Rep. Thomas Massie (R-KY) revealed that House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) and other Republican leaders were in a "full panic" after a Democratic Party win in Arizona was expected to give him the signatures he needed to force a vote on the release of files on sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

At an event in Kentucky on Wednesday, Massie said he expected his discharge petition to have the required 218 signatures following Adelita Grijalva's (D) win in the Arizona special election.

The petition has already been signed by every House Democrat and a handful of Republicans, including Reps. Nancy Mace (SC), Marjorie Taylor Greene (GA), and Lauren Boebert (CO).

"They came back and tried to get the four of us to take our names off of the petition," Massie told Semafor on Wednesday. "They asked some of my colleagues who are co-signers. And they actually threatened them politically, not physically."

Massie predicted that Johnson would not use procedural maneuvers to prevent the vote because "there's enough notoriety on this issue that people will know that he's sweeping this under the rug."

"They're going to have a vote. I think they're coming to terms with that," he added. "I'm going to bet the speaker is probably going to hand out hall passes to some congressmen, because this is an 80/20 issue."