← The Jim Acosta Show
The Jim Acosta Show
Rep. Robert Garcia, Epstein Survivor Network's Lauren Hersch, and Lev Parnas
00:38:09
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- [00:00]
Jim Acosta
Foreign. He's on the road. He's on the record. Jim Acosta live. All right. Welcome to the Jim Acosta show. It's another day that ends in y in the Epstein gate. Cover up. Earlier today in West Palm Beach, Florida, at the City Hall, Democrats on the House Oversight Committee held a field hearing to hear from survivors of Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell. It was a powerful hearing filled with a lot of emotional testimony. And there's some of it playing right there. We were live earlier this morning. We brought all of this to all of you live from the scene there. We were playing on all of our platforms and had thousands and tens of thousands tuning in. It was really an incredible experience and just saw a lot of feedback from people who really care about the people in the room who were testifying, which I thought was really gratifying. But here to talk about this, she testified during this hearing is Lauren Hirsch. She is with the group World Without Exploitation. She is an advocate for survivors of sexual abuse. And Lauren, thank you so much for coming on.
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Lauren Hirsch
Thanks so much for having me, Jim.
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Jim Acosta
Yeah, you bet. And you and I were just talking about this a little bit, chatting before we went live. And, and Lauren, you were making the point that, you know, we don't want to politicize this. This is not political. This is about getting truth. This is about getting to a place where maybe we might approach some sense of justice for these survivors after they had doors slammed in their face, after they were called names and threatened for many, many years, what was it like being a part of this moment?
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Lauren Hirsch
So it's so interesting, Jim, when we first were approached to do, do this, we paused for a second because we knew that it was going to be the Democrats who were going to be asking questions. We've been abundantly clear here that for us, a world without exploitation and for the survivors, this is not about politics. This is deeply personal. But we said yes to this hearing because we felt really strongly that it was important to center the voices of survivors and to do it in a hearing fashion, to have them sit to be asked questions. But also it was really critical that they were able to work with oversight minority and say, this is what I'm going to testify about and these are my guardrails. And so we can't expect that survivors will or should be compelled to testify. They've been speaking for decades about this and now it's on the government, it's on doj, it's on state entities, law enforcement, to do their jobs and to get to the Truth?
- [02:59]
Jim Acosta
Yeah. I mean, there was one point where I think it was Congresswoman Stansberry of New Mexico. She asked the survivors who were appearing there and they were, they were abused. They were victimized when they were girls. Now they're, they're women and they're telling their stories. And there was one lady who was testifying named Rosa, and, and I believe she was asked at what point, you know, what is justice? And I think Rosa turned around and said, no, no, that's what you're supposed to do. That's what you're supposed to deliver for us. Let's play that and talk about on the other side. Because I thought it summed up the day so well.
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Lauren Hirsch
Yeah. Just all the time to retell your stories. And I've read your stories. Anyone can go in the files and read your stories. But I want to hear from you what justice would look like in this case.
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Lev Parnas
So I come from a different country and I have a job.
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Congressman Robert Garcia
And if you come to me and
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Lev Parnas
you ask me what should I do
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Congressman Robert Garcia
and ask question about my job, I'll give you an answer. I appreciate you asking that question, but I don't know.
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Jim Acosta
That's your job.
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Lev Parnas
You guys have to figure out how to make justice, not me.
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Congressman Robert Garcia
And you can't give me justice.
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Jim Acosta
Like, that was an amazing moment.
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Lauren Hirsch
Yeah. Well, listen, Rosa, like all of these survivors, they were all so incredibly powerful. But what you heard in that moment, I think is the overwhelming sentiment by survivors, which is that they have spent decades trying to push a boulder up a mountain and now they're ready, ready for everybody else to do their job. It's time. You know, there's been so many failures. You can call it a cover up. That's what it may be. You might be right. That's what it is. That's what it's starting to feel like. But. But for these survivors, they have spoken their truth again and again. And there's so much evidence in these files, there's so many investigative leads. It's time for the government to do their job.
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Jim Acosta
Right. And we should note this hearing was held by the Democrats on the House Oversight Committee. The Republicans were not involved. They control the committee. So they did not have this hearing in Washington. So the Democrats came to West Palm beach to do it. And, you know, I say cover up because there's still millions of files that have not been released to the public. We had a whole document dump there that went on for weeks and weeks. And we were able to see a lot in there. And there was a lot in There, that was very embarrassing for some very powerful and important people and maybe one in particular. And I think that's, that says to me why we haven't seen the rest of the files. And so, you know, I think that this is something that, that needs to be pushed further. And I thought it was incredibly courageous for these ladies to come forward. I mean, Lauren somebody, and it might have been Rosa who made the point. This is not just the biggest sexual exploitation scandal in US history, but possibly in world history. I think that's probably true, I guess. Right. Pretty close to it.
