Transcript of Breaking: Congress Will Hold Trump Justice Department Accountable for Violating Epstein Law

We have major developments at this hour. Congressman Robert Garcia of the House Oversight Committee has confirmed that contempt should and will be on the table for attorney general Pam Bondi after the Department of Justice failed to follow the Epstein Files Transparency Act, along with an additional subpoena issue to the DOJ this evening. I spoke with Congressman Robert Garcia, and I also spoke with an Epstein survivor, Jess Michiels. This is a very, very important episode, so make sure to like, comment, share, and subscribe. The more you like, the more this gets out there, and subscribe to my subsect, click the link below to support my work. First up, you're going to hear from Jess Michiels, a survivor of Jeffrey Epstein's Horrific Crimes, who spoke about the horrors, the horrors that her and her fellow survivors are going through today because the Department of Justice refuses to release all of the files. She points to key documents that had been completely redacted, documents that would shed light on co-conspirators of Jeffrey Epstein's crimes, wealthy and powerful people who abused young girls. She demands that Congress holds the Department of Justice accountable. And well, right after, you're going to hear from Congressman Robert Garcia, who committed to holding the Department of Justice accountable.

He confirmed that Republicans voted down a contempt resolution against attorney general Pam Bondi in their committee, that they already tried to do that. But that in November, if we're still where we are today, then that he will file contempt proceedings, that contempt proceedings will move forward. At the same time, in the interim, there are subpoena and key witnesses related to Jeffrey Epstein. A deposition of Ghislaine Maxwell is on the table, and he made clear that the law has been violated. I'm continuing my review of these files. Tens of thousands of them have already been reviewed. There are more. These files are horrific, and the more I'm going through them now, photographs. I am seeing photographs where the Department of Justice failed to redact the faces of Epstein survivors. Let that sink in for a second, you have photographs of these survivors unredacted in violation of the law. You can see all of them, everything that I'm going through as I'm going through them with reason, within reason, on my sub stack. But as I do, make sure and Before I do, here's my interview with Jess Michiels, a survivor of Jeffrey Epstein. Take a listen.

I'm honored today to be joined by Jess Michiels. Jess, you've been on this show multiple times before, but today really feels It's to me like a different moment because we've now gotten millions of new Epstein files. And I just want to get your perspective. How are you and other survivors feeling in this moment?

Well, firstly, thank you so much for having me on, Erin, again. Thank you for being willing to listen and to share our voices. We are frustrated. I am frustrated, annoyed. Everyone that I've talked to is frustrated, annoyed, disappointed, sad, grieving, while none of us are shocked. None of us are shocked at the blatant gaslighting. Gaslighting, visually, a 302 where a survivor is actually telling their story, and where you would find a perpetrator's name would be in this black area right here, and that is all blacked out. Why is this blacked out? And And I want to be very specific because with the volume of files, it can get really confusing, and we can get pulled in a lot of directions, right? So my main question, why is this blacked out? Why is this 302, four pages of a four pages of seven are completely blacked out.

Well, my question is, so those pages are blacked out, but there are, and I've publicly shown, other survivors have had their names shared publicly. Do you have any explanation, anything from the DOJ as to why this is happening the way it is?

So what I'm seeing are very bizarre half-truths. I'm seeing a survivor that had her name in capitals along with other victims' names in that 302 from the early 2000s. But then she was telling me she was looking for the 302 from 2019 when Epstein was arrested again, can't be found. Can't be found. And that's frustrating. So it feels like half-truths are coming out. We're not getting all of the information. And at the same time, it's further victimization of survivors.

Well, so my question is, what documents are missing? What isn't out that you haven't seen out yet that we need to be looking for that we should continue demanding? Because remember, they said 3 million documents are coming out, and in the same vein, they had 6 million documents.

Right. I mean, they also said the documents wouldn't be released till the end of Trump's term. I mean, they've said a bunch of things. We don't know. I have things that I'm personally looking for. I did find an email exchange with Special Agent Amanda Young, where I gave my victim statement, and I was told that that victim statement was going to be used in the prosecution's case against Glenn Maxwell. I have not seen a victim statement. I was never entered into the victim notification system, and I haven't heard That phone call that we had that obviously was recorded. I have not seen any of the email exchange of when I first reach out to the tip line with Detective Walter Harkins. We had emails going back and forth right afterwards. I haven't seen any of that. Interestingly, Special Agent Amanda Young's name is redacted in our email exchange. I've heard of an FBI agent being redacted. I've heard of a judge being redacted. So these random bizarre redactions are also happening in addition to survivor's names being out there. I know that we are really looking for all of that information about the Sweetheart deal.

I know that you actually reported on the file that actually showed what he was being charged with, and that was never filed. That was never actually filed. But I actually wanted to ask you this question, hoping you could tell me, in this trove of documents, we don't have anything that says, This was a credible report because it was investigated A, B, and C. This was not credible because we found D, E, and F. There's no guidelines as to what the actual investigations were like.

No, Aaron.

