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- [00:01]
A
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- [00:30]
B
After more than a month of questions and speculation swirling around the Jeffrey Epstein files, we may finally get to see some of the documents held by the Department of Justice. The House Oversight Committee now says that it intends to release some files to the public after the DOJ begins handing them over. On Friday last month, the DOJ declared that there was no evidence that a so called Epstein client list existed, an announcement that sparked intense public outrage. Joining us now is Tara Paul Mary, host of the Terra Paul Mary show podcast and author of the Red Letter on Substack. She has reported extensively on Jeffrey Epstein. Tara, thanks so much for being with us. First, what are you looking for in these documents and how far do you think they're going to go in answering some of the questions that the public has about Epstein?
- [01:20]
C
I would think that these documents are going to be very limited. I obviously would love to see all of the gigabytes that they're holding on to, the evidence, the surveillance, the photos that I've been told of from senior law enforcement sources that they are holding on to. But as you have heard and see from your own reporters and reporting, they are kicking this down the, they're kicking the can down the road. They're pushing deadlines back, they're releasing limited amounts of files. And, and we just know that this is, this is happening in private. These are closed door hearings. These should be public hearings where everyone is called on to speak, including the Deputy FBI Director, the FBI Director, the Attorney General, Pam Bondi, the President, if he's calling, if they're calling the former President Bill Clinton, they should be calling him as well since he's also in the file. So I just think, you know, this just seems like they're giving out small pieces to appease their base, but really they need to come clean right now.
- [02:27]
B
One key question I've heard over and over and I haven't gotten a clear answer to, is why Congress hasn't called Alex Acosta, the prosecutor who oversaw Epstein's first case, to testify. Have you gotten an answer on that?
- [02:43]
C
I haven't and also his deputy, Marie Vilafagnia. She would be an excellent person to testify to call. She put together over 100 pages full of testimony, prostimonies from victims, evidence. She suggested 60 federal charges for Jeffrey Epstein that went down to zero. How does that happen? Right. Yeah. And she felt that she was slow rolled in that process. She was not supported. She said Acosta's response was that she was in over her skis. But we never. We've never been told why the federal government just dropped that case entirely to two state charges. Thirteen months in a county jail. She could answer a lot of that if Acosta doesn't want to. I mean, Acosta took private meetings with Epstein's lawyers off campus at Palm Beach, Palm Beach Hotel in a place that no one would ever go to. It was like an airport hotel. He met with Jay Lefkowitz. He met with Ken Starr. He met with the defense attorneys. U.S. attorneys do not meet with defense attorneys 90 miles from their office in airport hotels where they won't be recognized. It'd be a hotel that you and I would likely have stayed at, both having covered the Trump administration and going to Mar a Lago. But, yeah, this is a very, very, very shady deal. And Alex Acosta knows what those conversations were, and he should be talking about those. And Marie Vilafagna should be coming forward with those hundreds and hundreds of pages that she has, and the American people should be able to read them.
- [04:30]
B
That's such an important point. I also wanted to ask you about someone who did testify. The former Attorney General, Bill Barr, who oversaw DOJ when Epstein died. He testified behind closed doors, and he reportedly told the Oversight Committee that the general consensus was that Epstein took his own life and that he never saw anything to implicate President Trump in any client list or in anything related to Epstein's crimes. But the ranking Democrat on the committee, Robert Garcia, put out a statement saying that Attorney General Barr could actually not clear President Trump of any wrongdoing. He called on Comer to release the full transcript. What's your reaction to these two seemingly contradictory assessments of Barr's testimony?
- [05:14]
C
Well, why don't we have Barr testify in public and then we can all hear it for ourselves? Right. Instead of taking the word of two politicians from two separate parties and hear it for himself. Because, I mean, what is very clear from the reporting that we've seen, and there's been really little denial from the administration, is that the Attorney General, Pam Bondi, told the President of the United States that he was in the files and files were no longer going to be released after that. After months and months and months of saying, I have the files on the desk, I have the list on my desk that's going to come out. We know that. Why not have Bill Barr and all the other people who've been subpoenaed speak openly? That is what the administration promised. That's why so many people voted for President Trump. It is one of the things unifying, frankly, Democrats and Republicans is the feeling that there is this deep connection, this deep corruption in this story that has extended across parties. And if they actually treated this with the kind of sensitivity that it required, which meant, which means sunlight and speaking openly, I think that maybe, maybe there would be some trust in the institutions again. But these closed doors hearings are not helping at all.
- [06:31]
B
Tara Palmeri, great to have you on. Thanks so much for the reporting.
- [06:34]
C
That was another episode of the Tara Palmieri Show. Thanks to all of you. If you want more of my reporting, you can go to Tara Palmeri.com and sign up for my newsletter, the Red Letter. That's T A R A P A L m e r I.com and you can get my exclusive reporting straight to your inbox. And you can watch these lives in real time as I try to talk to sources and try to get down to the bottom of things. You can also support this show by liking subscribing, sharing it with your friends, leaving a review, rating it. You can, you know, you can just send me tips, leads, let me know what you know. This is a huge, sprawling case and it's going to take a lot of time. I want to thank my producer, Eric Abenate. I want to thank my thumbnail artists, Adam Stewart, Sarah Carney and Abby Baker on socials and Luke Radle, who has been helping with research. I'll be back again soon.