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Lauren Hirsch
If it isn't, it has to be dangerously close to it. I mean, what we know is the scope of this is massive. You know, when you have, you sat and you listened to four survivors today, now multiply that, I mean, by so many. When you get to the number 1200, that's the number we're quantifying right now. It's probably, there are probably more victims and there are lists of perpetrators, there are lists of men who've done horrible things to these women and yet we have barely scratched the surface on what that looks like. So we know size, scope, we're talking about a massive sex trafficking operation and with very little accountability, Very little accountability.
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Jim Acosta
I mean the Brits, they, they hauled in a former Prince Andrew. I think Norway, we've seen pretty prominent people in Norway and France, you know, ensnared in this. And in the US we have Epstein, who is dead, Ghisain Maxwell who was in a regular prison and then got moved to minimum security and then really no other arrests. I mean, for something this big that is, that's a crime in and of itself.
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Lauren Hirsch
It's not even just that it's this big.
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Congressman Robert Garcia
It's.
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Lauren Hirsch
If you just begin to pull the layers back on the files, you realize that it's not just massive, but there's concrete evidence in the files that are begging for investigation. So, so it's, it's actually mind blowing when you actually, you have to spend too much time with the files to be able to come up with 10, 12, 14 names that are a really good starting point, no question.
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Jim Acosta
And Marie Farmer testified at this hearing via video. She does not speak publicly very often. She has also made some very startling allegations obviously that that's all been in the news. Let's play a little bit from her because what she talked about was very important in that how, you know, the world has come after them for speaking out. And we should play that because I thought that was extraordinary too.
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Maria Farmer
However, the full extent of what I Told the FBI was not in that document. So the release of the Epstein files provides only partial relief for me. Where is the evidence I provided of my sexual assault and that of my sister Annie? Why won't the FBI release my full report? The failures of those sworn to protect. Protect us. Have overwhelmed me. Doing my civic duty has cost me dearly. The stress of this trauma, the government hiding and refusing to turn over. Written confirmation of my 96 report, along with the ongoing harassment and death threats, have contributed to me developing serious health issues, including Hodgkin's lymphoma, a brain tumor, and recently Addison's disease. In the last month, I have spent 23 nights in hospitals, including multiple nights in the ICU.
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Jim Acosta
Wow, Lauren, this is what Maria's gone through. I assume this is what Virginia Giuffre went through before she took her own life. Her. Her brother and sister in law testified. This also is not. Is not something that's talked about the toll on these women.
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Lauren Hirsch
Yeah. Before we talk about the toll, I actually want to just take a moment to talk about Maria Farmer, please. Because she is truly such an incredible hero. And I spoke to her right after she recorded that video, and she, you know, was sort of like laughing, but not really laughing. Like she's like, I couldn't even put makeup on. I feel like hell. But she knew that this was really important to do and to speak her truth. And she has been speaking her truth for more than three decades. And so, you know, she said in that she's the original whistleblower. She is. She's an incredible hero. And I can tell you that so many survivors are so immensely grateful for her courage and her ability to just. She is relentlessly pursuing the truth. So yes to that piece. But also, this has just taken a terrible toll on her health. And yet despite that, she won't stop until she gets the truth. Not just for herself and her sister Annie, but really for so many survivors.
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Jim Acosta
And Lauren, what? What? I know the question was asked, what does justice look like? Everybody answered it differently. And Rosa had an incredible answer that what is your sense of what needs to happen next?
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Lauren Hirsch
Oh, how long do you have?
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Jim Acosta
So sum it up, but take as
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Congressman Robert Garcia
long as you want.
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Lauren Hirsch
Yeah, sort of. My top couple are one, the. The redactions have been just abysmal, and they really require a private right of action bill being passed so that the survivors can be compensated for the devastating harm that has happened because of the exposure that they experienced at the direct hand of DOJ. That's 1, 2. I think that justice cannot be attained unless we begin pursuing these investigative leads. They're critically important. They're apparent. They don't take a. They don't. They don't take a sleuth to figure out where the investigative leads are in the files. But now we need to follow those investigative leads, do the investigations, and then see what the outcomes are. But I. And. And then the last piece for me is I think that we really need a culture change. We need to make sure that we're at a point where the powerful can no longer operate with impunity and where we give platforms to survivors when they want to speak and that we believe those survivors.
