Dear Congressman Van Orden,

I just phoned your office and wanted to follow up with an email. The subject is the Speaker of the House, Congressman Mike Johnson’s failure to swear in Congresswoman Adelita Grijalva, AZ-7th District, to her duly elected seat in the US Congress. I called to encourage you to request Congressman Johnson to move forward with this swearing in. 

The Speaker’s flop on this matter has left the citizens of Arizona’s 7th unrepresented in Congress. His reluctance to seat the Congresswoman is understandable; Grijalva strongly supports the release of the Jeffrey Epstein files, something the Speaker has so strenuously resisted in an attempt to provide cover for President Trump. 

There is currently legislation before you on this matter, namely the Epstein Files Transparency Act and Congressman Massie’s (R-KY) discharge petition. With Congresswoman Grijalva’s arrival in Washington, the Massie’s (R-KY) discharge petition would no doubt move forward and force a vote on the Epstein file release and likely break the gridlock on the Transparency Act.

Interestingly, I have contacted your office numerous times asking that you support Massie’s discharge petition, but have never received a response and you’ve been generally silent on the matter. It makes me wonder if you, too, oppose the release of the Epstein files. For what reason?

I hereby urge you to support the Massie discharge petition and passage of the Epstein Files Transparency Act which is before you now.

The citizens of the 3rd district, and indeed all Wisconsinites and Americans deserve nothing less. Think about what is happening here.

Thank you for your consideration.

Greg Erickson

River Falls