By Amy Goodman & Denis Moynihan

As the United States government shutdown marks its fifth week, approaching the record 35-day shutdown set back in 2018-19, unleashing a worsening cascade of hardship, one explanation for the shutdown comes from long-time Republican strategist turned Never Trump activist Stuart Stevens of the Lincoln Project, speaking on the Democracy Now! news hour last week:

“Say what you will about Jeffrey Epstein. The guy’s dead, and he can still shut down Congress.”

What does the child sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein, who, according to the official record, died by suicide inside his prison cell in 2019, have to do with a government shutdown in late 2025? The answer comes from Tucson, Arizona, and Congressmember-elect Adelita Grijalva – who recently won a special election to fill the House seat left vacant by the death of her father, longtime progressive Democratic Congressmember Raul Grijalva.

Adelita Grijalva won the special election on September 23rd as the representative of Arizona’s 7th Congressional District, representing Tucson. Despite her election, though, Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson has refused to swear her in – more than a month after her victory. His obstruction of this essential, Constitutionally-mandated function of our democracy is without precedent.

President Donald Trump is profoundly afraid that the contents of the government’s Jeffrey Epstein files will see the light of day. Trump’s name reportedly appears in the files numerous times. There is currently a bipartisan discharge petition in the House of Representatives, which would force the release of the Epstein files. It needs 218 votes to pass.

When Adelita Grijalva is sworn in to Congress, she has vowed she will be that deciding vote, directing the Department of Justice “to make publicly available certain records related to Jeffrey Epstein or Ghislaine Maxwell,” Epstein’s co-conspirator, currently serving a 20-year sentence in federal prison.

Why else would Johnson so blatantly violate his duty and refuse to swear in Grijalva, other than to protect Donald Trump from whatever is contained in the Epstein files? What is shocking is that release of the files was a major pledge Trump made during his 2024 presidential campaign.

“Then, as soon as this administration is in office, all of a sudden there’s nothing to see here. The American people want to know what is in those files, who is implicated. And the victims need an opportunity for justice and a voice,” said Congressmember-elect Adelita Grijalva on Democracy Now!, two weeks after winning her election.

While Grijalva waits, ready to be sworn in to begin formally representing her 800,000-plus constituents, more and more Republicans are growing frustrated with the government shutdown, and with Speaker Johnson’s intransigence on keeping the House of Representatives out of session.

California Republican Kevin Kiley insisted on CNN on Wednesday that the House should immediately get back to work, then responded to a question about Johnson’s refusal to swear in Grijalva:

“She won her election. She deserves to be sworn in. That district deserves a representative, and we were supposed to be in session, by the way, right after she was elected…I don’t understand why this is even an issue.”

Grijalva and Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes have taken Speaker Johnson to court, suing him (along with the House Clerk and its Sergeant-at-Arms), demanding she be sworn in. The complaint states, “Prior to the election of Ms. Grijalva, every time a special election has been conducted during Mr. Johnson’s tenure as Speaker of the House, the winner has been sworn in immediately upon unofficial notification of the results,” and notes that among those quickly sworn in by Johnson were Celeste Maloy, Vince Fong, Jimmy Patronis and Randy Fine – all Republicans, and, in September, Democrat James Walkinshaw of Virginia. The suit also argues that Johnson’s delay is based on Grijalva’s expected vote on the Epstein files discharge petition.

All this time, during the government shutdown, while members of the House are getting paid for not showing up to Congress, more than one million federal workers, deemed “essential” like TSA workers and air traffic controllers, are forced to work without pay.

As Trump exerts maximum pressure to block the release of the Epstein files, and after literally demolishing the East Wing of the White House – traditionally the First Lady’s domain – and paving over the Rose Garden, first planted by First Lady Jaqueline Kennedy, Representative-elect Adelita Grijalva’s voice and vote is needed in Congress, now.