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- [00:01]
Representative Robert Garcia
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Podcast Host
Ugh. I love my VRBO for the location.
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Representative Robert Garcia
Good reason.
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Podcast Host
Oh, and for the pool. Pools are cool.
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Representative Robert Garcia
I feel the love book of verbo that's loved by guests. If you know you've erbo.
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Podcast Host
Today we are joined by the ranking member of the House Oversight Committee, Representative and congressman from California, Robert Garcia. Thank you for being here.
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Representative Robert Garcia
Sure thing.
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Podcast Host
Happy to tell us about the new phase of the Epstein investigation that started yesterday with the hearing in Florida with survivors.
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Representative Robert Garcia
Yeah, we are really focused right now on hearing from survivors directly and getting their stories out to the public. So we had four survivors for the first time in a hearing format actually tell their stories. They haven't had a chance to do that actually in the Congressional Record before. You've heard them obviously in interviews and other formats. But to do it in a way that they can get questions asked of them was really important. We had one survivor who really spoke for the first time and shared her story about how essentially our own government not only, I mean really traumatized her twice. I mean once when she was of course trafficked and abused by Jeffrey Epstein, when the government did nothing to actually help her. And now when through the Epstein files, releasing her name and information out to the public where she gets re traumatized again, her identity exposed because of the failures of the doj, because of it not redacting their names but instead redacting the names of co conspirators. And so powerful moments is important to be in Palm Beach. Palm beach is at the center of a lot of these crimes. Jeffrey Epstein, Donald Trump and Mar A Lago. We know that Mar A Lago is used to traffic women to Jeffrey Epstein. That's been reported by the Wall Street Journal and others. So an important day. And there'll be other important opportunities for survivors and those that want to testify,
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Podcast Host
to testify in the testimony. And moving forward with this case, you have said you want accountability. And that 2005 investigation was opened, you had prosecutors recommending charges Alex Acosta, the U.S. attorney at the time, who then reduced it to a secret sweetheart deal like a, you know, he'd go into jail at night, but he was free during the day. And you are seeing now that the after that plea deal by Alex Acosta that the enterprise of Jeffrey Epstein grew in fact.
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Representative Robert Garcia
Exactly right. So here we have these line. Prosecutors are working on a case against Epstein. They believe they have a strong case, federal case and and possible other convictions of co conspirators and others. They go to Alex Acosta who then the U.S. attorney who of course we know later becomes Trump's Labor Secretary and is friendly with, of course with the Trump, Trump's and they go to him and say, okay, we have this evidence, we've got to go after Epstein. And for whatever reason, one can guess, but for whatever reason Acosta comes back and pushes back and says nope, we don't have enough evidence to really do a strong federal conviction. And others we're going to limit and create this really slap on the wrist sweetheart deal where Epstein basically has the ability, he's keen, he serves what not even a year of his sentence and then continues to go on as is on house arrest, basically where he can do whatever he wants. And now we know that he built, he builds this international sex trafficking ring, post this Acosta sweetheart deal and he goes on to abuse other women, other girls like Rosa, like so many, like so many others. And so why did Alex Acosta do this? Why did he give Epstein when he had evidence this deal? Why did they not go after any of the other co conspirators? And why does all of these circles just get drawn around Palm beach and Mar A Lago and Alex Acosta and Donald Trump and, and Jeffrey Epstein and Ghis Maxwell? I think that's why we have so many questions and why I think Alex Acosta is not a credible person and, and someone that I think we have additional questions for. Look, Donald Trump and Jeffrey Epstein, according to Jeffrey Epstein were best friends for 10 years. That's documented. They knew each other well. Clearly there's now a cover up going on. You heard, you know, Marjorie Taylor Greene, who I don't agree with on much of anything, but you heard her comments saying that the President told her that this investigation would hurt many of his friends. Well, we're not stopping until we get the truth and we don't care who's in the way of that. We're going to go after folks, whether they're Democrats or Republicans, to ensure that there's justice for these survivors.
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Podcast Host
When you look at the magnitude of this enterprise, I can't help but think that if you follow the money, you are going to find so many people. And I know you're on that trajectory. Where do we stand on that?
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Representative Robert Garcia
That's. That's exactly right. And look, we have numerous teams, not just in the House, but in the Senate, that are looking, going through these bank records. They're incredibly complex. What we have found so far is we've been able to verify numerous payments that were going to women, payments that were being sent to men. A lot of this kind of sexual trafficking ring that was created post Acosta. We've put together the pieces using some of this financial data and bank records, but we have a lot more of these records that we still need to acquire from JP Morgan Chase, from Bank of America. We're going to be talking, hopefully, some of those executives that were involved in some of this money, frankly, in some cases could. You could call it money laundering. That was happening in some of these cases, where this money coming from. There's all sorts of allegations. Les Wexner sending a ton of money to Jeffrey Epstein. We still don't know exactly for what. And so putting the money piece together is really important in this next phase of this investigation. But we are limited with subpoena power. Right? I mean, everything we've acquired, all these emails and videos we put out and folks that have been held accountable, it's because we have fought to get that information, not because Republicans have been good partners in doing it. And so we're going to continue to be scrappy and to fight and get this information out there. There's a lot of work ahead.
