By Thérèse Boudreaux
The Center Square

As soon as late October, the U.S. Department of Justice may be compelled to release all its files on convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein if legislation set to pass the House makes it through the Senate.

The House returns from recess next week, where lawmakers face not only a possible government shutdown but also a vote on Reps. Thomas Massie’s, R-Ky., bill that would force the DOJ to “publicly disclose all unclassified records, documents, communications, and investigative materials in its possession that relate to Epstein or [his associate Ghislaine] Maxwell.”

Massie will be able to bring the controversial bill to the floor without sending it through committee due to receiving enough signatures on a discharge petition. He currently has 217 lawmakers on board and will gain the last necessary signature as soon as newly elected Rep. Adelita Grijalva, D-Ariz., is sworn in.

Reps. Lauren Boebert, R-Colo.; Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga.; and Nancy Mace, R-S.C.; are the only Republicans besides Massie to have signed the petition. Assuming they maintain their support for the bill, it will pass the House and move on to the Senate, where its future is uncertain.

Long claimed to be a Republican “conspiracy theory,” the existence of “the Epstein files” – which supposedly contain incriminating information about unknown political figures’ associations with the Epstein – is now accepted as fact by Democrats.

The change comes after U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi claimed that Epstein’s alleged client list was “sitting on [her] desk,” only for the administration to backtrack and claim that no such list existed. President Donald Trump began calling the files “a Democratic hoax,” causing most Republicans to shy away from the issue and spurring Democrats to accuse him of hiding information.

As public demands for transparency intensified, the DOJ asked that grand jury materials from the Epstein and Maxwell trials be unsealed, but three separate federal judges refused to do so.

The House Oversight Committee also launched an official investigation into Epstein’s contacts and issued subpoenas to the DOJ and many high-profile Democrats with connections to Epstein.

The committee followed up by releasing a trove of previously classified Epstein-related documents, which contained heavy redactions and revealed almost no new information. Massie and others remain unsatisfied with the administration’s progress.

“Americans are weary,” Massie posted on X Wednesday. “Billionaires and politically connected men to whom Epstein trafficked women have been given a pass. The files DOJ released to Oversight are redacted and incomplete.”

Massie’s bill would allow the DOJ to redact or withhold material only if the material contains victims’ personally identifiable information; child sexual abuse materials; images of death, physical abuse, or injury; information which would jeopardize an active federal investigation or prosecution; or classified information.