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Jim Acosta
Yeah. And I have to say now. Now when I come back to West Palm beach, and I'd come to Palm beach many times over the years covering Donald Trump because of Mar a Lago and so on, but now when you come to West Palm beach, it kind of all clicks. It kind of all makes sense as to how this exploitation racket went on for so long and how it. How it kind of thrived because there's. There are the causeway bridges that. That separate Palm beach from West Palm Beach. And it was basically the rich and wealthy and powerful people of Palm beach who preyed upon these young ladies, these girls. Girls. They were girls in West Palm beach who came from very difficult backgrounds. And now when I come to West Palm, I kind of see that. And it does sort of clarify what people mean when they say the Epstein class. And when they talk about rich and powerful people like Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell preying upon vulnerable girls. I mean, the stories of, you know, how girls introduced other girls to this. This scheme that was going on, this racket that was going on. It's. It's horrendous.
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Lauren Hirsch
It. It is horrendous. And yet what we also know to be true is that it is so incredibly prevalent. Right. We know that sex trafficking happens across the country in. In pretty much every community, and that it is predicated on a system where young women, girls, and other vulnerable populations are preyed on by mostly men with disposable income. And if there were no sex buyers, there would be no sex trafficking. And that part's really important to say. So when we think about, like, where's the course correction? I think we need to make sure that we are, across the board, holding accountable those people who exploit, yes, the traffickers and the pimps, but also the sex buyers. And so we're working really hard across the country to make sure that we're shifting legislation and Then something else that came up today in the hearing was, I think. I don't remember who said it, but somebody was talking about the fact that Epstein and Danny Bensky talks about this all the time, that Epstein uses, would use the notion that the victims would be arrested for prostitution. Nobody will believe you.
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Jim Acosta
Yes.
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Lauren Hirsch
Because they will think that you're just a person in prostitution. Right. That is classic sex trafficker tactic. And so we know that we need to begin to eliminate penalties for people exploited in the sex trade. They're not there by choice. They're there because of coercion. But what we also know is that we need to hold accountable those who exploit for the devastating harm they cause.
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Jim Acosta
No question about it. And I think the penalties need to be raised. I think there needs to be a national crackdown on this. I think the Trump administration has not done enough. I don't think Donald Trump has done enough to open up the White House to the survivors. I think he should do that. I think the Republicans on the committee should be having more hearings that are more inclusive and not designed in a way that seems to, you know, add political cover for Trump. And the people have been questioned in all of this, people like Howard Lutnick, the Commerce Secretary, and so on. But, Lauren, I know you've taken great pains to not make this political, and you have done such an amazing job. And I can see why you're now one of times 100 influential people. But you do great work. Thank you so much for your time.
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Lauren Hirsch
Thank you so much, Jim. Have a great day.
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Jim Acosta
You, too. Really appreciate it. That's Lauren Hirsch with World Without Exploitation, a terrific group, group that really works very hard in this field to stop the exploitation of young girls and women. I had a chance to catch up with Robert Garcia, the ranking Democrat on the House Oversight Committee. He chaired the hearing. As I said earlier, at the top of this, the House Democrats had to hold this hearing in West Palm beach because James Comer, the chairman, the Republican chairman of the House Oversight Committee, won't do this in Washington, D.C. up on Capitol Hill. And so the Democrats had to haul their butts all the way down here and do that hearing here. And I had a chance to talk to Robert Garcia about that. Here's. Here's that conversation. Garcia, your takeaway from this very important hearing.
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Congressman Robert Garcia
Look, I think it's important for the first time to hear survivors tell their stories in a hearing format on the Congressional Record. It's also important to put focus on Palm beach. And we want the American public to know that a big Part of our investigation moving forward really revolves around Palm beach, the relationship between Mar a Lago, the trafficking of women and girls of Jeffrey Epstein. It's also really important for people to know that there have been systemic decades of failure by attorneys, by law enforcement officials in the essential not either reporting of crimes or of reporting them to the U.S. attorney's office, to Alex Acosta and others, and nothing happening. What the action that didn't happen here, the interest of Alex Acosta to actually prosecute co conspirators is what led to so much abuse in the future.
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Jim Acosta
Right. And Congressman, if the Republicans had gone along with the Democrats and wanted to have a hearing like this, this would have happened in Washington. Correct? This had to happen here because you couldn't get any help from Chairman Comer. Is that basically it?
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Congressman Robert Garcia
Look, Chairman Comer has had an opportunity to hold hearings and include survivors now for months and has chosen not to do so. The survivors couldn't even meet with the attorney general. She even refused to turn around and see and speak with them when she's actually had to testify in front of Congress. And so we're going to continue to hold hearings with or without Republican support. And they need to understand that, you know, when we win the majority, we have the power to hold hearings and hold people accountable and have subpoena power. That that will continue not just in D.C. but across the country.
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Jim Acosta
And finally, if and when the Democrats take control in January in the House, perhaps you're the chairman of the committee, would you request all of the documents, all of the files to be released? Because as far as the public knows, there's only about half that's been released.
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Congressman Robert Garcia
We know that about 2.5 million additional files are still in the possession of the doj. We want all three the documents and we want to speak to. There's an enormous amount, particularly prosecutors and prosecutors that were involved in the initial U.S. attorney case. A lot of folks who want to talk to and understand who gave the orders to not prosecute. Why has there essentially justice not moving forward even in former administrations? We have additional questions for Merrick Garland. I think there's a lot that we still need answers for.
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Jim Acosta
And Donald Trump and Melania Trump, shouldn't they testify? We had Bill and Hillary Clinton. Clinton.
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Congressman Robert Garcia
We absolutely have questions for both the first lady and the president.
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Jim Acosta
Okay, thanks, Congressman. Appreciate it. That was Congressman Robert Giry. Also in the hearing room today was Lev Parnas. Lev is here with us. Let's bring in Lev. Lev was there this morning doing his own coverage of the hearing. And I think he's joining us live right now. Is Lev standing waiting in the wings? I think Lev should be here. If Lev is here, let's go to him now. There's Lev. He was in the. In the hearing room earlier today. Lev, do we have you? Are you there?
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Lev Parnas
Am I here?
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Jim Acosta
I don't see it. We hear you, but I don't see you.
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Lev Parnas
Let me. Let me. Let me re. Quickly read.
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Jim Acosta
Maybe jump out. Jump back in, Lev. Maybe in a secure, undisclosed location. But I can give you in case you missed the top of the show. And this is basically. This is how CBS12 West Palm Beach TV station described it. Members of Congress, survivors and witnesses gathered and Palm beach county on Tuesday for a field hearing tied to the Jeffrey Epstein investigation. The hearing, organized by Democrats on the House Oversight Committee, focused on how Epstein was able to secure a controversial plea deal years ago in Palm Beach County, a deal critics say allowed him to continue abusing young girls. When you hear references made to Alex Acosta, he was the US Attorney at that time, and as I've said many times on this program, no relation to. But he was the US Attorney that cut that sweetheart deal for Jeffrey Epstein that first time around in the 2000s, when Jeffrey Epstein was basically given a slap on the wrist and was allowed to continue to reabuse. Re. Victimize. Victims. Do we have Lev with us? Did Lev make it in the studio? It doesn't. Do we have Lev? I don't know. Did we get him? Did we get Lev? Do we have Lev? We don't have Levi. We might not have left. Well, okay. If we can get Love to come back, great. If not, we'll have to move him to another day. The other thing that we do want to mention before we go, this might be an abbreviated edition of the program. If we can't get Lev in here. Lev has been asking to come on the show as he's running for Congress in Florida. The other thing that we should talk about is. Oh, there's. I think Lev may be. There is love there now. Lev, are you there?
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Lev Parnas
Yep, I'm here. I'm sorry about that.
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Jim Acosta
That's okay. That's okay, buddy.
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Lev Parnas
I just got back from the hearing, and it's just been a crazy day. Great to see you today, man.
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Jim Acosta
Crazy day. Great to see you, too. What were your impressions of the hearing?
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Lev Parnas
You know, I had several impressions. First of all, it was very painful to listen to some of the stories. You know, obviously, every time sky talks, it's definitely watching Maria Farmer give that, you know, statement from you know, that opened up the. Was very, you know, watching her la. Lay there in bed and you know, going through everything she went through to get there. And then I think about the most impactful thing for me was listening to Rosa. Rosa, you know, to see the pain that she went through. Because you know, we always talk about what these women went through as young girls, what these women went through as, you know, the 20 years of COVID up. But we, we never really realized what they're going through really right now. The pain. Because. And I think if Rosie, you really could understand it that they doxed over 500 times. Jim. I mean that's nice.
