Justice Cannot Wait―Rep. Grijalva Signals Coming End To GOP Pedophile Protection Racket

“Justice cannot wait another day,” newly-elected Representative Adelita Grijalva said in her maiden speech in the House of Representative, as she announced she would immediately sign the discharge petition to release the Epstein files. And the American people agree. While Trump and his allies, have tried to prevent it for months, nearly 90 percent of Americans — including 83 percent of Republicans—want all of the Epstein files released, according to a recent CBS/YouGov poll. Trump’s allies include Speaker Mike Johson, who delayed Grijalva’s swearing in for 49 days.

“Just this morning, House Democrats released more emails showing that Trump knew more about Epstein’s abuses than he he previously acknowledged,” Grijalva said.

More than 20,000 pages were released, coming from Epstein’s estate, but that’s just a small fraction of what Trump’s administration is holding back, after campaigning on releasing all of it.

“Of course he [Trump] knew about the girls,” Epstein wrote in one email, and “I am the one able to take him down,” in another. He called Trump “the dog that hasn’t barked” in another email after Virginia Guifrey’s initial, dam-breaking revelations came out. She “spent hours at my house with him… he has never once been mentioned,” Epstein wrote.

And in a 2015 email conversation with a New York Times reporter, Epstein linked to a picture he identified as “my 20 year old girlfriend in 1993, , that after two years i gave to donald.” This aligns with a page from Epstein’s 50th Birthday book, released in early September, that has a photo of Epstein holding a large novelty check for $22,500 with a “DJTRUMP” signature, with a note “joking” that Epstein sold a “‘fully depreciated’ [woman] to Donald Trump for $22,500.”

There are also emails reflecting Epstein’s close ties to intelligence agencies of multiple countries, including Russia. There’s at least a strong suggestion that Epstein passed them compromising material on Trump.

Trump failed in his desperate last-minute efforts to convince two female GOP representatives to take their names off the discharge petition, so Grijalva’s signature assured it would come to the House floor for a vote, where more GOP representatives are expected to support it—with some speculating that 50 or 100 could do so. It would then go to the Senate, where public opinion would again collide with GOP Trump loyalty. Even if it passes the Senate, which seems likely, it would still have to be signed by Trump, or repass over-riding his veto with a 2/3rds majority in both houses.

All of which is to say that this moment, while historic, is very far from assuring that the Epstein files will be released. In fact, as Rep. Summer Lee reminded the public, there was already a congressional subpoena requiring the files release to the oversight subcommittee she serves on. Lee authored the motion to issue the subpoena, which passed 8-2 on a bipartisan basis on July 23. Since then, it’s simply been ignored.

So Trump is already violating the law to keep the files secret. The congressional vote is, in effect, simply a way to increase the pressure for Trump to follow the law. But the Supreme Court has already ruled that Trump can’t be held criminal liable for vaguely-defined “official duties.”

So none of this actually matters in a strictly legal sense. Which, in the end, may prove to be the whole point: It shows the complete breakdown of the rule of law—and all for the purpose of protecting pedophiles.

In her speech, Rep. Grijalva made the connection between the specific harm suffered by Epstein’s victims and the whole framework of democratic protections for “we the people” being threatened.

“Our democracy only works when everyone has a voice,” Grijalva said. “This includes the millions of people across the country who have experienced violence and exploitation, including Liz Stein and Jessica Michaels, both survivors of Jess Jeffrey Epstein’s abuse. They are here in the gallery with us this evening.”

After noting the release of the Trump-implicating emails, she went on to say, “It’s past time for Congress to restore its role as a check and balance on this administration and fight for we, the American people,” specifically: “We need to fight for our immigrant communities and veterans. We need to stand up for our public schools, children, and educators. We need to respect tribal sovereignty in our environment. We need to stand up for LGBTQ plus rights because that’s what the American people expect us to do, fight for them.”

In short, she reminded us, once again, that an injury to one is an injury to all.