In this episode, Congressman Robert Garcia discusses how he plans to pursue the Epstein investigation once he takes a chair in Congress. He says he will hold public hearings centered on survivors, compel Todd Blanch and Trump family members to testify, and use subpoenas and contempt proceedings to enforce them.
Garcia also describes working with state attorneys general, criticizes the influence of billionaire donors on elections, and argues that accountability and lower prices are linked. Host Jennifer Welch presses him on these plans, and listeners can weigh his claims about DOJ intimidation alongside the responses of those he names.
In this episode Jennifer Welch, Robert Garcia
This IHIP News episode with Congressman Robert Garcia on Epstein investigation subpoenas was made with the technology HappyScribe built to transcribe video to text.
Ads in this audio differ from the text. Tap the sentence you're hearing to follow along.
Synced: the text now follows the audio.
Joining us today on IHIP News is the most important Democratic congressman, in my opinion, the author of the tweet heard 'round the world' after the Blue Nami, where he said, "lawyer up," directly to MAGA. Congressman Garcia, how are you today?
I'm doing good, just—just in the fight, and ready to get these investigations going.
All right. So the current oversight committee—that will be outgoing before you come in and chair it—had a tweet about the Epstein investigation, and your oversight committee responded to it very quickly. Pop this up. You didn't hold a single public hearing, you didn't say anything when the DOJ withheld 2.5 million missing files, you didn't bring in Todd Blanch after saying you would. We will not allow the president and his allies to dismiss this investigation; we're just getting started.
What can we expect from you when you take power? Will you have all of these survivors on camera, in Congress, telling their stories?
Absolutely. First is: our investigation will be survivor-centered. We're going to ensure that at the center of our investigation is the survivors, it's their stories, it's the—just the horrific things that they have had to go through, the way they have been retraumatized by Trump's DOJ and Todd Blanch and Pam Bondi. You know, the Republicans have put out this report basically closing the Epstein investigation. I mean, they're basically done, which is a complete joke and, quite frankly, so shameful.
They haven't held one single public hearing to—to address the investigation. 2.5 million documents are still being withheld by Todd Blanch and the DOJ. They had witnesses they did not put under oath. I mean, this is—they've created a farce. I mean, their whole job was to protect Donald Trump. No answers on Ghislaine Maxwell and why she was transferred. No answers on why Vice President Vance is having these meetings in the situation room with Suzy Wiles and others.
And so our work on Epstein, I mean, it's just getting started. There's an enormous amount to do. And the first thing that you're going to see is public hearings where the media and the press and the public, most importantly, will be open to. And those will start quite quickly in the new Congress.
All right. Pam Bondi repeatedly said that Blanch was responsible for overseeing the entire release of the Epstein files. Are you going to put him under oath and ask him about that, ask him what he's been doing with the files, and what happened in his meeting with Ghislaine Maxwell, and why exactly, and what he maybe possibly could have promised her to move her to the Creme Puff prison?
Absolutely. Look, and it's funny because James Gomer, the current chairman, has been talking for months that Todd Blanch was going to come in, he's going to address the committee. Well, we're still waiting. He's never come into our committee. That was obviously either a lie, or Todd Blanch is now too scared to come in. It's quite cowardly for him not to address our committee. I mean, he's been the guy in charge of this entire White House cover-up from day one, and he's refusing to come in and testify. And so we're absolutely going to have Todd Blanch come in and testify in front of our committee.
And it's not just going to be Blanch. It's all the Epstein associates that are in his universe. It's folks that are out there right now that are walking free as they've been engaged in the abuse, the rape, and trafficking of girls and children, many of them at the time. And so this is an investigation where we should all be fired up. We should be angry. We should be angry that these survivors have had to experience all of this and continue to have to live their lives with no justice. And so there is no moving on in this moment for this investigation as the Republicans want to do.
We will get justice. We're not going to rest until we get justice for the survivors.
Not to mention the gaslighting that these victims have to face by the president of the United States when he says it is a hoax. And Todd Blanch is threatening now. The Attorney General of the United States of America is threatening to investigate Democrats who promise to hold the administration accountable. Do you see this as a threat, and how do you intend to deal with this?
