Transcript of Rep. Garcia Reveals His Next Move with Trump Investigations

The American people are hungry for real oversight. And this government shutdown is also shedding a spotlight on the massive corruption and grift by this Trump regime and the utter lack of transparency. Now, you may recall last weekend I did a video with Congressmember Robert Garcia, ranking member of the House Oversight Committee for the Democrats. The video is called where did the $17 trillion go? It's been viewed over 1.2 million times because Donald Trump's out. He brought in $17 trillion in tariffs that he keeps on a shelf, he says, and while we're seeing these reduction in force notices go out, as Donald Trump and the government also claim, now they have no money. It just makes no sense because he's out there bragging about how rich we got. And the American people know that it's all a lie. Nothing that this Trump regime is saying about this shutdown is sticking because enough is enough and it is impacting the lives of American. When you see Donald Trump's Oval Office appearances and you see just the things that he's saying, I mean, just the utter lack of being tethered to reality. Let's use that line because multiple federal judges, including a Trump appointed judge in Oregon, use that language.

Tethered to reality, like what you're saying exists does not exist. And it's actually been refreshing to see federal judges on a bipartisan basis, although judging judges shouldn't even be talked about in partisanship. But in a Trump world, sometimes you have to. They've been saying your facts, Trump, are not existing in the real world right now. So speaking of that, when Donald Trump is asked a question about the United States Supreme Court denying Ghislaine Maxwell's final appeal to the Supreme Court on her claim that that sweetheart deal by Acosta, Trump's former labor secretary, who was a federal Prosecutor in, in 2008, somehow applied to her. Trump was asked about Delane. So are you going to pardon her? Remember this moment from earlier this week? Let's not forget about it. Let's play it. Yeah, please.

What's the President's term today? Mr. President said the Supreme Court is back and they rejected today an appeal by Ghislaine Maxwell to overturn her conviction. That means her only chance of getting out of prison is a pardon from you. Is that something you're.

Who are we talking about?

Ghislaine Maxwell.

You know, I haven't heard the name in so long. I can say this that I'd have to take a look at it. I would have to take a look. Did they reject that she wanted to appeal her conviction. And what happened?

They were not going to hear her appeal.

I see. Well, I'll take a look at it. I'll speak to, I will speak to the doj. I'll have to speak to the. You shouldn't be speaking to the doj. You don't know who she. What are you talking about? You don't know who. Of course you know who she is. I want to bring in Democratic Congressmember Robert Garcia, ranking member of the House Oversight Committee. And you're demanding that, that Ghisaine Maxwell now sit for that deposition after the Supreme Court denied her appeal. Her lawyer was claiming that's why she wouldn't sit for the under oath deposition, although she spoke with Donald Trump's former criminal defense attorney at the Justice Department. Talk to us about what you're doing on the Oversight Committee to demand that deposition.

Absolutely. I mean, first let's, let's be really clear. Glenn Maxwell is a sex trafficker. She herself abused children, girls, women. She was part of a massive sex trafficking ring, of course, led by Jeffrey Epstein. And so she deserves no support, pity from us. And to this idea in that clip that Donald Trump is going to somehow possibly consider, look at a pardon, doesn't know anything about it, is just complete bullshit. I mean, give me a break. He knows her. He's met her, Jeffrey Epstein, with Donald Trump's close best friend. According to Jeffrey Epstein, he, he himself moved her from a maximum security facility to a Club Fed facility where now she's just roaming around. The first time, by the way, that's been done for someone of her caliber of crime. And so it's really shocking for the President to essentially lean into this possibility of a pardon. And we know why that's the case, right? I mean, he wants to control what she says he wants for her who, who has a ton of information on what actually happened to perhaps tell stories or not tell things she might know or emit memory she might have of the president from any testimony.

So it's very concerning. We have been demanding from day one for Ghislaine Maxwell to appear in front of the Oversight Committee because we have a lot of questions, critical questions to ensure that we get justice for the survivors of Epstein and Maxwell, who we demanded that co Chairman Comer had agreed. And then of course, when the appeal went through and moved forward of the Supreme Court, Comer said, well, we ain't going to do it until after the Supreme Court either considers her appeal or not, which we of course pushed back against, did not agree with, but nonetheless, you know, he has the power to do that. And so now the Supreme Court rejected the appeal and we've asked Chairman Comer again, let's reconsider bringing her back. It appears that they are moving forward. And so we, we should have a date, hopefully soon for Ghislaine Maxwell to appear in front of the Oversight Committee.

Do you feel, though, that her lawyer is just going to put a new barrier in place and say, well, actually now we have to wait till the habeas petition before the Southern District and. Or now it has to be done on this term or that term. And isn't, isn't she basically moving to try to invoke the Fifth Amendment or come up with some pretext? Well, I have to invoke the Fifth. And you're like, well, why you have no more appeals. What do you mean you didn't invoke the Fifth when you spoke with Trump's former personal lawyer? I think that will be very revealing when that moment happens. But it feels like her and her lawyer's plan all along is a very Trumpy plan. Delay, delay, delay. Push this thing out and then self selectively show up where you want to show up versus in a transparent way.

