House Democrats CALL OUT former AG Bondi for Epstein files release

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[00:00:03]Great. Thank you. Um I'm ranking member Robert Garcia, Oversight Democrats. Uh I'm going to have some remarks and then I'm going to have a few folks are also going to give some remarks and then I'll answer any questions. Uh we are on a break right now from the interview and so I want to make sure that we answer some questions. Uh let me just start by um sharing with the American public uh where we're actually right now in this transcribed interview. to repeat what we've continued to say. It is a shame and a disservice to the American people that this interview is not being recorded, videotaped, and then released to the American public and that she was not brought in under oath. We continue to say that this vid this should be recorded by video and released to the American public. And we're also asking that Chairman Comr immediate immediately release the transcripts that right now are being done throughout today. I want to also say just uh a few a few other things. It it is clear in just this this part of the of the interview that she continues to push all of the investigation and the blame on acting AG Todd Blanch.

[00:01:13]She said, and I quote, "Acting AG Blanch was managing the entire investigation."

[00:01:19]End quote. And what you're going to hear in that interview and what she's saying here in her words and remarks is that it was Todd Blanch, the current acting AG that was leading the Epstein investigation. And quite frankly, all of the mistakes that we saw, the redactions, not protecting survivors, she continues to push that back onto the acting AG, Todd Blanch, who by the way was Donald Trump's former personal lawyer.

[00:01:48]I also personally asked the former AG five times and five different questions about her conversations with President Trump, whether he directed her any at any given time on the Epstein files, what he knew, what he asked her to redact or not. And she refused to answer any questions about President Trump. In fact, she said that she would not speak or or respond to any questions that had anything to do with President Trump.

[00:02:21]It's also interesting that sitting next to her is DOJ Counsel, somebody that currently works for the Department of Justice, who on multiple occasions stepped in and told the former attorney general that she was not going to answer those questions and especially when we asked questions of what the president directed her to do. And so the DOJ is in there right now stopping questions about President Trump and about what happened in the release of these files and why so many survivors were doxed and their information of course released to the public.

[00:02:57]And let me also just say finally before I turn this over to to Liz to Stein here. We asked questions about Galain Maxwell in the transfer and again she referred those questions to Todd Blanch in the Bureau of Prison. So, let's be clear. We have many questions for Mr. Blanch and for the Bureau of Prisons that yet Republicans are refusing to ask. Why was she transferred to a less secure facility?

[00:03:23]And Miss Bondi claims to have no knowledge of the of the actual transfer, no knowledge that it was a less secure prison and didn't know about it until she found out found out after the fact.

[00:03:34]And then we'll refuse to answer additional questions. So, let me introduce Miss Stein, of course, who a brave survivor with some remarks.

[00:03:42]>> Thank you.

[00:03:46]>> My name is Liz Stein. In 1994, I was 21 years old and a college as senior in college when I met Gileain Maxwell and Jeffrey Epstein. For years, the Epstein case has been treated like entertainment in this country. A spectacle, a conspiracy theory, an endless cycle of headlines and social media focused on sensationalism and powerful people.

[00:04:13]Republicans versus Democrats, conspiracy versus cover up, left versus right. That framing is wrong. What has gotten lost in all of this is the reality of what this is, the crime of sex trafficking.

[00:04:29]More than a thousand vulnerable girls and young women were identified, groomed, trafficked, and abused in a system Jeffrey Epstein built around power, coercion, exploitation, and access to wealth and influence.

[00:04:47]And I think many Americans still do not fully understand what that means because if they did, they would never accept the way that this case is being handled.

[00:04:58]The partial release of the Epstein files, riddled with redactions that expose identifying information about survivors while protecting perpetrators, is not just bureaucratic incompetence.

[00:05:12]It reflects something much deeper about whose dignity our Department of Justice is prioritizing and whose suffering it is willing to sacrifice. And survivors see that clearly.

[00:05:27]For survivors, privacy is safety.

