Bad news for Trump: Mike Johnson to swear in Adelita Grijalva this week | When can she sign the Epstein discharge petition?

Democrats are demanding that Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson end the delay to Adelita Grijalva’s swearing-in ceremony, with Arizona’s attorney general announcing two weeks ago that the state had filed a lawsuit against the U.S. House of Representatives.

“Speaker Mike Johnson is actively stripping the people of Arizona of one of their seats in Congress and disenfranchising the voters of Arizona’s seventh Congressional district in the process,” Attorney General Mayes said. “By blocking Adelita Grijalva from taking her rightful oath of office, he is subjecting Arizona’s seventh Congressional district to taxation without representation. I will not allow Arizonans to be silenced or treated as second-class citizens in their own democracy.”

Grijalva yet to be sworn in, seven weeks on from election win

On Sep. 23, Democrat Grijalva won a special election to succeed her father, Raúl Grijalva, as the U.S. House of Representatives’ member for Arizona’s 7th congressional district.

Adelita Grijalva’s victory over the Republican candidate, Daniel Butierez, came six months after the death of Raúl Grijalva, 77, who had been an Arizonan congressional representative since 2003.

However, Speaker Johnson - who is responsible for swearing in new House representatives - has so far refused to hold Adelita Grijalva’s induction ceremony.

Why won’t Speaker Johnson swear Grijalva in?

Having first said he was waiting for certification of Grijalva’s election victory - which has now arrived - Johnson has also put the delay down to the House being out of session, and claimed the swearing-in cannot take place until the ongoing U.S. government shutdown has been resolved.

“She won her election after the House was out of session, so we’ve not had a full session,” Johnson said, per Fox10 Phoenix.

“As soon as [Democratic Senate Minority Leader] Chuck Schumer opens the government, as soon as Mark Kelly and Senator Gallego, the two senators from Arizona, Ms. Grijalva’s state, will go and join with three others and open the government, we’re happy. We’ll have that as soon as we get back to business.”

The U.S. government went into shutdown on Oct. 1, with Republicans and Democrats in Congress unable to agree on a new spending bill that would provide essential funding to federal agencies.

“Johnson has exhausted every excuse”

In a statement in October, Grijalva said: “Speaker Johnson has exhausted every excuse to delay my swearing-in.

“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.”

She added: “The cost of this obstruction is the silencing of over 800,000 Southern Arizonans who deserve to have a voice in Congress.”

In early April this year, Johnson held pro forma sessions to swear in fellow Republican Representatives Jimmy Patronis and Randy Fine, who had both secured special election victories the day before.

Johnson doesn’t have an excuse any more

Amid a push by representatives to force a House vote to compel President Trump’s Justice Department to release further files on the convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, Grijalva’s signature would see the petition reach the threshold required to trigger the ballot.

Now that the Senate has reached a tentative agreement to open up the government, Mike Johnson will have to comply with his duties and swear in Adelita Grijalva.

Johnson has insisted the delay “has nothing to do with that at all”, per CNN: “We will swear her in when everybody gets back. It’s a ceremonial duty.”

Rep. Grijalva, has announced that Mike Johnson will finally swear her in this week and he can no longer protect the president from the Epstein case. The Speaker will have to fulfill his duty on Wednesday, Thursday or Friday Nov. 14 at the latest.

Grijalva said on CNN that she would sign the discharge petition as soon as she can “because that was a promise and commitment that I made. And I strongly believe it’s one of the reasons why I’ve been in this limbo for so long.” The clock is ticking. It won’t be long now.

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