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Jim Acosta
I heard that. That was incredible that when you. That was. The other thing that came up during the hearing was the mishandling of the release of the files and how there were all of these disclosures that were made. People, their identities were revealed even though they didn't want to be revealed. It's. It's nuts.
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Lev Parnas
Yeah. No, and that's the crazy part there. They unveiled the people that didn't want to be unveiled. But then they went ahead and then, you know, still are covering up and still, you know, redacting people and some of these powerful, most powerful people that are still out there. The other powerful thing I think that, you know, we don't realize is now that some of these people have been, you know, exposed. Think about this. Like Rosa, for instance. I mean she. Everything she went through being abused by Epstein, then she. The abuse by our own government for many years of not following up. Then finally she goes on with her life. She forgets, everybody forgets. And now all of a sudden her life has turned upside down. You know, her kids, her life, her family, you know, how many. You know, maybe her boyfriend never knew about that, maybe her husband never knew about that. People at work maybe, you know, and now it's, it's just such a, you know, today I really got to say, see by. I think that was the biggest impact on me. And the fact that also besides independent journalists like yourself, Katie, you know, I saw Tara, but that was it. You know, watching.
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Jim Acosta
You know, I saw a couple representatives from Ms. Now, but not a lot of network news journalists were there. You're absolutely right. That is such an important point to make. We saw the local press there, but where were the national networks? I mean this is the first time we've seen a congressional hearing. Yes, a field hearing on hearing these survivors. But my goodness, just another example of the failures of corporate media.
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Lev Parnas
Yeah, another example. I mean, and it's not only, I think, Jim, I'll be honest with you, not only another example of failure of corporate media, but also I think it's a failure of our system because, you know, of our people that we have in power, you know, and I talk about both sides, like the Democratic Party, you know, you know, where were they all, I mean, yes, we had just think about the Republicans didn't show up at all. That's a slap in the face. And then you had, you know, the Oversight committee. But why not shut it down? Come on, Chuck Schumer, come on, Jeffries, go ahead, get the leadership stand behind there, go outside the courthouse or the city hall, bring the press down here, bring the national media, make this a way, don't turn this into like this one day event and then let's move on. And you know, here we are. Forget about it because that's the crazy part.
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Jim Acosta
But Lev, I think part of it is because a lot of folks in the press are afraid of Donald Trump. I thought he was the elephant in the room at this hearing today. I, you know, they, they were sort of taking pains not to mention him too much. Although Garcia did, you know, you know, say it's squarely on Trump as to why they're hiding the files and, and so on. But, but I, I do get the sense that, that the, the stuff that we haven't seen yet might really implicate the President of the United States. And that's why we're not seeing, why else would we not see it? Why else? I mean, why is Todd Blanch his defense attorney, the acting Attorney General, right now? What did you, what do you think of the Trump factor in all of this? Lev?
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Lev Parnas
Well, you're 100% right, Jim. First of all, today in the hearing, you could tell that instead of Trump, they use Bondi. Pam Bondi was the scapegoat. You know, everybody understands Pam Bondi was listening to Trump doing what she, you know, doing the dirty work. When you come to Todd Blanche, Todd Blanche is a, is a totally different animal. I know Todd Blanche very well. He was on my defense team. I fired him and then he ended up representing my co defendant Igor through my case. Todd Blanche fought with me in 2019, 2020 to represent, even though he was representing my co defendant, he was representing Trump at the time to make sure that I, the first impeachment when I wanted to testify. So I have a long history with Todd Blanch. I know him very well and he's very dangerous and I was warning about him all the time, Jim I Kept telling everybody, I said, if you think Pam Bondi's bad. And I know Pam very well also. I said, Todd Blanche is so you. He's an enforcer. Actually, Pam was more out there, you know, you know, picture she was out of the sea, you know, she.
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Jim Acosta
Figurehead.