Well, it is a threat. There's no question. Not new to this. A year and a half ago, Donald Trump and his DOJ sent me a letter that they were opening an investigation on me because I was critical of Elon Musk, if you can believe that. And so I, you know, put that in the garbage where it needed to go. But at the end of the day, this is a moment for Democrats. We have to have the courage to stand up to this authoritarian government. We have to have the courage to take on Donald Trump and know that he is going to use every tool at his disposal, in this case the DOJ, the Department of Justice, the FBI, God knows what else, his billionaire friends and buddies and donors, to go after us, to intimidate us.
But we're not going to be—I mean, I'm certainly not going to be intimidated. We're not going to be intimidated. And yes, they're going to throw everything we have at us. They're going to try to destroy our character. They're going to try to demean us and try to, quite frankly, send out their, you know, MAGA universe to come after us. But we are going to stand strong because we have the people behind us. And more importantly, this is a moment in this country where if you're not willing to put yourself in the way of danger, if you're not willing to kind of put yourself and know that there are real risks, this isn't the right job for you.
This is not like being in Congress at any other moment in history. And I think I tell my colleagues this all the time: we are what's standing right now in between a complete takeover by authoritarian dictators and oligarchs that are trying to raid the Treasury, raid the American taxpayer, destroy the world order. And we just so happen to be the ones in Congress at this moment. And so if we're not all fucking in, then what the hell are we doing?
That's right. All right. So, you know, I think that Trump has used the DOJ to shake people down, kind of like a mafia boss does. That's what he tried to do to you. Like, I'm going to open up an investigation to you. And he wanted to scare you so he could ultimately shake you down. And I think this is a tactic a lot of people have estimated he learned this from his mentor, the late Roy Cohn. But his family is also in on this grif. I'm talking about Don and Eric. Don and Eric have some friends that own an airport spa company, and they got a $40 million contract, government contract, for the spa company to test for Ebola.
It's just—everything is just a grift and a shakedown. So which Trump family member is getting subpoenaed first?
Well, look, we actually want to talk to all of them. And that report is stunning. And it's.
It's crazy.
Also, there's, of course, other reporting that has been clear that not only has it been in that case, but that Don Jr. especially, sitting on boards that are getting contracts from the federal government out of the Pentagon. And so the idea that you are—that any child or family member of the president can even get government contracts is crazy. It's crazy. And one thing that's important is, look, Don Jr., certainly Eric, Jared Kushner—I mean, give me a break. You're getting $2 billion from the Saudis and all across all these governments across the Middle East for your expertise and to invest.
I mean, they're just dumping money into the Kushners so that they can curry favor with the Trumps. And Jared somehow is appointed by Don Jr. to bring peace to the Middle East and be this envoy. This is the same person, Jared Kushner, who is invested, by the way. As we know, his investment companies and firms are also invested with the Israeli military. And so his investments are connected to, as far as it relates to weapons within the military. Yet he's supposed to be bringing peace to Gaza and creating the Gaza—the plan for Gaza's future.
Give me a break. This is corruption. It's cruel. It's inhumane. And all of these Trump family members have to be asked the tough questions, or they need to be in front of our committees in the Congress for there to be real accountability.
Okay. So what happens? Let's say you send out these subpoenas. Todd Blanch. You send it out to Don Jr. You send one out to Jared Kushner. And they take them, rip them up, throw them in the trash, and don't show up. What next?
So a couple of things. I think one is we obviously are going to be focused on getting these folks to testify. And we'll use every tool at our disposal. And I share with folks: Congress has the power in the majority to go to the courts. We also have the power to file contempt charges, both criminal charges and civil charges. And people will often respond and say, well, criminal referral charges, if the Congress puts in place, those go to the DOJ. What's going to happen then? Well, what they can't stop also is civil contempt.
And civil contempt goes to the courts. And so we will use every tool at our disposal to get answers and to get to the truth. And what the Trump family needs to understand, the Trump crime family, as I like to call them, is that they're not going to be in the White House forever. Time is a ticker as it relates to their power and their influence. And we should demand—and one thing I'm going to be very involved in, I know you and others will be as well—we will demand that whoever our next presidential nominee is, when we're having those debates, they need to be asked the question clearly: Will you have an attorney general that is willing, on day one, to prosecute these crimes?
Who's going to take on the crimes that an attorney general should be taking on? Because, quite frankly, the decision to bring on Merrick Garland was maybe the worst.
Disaster.
