesday released more than 20,000 documents obtained from Epstein’s estate under a subpoena.

The documents include emails and text messages in which Epstein talked about Trump.

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