By Katelyn Polantz, Kaitlan Collins, Hannah Rabinowitz, Alayna Treene, Kevin Liptak, Annie Grayer, CNN
US President Donald Trump listens during an event about weight-loss drugs in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, DC on November 6, 2025. Photo: Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/AFP/Getty Images via CNN Newsource
Top Trump administration officials met Wednesday with a key GOP lawmaker about an effort in the US House to force a vote on releasing Justice Department case files related to Jeffrey Epstein, according to multiple sources familiar with the meeting.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt acknowledged the meeting later Wednesday (local time) when asked about reporting that administration officials were huddling with GOP Rep. Lauren Boebert.
"Doesn't that show the level of transparency when we are willing to sit down with members of Congress and address their concerns?" she told reporters at the press briefing.
Leavitt added: "I'm not going to detail conversations that took place in the Situation Room."
A source familiar confirmed the meeting in the Situation Room included Boebert, who has wanted the Justice Department to release its trove of Epstein files and has signed onto the effort in the House to force the vote compelling their release.
That effort is now in motion after a newly sworn-in Democratic member of Congress provided the 218th - and final - signature needed on the discharge petition to force such a vote and, in turn, trigger a number of procedural steps before the House can vote on a bill compelling the files' release.
After the meeting, Boebert wrote on X, "I want to thank White House officials for meeting with me today. Together, we remain committed to ensuring transparency for the American people."
She later told CNN's Manu Raju that Trump did not pressure her to take her name off of the discharge petition and that while Epstein came up in the White House meeting, other topics were also covered.
Separately, President Donald Trump and Rep. Nancy Mace, another Republican who's signed the petition, had been playing phone tag for the past 24 hours. The South Carolina Republican sent a direct message to the president Wednesday outlining why she's supporting the discharge petition, according to a source familiar with the message who said it largely mirrored a public statement in which she said: "I will NEVER abandon other survivors."
But both the meeting and Trump's efforts to talk to Mace underscored the administration's concerns around the Epstein saga, which roared back Wednesday morning when the House Oversight Committee released more documents it had obtained from Epstein's estate. (Leavitt said Wednesday the emails from that trove that mention Trump "prove absolutely nothing.")
Besides Boebert and Mace, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene is the other Republican who's signed onto the petition from Reps. Thomas Massie, a Kentucky Republican, and Ro Khanna, a California Democrat, to force the vote on the release of the files on the House floor. The pair received the 218th decisive signature from Democratic Rep. Adelita Grijalva Wednesday afternoon, allowing the push to force a vote to move forward.
Had anyone removed their name from the petition before reaching 218, Massie and Khanna would have no longer had the support needed to move forward.
Under the arcane procedure of a House discharge petition, if 218 members of the House - a majority of all 435 districts - sign on, they can force a floor vote in the chamber on anything - even if leadership opposes it. Such an effort rarely succeeds.
The unreleased Justice Department files, which capture years of investigation into child sex trafficking, could include details the House hasn't obtained.
Ahead of the White House meeting, one source said it would also include Attorney General Pam Bondi, Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche, FBI Director Kash Patel.
A spokesperson for the Justice Department declined to comment, and the White House did not immediately return a request for comment.
Bondi was seen leaving the White House at 1:10pm ET on Wednesday.
The controversy around Epstein and his contacts with other powerful people, including Trump, has divided the Republican Party in recent months, with Boebert being among the Republican House members publicly pushing for more transparency around the case.
Trump hasn't been accused of any crime, and longtime Epstein contact and convicted child sex trafficker Ghislaine Maxwell previously told Blanche in an interview this summer that she had seen no wrongdoing, including by Trump.
At least two women who say they are survivors of Epstein's abuse were expected to attend Grijalva's swearing-in ceremony Wednesday afternoon, sources with knowledge told CNN.
The House effort to compel the release of the files, should it pass, would still have to pass the GOP-led Senate and be signed into law by Trump, who has derided the effort.
- CNN
