Rep. Lauren Boebert Summoned to White House Situation Room Over Epstein Files Petition

On the morning of November 12, 2025, Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-CO) was summoned to the White House Situation Room for an extraordinary meeting with top Trump administration officials aimed at pressuring her to remove her name from the bipartisan discharge petition to release Jeffrey Epstein files. The meeting, which included Attorney General Pam Bondi, FBI Director Kash Patel, and Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche, took place just hours before the discharge petition was expected to reach the critical threshold of 218 signatures needed to force a House vote. At the time of the meeting, the petition stood at 217 signatures—one short of the majority required—with all eyes on Rep. Adelita Grijalva, who was scheduled to be sworn in later that day and had pledged to sign the petition immediately upon taking office.

The choice of venue—the White House Situation Room, typically reserved for the most sensitive national security matters—drew immediate criticism from former White House officials as highly unusual and potentially inappropriate for what was essentially a legislative lobbying effort. Former Trump White House Director of Strategic Communications Alyssa Farah Griffin, appearing on ABC’s “The View,” called the venue choice “unheard of,” stating: “The only time I’ve been in the Situation Room is for national security matters, [and] during the coronavirus response.” Griffin highlighted the gravity of the location by referencing the Osama bin Laden operation as an example of the caliber of matters typically handled in that secure room. A pair of former Biden administration officials similarly told NOTUS that hosting a member of Congress in the Situation Room for political negotiations was “weird” and “highly unusual.”

When questioned by reporters about why such a sensitive venue was necessary for discussing a legislative matter, Boebert offered a notably casual defense of the meeting location. “It’s just an easy SCIF to get to,” she told NOTUS, referring to a Sensitive Compartmented Information Facility designed for handling classified materials, adding: “I guess I’m pretty high profile.” Her characterization of the Situation Room—one of the most secure and symbolically significant spaces in American government—as merely a convenient location stood in stark contrast to the gravity typically associated with meetings held there. White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt acknowledged the meeting occurred but declined to detail specific conversations, characterizing it instead as demonstrating the administration’s “level of transparency” and “willingness to sit down with members of Congress and address their concerns.”

The timing and high-level attendance at the meeting underscored the Trump administration’s deep concern about the potential release of complete Epstein files. Boebert was one of only four Republicans—alongside Reps. Thomas Massie (R-KY), Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA), and Nancy Mace (R-SC)—who had signed the discharge petition alongside all 214 House Democrats. The participation of these prominent Trump allies in the transparency effort represented a rare bipartisan rebuke of both Speaker Mike Johnson and President Trump himself, who had both actively opposed the petition. The presence of Attorney General Bondi, FBI Director Patel, and Deputy Attorney General Blanche—the latter having previously interviewed Ghislaine Maxwell in prison as a Trump defense attorney—demonstrated the administration’s willingness to deploy its highest-ranking law enforcement officials in an effort to prevent the release of documents that could prove politically damaging.

Despite the extraordinary pressure and unusual venue clearly designed to impress upon Boebert the seriousness with which the administration viewed her support for transparency, she refused to withdraw her signature from the petition. Following the meeting, Boebert posted on social media: “I want to thank White House officials for meeting with me today. Together, we remain committed to ensuring transparency for the American people.” When interviewed by CNN’s Manu Raju, Boebert downplayed the pressure, claiming 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.” Later that same afternoon, Rep. Adelita Grijalva was sworn into office and immediately signed the petition, providing the decisive 218th signature that triggered the mandatory seven-legislative-day waiting period before a floor vote would be required.

The Situation Room meeting with Boebert represented a striking example of executive branch officials using the symbolic power of high-security government facilities to attempt to influence legislative decision-making on a matter of public transparency rather than national security. The incident raised serious questions about the appropriate use of secure government spaces, the extent to which administrations should pressure members of their own party on legislative matters, and what the aggressive opposition to releasing Epstein files might suggest about their contents. That all four Republican signatories—including Boebert—held firm despite personal appeals from the President, meetings in the Situation Room, and pressure from the highest levels of the Justice Department and FBI, demonstrated both the political potency of the Epstein files issue and the limits of executive influence over members of Congress when constituents demand accountability and transparency.