Thomas Massie and Ro Khanna have gathered the 218 House signatures needed to force a vote on releasing the rest of the Epstein files, a win for survivors and transparency advocates and a setback for Speaker Mike Johnson and the Trump administration, who have tried to keep the documents buried.

• A year after the first Epstein Files Transparency Act became law, the government is still withholding over three million files, so Massie and Khanna introduced a second bill to force them out.
• The discharge petition lets the bill bypass House leadership entirely; only four Republicans broke with Trump and Johnson to sign it, but that was enough.
• The new bill would let state attorneys general prosecute alleged co-conspirators such as Leon Black and Les Wexner, and give survivors access to the files.
• Johnson cut the House work week short and recessed for six weeks, which also blocked a vote on Massie's resolution to impeach Pete Hegseth, so the Epstein vote likely won't happen until after the November midterms.
• Massie read the names of 14 alleged co-conspirators on the House floor to pressure the Justice Department, but the FBI under Kash Patel has taken no visible action against any of them.

Outlook: The vote is now unavoidable once the House returns after the midterms, but the Trump administration has ignored court orders before, so passage is no guarantee the files actually get released.