← The Tara Palmeri Show
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- [00:00]
A
DSW Designer Shoe Warehouse is the one stop shop for all your footwear needs with sneakers, boots and everything in between for every style, mood and occasion. You'll definitely find shoes that get you at prices that get your budget. DSW has what you need, but more importantly, they have what you didn't even know you wanted. You never know what you'll find at dsw. Find the shoes that get you at prices that get your budget at dsw stores or gsw.com all right, my panel with me to start our coverage. Eric, I want to start with you. Many viewers are familiar with you at this point. You have been on, you represent 11 Epstein victims and obviously tomorrow's vote looks like it's going to be a landslide. Became pretty clear there might only be one Republican holding out after, by the way, for months there were four Republicans who even as late as this weekend at Great Per with personal nastiness from Trump, were standing up to release these files. That was it. Now suddenly it appears that it could be unanimous or close to it. What's the feeling among survivors tonight?
- [01:03]
B
I would probably best describe it as cautious optimism. You know, in this whole entire decades and decades long saga with Jeffrey Epstein, every time something good seems to happen for the survivors, something bad happens then and they don't get the true justice they deserved. In 2008, you know, he was finally arrested. You he's finally caught and then he's given a sweetheart deal and allowed to continue to abuse. When he's finally arrested and under federal custody, 2019, he is somehow allowed to kill himself while he was supposed to being watched. Then of course, Ghislaine Maxwell, she's finally convicted. One person finally convicted, finally sent to prison and the survivors like, okay, some measure of justice. And now we have to deal. You know, she's in a minimum security resort playing with puppies from what I hear. So there's a lot of cautious optimism where because every time there's one step forward, it's like eight steps back. Certainly a almost unanimous vote would be a real push for momentum, a real push for optimism. But with the survivors and that special treatment that Jeffrey Epstein seems to be getting even beyond the grave, we're still sort of waiting until we see the fully unredacted documents.
- [02:04]
A
Well, and the Ghislaine Maxwell part of it of course is crucial, right? She gets an interview with Trump's deputy attorney general and then right afterwards is put into this prison facility, this basically a prison resort as it goes. There would be no justification for it given her conviction. David I'm curious what you think of the situation that we're in, though, right? You have over the weekend, Trump posting a screed about Thomas Massie insulting him for getting remarried. Right. Just it became so personally nasty, all because he's voting for release of the Epstein files. And then today Trump has to throw in the towel and say, ok, because almost every Republican was going to turn against him. What is the significance of this?
- [02:50]
C
Well, Aaron, sometimes you, you make a U turn when you realize you're driving right into oncoming traffic. That's the situation that Trump was in. It was done. And he, the one thing that he can't countenance is being repudiated by his own party. So he had to get on the other side of this. And I imagine that Mike Johnson really wanted him to get on the other side of it so that all these other Republicans who were loyal to Trump didn't get caught walking the plank on this, which is highly unpopular among their constituents. So the question really is, what happens? What happens? Now? I do wonder why this issue of these Democrats should be, and, you know, banks and so on should be investigated. Came up three days ago. And you do wonder if that's another dilatory tactic. But one thing things for sure, if this comes out with a near majority of the House, you cannot expect the Senate not to act on it soon. Has said, we don't know if we're going to take it up. They're going to have to take it up.
- [03:55]
A
I mean, it is, and it is stunning. I mean, Tara, when you just think about it, right, he's talking about Marjorie Taylor Greene. Remember, Green turns to Brown when there's rot involved. I mean, all these horrific things he was saying just this weekend to prevent this vote. And Tara, then it gets to the question, as Eric just said, if the files actually come out and if they come out unredacted, that we can actually say and see what they mean. So when it comes to that, you have done such incredible reporting over the years. Trump's commerce secretary, Howard Lutnick, happened to live next door to Epstein for years and in a recent interview talked about the whole situation and said he believes Epstein taped men in his, quote, unquote, massage room. Here's Howard Lutnick.
- [04:37]
C
That's what his M.O. was, you know, get a massage. Get a massage. And what happened in that massage room.
- [04:42]
A
I assume was on video.
- [04:44]
C
This guy was the greatest blackmailer ever, blackmailed people.
- [04:49]
A
That's how he had money. Tara, are there videos and photos in these documents?
- [04:59]
D
I have been Told by a source within the FBI that yes, there are videos, there are photographs. I know from Virginia Giuffre, working with her on the Broken Jeffrey Epstein podcast. She told me that she went into the FBI to try to identify her body with men and she could not actually identify her body. But the fact that they even have naked, the bodies of naked women to be identified is a sign that, yes, they are sitting on troves and troves of photographic video evidence. And you know, they, they have more than that. They even have depositions. If you take the words of the witnesses, the victim seriously, you look at them as evidence. But as we know, you know, Cash Patel has not read through the testimonies from these victims, which they hold on to right now. Alex Acosta didn't read through them before he created this sweetheart deal. This administration does not value the testimony of the victims as a form of evidence. And I wonder how much of that will actually be released in the Epstein files. So I'm very, I'm very dubious that Pam Bondi, who's over overseeing the Department of Justice, will actually release the files in their entirety. I think it's gonna be a lot of blank pages.
- [06:15]
A
I mean, Eric, I guess that's the question. Are there going to be a lot of blank pages and are we actually going to see these videos? I mean, you know, you easily see them saying, well, because these people haven't been charged, whatever men who, you know, sounds like what Lutnick saying may indeed have happened.
- [06:32]
D
I don't know.
- [06:32]
A
It certainly sounds like that. From what Tara is saying, it's very possible. Is there any chance we're really going to see all of that after, after all of this?
- [06:40]
B
I certainly hope so. And of course, you know, I think everyone agrees the victims of survivors names and identities need to be protected.
- [06:46]
A
They should be redacted. Unless any of them would choose not to.
- [06:48]
B
Absolutely. But beyond that, I really hope that this is. Will actually show who was, you know, abetting, who was aiding, who was facilitating Jeffrey Epstein's abuse. He didn't do it alone. He had a lot of enablers and a lot of facilitators and perhaps from what we've heard, perhaps he had sort of co abusers who are abusing along with him. It is imperative that we find that out. All the survivors, and I've spoken to a lot of them in the past couple of weeks. My clients, what they want is they want just exposure. They want accountability and they want closure. They want an end to this chapter that's been going on for decades and decades. So I truly hope that once these files, if and when they are released, that it is that they're fully released, that there are no redactions, you know, hiding the men who may have facilitated the CO abusers, that they're fully released and the American people really get to see what went on there.
- [07:35]
A
David, do you think that just given knowing the DOJ and how these things work, that there is a real chance that we will see the full Epstein files, including video with the men's names not redacted?
- [07:49]
C
Well, history is a little discouraging here. There's been an effort for the full year to try and keep that from happening. And whatever is in there that the President is concerned about is still in there. He pulled out all the stops to try and get Republicans not to pass this resolution. He's clearly angry about it, as those texts or those posts that you shared show. You know, I guess I'm hoping for the victims that. That the answer is yes, but history is not very encouraging here.
- [08:28]
A
Tara, do you think we will see them?
- [08:33]
D
I think we'll see a very highly redacted version of them, if anything, and I think they will drag this out for as long as possible. The Senate is where bill goes to die, as we all know. If it ends up on the desk of the President, he signs it, he controls the Department of Justice, as we know. He sees them very much as an extension of his powers of the president. So I think we will see what President Trump wants. And I think they may use the reopening of other investigations targeting Democrats as a reason to withhold, giving the files over. So I have tempered my, you know.
- [09:08]
A
Well, there are now ongoing investigations that they can. That they can absolutely cite. And Trump has used that before, even when it came to releasing his own taxes. Right. Citing an audit as a reason to. Of course, he wanted full transparency, but had to wait till the audit was finished. Thank you all, you all very much.
- [09:22]
D
That was another episode of the Tara Palmeri Show. If you like this show, please subscribe, Rate it, share it with all your friends. If you want to support my independent journalism and get my exclusive reporting straight to your inbox, go to Tara Palmeri.com that's T-A R A P A L-M E-R-I.com sign up for my newsletter, the Red Letter. That is how you keep me in business. I want to thank my producer, Eric Abenate, Abby Baker, who does my research and social media, and Adam Stewart on the graphics. See you again tomorrow.