If that's true, Aaron, as an attorney, shouldn't we be holding the DOJ in contemptive court for not following through? Even though They're saying they followed through.

Well, so Todd Blanche, Deputy Attorney General, during his press conference, talked about something called the Deliberative Process Privilege. It's this idea that deliberative processes behind the scenes. Their thinking, their work products, why they prosecuted X and why they didn't prosecute Y. All of that information, he says they're not going to release publicly. He says that we don't have to. And while the Deliberative Process Privilege is a real thing, the Epstein Files Act actually prohibits DOJ from not releasing those memos and that information under that privilege. So that, I think, is why they're actually intentionally withholding it. Now, you mentioned content. Is that something you want to see and other survivors want to see in this moment?

I think what we feel like we're missing, and I can only speak for myself. I don't like to speak for anyone else. But in our conversations, why isn't Congress doing more? Why are they sitting on their hands? And I remember back five, six weeks ago, I heard Massey and Cahana say, We are going to hold Pam Bondi in contempt. We're thinking about drafting the paperwork. We're thinking about filing, and then we heard nothing. And so I don't know what the options are, but something needs to be done, and it has to be Congress, and we need Congress to take back some of this power. And if they need us to come to DC and look at those documents with them, we will be there.

Now, in your statement that you released yesterday, you all mentioned February 11th, when Pam Bondi is going to testify in front of Congress. What's something you want to hear from Pam Bondi during that testimony? What's something you want members of Congress to demand from her?

That's a great question. We're actually going through that right now as a group, just what is it that we want to hear? I want to know why this statement is redacted. I want to know what's in here. What What does this say? We have Todd Blanch saying, There's no list of names. Well, of course, we can't see a list of names here. It's redacted. We want to know why these survivor's names are out there with identifying information, why they're just out there. They literally had one job, one job, and it is sloppy and incompetent, and none of us would get away with doing that. I mean, it's literally Any middle school grade work at best. It's horrific.

There was an offer made, according to some reports, to members of Congress to see the unredacted files. Was that same offer made to you all?

It was not. And maybe that's a really good request for us to make to Congress, that we should be able to be part of that viewing, given that it's our information. Right.

Has Pam Bondi, the attorney general, has the President reached out to survivors to sit down for a meeting?

No. And we have requested.

Now, before I let you go, I do want to talk about one more important point, because I see this floating around the Internet, and I've asked you this actually before, but could you talk about why it's not on the survivors to release the names?

Thank you. Thank you for asking that question because we keep seeing it over and over and over again. And I want to also iterate. It was one survivor driver that said this during the rally, and she had a word in there that people are missing. She said, We were putting lists together confidentially for Congress. It was never meant to just be released to the public. That's one. The second thing is that it's not helpful in any way to just put out a list of names. Virginia Jeffrey has put out there in multiple ways. She put out there I believe it was almost 40 names. She has information. She has information that she had put out there bravely that nothing was done with. It makes no sense for survivors to just put out names because the public is needing more information to fill their need rather than thinking about the safety of survivors. And people need to stop telling survivors what to do, period. They just need to stop telling survivors what to do and how to deal with their own trauma, period. I shouldn't even have to say any more than that.

That makes a lot of sense. Thank you so much for joining me this afternoon, Jess.

Thank you for having me.

Well, that was my interview with Epstein survivor Jess Michiels, and she put it plainly, she wants action. She is demanding action from Congress, from the Department of Justice, because the survivors feel like right now what's happening is not enough, right? You have survivor's names being disclosed, survivor's personal identifying information being disclosed. You have survivors having complete redactions in these FBI 302s. She put it plainly, she wants to see action. Well, this afternoon, I also spoke with Congressman Robert Garcia, one of the members who can actually take action as he is the lead Democrat on the House Oversight Committee, the one who has been really pushing to get these files public. Take a listen to what Robert Garcia had to say this evening about the files. Excited to be joined by Congressman Robert Garcia again this afternoon. Now, congressman, I really just want to dive right into it because we have three million new Epstein documents, woefully insufficient. I got to get your reaction to this latest production by the DOJ.

I mean, the White House cover continues. I mean, we should be clear, 50 % of the documents the DOJ has basically said that they're not going to release. I mean, that's outrageous. It's criminal. It doesn't follow actually the law. And so what they're basically saying is they're going to withhold half of the Epstein files. And we also already know is that they have been putting documents about Donald Trump on their site, then removing them. They have been putting out survivor's names and not redacting them. But what they haven't put out of their names are the co-conspirators and all the men that actually raped and abused children and women. And so until we get those names, until we get the rest of the files, we're not going to stop. Our investigation is just getting started. Pam Bondi should be held in contemptive Congress. And Donald Trump clearly is leading this cover up.

Well, you mentioned Contempt of Congress, and I think there's a lot of survivors even demanding potentially that Pam Bondi be held in Contempt of Congress. Is that something in the works? I mean, are contempt proceedings going to begin at any point? Because I think we've heard a lot of like, Oh, there should be contempt, but nothing actually happened.

