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When Democrat Adelita Grijalva cruised to a landslide victory in September, winning her congressional special election by roughly 40 points, it was widely assumed that she would soon be sworn in as Arizona’s first Latina congresswoman. That didn’t happen.

In fact, for the last seven weeks, the congresswoman-elect pleaded with House Speaker Mike Johnson and the chamber’s Republican leadership to let her get to work. But they refused, pointing to dubious claims regarding the government shutdown......

As things stand, only four House GOP members — Reps. Thomas Massie of Kentucky, Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia, Lauren Boebert of Colorado and Nancy Mace of South Carolina — have joined with Democrats in support of the discharge petition. If all four of them stick to their guns, the process will move forward. If one (or more) of the quartet reverses course, the effort will collapse.

With this in mind, The New York Times reported:

President Trump and his administration on Wednesday ramped up a pressure campaign on congressional Republicans who are pushing for a full release of the Justice Department’s files about the convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, rushing to head off a House vote on the matter. Top officials met in the White House Situation Room on Wednesday with Representative Lauren Boebert, a Colorado Republican who is backing an effort to force a House vote on whether to demand the release of the files.

While MSNBC hasn’t independently verified this reporting, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt effectively confirmed the account, acknowledging the meeting. (Why this was held in the White House Situation Room is unclear.)

Q: Given you answers about transparency, why are WH officials meeting with Boebert in an effort to get her to not sign the Epstein files petition?

LEAVITT: Doesn't it show transparency that members of the Trump administration are willing to brief members of Congress?

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar.com) 2025-11-12T18:45:55.167Z

Around the same time, the president published an item to his social media platform, calling the scandal a “hoax,” arguing that “only a very bad, or stupid, Republican” would take the controversy seriously, and concluding: “There should be no deflections to Epstein or anything else.”

Or put another way, the White House sure does seem nervous about the discharge petition. Watch this space.