Yeah, I mean, it's all part of the Trump playbook. I mean, no question about it. But we're going to demand for her to come forward and look, and we know when she comes forward what her goal is. We're very aware that Ghislaine Maxwell wants a pardon from Trump. And so we're going to be very thoughtful in that process and remind the public that much of what she says, quite frankly, might be lies. She is a known serial liar, which is why it's so important that Pam Bondi and Donald Trump releases the full Epstein files. Because the idea that we're gonna have a deposition with her and not have the files to essentially reference information back and forth to, it's really hurtful to the investigation. But of course, this is what Donald Trump wants. This is now a massive White House cover up. Donald Trump is trying to run away from whatever the truth is. And so we are focused like a laser on this. And I know a lot of folks have said, oh, you know, this is a distraction, or we know we should be Democrats, should be, you know, coming up with some work on it in bipartisan fashion with Republicans to do X, Y or Z.

Absolutely not. This is very important. This is the most corrupt president in the history of our country and the most corrupt administration in the history of our nation. And on top of that, this is the largest, most complex sex trafficking ring of pedophiles and monsters in the modern era of the United States. And the people involved are people of power, are people of incredible wealth, are politicians, are folks that need to be held accountable regardless of political party. And I've told folks, I've told you, Ben before, I could care less if they're a Democrat or Republican. Literally could care less. Just let's make sure that we get justice for all of these survivors and victims.

You know, there are other areas as well that seem ripe for oversight review. Every day it seems like we learn something new. I mean, that Donald Trump apparently is using his social media platform, privately owned, privately controlled by him, on his private social media account, using that to send direct messages to cabinet members like Attorney General Pam Bondi that he thought, according to Wall Street Journal reporting, that he was DMing pa Bondi about prosecuting his political opponents on that truth social platform. Seems like a private platform. He owns the private company. So I'm not sure what the executive privilege claim could be there in terms of all of that, but it seems that's how he messages people. Is that something that, you know, I know that Colmer probably will try to block at all points, but if Democrats are able to take control with the midterms, is that also an area that you're looking into?

Absolutely. I mean, look our, our agenda when we win the majority and have subpoena power and are able to get anyone in front of the committee, any document from any corporation, from any organization in the country is going to be wide. We have a long list of folks that we want to see in front of the committee and look at the atrocities that are happening across this country. And oversight right now is more important than ever. We're dealing with corruption in government at the highest levels. Corruption that's being passed on to folks at every agency, whether it's ICE agents kidnapping people off the street without due process, whether it's these illegal firings happening at our federal agencies. There is an enormous amount of work that oversight is doing. And I'll break some news with you, Ben. We haven't announced this yet, but oversight right now is working on launching a tracker, will be an online tracker based on it'll be on our website that is going to track every single incident that we can find of abuse by ice, Christian, OEM and DHS that's happening across the country because we want people to know that we're going to hold everyone involved in these kidnappings in this Mistreatment, these inhumane actions across the country, we are going to hold you accountable.

Kristi Noem and Stephen Miller will be held, held accountable. So we'll be launching this tracker very soon, and it's going to be a way of compiling and putting all of these actions by the administration as it relates to ICE and immigration in one place.

You know, finally just wanted to chat about. I mean, the last video that you and I did, the last interview about the missing $17 trillion. I mean, look, I think we all know that Trump's a liar about everything, but he keeps going out there and saying, I brought in $17 trillion. It looks like from the White House, he was thinking about building now not just a ballroom, but a triumphant arch, all one that looks, you know, similar to what Hitler was doing when he was coming up with Germania. Never was built, but like the model of the triumphant arch, it's like just a. We're in a government shutdown. He's talking about triumphant arches, golden ballrooms. Apparently, there's a military base now in Idaho that will be named the Qatari Military Base in. In Idaho. Like, this is what he's doing. As Americans are suffering. And I think Americans are saying, okay, if you've got all this money and you're bragging about how rich you are, what. What about us? What about the people? Like, we're. I think that's why that story connects as well, because he keeps bragging about how rich and people, like, stop bragging about that we're suffering.

So I wanted to give you a final word on that.

I think that's right. I think the American public actually is really catching on to the betrayal of Donald Trump, how he's betrayed his own base. He's betrayed the country. This is someone that is enriching himself every day. The enormous amount of wealth, as your grocery costs have gone up, as your housing costs and rents have gone up, as your health care is about to go up. Donald Trump's wealth also is skyrocketing. He's making more money right now than he ever has off all of his corruption, his crypto scheme, all that he's stealing from the American public to give to himself and to his family. In fact, people are finally catching onto that. And you're seeing it not just in the polls. I'm talking to people on the street. I'm talking to folks that supported Donald Trump, that are like, I don't know what the hell is going on. This is not what I voted for. Well, here we are. And it's an opportunity for us as a country to come together, push back aggressively, fight real hard. This is the moment where Democrats got to fight hard. We got to be really tough, do a lot of oversight.

This is not a time to be cautious or to think that, you know, holding hands with, with Republicans is going to work. We got to, we got a steamroll at this moment. So we're doing that on oversight.

Congressman Garcia, I remember when we covered the swearing in when you became the ranking member and that was what, 45 days ago or so? So you'd have done a lot in a very short period of time. And I think the American people are grateful for all the work you're doing. So thank you, Congressman Garcia.

Thanks, Ben, everybody.

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