\n 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.\n <\/p>\n
\n White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt acknowledged the meeting later Wednesday when asked about reporting that administration officials were huddling with GOP Rep. Lauren Boebert.\n <\/p>\n
\n \u201cDoesn\u2019t that show the level of transparency when we are willing to sit down with members of Congress and address their concerns?\u201d she told reporters at the press briefing.\n <\/p>\n
\n Leavitt added: \u201cI\u2019m not going to detail conversations that took place in the Situation Room.\u201d\n <\/p>\n
\n 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.\n <\/p>\n
\n That effort is now in motion after a newly sworn-in Democratic member of Congress provided the 218th \u2013 and final \u2013 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\u2019 release.\n <\/p>\n
\n After the meeting, Boebert wrote on X, \u201cI want to thank White House officials for meeting with me today. Together, we remain committed to ensuring transparency for the American people.\u201d\n <\/p>\n
\n She later told CNN\u2019s 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.\n <\/p>\n
\n Separately, President Donald Trump and Rep. Nancy Mace, another Republican who\u2019s 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\u2019s supporting the discharge petition, according to a source familiar with the message who said it largely mirrored a public statement in which she said: \u201cI will NEVER abandon other survivors.\u201d\n <\/p>\n
\n But both the meeting and Trump\u2019s efforts to talk to Mace underscored the administration\u2019s concerns around the Epstein saga, which roared back Wednesday morning when the House Oversight Committee released more documents it had obtained from Epstein\u2019s estate. (Leavitt said Wednesday the emails from that trove that mention Trump \u201cprove absolutely nothing.\u201d<\/a>)\n <\/p>\n \n Besides Boebert and Mace, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene is the other Republican who\u2019s 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.<\/a>\n <\/p>\n \n 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.\n <\/p>\n \n Under the arcane procedure of a House discharge petition, if 218 members of the House \u2013 a majority of all 435 districts \u2013 sign on, they can force a floor vote in the chamber on anything \u2014 even if leadership opposes it. Such an effort rarely succeeds.\n <\/p>\n \n The unreleased Justice Department files, which capture years of investigation into child sex trafficking, could include details the House hasn\u2019t obtained.\n <\/p>\n \n 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.\n <\/p>\n \n A spokesperson for the Justice Department declined to comment, and the White House did not immediately return a request for comment.\n <\/p>\n \n Bondi was seen leaving the White House at 1:10pm ET on Wednesday.\n <\/p>\n \n 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.\n <\/p>\n