For Rep. Thomas Massie, time is running out in his latest effort to extract more files from the Justice Department related to the late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.

He’s leading a push to sidestep House leaders and bring another bill to the floor, dubbing it the Epstein Files Transparency Act II. It would allow state attorneys general, victims and members of Congress to sue the Justice Department for failing to disclose documents as required under the law he championed last fall.

The Kentucky Republican on Thursday accused his own party of trying to slow him down, after Speaker Mike Johnson announced the House would cancel two of its three remaining workweeks planned for September. 

Those schedule changes are an “attempt to stymie our latest Epstein bill,” Massie posted on social media, a suggestion that Johnson had previously brushed off.

It’s not the only obstacle Massie is facing. He has just a few more months left in office, after losing a primary to a challenger backed by President Donald Trump. One of his prime allies in the Epstein push, former Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., has already left the Hill.

A discharge petition he filed this week has earned more than 100 signatures so far, including two Republicans, him and Rep. Nancy Mace, R-S.C. But it takes 218 to force action on the floor, meaning he still needs two more colleagues from his side of the aisle, presuming all Democrats sign on. Rep. Lauren Boebert, R-Colo., backed the initial effort last fall, but her name has yet to appear on the petition this time. Her office did not respond to a request for comment.  

In a statement earlier this summer, Massie said he believes the Justice Department is withholding more than 3 million files that it is required to release under the November 2025 law and is “maintaining heavy redactions” on others.

The new bill would also allow victims to privately view unredacted versions of any records that mention them.

“This is about the victims getting the evidence and documentation for themselves that the DOJ is denying them, and then also the AGs in different states should be able to pursue this, particularly New Mexico,” Mace said, referring to a ranch Epstein once owned in the state where victims say they were abused.

On Monday evening, Massie read the names of 14 associates of Epstein’s on the House floor, saying they all appeared in the Epstein files. Merely being named in the files does not necessarily indicate wrongdoing. 

Massie joined forces with Rep. Ro Khanna in the effort last fall and is doing so again, continuing the unlikely pairing between the Kentucky Republican with libertarian leanings and the California Democrat. 

“This is not a politics issue. It’s a justice issue,” Khanna said Thursday. 

Even with the House’s truncated schedule, Khanna said he still thinks their goal is within reach, especially with a lame-duck session approaching after the midterm elections in November. 

“There are a number of folks who we are talking to that we could gain, and there’s also, of course, the lame duck, where there’s going to be what I call the retirement caucus, the people not coming back. So we have a number of people we can approach,” he said. 

Mace said she even thinks more Republicans could sign on this time.

“You’ve got to sign on. There’s no other option,” Mace said.