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Lev Parnas
I don't know how to figurehead. Thank you. Perfect. You know, Blanche, no different story. Like, I'll give you an example right now that nobody is even thinking about until it's going to be too late. Until they blasted. So Todd Blanche not only did, since he's come in, he shut down the Epstein files. The first thing he also did is he reopened the Brennan investigation, which people don't know, but he reopened it down here in Florida in Fort Pierce. Fort Pierce's judge, Cannon County. He brings in Joe digineva. He brings in Joe digineva as the special counsel. He was my. Joe diginevo was my partner with Victoria Tunzing in the first administration, part of the BLT team. And I could tell you, Jim, there's nobody, you know, you know, Joe, you've interviewed, you've met him, I'm sure, you know, he's this mild guy, maybe, but now when it comes to Brendan, call me or, you know, Clapper or that whole situation, he's one of the biggest conspiracy buffs when it comes to that. And, you know, now that they have an open investigation happening here with Tulsi Gabbard in the background. All right, you know, is telling. I mean, there's just so much, you know, right now behind it, behind the scenes.
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Jim Acosta
Quite the cadre, quite the motley crew there. And Lev, you know, I know you're running for Congress. And you know, what, what is your, what is your pitch on this? I mean, I guess you know the inner workings of Trump world pretty well because they had you along with Rudy Giuliani, trying to dig up dirt on Hunter Biden back in the day. Then you saw the light. You've decided to become an advocate for democracy and a very prominent Trump critic. But why are you running now?
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Lev Parnas
Yeah, So a great question. Thanks, Jeff. So originally, I wasn't planning on running. I'm still under supervised release. I'm still under Trump's control. They're still. Every day they try to fight and put me back to prison. Every time I speak out or speak true to power, I still deal with them every day. But I had so much information. It's not just knowing somebody. I lived with them. I lived inside that for four years. I was so deep. I mean, from Zelensky to traveling around the world, the oligarchs, all the Putin stuff, Venezuela. I mean, he had me on the phone with Maduro. Remember, I was on the phone with Maduro doing a soft landing. I know Dulcie Rodri. So I had all of this stuff, and I'm watching the TV constantly. I'm on subscribers stack, and I'm fighting and I'm screaming out, you, you. Even though I bother you all the time, I said, I'm like, jim, Jim, Jim, I know you know what I'm saying. And I had all of this stuff, and I thought to myself, how can I use it properly to help our country and not just trying to be. Because I'm not a reporter. You know, I don't consider myself an independent journalist. I consider myself a whistleblower, true teller, whatever else. But so I figured out, Let me reach out to, you know, some people that might be important. And I reached out first to, you know, Governor Newsom from Californ. I reached out to Prisker from Chicago, thinking that they're gonna, you know, maybe my information could be helpful to them. They have a team and they'll be able to do it. But, you know, Jim, I saw also, everybody has their own personal intention. You know what I'm saying to everybody, you know, wants to do it their way. And also, everybody has certain things in their closet that they're scared to come out. And because I was so deep on the inside, I knew a lot like Kimberly Guilfi was somebody that was very close to me, to Junior, while she was part of, like, I can't even tell you the connections and the things that I know and I've lived. So they basically stepped away, didn't give me the time of day. And one day I was speaking to my son, Aaron, and I said to him, I said, you know what? I'm going to run for Congress. He said, are you crazy? He said, you don't you even think of that. I said. He goes, dad, I'll never speak to you again. He goes, don't you even dare think about it. And that's how it started. And then I spoke to my wife, spoke to my lawyers, one of my lawyers, Abby Lowe, and others that said to me, look, love, you have so much information. This is a different world. You know, we need somebody in there, has to be there to be able. Because, look, we could all get into Congress. You know, people can get into Congress, but what's next once they get in? We need fighters there to make a change. We need them to hold accountability. And, you know, my biggest friend in Congress and my hero that I look up to is Congressman Raskin. And before I made the decision, I asked him, and he told me, I'm all in. I'm all, go for it, love. And he said, I want, he goes, I want you next to me when we're, you know, serving the subpoenas and I need your phone with the receipts when we're asking them the questions, when they're in the hot seat. Well, that's why I'm running.
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Jim Acosta
Yeah. No, but let me ask you this, because, you know, folks will say, and you've taken this question before.
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Lev Parnas
Yeah.
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Jim Acosta
You know, we've got, we've got a felon in the White House and Donald Trump. Should we be electing more felons to office? You're a convicted felon.
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Lev Parnas
Yeah, absolutely. And you.
- [32:00]
Jim Acosta
And I've talked about this before, but how does that fit into this? What's your response to that when people say that?
