Government Shutdown Ends Soon--What That Means For Epstein Files Being Released

ByAlison Durkee,Forbes Staff. Alison is a senior news reporter covering US politics and legal news.
Nov 11, 2025 at 02:06pm EST

… Once Grijalva becomes the 218th signatory on the discharge petition, it gets put on a discharge calendar, and must remain on the calendar for at least seven legislative days. After that seven days, a lawmaker who signed the petition can then notify the House of their intent to bring the discharge motion to the floor, and Johnson must schedule it to be introduced on the floor within two legislative days. It’s at that point that the full House would consider whether to pass the legislation. Given the House will be out of session for part of November due to Thanksgiving, that process would likely tee up a vote on the Epstein files bill by early December, Politico notes.

DOES THE DISCHARGE PETITION MEAN THE EPSTEIN FILES WILL BE RELEASED?

Not necessarily. If the bill passes the House, GOP senators will likely face pressure to back it in the Senate, given that polling suggests even a two-thirds majority of Republicans want the full Epstein files to be released. There’s no guarantee the Senate will pass the bill, however, and even if they do, Trump could still choose to veto the measure.

WHAT WILL HAPPEN WITH THE HOUSE OVERSIGHT COMMITTEE?

The House Oversight Committee has subpoenaed the Justice Department for its full Epstein files, and has promised to make those documents public with redactions to protect victims’ identities. DOJ started handing documents over in August and some have already been made public—though many were public already—but that handover appears to have slowed in recent weeks amid the shutdown. Politico reported in mid-October that committee staff hadn’t heard anything from DOJ about the subpoena since the start of the shutdown, and Ranking Member Robert Garcia, D-Calif., wrote to Attorney General Pam Bondi on Oct. 16 “express[ing] grave concern” about the agency still not turning over many important documents during the shutdown. “DOJ has failed to provide any substantive or insightful information as to when the Committee may expect further productions of documents,” Garcia wrote. It’s unclear how that will change after the government reopens and how long it will ultimately take DOJ to turn over all the Epstein files...

More here
https://www.forbes.com/sites/alisondurkee/2025/11/11/government-shutdown-ends-soon-what-that-means-for-epstein-files-being-released/