With the swearing in of a newly elected Democrat in the U.S. House on Wednesday, Rep. Thomas Massie got enough signatures on his petition to force a House vote on the release of documents related to the late sex offender and financier Jeffrey Epstein.

But the effort still has a long way to go from petition to document release.

House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-LA, who has urged the GOP members of his delegation to vote against the petition, said Wednesday night he plans to call for a full vote next week.

It would then go to the Senate, where Republicans control 53 of the 100 seats, and 60 votes are required for passage. That’s where it gets trickiest, Massie told the Herald-Leader in an interview.

“There doesn’t exist a parallel parliamentary method in the Senate to force something to the floor. So they could never bring it to the floor. (Senate GOP Leader) John Thune himself could block it,” Massie said.

With the added step of getting Trump to sign the bill — NBC News previously reported a GOP member’s yes vote would be viewed as “very hostile” to Trump — Massie knows the odds are long. He guessed about 20 petitions have ever made it to a floor vote, let alone final passage.

His pitch to fellow Republicans to support the petition: History and voters won’t look kindly on a “no” vote.

“The deal if you’re a Republican is, ‘If you’ll vote against releasing the files, Trump will protect you in your primary.’ But I would remind my colleagues that the record of this vote will last longer than his presidency. If you plan on being in politics in 2028 or 2030, this will always be a mark against your record. In a debate, somebody can say, ‘Why should we trust you? You voted to cover up for pedophiles,’ and you don’t have the president there to take up for you,” Massie said.

Massie said he thinks the margin in the House floor vote will be the biggest indicator of its ultimate success. If somewhere around two-thirds of the House members vote for the petition, then, he said, “that’s a pretty compelling argument the Senate should bring it up, and also indicates it’s veto proof.”

The push on the petition, cosponsored by California Democratic Rep. Ro Khanna, has not been happening in a vacuum. New tranches of records have been released by both Democrats and Republicans in the House detailing Epstein’s relationship with many powerful people, including Trump.

Epstein and Trump’s friendship, and later fallout, is well-documented. The new emails shed light on how Epstein saw Trump, and some argue they raise questions about what Trump knew about Epstein’s conduct and if he was involved. Epstein was convicted of soliciting prostitution from a minor and has been alleged of more crimes.

“I am the one able to take him down,” Epstein told an acquaintance of Trump in a 2018 text. Epstein took his own life in prison awaiting trial August 2019.

In a January 2019 email to writer Michael Wolff, Epstein wrote that “of course he (Trump) knew about the girls,” and had asked Epstein’s accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell “to stop.”

“I want you to realize that that dog that hasn’t barked is trump... [VICTIM] spent hours at my house with him,” Epstein wrote in a 2017 email to Maxwell.

It was later revealed by House Republicans that the victim referenced was the now-deceased Virginia Giuffre, a former spa attendant at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago club and resort. Trump has previously said he ended his relationship with Epstein after Epstein “stole” Ms. Giuffre, who said in a deposition that Trump never had sex or flirted with her.

When asked about the latest documents released, Massie said he thinks they were “a wash” for Trump.

“Yeah, it shows that Trump knew Jeffrey Epstein, but we already knew that. You could look at those emails and say, ‘Oh, Epstein and Maxwell suspected he was going to inform on them if he’s talking about a dog that doesn’t bark,’ so I don’t think it’s a big revelation,” Massie said.

Massie thinks the administration’s reluctance to move on the Epstein files release is not so much about the president’s involvement.

“I’ve maintained all along it’s not about Trump. It’s about his rich and powerful friends. Some are donors to his cause,” Massie said.

What’s in the documents that the public hasn’t seen yet? Massie said he has some idea, having consulted with some of the lawyers representing Epstein’s victims.

“I do know that the FBI is in possession of at least 20 accused colleagues of Epstein who sexually abused women,” Massie said. “Five of them are billionaires, one of them is a Canadian billionaire, one of them is a movie producer, one of them is a politician.”

Trump has long voiced frustration with Massie, and is even supporting a primary challenger against him. Massie has bucked party and stood up to Trump on several issues, most notably on the release of the Epstein files but also opposing the Trump-backed budget bill and aspects of his foreign policy.

Supported by several GOP billionaire donors, a political action committee called “MAGA KY” has spent more than $1 million on ads seeking to erode Massie’s popularity in Northern Kentucky.

Massie is also raising money into his own campaign account, and is being supported by another political action committee which has also spent $1 million.

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