House petition gets key signature

A petition requiring a vote in the House of Representatives on Wednesday to release the so-called Jeffrey Epstein files received the final signature needed to trigger that action.

Rep. Adelita Grilalva, D-Ariz., secured the 218th signature needed to approve the petition shortly after she was sworn in as a House member after weeks of delay.

The Trump administration has been under fire for months for breaking promises to release investigative files related to Epstein, a convicted sex offender who killed himself after being arrested on child sex trafficking charges in 2019.

Epstein had been a friend of President Donald Trump for years before they had a falling out in the early 2000s.

House Democrats early Wednesday released more than 20,000 documents obtained under subpoena from Epstein’s estate.

The documents include emails and text messages in which Epstein talked about Trump.

“I know how dirty Donald is,” Epsten wrote. 2018 email thread for Kathryn Ruemmlerwho served as former President Barack Obama’s White House counsel, after sending Epstein an article about Trump’s former personal attorney and fixer, Michael Cohen, admitting to campaign finance violations and agreeing to cooperate with a federal investigation into the president.

Separately in April 2019 email In the report released by Democrats, Epstein told author Michael Wolff that Trump “knew about the girls.” It is unclear what the phrase “he knew about the girls” means.

CNBC has not independently verified the documents released by Democrats.

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