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Podcast Host
I Look at that. $1.5 billion in wire transfers has not been disclosed by the Treasury. And I can't tell you I was surprised by that. Do you have any expectation during Trump's administration that the Treasury Department will release that information?
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Representative Robert Garcia
Look, I don't trust anybody or any agency in Trump's administration. I think, at the end of the day, the White House is pulling the strings. They should. But I'm not convinced that they're going to. I'm not convinced they're going to release the other half of the files that are in their possession. Half of the files, 2.5 million documents are in their possession right now of the DOJ that are the Epstein files. They have not released people like, oh, they released them? No, they've released half of them. And so are we going to get the rest of the files? Are we going to get the remaining bank records information from the Treasury? Are we going to understand what the. What the Epson estate still has that Republicans won't demand? And Get. So we have a lot of work to do. When people ask where our investigation is, I tell them, well, we're just getting started with our investigation and there's a lot of work ahead. And when you ask the survivors, and I asked them yesterday, they all unanimously want us to continue the work.
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Podcast Host
Well, because they've been victimized twice, you know, by the justice system and originally with, with these powerful men. Do you expect that there will be more co conspirators revealed? We've seen it in the early portions. And is there an any expectation that we criminal charges are going to be filed?
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Representative Robert Garcia
I do expect that we're going to have additional co conspirators that will be presented to the DOJ or others. I do think there needs to be criminal convictions. I hope the DOJ moves forward and does that. Whether it's going to happen in this administration, I just don't know. But we need a demand of future doj, certainly of a Democratic one. It's a demand that I would make to a Democratic president, one that I make now to President Trump. And we also need to ask the question, why wasn't it done before? Look, I think we need to be critical of our own party and I think we should also be critical of the former administration and Attorney General Merrick Garland. What the hell was he doing? Like, why not release the files? Why not go after some of these co conspirators? Why not really push on this Eptine investigation? I just don't buy that there was too much going on in the courts with Ghislaine Maxwell to move forward here. And I think Merrick Garland has a lot to answer for. And we have to be very clear that it shouldn't matter who's a Republican or a Democrat or how much money they have or their wealth or power. If you raped and abused women, you need to be held accountable. And. And then why the failure of our governments, not just this one, but ones in the past, to then convict these guys? We have the names and the fact that Todd Blanche is saying there's not enough evidence to move forward on any other convictions. I mean, is that. What about the former Department of Justice? Did they conclude the same thing? And then we need to answer these questions because men rape and abuse women and girls and there is evidence. There have been videos, there's been testimony. And to say that not one other person can be convict besides Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell. Give me a break. This can't be the case.
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Podcast Host
You know, when I look at this as an outsider And I see this, to me, in my mind, the COVID up for this elite group of very rich men started in 2008 and it has continued. And now I look at the Justice Department under Trump and I agree with you, there were failures under Biden's doj. But to me, it appears to be an active cover up, a criminal conspiracy to cover up these files. Even though you have a law and subpoenas out, how do you combat that in the minority? And then after the midterms, does that change if the Democrats take over the House?
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Representative Robert Garcia
Well, I think first, I mean, the answer is it absolutely would change. Right. And then I think that the difference is now we have to get Republicans to join us on subpoenas. We can only go so far. And we always get a handful of Republicans to kind of join us. And in the majority, we would have complete power to subpoena whatever documents we wanted, whoever we wanted to subpoena, bring in, you know, bring in former prosecutors that were involved in these cases. We can bring in all the documents from the estate and other locations. So there will be a very, very different approach in the majority when hopefully we win the majority. You know, as far as the criminal enterprise, it's the COVID up is also a crime. When you think about Watergate, that pales into comparison as to what's going on now. I mean, this is so much more complex. The crime is what was and the horrors of what happened to these women and girls is one thing that we still have to rectify. We still have to do, you know, serve justice. We also have to go after this cover up that's actively happening and that is a big part of the work ahead.
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Podcast Host
Let me ask you this. May 29, Pam Bondi is coming, coming in to testify. What are your, what should we expect from that? And will it be public?
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Representative Robert Garcia
So we want it to be. We want it to be public. We want it to be videotaped. We want it to be under oath, we want it to be released to the American people. But we have no commitments from James Comer that's going to happen yet. And that's a big problem. He hasn't even committed. It would be videotaped yet. We don't even know if he want to have her under oath. And that those are big issues for us, that we have been very clear. They must be released and it's going to be videotaped. At least the American public can watch it and it should be released immediately. Look, we'd be okay with it being a public hearing, but James Comer refused to do that. And we are demanding and we need assurances that that's going to actually happen.