So we actually tried to get a contemt resolution through the Oversight Committee, the full committee, and every Republican blocked it and voted against it. And so they blocked us at the Oversight Committee because we wanted to put a a contemt motion on the floor. And Of course, Oversight Republicans said no. Look, we might try to go straight to the floor and do it, but again, there's little appetite from any Republicans right now to hold Pam Bondi in contempt. I think that's really shameful. She's violating the law. She's ripping up the Constitution, not just on the Epstein files, but on a lot of things. But on this, especially, I remind folks, look, the law that we pass in Congress is one thing, but there's also a subpoena in place that's been in place in summer. And that subpoena doesn't have all the exemptions the law has around other investigations or around inter-agency communication. The subpoena is very clear. All the files minus information that's obviously identifiable to protect survivors. But everything else has got to be released. We don't have it yet.

I got to ask you, if you all take power next November and we're still in this same position, would you commit to holding her in contempt once you have Democratic majority?

A hundred %. I believe she'll be held in contempt now. She certainly will need to be held in contempt a month from now and next year. And it's not just that. We'll subpoena every single person involved with the Epstein cover-up and scandal and get justice for the survivor. Look, I hope we don't have to wait that long. We should get that done now. But absolutely, if we can't get there in the next few months, that's where we're headed.

Is it true that Todd Blanch and the DOJ offered you all access to unredacted files or to make arrangements to go see the files unredacted? And is that something that you're going to go do?

So we've made that request. Whether or not they to actually honor it and how they plan on honoring it, we'll wait and see. I don't trust anything that the DOJ says. This is the same Todd Blanch that moved Ghislaine Maxwell to a less secure facility and interviewed her and us basically having really no understanding or access to why she was moved. And so let's wait and see what happens there. Let's not forget, Todd Blanch was Donald Trump's personal lawyer before he became the WAG.

I want to ask you about Maxwell. Is there still any effort to potentially depose her through Congress? Because I remember there was a subpoena and an effort to depose her. That went silent for a little bit. Where are we at there?

Yeah, it looks like there are some efforts there. We've been pushing Republicans on that. May happen in the next couple of weeks that there might be an opportunity to depose her, but we don't have anything final committed. I'm hoping that we're able to get it done.

I want to ask you about this thing called the deliberative process privilege that Todd Blanch has been talking about. He says essentially that he's not going to release certain documents to the public or even to you all based on this privilege that, well, anything... Their processes behind the scenes, why to charge certain people and not others, they're not going to release those documents. Is that in violation of the law?

It's in violation of the subpoena. The Delivered a Process piece, you could argue possibly that it's actually in the Epstein Files Transparency Act that was passed by the Congress, as is the other ongoing investigations piece and trigger. Those are in the transparency law. In the subpoena that's basically asked for the same documents, those two things don't exist. So they are in violation of the law. I keep reminding folks, remember, they have to give us the Epstein files for two reasons, for the law that passed and for the act of subpoena. They may claim they're meeting the requirements of the law. They are not meeting the requirements of the subpoena.

Now, do we have any information as to how they're doing these redactions? Because I think they are very inconsistent. I saw a document this morning where a survivor's full name was unredacted, but then her alias was redacted. We don't. No.

We know that there are some good civil servants, there are some great, real strong FBI agents and researchers and lawyers that have worked on these files that want to serve their country. They're doing as they're told, and they want to see the files released. They actually are the ones that want justice here. I think they are frustrated. We've heard some rumblings as well from inside some of those folks that are doing redactions. So I think that at the end of the day, the truth is going to come out. I think everyone understands that. I think the DOJ is trying to delay that truth coming out as much as possible.

I got to ask, you mentioned your investigation is separate and apart from what DOJ is doing. What does your investigation look like next? What are the next steps that Congress and the Oversight Committee, at least the Democrats, are set to take here?

So one is the deposition of Ghislaine Maxwell. The second is we have subpoenas that we force Republicans to vote on for Les Wexner and for Indyke and Kohn, which are Epstein's longtime lawyer and accountant who run the Epstein estate. Those subpoenas are really important. There's not a lot of folks that knew Epstein better than those four individuals, so those are all upcoming. We've been continuing to talk to survivors and get information and gather information. We have a whistleblower line where folks call us, get us information. And now we're reviewing this new tranche of documents. It's not complete. It's a partial release, but there's a lot to go through. So we've begun the process of going through all those. We're working on that every day.

Now, before I let you go, I do want to ask you because you all received a bunch of documents from the Epstein estate. You released many of them. Have you released all of the ones that you have from the Epstein estate that you can, or do we expect potential more releases from the Oversight Committee in the weeks to come?

First, we're going to get more. There's more documents coming from the Epstein estate. As far as what we've released now, I think we've released most of what we probably can release at this time. There's a lot of financial records and other types of documents that we're unable to release for a variety of reasons. But at some point, we're going to get everything out, and as long as we protect those survivors.

Congressman, thank you so much for joining me.

Thank you.

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