Arizona attorney general threatens legal action if Adelita Grijalva is not sworn in to Congress

PHOENIX — Three weeks after she was elected to represent Arizona’s 7th Congressional District (CD7) in Congress, Adelita Grijalva has still not been sworn in, and now the state’s attorney general is threatening legal action against Speaker of the House Mike Johnson.

In a letter sent to Johnson’s office Tuesday, Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes threatened litigation if Johnson does not schedule Grijalva’s oath of office ceremony by Thursday, stating that it must take place before the end of the federal government shutdown.

Mayes announced that she was sending the letter during the official canvas of the Sept. 23 special election results on Tuesday morning. This was a procedural step of the election process where Arizona Gov. Katie Hobbs, Secretary of State Adrian Fontes and Mayes met to officially certify the election results.

“The voters of CD7 need an elected representative,” Mayes said. “It is way past time … for Mike Johnson to stop the political games and seat Adelita Grijalva without delay.”

When speaking to reporters Tuesday, Johnson, a Republican, called for Democrats to vote to end the ongoing federal government shutdown before Grijalva would be sworn in.

“As soon as Chuck Schumer opens the government, as soon as Mark Kelly and Sen. (Ruben) Gallego, the two Senators from Arizona, Ms. Grijalva’s state, will go and join with three others and open the government, we’ll have that as soon as we get back to business,” Johnson said. “But we have to get back to business. They have to open the government.” 

Why hasn’t Adelita Grijavla been sworn in to Congress?

Grijalva overwhelmingly won the special election to fill her father’s seat in Congress, which has been vacant since March.

However, the delay between the election and Grijalva officially taking office appears to break the precedent that Johnson had previously set.

“Ms. Grijalva and the State expected that you would follow your usual practice and swear her into office at the earliest opportunity, just as you had done with five previous members elected in special elections,” Mayes letter stated.

The instances indicated in the letter included the swearing-in ceremonies of four Republicans and a Democrat over the past two years, all of which took place within two weeks of their special elections.

Johnson has previously gone back and forth on when Grijalva could be sworn in, saying last week a district work period prevented the ceremony before later saying, “We’ll schedule it as soon as she wants.”

“He said he would swear me in whenever I wanted and then a few hours later walked that back and said, ‘Just kidding,'” Grijalva said in a video posted to X last week.

Johnson said Tuesday that the delay was nothing more than just normal House procedure.

“It’s a great honor, but she won her election after the House was out of session. So, we’ve not had a full session. She deserves to have all the pomp and circumstances that everybody else does,” Johnson said. “That hasn’t been scheduled because we haven’t had that session yet.”

What do the Epstein files have to do with Adelita Grijalva’s delay in taking office?

Grijalva and several of her Democratic colleagues have placed the blame for the delay on her support for signing a petition that would force a vote on the release of files related to the Jeffrey Epstein sex trafficking case by the Justice Department.

“The fact that southern Arizona is being treated differently raises serious questions about political motivations — especially since I have pledged to become the 218th signature on the discharge petition to force a vote on the Epstein files,” Grijalva said in a press release on Sept. 30.

Johnson, however, has denied that the Epstein files have anything to do with the delay in administering the oath of office.

“We’re for all of it coming out as soon as possible,” he said. “The only thing we want to make sure of is that the innocent victims are protected and I think we have responsibility to do that.”

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