Disaster that was done in the last administration. And so, no, we need to demand that our nominee has a bulldog as an attorney general and is willing to go after all these crimes. The second part of that, Jennifer, I think this is important, is I'm working with state's attorneys general. And where the federal government might have some issues, the states don't have those same challenges. And so we're going to depend on incredible AGs, like Attorney General James in New York, or like Attorney General Bonta in California, or many others that are engaged in some of this corruption work.
And we are all talking. I was just on the phone with an attorney general yesterday. And there's some coordination happening that's growing every day because I think their work is going to be very important in these next two years.
It's essential. And I echo what you say about Merrick Garland, and I've made that a verb now. The incoming Democratic class these next two years cannot Merrick Garland this thing because we'll incubate something far, far worse. But there's been reporting that Stephen Miller is very concerned about the powers of the presidential pardon because it doesn't extend to state courts. And so as you are working with state AGs, that makes me think of Elon Musk. You know, everybody's going to—Trump likes to talk about, "I'm so popular, you know, nobody would talk to me in Trump 1.0.
Now they all kiss my ass." Now they're going to be kissing his ass for pardons. And we can only assume that Elon Musk will really be kissing his ass for a pardon, even though Elon himself said, "You want to know why Trump won't release the Epstein files? Because he's in them." I mean, Elon said that on his own social media site. But he poured half a billion dollars into the election. Is investigating the influence billionaires have over our government going to be a priority? And will you coordinate with state attorneys general on that regard?
Absolutely. I mean, I think first, our new attorneys generals that we have across the country we just elected are going to be engaged in this work, as are some that have been well-established in key states for us. I mean, look, as you know, what happened in Texas with our new governor there and our new attorney general there, there's an enormous amount of work to do there. The amount of money that one single billionaire, Elon Musk, spent on this election is insane. And I think that we have to be aggressive in taking on these issues.
I have a bill with Senator Van Hollen that we actually are introducing right now that would essentially limit the ability of those that are getting federal contracts in the government to then make political donations in campaigns. It's actually a loophole right now in the law, and it is constitutional. So we could pass a law today to essentially cut off the funding of anyone that is getting government contracts from the federal government in making political donations.
And I think that, to me, is the kind of common-sense reforms that we need to see in our government.
All right. Final question. What is your message to your Democratic colleagues that may feel like investigating Trump and his administration will distract from affordability?
I mean, look, what I would say, I've said two things. One is what happened Tuesday is people voted, and it's clear, for two reasons. One, because you're looking at the costs of the groceries at the supermarket, right? We're getting gas, no question. And because they're also mad as hell at the corruption. They're mad that their neighbors are getting picked up by ICE and kidnapped. They're mad that they're seeing the Trumps make billions of dollars while they are struggling to buy groceries.
They are mad that all of this corruption is happening across the country and that people are being enriched both insider information by stock trading. So people, those are the reasons why folks voted. And so I try to connect the issue of accountability to affordability because they're linked. And so there is not one without the other. If we really want to make life in this country more affordable, then we got to take on the folks that are giving themselves big tax cuts, that are taking and stealing everybody's wealth, giving it to themselves and their billionaire donors.
We got to take on the people that are building oil pipelines in Venezuela so that the oil companies that are raising your gas prices while you're struggling, who are making record profits, that we take on that corruption. So we take on the corruption of the tariffs that Donald Trump, who is handing out these bonus checks to folks and tariff relief to whoever he thinks deserves one, that is costing the American public enormously at the end of the day. And so accountability, when we get accountability, when we get justice, we're going to actually lower prices.
That's, for me, the message.
Congressman, thank you so much. We are cheering you on. I cannot wait for you to return to chair that committee. And we finally have an honest, decent person that advocates for the survivors of this criminal sex ring that the president has listed in multiple times. And for every American, I mean, this is so well-earned and it's such a historical moment that you're living in, and I think you're the man of it. Thank you so much.
Thank you. We're excited to do the work.
Congressman Robert Garcia is back to talk the next steps in seeking justice.
Get Jennifer’s new book Not Today, Fascists, join our Substack, shop our merch, and more by clicking here: https://linktr.ee/ivehaditpodcast
Follow Us:
I've Had It Podcast: @Ivehaditpodcast
Jennifer Welch: @mizzwelch
Congressman Robert Garcia: @RepRobertGarcia
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices