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- [00:00]
Monday.com Announcer
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- [00:32]
Journalist/Host
There'S a lot happening. The other breaking news really rippling across Washington the country today is that there's new Epstein files out. The doj, after blatantly breaking the law that Trump signed, has now released 40 days after the deadline, 3 million new pages and over 100,000 pictures.
- [00:54]
Department of Justice Representative
Today's release marks the end of a very comprehensive document identification and review process. After submitting the final report to Congress as required under the act and publishing the written justifications for redactions in the Federal Register, the department's obligations under the under the act will be will be completed.
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Journalist/Host
This has been a saga and story where both things are true. There has been rampant delay and violations of the plain letter of the law. On the other hand, for the cynics who said, well, maybe they'll just run out the clock forever and nothing else will ever be released against the precedent of secret grand jury materials and DOJ's general's practice of secrecy and that runs back through both parties. A lot of material, the millions of documents were released today. The deputy attorney general also spoke about whether he's covering up for his boss.
- [01:50]
Department of Justice Representative
I can assure that we complied with the statute, we complied with the act and there is no we did not protect President Trump. My team has certain communications with the White House. Let me just be clear. They had nothing to do with this review. They had no oversight over this review.
- [02:08]
Journalist/Host
That's the claim by a DOJ there. There were tips that involve accusations that doesn't mean proof regarding whether Epstein and Trump participated in sexual abuse or crimes together. There's not clarity on whether that lead was followed. Other tips include things where news articles are simply forwarded by Epstein. I'm going to show you more of that emails where Epstein discusses Trump. Something we knew about. There is an important chart I want to show you from inside the federal government. This is new. We haven't seen it before. Partially redacted, but as you see, this is the DOJ looking at what they call the agents, accountants, authorized individuals, associates, redacted employee. Take it for what you will, but some of these people might have been charged Only Maxwell was. Elon Musk also outed for the first time in detail in these files because he writes to Epstein about trying to come visit the island and specifically says we what will be the wildest party on your island? What does wild mean when you're talking to this pedophile? Well, that's open, I suppose, to interpretation. A year later, there was an effort to coordinate an island visit with Epstein telling Musk he'd send a helicopter. Again, these are the emails we have. We cannot say whether that visit transpired or certainly whether any crimes occurred. You might recall that Trump's commerce secretary said Epstein was a blackmailer and talked openly about him last year. Turns out there are more hidden contacts between the two. An individual reference there, I should say, is Mr. Lutnick refers to an email about them getting together. This is after Lutnick claimed he severed ties. We should note that Lutnick publicly distanced himself. And in that planning, it appeared that Lutnick was on a trip with his wife. The DOJ says this is the last of the files they release. They'll release. We should note, 3 million is a lot less than the 6 million that prosecutors at the DOJ had initially said they had. So is this a full release or not? That question looms large over what is a ton of new documents. We are joined by Tara Palmieri, a veteran journalist, author of the Red Letter, and host of the Tara Palmeri show podcast, where she's covered exactly this story for a long time. Let's start with what's new. We can't get through all the documents today, but what jumps out to you today in the new files?
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Tara Palmeri
I think the fact that President Trump's inner circle is just so deeply entangled with Jeffrey Epstein, more so than they were ever willing to admit. The fact that Elon Musk would tweet, you know, President Trump is going to get blown up in the Epstein files, and yet here he is arranging to go on the island on a night that would be, you know, a party island. Howard Lutnick going out of his way to say he went into Epstein's house, house once with his wife and was horrified by it, yet he was arranging to go to his island. So it's just like these people, they had such hubris. They had no problem lying about their extensive relationship with Jeffrey Epstein. Obviously, there's a lot of really concerning tips about Donald Trump in this, in these documents that we don't know if the FBI actually followed up on or did any investigating. They have maintain their position since June that there were no other men involved in the sexual assault of a thousand women. And those young girls, now women, many of them, have filed lawsuits, civil lawsuits, because they couldn't do it criminally because of the statute limitations, or they have, you know, various settlements. Ghislaine Maxwell said there were 25 men that signed settlements with one plaintiff alone. And so we're supposed to believe that. That the Department of Justice actually did a real investigation on this. It's just. And we're just seeing a bunch of tips, some very disturbing about the president, but we don't know if they ever even took them seriously.
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Journalist/Host
Yeah, I mean, Donald Trump's the current president, and he has known ties to Epstein. So a big part of these new files today, number one, is the heat that puts on him and as you say, his allies. I mean, Elon Musk is a. Was a recent Trump special employee, a kind of a super cabinet official. So those are big questions. Number two, the questions at the doj implicate the Trump administration, which was in charge when Epstein died, but also prior and later DOJs under Democratic administrations. We'll pull up the chart again from the lead. I mean, I have it. It's one of the things I immediately printed to really study, because without disfavoring or biasing people, because there's much we don't know, the fact that this many individuals were tied to Epstein in ways that the DOJ at the time viewed as authorized agent associate, people with potential knowledge, people as, you know, redacted. And the only one charged as Maxwell. Tara, how do you view that in terms of a report card for DOJs in both parties appearing to go softer on these now known associates than many other targets for crimes that were, frankly, lesser crimes in America.
- [07:26]
Tara Palmeri
It seems like they've just given up on it altogether. They have. I mean, before June, they said they were active leads. When you spoke to the Justice Department, Pam Bondi said she's got the Epstein lead list on her desk. Then afterwards, there's no one else involved. And it's really disheartening for the victims because they were hoping that with the Epstein files coming out, they would have a sort of immunity in a sense where it would be public. The names of the people that abused them and the information that they submitted. They wanted to feel like it wasn't their burden. They wouldn't have to deal with defamation suits. Virginia Giuffre obviously had to deal with a ton of defamation suits.
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Journalist/Host
And with.
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Tara Palmeri
I'm only jumping in for speaking out.
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Journalist/Host
I'm only jumping with the minute we have left.
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Tara Palmeri
Yeah.
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Journalist/Host
If we, if we say that the evidence suggests maybe first term Trump, DOJ fell down on the job, then isn't it the job of the next DOJ under Merrick Garland to pick up the leads.
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Tara Palmeri
And the one before that? I mean, he was 1996, the first call went in about Jeffrey Epstein from Maria Farmer about her and her sister being sexually molested. And every single time he uses high ranking officials, his contacts, Obama's former White House counsel Kathy Remmler was giving him advice on how to deal with, with an accusation against Donald Trump. I mean, that is how high up Jeffrey Epstein was connected to all of these administrations. And that is why he got away with one of the most perverse crimes for three decades.
- [08:57]
Journalist/Host
Yeah, I'm over on time. Do you think these are most of the docs or there are some held back or too early to tell because you've followed this closely?
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Tara Palmeri
I just think 3 million documents had to be held back. That's a pretty high number and we don't know why. And I think there needs to be a deeper exploration into that.
- [09:17]
Journalist/Host
Yeah. A lot going on today, as you know. Tara, we're glad we got you on this story. Thank you. We'll be right back.
- [09:23]
Tara Palmeri
That was another episode of the Tara Palmieri Show. Thanks so much for tuning in. If you like the show, please subscribe. Like Rate Follow Share it with your friends. Go to tarapaulmieri.com that's T A R A P A L m e r I.com Sign up for my newsletter, the Red Letter. You'll get my exclusive reporting straight to your inbox. By becoming a paid subscriber, you get the exclusives and you can support my independent journalism. I want to thank my producer, Eric Abenate. I want to thank Abby Baker on the socials and research, Adam Stewart who does my graphics and Dan Rosen, my manager. See you again soon.
- [09:58]
Monday.com Announcer
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