[00:05:30]Privacy is dignity. Privacy is the ability to rebuild a life without being retraumatized by the very institutions that are supposed to protect us. And while survivors identifying information was exposed, the Department of Justice is simultaneously telling the American people that there are no in additional investigative leads worth pursuing. We can see with our own eyes when we look at the Epson files that this is not true. These files contain leads, names, connections, friendships, patterns, witnesses, travel records, financial relationships, and institutional failures.

[00:06:13]In any other sex trafficking case of this magnitude, those leads would be aggressively pursued. But in this case, they have not been. And as citizens of this country, we should all be asking why. That is why people are losing trust in our Department of Justice. Not because this case is politically inconvenient, but because Americans understand instinctively that justice should not operate differently for wealthy people who have power. And that is also why many of us have serious concerns about today's proceedings. This should not be a transcribed interview.

[00:06:54]Former attorney Pam Bondi should testify under oath on video with a full transcript and recording released publicly because the American people deserve transparency and accountability cannot only exist when it's politically convenient. For survivors, this has never been about politics.

[00:07:16]It's about whether we as victims of this crime matter when the cameras are off.

[00:07:21]It's about whether the department United States Department of Justice is willing to fully confront a massive sex trafficking operation when wealthy and powerful people are implicated.

[00:07:33]That should concern every American because if the law only applies selectively, it is liberty for some but not justice at all. Thank you.

[00:07:46]Now, we're gonna hear from Melanie Sanford.

[00:07:50]Good afternoon. I'm Melanie Stansbury and I represent New Mexico's first congressional district. And I want to be clear today that one thing is clear that this is absolutely a cover up and a smoke screen to prevent Pam Bondi from having to testify under oath pursuant to a congressional subpoena. Now, let me explain a few things about what we have seen in the room.

[00:08:17]First and foremost, if Pam Bondi was complying with a congressional deposition to testify under oath, Department of Justice attorneys would not be intervening and essentially trying to stop her from answering basic questions about her conversations with Donald Trump, with the administration, and trying to claim that she does not have to answer questions. In fact, as the ranking member said, she has been asked multiple times about the Trump administration, about her conversations with the president, about her conversations with other administration officials. And when asked specifically about a conversation with Donald Trump, one of the Department of Justice attorneys intervened and said that she did not have to answer the question because it was a voluntary interview and said in fact quote we don't even have to assert privilege because of that and said quote we refuse to provide answers. That means that the United States Department of Justice is intervening on behalf of Pam Bondi to stop her from answering questions about what happened in the cover up of this case and her conversations with Donald Trump and is asserting that she does not have to answer questions because she is not required to because she is not being deposed under oath. This is a cover up.

[00:09:49]This will be remembered as the largest cover up likely in American history. And it is clear that this interview is a smoke screen to try to show the American people that they are complying while they are not. Now, I also want to point out that there is not a single Republican in the room besides the chairman.

[00:10:10]for a supposed group of individuals who care deeply about justice for the survivors. Not a single Republican could be bothered to travel across the country today to come hear testimony from the former attorney general. Not one.

[00:10:28]They're not here. And they won't allow this interview to be put on video for the American people to see. And that means that only those of us who are allowed in the room can tell you what is actually happening. And what I can tell you is that when we started to ask difficult question, Miss Bondi got combative.

[00:10:50]The DOJ attorneys began rolling their eyes. They started intervene and intervening and they tried to shut down any questions about the president and this administration's handling of the files. Now, I just want to end by saying this could all end now. The administration could end this by releasing the three million files they still have. In fact, Pam Bondi confirmed that they had 6 million files in their possession and have only released 3 million. She said that today. They could end this now by investigating crimes of known perpetrators that we have seen in the files. They could end this now by turning the Epstein files into Epstein trials. and they could end this now by actually speaking with survivors. And Pam Bondi herself said today that she had never spoken to a single survivor.

[00:11:43]She said that multiple times in the room today. So, it's time to end the cover up. Now, I turn it now to Mr. Maxwell Frost of Florida's 10th.

