🗳️ Elected to Congress 31 Days Ago. Still Not Seated. Because Her Vote Would Force the Epstein Files Into Daylight

She won Sept 23rd. It’s Oct 24th. No oath. No office. No services. One signature short of 218.

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Fact punch: On September 23rd, 2025, Arizona’s Adelita Grijalva won her special election to Congress decisively.

Why it matters now: It is now October 24th — 31 days later — and she still has not been sworn in.

Moral clarity: Blocking a duly elected woman from taking the oath because she would tip the balance on the Epstein files is not procedure. It’s protection.

The picture could not be plainer. Grijalva is a representative-elect with a nameplate mounted on a door she cannot open. The New York Times described her early days at the Capitol not with ceremony but with a small conference room, stale air, and a handheld fan — the trappings not of power but of purgatory. Four floors below, the office that should be hers sits locked. Her name is on the wall. There are no keys in her hand. Why? Because seating her would bring the House to 218 signatures on the bipartisan discharge petition that would force a vote to release the Epstein files. That is the difference. That is why a duly elected congresswoman is literally roaming the halls while leadership refuses to let her take the oath.

The Speaker’s office told the Times this delay is “standard practice” — that new members are sworn when the House is fully meeting. But the Times also notes that the same Speaker swore in two Republicans during pro forma sessions earlier this year — within 24 hours of their elections. When procedure bends for one party and hardens against another, you’re not watching neutrality. You’re watching will.

Grijalva herself said it out loud on The Show with Mark Brodie. What has she heard from House leadership about her swearing-in? “Absolutely nothing.” Can a pro forma be held at any time? Yes. Has this Speaker used pro forma before to swear in winners in under a day? Yes. She recounted the precedent clearly; then she delivered the line that should shame anyone playing games with her seat: “And I am still waiting.” That was at 13 days. Today it’s 31.

If you’ve never watched a district be disappeared by process, hear what it feels like. Before the special election, the old office was shut down — leases canceled, staff dismissed, computers wiped, phone lines dead. “There is no office,” she said. “There is no staff.” That means no one answering a constituent in crisis during a shutdown. No one to help a veteran navigate benefits. No one to escalate a life-or-death federal delay. The people of Arizona’s 7th did what a democracy asks: they voted. The chamber that claims to serve them is holding their voice outside the door.

The geometry of power here is not complicated. A discharge petition needs 218 signatures to force a vote. Grijalva has pledged to sign. The Times has reported that the White House and Republican leaders oppose releasing the files and have been pressuring Republican signers to withdraw. Every day she is not sworn is another day of pressure — another chance for signatures to be quietly yanked in the dark. You don’t need a conspiracy theory when the incentives are this obvious. Seat the winner, or admit that the people do not rule.

Grijalva traveled to Washington ready to work. Colleagues welcomed her. And then she stood at security like any tourist because she had no credentials. She was added to caucus chats, invited to meetings, offered spare rooms to perch in — but she could not get through the locked doors of the building that houses her own office. She is a representative in name only, asked to wait while the Speaker cancels votes, cancels another week, and promises nothing except that “when Congress returns,” perhaps then, perhaps someday, she will be allowed to take the oath that others received within a single sunrise.

Objection & Answer

Objection: This is just procedure; the House isn’t in session.
Answer: That would matter if it were applied evenly. The Speaker used pro forma to swear in others in under 24 hours. If it can be done for them, it can be done for Adelita Grijalva. When a rule is invoked selectively, it’s not a rule — it’s a pretext.
What the evidence shows: Precedent exists. Capacity exists. The only missing ingredient is will.

Objection: Her seat doesn’t change the majority; what’s the rush?
Answer: The rush is people. A district without phones, staff, or an office for 31 days. And yes, the rush is one signature short of 218 on a lawful, bipartisan petition the powerful are trying to smother.
What the evidence shows: Denying a district services while slow-walking a sworn oath is not governance. It’s obstruction.

Objection: The Epstein files are messy; maybe more time is prudent.
Answer: Truth is always messy to the guilty. The discharge petition is a legitimate mechanism designed for exactly this moment. The public has a right to see what the government has been hiding about a serial predator and his network of enablers.
What the evidence shows: Delay doesn’t clarify. Delay protects.

Here is the through-line that matters. Elections are not suggestions. Arizona’s 7th spoke. A winner was declared on September 23. Thirty-one days later: a locked door, a dark office, a district silenced. Meanwhile, the petition that would force daylight onto the most notorious sex-trafficking case in modern American memory sits one vote short — the very vote that delaying her oath withholds. You can call that happenstance. Or you can call it what it looks like: protection in broad daylight.

Seat her now. Let the petition reach the threshold. Hold the vote. Release the records. Anything less is not oversight or protocol; it is power protecting itself and daring you to notice.

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Love and appreciate each of you.
Your friend and brother,
Shaun

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