Arizona AG threatens to sue GOP House speaker if he won’t seat Adelita Grijalva immediately

Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes is demanding that U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson stop stalling and seat Arizona’s newest congresswoman, who won a special election three weeks ago. 

Voters in Arizona’s Seventh Congressional District overwhelmingly favored Adelita Grijalva, a Tucson Democrat, in the Sept. 23 special election to fill the seat vacated by her father, Rep. Raul Grijalva when he died in March. 

Arizona officials canvassed that election on Tuesday, the last step before certifying it. 

But Johnson, a Republican, has refused to seat Grijalva, offering a wide range of excuses for the delay — including the government shutdown, which began Oct. 1, a week after she won the election with almost 70% of the vote. 

“You and your staff have provided ever-shifting, unsatisfactory, and sometimes absurd stories as to why Ms. Grijalva has not been sworn in,” Mayes wrote in the letter to Johnson. “In a particularly worrisome comment, an aide connected the swearing-in and admission to the ongoing budget fight, suggesting that the House is trying to use Arizona’s constitutional right to representation in the House as a bargaining chip.”

Mayes threatened to take legal action against Johnson if he fails to seat Grijalva immediately. 

“Arizona’s right to a full delegation, and the right of the residents of CD 7 to representation from the person they recently voted for, are not up for debate and may not be delayed or used as leverage in negotiations about unrelated legislation,” Mayes wrote. 

The Grand Canyon State’s Democratic congressional delegation has been pointedly speaking out against Johnson for the past three weeks, demanding that the Seventh Congressional District get the representation it’s owed. On several occasions, they have connected Johnson’s refusal to seat Grijalva with his desire to avoid a vote on a resolution demanding the release of the FBI’s case files concerning Jeffrey Epstein.

Epstein pleaded guilty in 2008 in Florida to a state charge of soliciting prostitution from a teenage girl after securing a non-prosecution agreement from federal prosecutors. He was then arrested in 2019 on federal sex trafficking charges and died by suicide while in prison awaiting trial.

Trump and Epstein socialized frequently in high-profile circles, attending parties in Palm Beach and New York. Photographs show them together at social events, including a 1992 party at Mar-a-Lago and Trump’s 1993 wedding. Epstein’s private jet logs also recorded Trump on at least eight flights between 1993 and 1997.

And last month, congressional Democrats published a lewd birthday card from President Donald Trump to the convicted sex offender. Trump, administration officials and Republican politicians alike have dismissed the card as a “hoax,” while Democrats have seized on it as proof that Republicans are trying to bury details about the yearslong relationship between the president and Epstein. 

“Speaker Mike Johnson is protecting pedophiles,” U.S. Sen. Ruben Gallego said during an Oct. 10 interview with MSNBC. 

After she’s sworn in, Grijalva would be the 218th vote needed to force a vote on releasing the Epstein files. Republicans have so far blocked their release, and Democrats have claimed that Johnson is stalling to prevent that vote, which he denies. 

Grijalva sent her own letter Oct. 6, demanding to be sworn in, and said in a statement that she’s headed to Washington D.C. this week to work with other congressional Democrats to urge an end to the government shutdown. 

Johnson falsely told reporters in D.C. on Tuesday that it’s common practice to wait until the next regular session of Congress to swear in new members, and said that U.S. Sens. Mark Kelly and Gallego, both Democrats, should work with Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer to open the government so that she could be sworn in. 

He also attempted to shift blame to the Biden administration for never releasing the Epstein files and said that the only delay in releasing the files is due to extensive redaction to protect the identities of the victims. 

“Speaker Johnson has exhausted every excuse to delay my swearing-in,” Grijalva said in her statement. “I am simply asking him to abide by the same precedent he set when he swore in his Republican colleagues within 24 hours of their special elections and during pro forma sessions earlier this year. Any further delay reveals his true motive: Speaker Johnson is stalling because he knows I will be the 218th signature on the discharge petition to release the Epstein files.”

A pro forma session is a brief meeting of a legislative body during which no business is conducted. The House swore in two Republicans and one Democratic representative within 24 hours of their elections — before the results were certified by their state elections officials — during pro forma sessions earlier this year. 

Mayes accused Johnson of violating the U.S. Constitution by denying representation to the more than 800,000 people in the Seventh Congressional District. 

“No one questions Ms. Grijalva’s election or its returns, or raises an issue of her qualifications,” Mayes wrote. “The House is without authority to refuse her oath and admission.”

Grijalva previously served on the Tucson Unified School District Board, where she worked to protect bilingual education, and most recently on the Pima County Board of Supervisors where she followed in her father’s footsteps to advocate for environmental protections.