[00:11:54]>> Thank you. I'll be really quick. Every single one of our questions got one of three responses. One, not to my recollection or I don't know. Number two, talk with Todd Blanch. I don't know anything about it. And number three, I am not talking about Donald Trump. Those are the three answers we're getting to every single question that we ask. This actually really reminds me of our deposition with Alex Aosta where he obviously didn't know anything about anything going on in his own damn office. It's the same thing with Pam Bondi. Either she doesn't know or Todd Blanch was running the entire operation.

[00:12:26]So, okay, we're going to want to talk with Todd Blanch. And we're hoping that not just Chairman Comr, but every single Republican on this committee join us in issuing a subpoena to him because we need to speak with him because obviously the former attorney general is in that room placing every single thing on the current acting attorney general of the United States. And the fact that you won't answer any questions relating to Donald Trump is disgusting and shows just how much of a cover up this is.

[00:12:51]First, it started off with her saying, "I'm not going to talk about any private conversations I've had with the president." Okay. Then we ask questions about the president generally and she says I'm not answering any questions having to do with the president at all.

[00:13:05]Anytime we ask for any information relating to this administration, somebody from the Department of Justice sitting right next to her puts their hand over the mic and tells her, "Do not answer that question.

[00:13:17]It's disgusting. It's a cover up in broad daylight." And what they're hoping will happen is we'll walk out of here and we'll stop. But we're not going to stop. We are committed to this. We're not going to let this story die. We're not going to allow the survivors to just go go off, right? And people forget about this. We're going to keep fighting for justice. We're going to talk with Todd Blanch. We're going to talk with people and we're going to get the answers here. We're not going to let this story die. It's a disgrace what Pam Bondi is doing in that room. It's the same thing she did months ago when she came to try to evade the subpoena by coming in speaking to us, not under oath. Uh but we're going to keep this fight up.

[00:13:54]>> I got it. Uh, thank you all so much for being here. I'm Summer Lee representing Pennsylvania's 12th congressional district. And listen, my colleagues have really laid it out, but what we've been seeing has been a consistent theme, not just since last August when um, our ranking member Garcia and I were able to help to secure the initial subpoena to actually bring in the DOJ to release all of the vows to our committee. But it has been an ongoing theme here. What we just witnessed from Pam Bondi, what she demonstrated was uh the fact that they believe and that they are an unaccountable DOJ that's running cover for and protecting an unaccountable president and administration. But the real problem is that while we might expect Donald Trump to move in this way, someone who has himself been named in these fouls, we shouldn't expect that Chairman Comr, that our Congress, that Republicans here, sorry to make it political, but those folks who do have the power to actually use what influence, what tools we have with the United States Congress to actually bring about some justice right now and to allow her to continually to continually evade justice, to evade questions as we've seen today is a continuation of the indignity that they've inflicted upon our survivors, the indignity they they've inflicted upon the American population who have continuously had to watch an unaccountable justice system, a two-tier justice system and our country and people all over the world who are looking to see if the United States will get their together. And the reality is is that they are refusing to do that.

[00:15:32]every step of this last year that we've gone through this process which is as we know simply a renewed process here because survivors have been fighting for just justice for decades now but since the Congress has taken up this particular fight in the ways that we've been able to by being able to press for subpoenas we've seen over and over and over an unwillingness of power to be accountable to people and unwillingness of our Congress to be a co-equal branch of government with the presidency with the with the executive branch and surely an unwillingness for us to actually demonstrate that we are willing to put women, children, and survivors first. So right now, what we want to do and what we're committed to doing is continuing to keep the main story the main story.

[00:16:16]That justice doesn't have a time limit.

[00:16:17]And no matter how much Comr or Bonsie or Blanch or Trump or whoever else fights back against the truth coming out, that this fight will continue. that we will not relent until every single person who has been impacted not just by Jeffrey Epstein or Gain Maxwell, but everyone who's being covered up or hidden and the fouls are in people's personal knowledge that they won't share truthfully with us in whether they're unofficial transcripts or real depositions on the record that it's important that they recognize that not only will the oversight dimmed, but also the American people will not back down. The survivors have not and will not back down. And it's important that we continue to keep this pressure on them and and remind them that legally binding subpoenas must be answered. So right now Pam Bondi is in non-compliance with two for herself and we have to keep putting that pressure on them. Um and we'll continue to do that. I will hand it over now to Rep. Superman.

