House Speaker Mike Johnson departs a news conference without taking questions from reporters on Nov. 10, 2025.

U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson plans to finally get back to work on Nov. 12 after shutting down his chamber in mid-September to avoid negotiating with Democrats on a solution to end the government shutdown.

But Johnson's recalcitrance about actually governing has been linked to a secondary motivation – protecting President Donald Trump from the Epstein files, a seedy, secret dossier about his old bon vivant buddy, the sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, who died by suicide in federal prison in 2019.

Johnson has stalled for seven weeks swearing in Adelita Grijalva, an Arizona Democrat who won a Sept. 23 special election to represent her state's 7th Congressional District.

Grijalva told me on Nov. 11 that she still hasn't heard from Johnson, who is convening a House session at noon on Nov. 12. But her team told me staffers for House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-New York, informed them that she is expected to be sworn in when the session starts.

That's bad news for Trump, and Johnson can no longer help him dodge it.

Adelita Grijalva's finally being sworn in could move the release of the Epstein files

Grijalva has pledged to provide the final signature needed on a discharge petition that would force the House to vote on bipartisan pending legislation that calls on the U.S. Department of Justice to release its files on Epstein and his accomplice, convicted sex trafficker Ghislaine Maxwell.

Johnson – who promised on Oct. 7 to swear in Grijalva "as soon as she wants" but then spent more than a month ignoring her requests to be sworn in – has been trying to keep the Epstein files under wraps. But that sleazy subject is about to collide in the House with some new developments about Maxwell.

U.S. Rep. Jamie Raskin, the Maryland Democrat who serves as ranking member on the House Judiciary Committee, has written to Trump, detailing in a six-page letter information he said his committee had received from a whistleblower about Maxwell preparing to ask the president to commute her 20-year prison sentence.

The letter also describes in detail "grotesque pampering" Maxwell now receives, which is not typically doled out to criminals who trafficked underage girls as young as 14 for sexual abuse. That includes special meals delivered to her room, unusual access for her visitors and a prison office staff dedicated to her clerical needs.

The rationale of Raskin's letter is clear – Maxwell could tell a story that exonerates Trump if that leads to her continued comfort and eventually her freedom.

Just talking to Todd Blanche, one of Trump's top officials at the Department of Justice, in July has already prompted her transfer from a Florida federal prison to a much more comfortable, lower-security camp in Texas.

Trump is all about transactions. What he will do for you depends on what you can do for him. The parameters of this deal are out in the open, for all to see: He fears the release of the Epstein files, after promising during the 2024 reelection campaign to make them public. Now, maybe Maxwell can take the sting out of any looming revelations by declaring him innocent.

That's a snapshot of who Trump is these days; his political viability rests in the hands of a criminal who recruited and abused teenage girls so Epstein could exploit them.

Raskin's letter concludes with three questions:

  • Has Trump talked with his administration about commuting Maxwell's sentence?
  • Did Trump direct his administration to give Maxwell the VIP treatment at her camp?
  • And has Maxwell or have her attorneys made any promises to Trump?

Trump hasn't ruled out a Ghislaine Maxwell pardon

You will not be shocked to hear that Trump has not responded to Raskin, according to a spokesperson for the House Judiciary Committee. And Maxwell's attorney did not respond when I asked this week if she is preparing to ask Trump to commute her sentence.

But we know that is on Trump's mind, because he told us so.

Twice in July, after Maxwell met with Blanche, the president noted that he has the power to pardon Maxwell. And Trump didn't rule out a pardon when asked about it in October, adding that he didn't know if Maxwell had asked for one.

Some of the women victimized by Maxwell and Epstein stood on the steps of the U.S. Capitol in September, demanding that Congress release the Epstein files and finally meet their suffering with transparency.

Trump responded that day, shrugging the women off as a "hoax" and accusing them of trying "to get people to talk about something that's totally irrelevant."

Trump wants you to believe that women now seeking justice for being sexually abused as teenagers by Epstein and Maxwell are not relevant, as he schemes to keep the Department of Justice's files about that secret.

Maxwell is now 63. The Federal Bureau of Prisons projects her release date as July 17, 2037, when she'll be 75. She's a known liar, according to the federal grand jury that indicted her during Trump's first term.

Why wouldn't she lie now to help him if that also helps herself? And why wouldn't Trump, who promised to release the Epstein files but has not, give Maxwell what she wants if he benefits from it?

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This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: The House finally returns, and so do Trump's Epstein files problems | Opinion

Reporting by Chris Brennan, USA TODAY / USA TODAY

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