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The Parnas Perspective
Breaking: Epstein Fallout Explodes as Justice Department Races to Protect Trump
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Whether you're solving murders during breakfast, cracking cold cases on your commute, or playing amateur detective at bedtime, Amazon Music's got millions of podcast episodes waiting. Just download the Amazon Music app and start listening to your favorite true crime podcasts ad free included with prime we
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have major developments this afternoon. The White House has an Epstein problem that does not seem to be going away, no matter how much the pressure President and those around him wanted to this afternoon we're learning confirmation that the White House and the Department of Justice have actively concealed several Epstein related files that show witness accusations against the President of the United States for child sex abuse. At the same time, the Epstein files fallout continues to grow fast with multiple wealthy, powerful people resigning from key positions as a result of their close relationship to Jeffrey Epstein. A major development right now. Make sure to like, comment, share and subscribe. The more you like, the more people see and we need to keep the pressure on. Subscribe to my substack, Click the link below to support my work or send a Venmo to Aaron Dash Parnas to keep me caffeinated. Let's jump right into it. This afternoon we're learning that the following documents have yet to be released by the Justice Department. These documents contain witness interviews of a woman, a now woman, who at the time in the 1980s was somewhere between 13 to 15 years old. She was a child. The highlighted documents are documents that the Department of Justice has never released. As you can see, their interview notes and interview 302s license records, and a law enforcement report. Now why are these documents important? Well, these documents are important because in these FBI 302s, in these interview notes, that woman accuses the President of the United States of abusing her as a child. Back in the 1980s. This Department of Justice has actively withheld and concealed documents that may prove, or at least show, that the President of the United States is not as exonerated as he claims to be. And we may now know why, because According to a January 4, 2026 memo released by the Justice Department, attorneys in the DOJ were required to apply specific tags to FBI 302s. 302s are interview notes essentially memorialized from an interview with an FBI agent. As you can see at the bottom, it says if a document is tagged responsive, please proceed to evaluating whether it needs a content tag listed below. The ones that they have include deals, charging, destruction, flight logs, and 302s. So they specifically tagged FBI 302s like those mentioning serious, if not horrific allegations against the President of the United states. At the same time, while we keep pushing for justice there, more justice is coming out in the form of accountability. Richard Axel, a Nobel Prize winning scientist and professor at Columbia University, announced today that he is resigning as a co director of a flagship neuroscience institute at the university. He cited his past friendship with Jeffrey Epstein as the reason for his decision, adding to a growing list of prominent figures in academia and public life who are confronting renewed scrutiny over their past associations with Epstein. He's not the only one today, Richard Larry Summers, according to the Harvard Crimson, will step down from all academic and faculty appointments at Harvard University at the end of the academic year. A university spokesperson confirmed that Summers will relinquish his university professorship, which is Harvard's highest faculty distinction, and will remain on leave until his departure becomes official. He has also resigned from his position as co director of the Massavar Rahmani center for Business and Government at the Harvard Kennedy School, a role that he has held since 2011. He will not teach classes. He will not take on new advisees before his exit. This marks the end of a decades long relationship with the institution he previously served as president. And it comes, as I'm learning from a Jane Doe survivor this morning, that after speaking with her, she confirmed to me that shortly before President Trump's State of the Union address last night, the Department of Justice re uploaded documents that publicly exposed her name. Her name was listed more than a dozen times, according to the survivor, in which she described to me as a major violation of the law designed to protect victims of sexual abuse. She characterized the disclosure as intimidation. Timing of the release has raised serious concerns among advocates and lawmakers about the handling of sensitive victim information. And this afternoon I spoke with someone running for Congress, a former prosecutor, Shannon Taylor. She's running in Virginia's first Congressional District. I spoke with her about the Epstein files, holding the President of the United States accountable, her reaction to the State of the Union address, and much more. Make sure to like, comment, share and subscribe. Here is my interview with Shannon Taylor, excited to be joined this afternoon by Shannon Taylor, who's running for Congress in Virginia's First Congressional District. Now, Shannon, I want to get right into it. Why do you want to go to Congress?
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Okay. Well, Erin, first and foremost, thank you so much for letting me be here on on your show. I really appreciate that because this is an opportunity where get to know our candidates and I'll tell you. Why am I running for Congress? Well, I've been the top prosecutor in Henrico county since 2011 when I won my first race. And when I ran that race, I was the first woman and also the first Democrat to win in decades at that time. I should share a fun fact. It was Eric Cantor who was the majority leader back then. He lived in Henrico County. So my win was something that Democrats were looking. And of course, for the last almost 15 years, it's been my greatest honor to protect and serve the great folks of Henrico County. Being the top prosecutor, it is my job, it is my duty and responsibility to protect people. So when things were starting to be seen up in D.C. and, and folks were asking me if I were interested in, you know, in running for Congress and particularly against Rob Whitman, it wasn't going to be a hard decision. And I say that, Aaron, because when we were looking and what I saw in Rob Whitman was somebody who was not putting the priorities of Virginians over his own priorities, over his own self interest. And so knowing that the actions that he was taking were not protecting Virginians, I knew that I had to step up. I'll tell you, he's been there for almost 20 years. The actions we saw with the budget bill. He tried to say that the budget bill was going to be disastrous for Virginians, but yet he went ahead and voted for them knowing that Virginians were going to have to start making decisions about health care costs. And were families going to have to make a decision between getting their kids medicine or putting food on the table and knowing that we have a, you know, there's a hospital right there in the rural part of the district that is facing a real chance of shutting down with the aspect of, you know, the reimbursement aspect. So knowing that his actions were having that direct impact, it was not, it wasn't a hard decision. I wanted to continue to serve and continue to protect Virginians.