[00:17:15]>> Thank you. I just want to talk about the survivors for a second. Thank you so much for your words. Uh they're here today. They were with us in Palm Beach a few weeks ago when we had a hearing there and they've asked the Department of Justice repeatedly to meet with them.

[00:17:27]They've asked repeatedly to release certain files to them at least, such as their witness statements. And so we asked Pam Bondi about that today. She said it wouldn't be appropriate to meet with them for some reason. Uh she said she doesn't recall anything about them asking for their witness statements. Uh she's forgotten all about all of their requests, even their public letters. It seemed as though she was ignoring survivors this whole time, which is pretty astounding to me. Uh, so I also asked her pretty basic questions about whether she knew about any effort to look for Donald Trump's name in the files before they were released. And she says she doesn't recall. And so I think it was wasn't that long ago before they were released in the files. Uh, yet somehow she doesn't recall things that happened about six months ago. And then finally, going back to Galileain Maxwell, uh she said she wasn't involved at all in the process of moving her moving her to another prison, but she wasn't sure if that p new prison was even a lower security prison, which factually it is. She also thinks that the Bureau of Prisons is doing a great job. And she said that these things happen all the time because you want to protect uh some of these folks in prison. Well, that's true, but we really need to protect Gaina Maxwell right after she just talked to Todd Blanch about the Epstein files. seemed too coincidental, but again, she doesn't recall a lot of other things. It was a really uh unimpressive and disappointing uh interview today, but not surprising to us. We're not going to stop our investigation.

[00:18:53]>> I'm going to hand it over to Esme, sorry.

[00:18:57]>> Thank you. Today's ridiculous charade has made astonishingly clear that the United States Department of Justice has been weaponized by Donald Trump to ensure that the most massive cover up in American history is carried out. And this is being enabled by Republicans in Congress led by Republican Chairman James Comr and Speaker of the House Mike Johnson. This entire Epstein investigation led by Chairman Comr has been absurd. We are we have two legal subpoenas against attorney former attorney general Pam Bondi. She is supposed to be here under oath today on video answering questions for the American people about her role and the direct hand that she had in this coverup. Instead, she is deflecting. She is refusing to answer questions and she continues to refuse to answer specific questions about the president of the United States. It is so clear that whether it be Pam Bondi, whether it be Chairman Comr, whether it be Mike Johnson, the entire party is terrified of Donald Trump and his retaliation as it pertains to the cover up of the Epstein files. It's unacceptable. It is notable that she continues to blame Todd Blanch and Cash Patel. We of course want to speak to them. But I think what I want to make clear to the American public and to everybody and to the survivors especially is that we are not going to give up on this. I think Republicans believe that they just kind of carry out these nonsense transcribed interviews and don't show up here today that we will forget about this. We are just getting started as it pertains to accountability and justice for the survivors of Jeffrey Epstein, Galain Maxwell, and any other rich and powerful person in this country who perpetrated these crimes. I'm going to hand it over to Congressman.

[00:20:54]>> Thank you very much, uh, Congressman Dave Men at a California 47. And yes, uh, I have an election in 40. It's a very important one. Robert Garcia and I have our primary elections on Tuesday of next week. Uh, but I'm here rather than in my district because this is important. We looked the survivors in the eye last year and made a promise to them that we would try to find justice, find transparency. Uh, Republicans also looked these women in the eye and did not follow through. It's a shame that James Comr is the only Republican here today because uh this is the biggest cover up in history. This should not be a partisan issue. Now, as a former law professor, as a lawyer, I just want to note a couple things that uh struck out to me. Uh, one, uh, the fact that she is appearing as a voluntary witness today, voluntary interview is important because she's claiming that she's not uh, complying with the subpoena. She's claiming the subpoena doesn't apply to her because she's no longer with the Department of Justice. But at the same time, as has been noted, you have two DOJ attorneys in there. If it's a personal interview voluntarily done, why is the DOJ so heavily involved? It doesn't make any sense unless you think about it as a cover up. The second point I want to make, we got a pretty important insight today into the flimsy basis on which they're not turning over three million documents right now. They claimed earlier that Tam Bondi claimed that uh documents that were related to any decisions to prosecute or not prosecute were being withheld. That is all the witness interviews is all the evidence gathered by the FBI. There's a reason we don't have the smoking guns.

