what is actually in file after months of scrubbing. Don't think trump can escape optics, but whether enough people really care is another question. They sure didn't in two elections.

Filling an empty R seat doesn't change that, so that timeline doesn't control anything.

Also, of note, there will be a second Dem facing not being sworn in when the special election runoff in TX-18 happens (early in the new year) if Mike "Pedo Protector" Johnson continues to stonewall regardless of the shutdown status.

The Epstein files ( whatever is left of them now ) were never going to be released to the public.

The discharge petition was only going to force a floor vote in the House. Even if the floor vote passes in the House ( which it would because the repukes can't be caught on the side of child predators in a actual vote ), it then goes to the Senate where it would require 60 Senators to vote to release... now that vote would be problematic as we would need at least a dozen or more repukes to break with Trump. Finally Trump would have to sign it into law... he won't... he will take the maximum time to veto it... and then we would need veto proof majorities in the House and Senate to make it law. A very steep hill to climb... very possibly AFTER the midterm elections at this point.

And even if it passes, the FBI will have had the time to scrub Trump and prominent republican leaning billionaires and millionaires from the "files" leaving only dark innuendo about prominent Democrats in the files. Plus any Hollywood types... salacious comments about George Clooney getting a BJ from Maxwell ( a legally adult person engaged in a consensual sex act ) in a rest room, which while titillating, is apropos of nothing. Certainly nothing illegal.

In 2026