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Well, I gotta ask you, because Virginia has been in the news lately with redistricting, your district lines are going to change. If the redistricting passes and gets through, what does that look like for folks who don't know what's happening and how will it impact the first Congressional District?
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Well, Aaron, that's a great question. I can tell you that for those people who are promoting the redistricting, it's being done under, you know, this, the statement of Virginia's for fair elections. So if I had a magic wand and I could make it so that everyone could trust that, you know, that the elections would be fair, fair, I would do that. But I don't play any role in, in this process. So we are in this, you know, Virginia process right now, the voters get to vote on it on April 21. And if it passes, then there will be new maps. I will, where I live in Western Henrico will be in a different, in a different, you know, number district. But the passion of protecting Virginians is still the same. And the makeup of the folks who live in that district, still a lot of agriculture. So still a lot of the issues I'm hearing in CD1 are being said by Virginians all over the state.
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So if the redistricting passes, will you still be running against Rob Whitman or will it be potentially a new district?
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Potentially a new district. But of course, as your listeners may know that you don't have to live in the district to run a district. So there's been some chatter as to who might run in this new CD5, so we'll wait and see.
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All right. Did you watch President Trump State of the Union address last night?
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I did. I did not play the bingo game, but yes, I did watch it. I had a friend who played the bingo game.
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And what were your thoughts as someone who may one day be sitting in that room?
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Wow. I, for who I would hope to be, my future colleagues, you know, it takes a lot to sit there. And we know that there were some people who didn't, who chose not to be there, but to listen to statements that we know aren't true because we've seen either the courts, you know, make decisions to say that they're not true, or we've seen things unfold on, you know, in the news and we know them not to be true, or we're hearing directly from people who are being impacted by some of these policies. It, it, you know, it's, it wasn't good. And I say that because, you know, as a prosecutor, I, that is my job. I am protecting people. And I know that we are talking about certain policies that are supposed to be meant to protect people. But when you don't follow the Constitution and you don't allow for due process and you don't allow Americans and Virginians to trust a process, we have a problem.
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Now, I got to ask you, as a prosecutor, one topic that was brought up last night, not by the president, but folks in the audience, where the Epstein files. And right now, to this day, all of the Epstein files have not been released publicly. The Justice Department continues to withhold many and by product, withhold accountability and justice for the survivors. What's your take on the situation? And if you were in Congress today, would you vote or push rather to release all the files.
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Yeah. Aaron, I mean, I, I will tell you right now to watch what has been happening unfold in the media for these women who were all victims to, you know, and to have an attorney general, as we saw, you know, Attorney General Bondi, not acknowledge their presence, that breaks my heart. Again, as a prosecutor, we want to defend and protect women who are the victims of sexual assault, rape, you know, just this idea of, you know, of the trauma that these women have gone through and to not allow the process, which of course was a process that wasn't respected many years ago, is not being honest with these women. And we're not doing our job. I can guarantee you that for the, for the representatives now who are, you know, demanding accountability, who are demanding the release of all the information, I would be standing right there with them to say, I've done this job, we must do this. It's imperative that, you know, the American people who, they also want to know what's going on. But really it's about letting all of those women know that they matter. And so I would stand right up there and demand the release of all the files. And that's even understanding that we know that there's some, you know, material that is protected, but there are ways to be able to explain that. But just you got to start off by believing and you got to start off by just even acknowledging them. And we have some folks currently who aren't even willing to do that.
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It's true. Now, Shannon, before I let you go, I'm going to ask you a question I ask almost every other person running for Congress who comes on this show is if I gave you that magic wand you had earlier in this interview mentioned, what would be the first thing you can do or you would accomplish on the Hill?
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Oh my gosh, Aaron. Well, you know, in looking at who I'm running against, right, this, this 20, almost 20 year incumbent, Rob Whitman, who I don't claim that you're, you know, that your audience knows well, because he really hasn't done a whole lot. And I say that because that's, you know, that's why I'm running, because his actions are self serving. So I certainly would want to make sure we're looking at the health care issue. The idea about extending those tax credits, the reason why we were, you know, shutting down the government the first time and knowing that Virginians, hundreds of thousands of Virginians were going to lose, you know, that very necessary coverage, I would definitely want to make sure that we're able to extend the tax credit provisions so that people can have access to health care. We must do that as we continue to work on the larger issue of assist of healthcare system that is broken. And then the other one is, you know, is ethics. Again, as a lawyer, ethics are very important to me. We've got to do better with the reform. Mr. Whitman, the person I'm going to be running against, he's been taking advantage of stock trading. We know that it is a very large amount. I think it's like up in the upper 70s of Americans who hate it. They are like, don't do it. And Mr. Whitman has taken advantage of it. He has, you know, been, it's been documented. He has been dealing in millions of dollars of stock trading while he has been in Congress, even as he sits in leadership roles of some committees. And then certainly the idea that you vote on a budget bill like Mr. Whitman just recently did, to give himself a tax credit on a vacation home, again, I don't know how many people know about the Outer Banks in North Carolina where folks like to go, you know, for vacation. He has a house there. And we just saw the story recently in the news where he's going to get a tax break that is larger than, than some people's incomes. And you shouldn't be able to vote on that knowing that you are going to be a direct recipient of, of a, of a credit like that. So we need to start, you know, cleaning out, cleaning out some of these problems here and focus on protecting Virginians and getting the mess out of politics out of D.C. getting back to what governor, you know, spamberger said, democracy, this is, we are, you know, it's for the people, by the people. We, you know, we are a United States. We are, we are here. So let's get back to the fundamentals.
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Shannon Taylor, thanks so much for taking the time.
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Thanks.
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Hey folks, thanks so much for watching. Feel free to add this podcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or anywhere you watch for the latest breaking news and daily hits throughout the day. Make sure to follow subscribe. See you soon for more.