[00:22:20]We don't have the video evidence. We don't have the witness interviews because they're claiming that's all privileged and that is a bunch of pardon my language. Any lawyer will tell you that our subpoena, whether it's the oversight subpenal or the Epstein files transparency act specifically applies to these types of documents. We don't have the real information here because they're claiming it's all privileged and that is something that we need to get to the bottom of. Uh this I think actually exposed a lot of what they're doing right now. We need those documents. This should give us the basis to overturn them. And I'll just echo what everyone else is saying in there. It's a sham in there. They are not answering any questions. And with that, I want to turn it over to my friend James Lockenshaw from Virginia. There's a terrible and tragic irony at play this week because behind these closed doors, the Department of Justice is continuing to cover up and stonewall the courageous Epstein survivors like Liz here. At the same time, the same Department of Justice led by Harid Dylan and others, Todd Blanch, has launched an investigation into Eugene Carol and those who supported her successful legal effort that found Donald Trump liable of sexual assault. So, the message to survivors of sexual assault from this administration and this Department of Justice, sadly, is quite clear this week. I want to share one piece of information, one question that the former attorney general did answer. She was asked specifically about Donald Trump, President Trump's awareness of Epstein's crimes before they became public knowledge. She had the opportunity to say, "Donald Trump certainly wasn't aware of those crimes."

[00:24:05]She had the opportunity to say, "I know Donald Trump, and if he was aware of those crimes, he would have done something." Instead, she said, "I don't know."

[00:24:14]She also said, quote, this is a direct quote, "I'm not certain of the extent of his knowledge."

[00:24:22]I think that's a perfect example as to why we need Pam Bondi under oath in a real deposition for the camera so the American people can see and hear her answers to our questions for themselves.

[00:24:38]I'll turn it over to the ranking member.

[00:24:40]>> A couple questions and we got to go. We got to it's continuing so we got to keep going. So a couple questions.

[00:24:43]>> Thank you, Mr. Ranking member. So is your next step to try to subpoena Todd Blanch to compel his testimony? And if so, do you have the votes and when would you do it? Well, the the request uh is going in today to Chairman Comr to have Todd Blanch come in. It's clear that after this testimony, that is where a lot of the information is and so we're going to if if he doesn't do it, we're going to force a subpoena and try to get votes, but he's got to come in.

[00:25:04]>> Cash Patel's name was also mentioned where there'll be a subpoena for him as well.

[00:25:08]>> Cash Patel is number two on the list.

[00:25:09]So, Cash Patel was al multiple times we had questions about the FBI, the way the files were redacted, why redactions were done so so messy, and why there was doxing that happened in certain cases survivors. finger was pointed back at Cash Patel and so we have questions for Cash Patel as well. Yes.

[00:25:24]>> Can you characterize a little bit more the justice department on that? How many times do they intervene?

[00:25:32]>> Well, first let's be really clear. It's it's it's bizarre that the DOJ is also acting now as personal counsel to Miss Bondi. And so the fact that the DOJ is essentially stopping Miss Bondi from answering questions and interjecting particularly around President Trump is incredibly concerning. And the fact that it's being allowed by Chairman Comr is also as concerning. She stopped Miss Bondi multiple times from answering questions and interjected multiple times especially as as it related to President Trump. One last question.

[00:26:06]>> What is Oversight Dan's next step to compel more of? Look, I think there are still half 50% of the documents have not been released to the public or the Congress. We're going to continue to get those. That's breaking the law, the Transparency Act and the subpoena. And of course, we have additional subpoena ideas on the way. We got to go back in guys. Every nation