- [32:08]
Lev Parnas
My response is very easy. First of all, I'm a convicted felon because of the man in office, because I was working for the President of the United States. So, you know, I ended up, you know, becoming a convicted felon because I thought that the President can do no wrong. I listened to him. I was coltonized. But I accepted my wrongs. I realized them, and I made right. The reason why I'm running and is not right now. It doesn't matter if you're a convicted felon or if you're right now you need people that know the people in office, because Donald Trump is not our only problem. See, people think that, oh, Donald Trump's gonna leave and things happen. Absolutely not. The enablers are the problem. The people in Congress, Senate people in the lower state offices, sheriffs and all of that. And I have so much information about all of them because I lived in. Plus, the biggest thing that I bring that I want to help in Congress, like I've also spoke to Congressman Ro Khanna and others, is my understanding, interpretation, and how these super PACs work, how this, you know, funding, because that's one of the things I went to prison for is, you know, donating to Donald Trump's campaign. How they manipulate, how they're able, how Russian foreign money is able to fall into our campaigns, how the Latvia system works. Remember Susie Wiles, Pam Bundy? They come from a lobbying group down here called in Florida, Ballard and Associates. But I'm the one that worked with Brian Ballard and got him the office in Washington, D.C. so that's what I'm saying to you, I saw the underground,
- [33:38]
Jim Acosta
you know, about the inside.
- [33:40]
Lev Parnas
Oh, absolutely. And, and I'm there to uncover it. And you know what the other thing is? I don't have loyalty to one side or the other, Jim. My loyalty is to the people. I have a lot of repentance to do. It's part of my 12 step program. You know, my first step was to apologize to Biden's. I made amends. Hunter's gonna come out, endorse me. Hopefully, Joe, President Biden will come out and endorse me. But I have a lot of people that are gonna support me when I get in the next few weeks, once we start running. Because my campaign is not about just District 27 here in Florida against Maria Salazar. My campaign is national to help every seat, every Democratic seat down to be because there's the one thing about me compared to everybody else in every one of these races. Nobody knows Donald Trump and his inner circle the way I do, especially when it comes to Washington, D.C. you're right
- [34:30]
Jim Acosta
about that, Lev, you know, from the inside out. No question about it. Well, Lev, it was great. See, great seeing you this morning in West Palm Beach. Let's do this again soon. Keep us posted on how the campaign is going. And of course, we're all proud of your son, Aaron. He is doing gangbusters out there. So good stuff, Jim.
- [34:45]
Lev Parnas
Thank you, man. Have a great day. And independent journalism, folks. Support independent journalism.
- [34:50]
Jim Acosta
Exactly. That's right. Thanks a lot. Thanks for hopping on. Appreciate it. Good to see you. And good to see him this morning as well. You know, listen, we're in Florida and when, when in Florida, you go see the sites, there's the beach. You know, if you're a Cuban American like me, you like the Cuban restaurants, the cafe con leche, the chicken croquetas, the, you know, croquetas de pollo. There's lots, there's lots to do. You might take in a baseball game, see the Miami Marlins. There's, there's a lot to, a lot of sights to see. But there's a new attraction that I heard about here in Florida. Apparently, somebody thought it would be a great idea to build a golden statue in honor of Donald J. Trump. And guess what? We're going to close out the show today by showing a little video that we did over at the Doral Golf Course, just by the Miami Airport. And it's, there's a big golf course there and it's the Trump Doral Golf Course where they have erected and forgive me for using that, that verb in the past tense. There a golden, a 22 foot golden statue of the president of the United States, who apparently is he really likes things being built in his honor these days. And it's very Kim. I'm just going to prepare everybody now. If you have not seen this yet, and I know a lot of folks have seen it, but I hate to see it for myself. It's very Kim Jong Un. I didn't think it was this Kim Jong Un. It is full blown Kim Jong Un. What we saw at the Trump Doral Golf Course. We're going to close out the show with that. Take a look. And thanks again for tuning in. We'll see you next time. All right, here we are at the Doral Golf Club, the Trump Doral Golf Club. And we found it. Here it is right here, the 22 foot golden statue of Donald Trump. And I spoke to the sculptor about this and he told us quite the story about how this came into existence. Apparently, they had to slim it down. That was part of the process. They got rid of the turkey neck. That was also part of the process. But it's leaving me with some questions here, like why are we building a new ballroom at the White House? Why are we painting the reflecting pool blue? Why are we building a giant arch when he's got one of these right here? He's on the road. He's on the record. Jim Acosta live.