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Podcast Host
Do you think, do you expect her to be truthful? Because I'll be honest. I don't expect her to be forthcoming.
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Representative Robert Garcia
Well, that's why I think having her under oath is so important, because we need to ask her questions and she needs to answer those questions honestly and truthfully. And so look, I don't trust the Attorney General. I think she botched this. She botched her job, she bought a release of the files. She's lied to the American people and she's in horrible things as ag. And so we'll wait and see how she does. But we're gonna have very hard questions for her at that deposition. And most importantly, we're making demands until then that it be videotaped and released to the public.
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Podcast Host
So the pressure needs to be on James Comer. Basically, if we wanted to pressure someone, it would be him.
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Representative Robert Garcia
Absolutely.
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- [14:33]
Podcast Host
how involved. I know Melanie Stansberry from New Mexico is involved in the state investigation into Epstein. And I guess I was somewhat stunned that there had been no investigation in New Mexico. And then I learned. Oh, because the DOJ in New York said no, we got this. So how involved are you on the up to the minute details? I know they have A report coming in July. Are you learning anything from the state investigation?
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Representative Robert Garcia
Yeah, we actually meet with the state team. We've had our. The teams are coordinating a lot of conversation back and forth. And look, we. There should be state investigations in New Mexico, in New York, in Florida. And if those aren't going to happen, then that's where us at the federal level, we have to get engaged and push the states to do so and do our own work on the ground. I think what's happening in New Mexico is a great model. And look, it's not just New Mexico that didn't get investigated. When you talk about folks like Les Wexner, Darren Indyjk, Richard Kahn, they're Epstein's former lawyer, accountant, Vegas financer. These folks were never interviewed by law enforcement ever. I mean, our interviews with them in the last year were the first time they were ever deposed by anybody. They've been sitting there for decades and no one talked. I mean, what's so stunning about this is who in their right mind would not interview Epstein's former lawyer and accountant in trying to bring charges against Jeffrey Epstein? It's clear to anyone that is watching what's happening. There's no question that folks were being given direction to not go after people. I mean, they wanted to sweep this whole thing under the rug. And so no one was interviewed, no one was deposed, no one was put under oath. But that's finally changing now.
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Podcast Host
Do you expect further inquiry, like under oath, from, like, Les Wexner, Leon Black, Howard Letnick? Do you expect them to be back in before the committee?
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Representative Robert Garcia
I do expect there'll be additional questions. Questions for all of them, actually.
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Podcast Host
Interestingly enough, the Mar a Lago hub, it was all in Palm beach, where. Or that's where kind of the inception was. And then it moved on globally, these women, up to 1200. So you bring in the Eastern Europeans women, and then it goes to all these under the promise of, you know, you're going to be a model for Victoria's Secret and those type of things, can you pinpoint when Les Wexner, like, he obviously had people in this community of models that knew what was going on. And I think I read Virginia's book Nobody's Girl, and it's. She was very clear. If anybody says they didn't know, that's impossible not to know. So do you have any evidence to suggest that there were more people involved in the Victoria's Secret model?
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Representative Robert Garcia
We do, and there's a lot of folks that we're going to talk to. I think in that world we are. This is. This is a investigation that, you know, the more, the deeper you're in, just the more questions you have and it just go. There's just a lot of. A lot of spaces right now that we're working in. Look, I think one thing that's important for the public to know is we are doing a lot of work. Obviously it's public, and we're also doing a lot of work that's private and talking to a lot of people behind the scenes, folks that may not want to be public, getting testimony. We encourage whistleblowers or people that come forward and share information with us. So all of that is part of the ongoing work. And it's important that people know also that we're trying to be so careful in supporting these survivors as we move forward because we can't put them in danger. And so a lot of folks, you know, well, you know, do X or do the survivors should do this or they should do that? I mean, look, the survivors have done nothing else they need to do, right? It's not their job to bring. They've named names to the government. They've given information. They have been the ones that have suffered that we can't continue to expect them to be the ones to close this investigation. And so it's our job now, and it's the government's job to do right by them and do right by the country and to prove to America's women and girls that when you report a horror that's happened to you or to anyone, that you know that your government's actually going to react and do the right thing.
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Podcast Host
I hope so. I think that's so important. Congressman Garcia, thank you for being here. Please come on anytime to keep us updated and please continue the fight for all of these survivors and please let them know how much we appreciate what they're doing because we know it has a huge cost for them.
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Representative Robert Garcia
Absolutely. Will do.
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Podcast Host
Thank you.
- [19:24]
Representative Robert Garcia
Thank you.