As nauseous as the idea felt, I found myself rooting for Rep. Lauren Boebert last week. She joined three other Republicans who have signed a discharge petition to release the full Epstein Files for public review.
Actually, my stomach roiled over the composition of that support. Sponsored by Rep. Ro Khanna, D-Calif., and Thomas Massie, R-Ky., the other two Republicans joining the cause were Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., and Rep. Nancy Mace, R-SC.
Boebert, MTG and Mace.
An unholy triumvirate of far-right, attention seeking bomb-throwers — and I was rooting for them. I did not have that on my BINGO card for 2025. But whatever their reasons, I support their cause.
A discharge petition allows a bill to move forward to a floor vote on the House without a report from the committee hearing the bill. It is a way to force the issue when leadership has tried to kill a bill by leaving it to languish in a “kill committee.” The underlying bill, the one stuck in committee and which the discharge petition would force to a vote, requires the U.S. Department of Justice to release all Epstein Files for public review. Effectively, they have attempted an end run around Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La.
In truth, they have attempted to force President Donald Trump’s hand. After promising to release the Epstein Files on the campaign trail, his administration has backtracked in recent months. In July, U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi roiled liberals and conservatives alike by saying there is no Epstein List of clients. In the ensuing uproar, reporters dug up a May meeting she had with Trump telling him that he appeared multiple times throughout the Epstein Files.
Predictably, Trump has dug into his position. He has questioned why reporters continue to ask about Epstein, despite the years he spent stoking the story. He has called the entire saga a “Democrat hoax,” though his MAGA base fixated on it for nearly a decade. He has pressured congressional Republicans, telling them that support of the Khanna-Massie petition would constitute a “very hostile act” toward the White House.
Nonetheless, Boebert and her renegade allies have not been intimidated.
In an hour-long news conference, Epstein survivors spoke out en masse to support the discharge petition. Together they found strength and resilience to take on the rich and powerful who had silenced them for decades. Tears flowed as the family of Virginia Giuffre, whose accusations against U.K. Prince Andrew and Harvard law professor Alan Dershowitz were pivotal in stoking interest in their stories, recounted her long struggle before her recent death.
While Boebert and Mace were not in attendance, Greene spoke out calling for support from other Republicans. The combined MAGA credentials should have given cover to others interested in supporting.
Unfortunately, a full-court press by Trump and Johnson may thwart their efforts in Congress.
What is yet to be seen is how it will hold up with the MAGA base? Many have spent years enraptured by the Epstein saga. Generally, the aim has been to tie in liberal friends of Epstein like former President Bill Clinton. But there is also something deeper.
Many in the MAGA base have pinned their own self-identity to combating child sex-trafficking, real or imagined. It is an often self-righteous cause that gives them meaning and direction where they have not found it otherwise. It has led to wild conspiracy theories like Pizzagate and QAnon-adored movie Sound Freedom.
It is effectively far-right virtue signaling.
That has been a primary driver for so many on the right to hang on every revelation in the Epstein saga for so long. Parsing words and information leaked to the public, the speculation and conjecture became a movement of its own. It even drew in the most powerful podcasters and influences from the right. When Trump’s about face challenged their beliefs, it created an internal crisis for many. Not all are falling in line. For example, Joe Rogan referred to the Trump administration’s change as “gaslighting.”
That explains why Boebert, Greene and Mace have latched onto the cause. They have each attained greater notoriety and power than they could have dreamed by pandering to these very people.
☀ MORE IN OPINION
Now they are joined by Democrats who sense fear and weakness in Trump’s actions. Most were not screaming to release the Epstein Files until very recently. It made Trump trying to label Epstein a “Democrat hoax” even more laughable. But his own reactions have driven them to take up the cause so long carried by people they detest.
You can bet that in 2026 Democrats will highlight the position vulnerable Republicans take now. Vulnerable representatives who have not signed the petition, like Colorado’s Gabe Evans and Jeff Hurd, will certainly see their faces pinned alongside Epstein’s mugshot.
That will be the political emphasis for the next year. But hopefully there will also be some justice and sense of vindication for the woman who stood on the stage last week. Whoever chooses to help, whether members of the MAGA faithful or liberal elites, they deserve to get what they have asked for from Congress. For that end, I can take a couple of antacids and keep rooting on Boebert.
Mario Nicolais is an attorney and columnist who writes on law enforcement, the legal system, health care and public policy. Follow him on BlueSky: @MarioNicolais.bsky.social.
The Colorado Sun is a nonpartisan news organization, and the opinions of columnists and editorial writers do not reflect the opinions of the newsroom. Read our ethics policy for more on The Sun’s opinion policy. Learn how to submit a column. Reach the opinion editor at opinion@coloradosun.com.
Follow Colorado Sun Opinion on Facebook.