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This episode is brought to you by Progressive Insurance. You chose to hit play on this podcast today. Smart choice. Make another smart choice with Auto Quote Explorer to compare rates from multiple car insurance companies all at once. Try it@progressive.com Progressive Casualty Insurance Company and affiliates. Not available in all states or situations. Prices vary based on how you buy. Welcome back to the Tara Palmary Show. I know it's a quick return, but today is a wild day. The Epstein files dropped around 4 o' clock while I was on Jim Acosta's show and we started to look through some of the documents, the pictures live, you know, there are a lot of photos of his home, his lifestyle, very weird and creepy. And pictures, I guess, unsurprisingly, of Bill Clinton, I mean, of the dump. The first pictures that come up are a lot of pictures of Bill Clinton, him in the pool, him standing near Jeffrey Epstein in a weird shirt, him with a woman, just like, side by side. And you got to think to yourself, why are we only getting the batch of Clinton pictures up front? Where are the Trump ones? And it makes you think that it's politically motivated. The DOJ couldn't get to it fast enough, right? They couldn't redact the names of the victims fast enough. We don't know if they're also redacting the names of men that they don't, that they want to protect. But we know that there are men they don't care to protect, like Bill Clinton. And that is why in the first tranche, we're getting a lot of pictures of Bill Clinton while President Trump simultaneously has instructed his Justice Department to investigate Democrats related to Epstein for crimes. Again, proving that this is all political and that we cannot trust what is coming out of the DOJ right now. You know, I see some of the, the Jane Doe complaints that were filed. I was starting to look through them. Jane Doe 3, Jane Doe, for a number of them. I'm going to be pouring through it all tonight. This is an interesting, I guess you could say, podcast because we're just sort of taking it all in. They even go into his death in the, in the, in the cell in, in downtown Manhattan. And I'm hopeful that we get some more answers. They put the full footage, they claim, of what happened, even though we know there were some moments that are lost, but maybe, maybe not in this file. So I'm hoping that we get some answers. But so far it looks like they've really frontloaded all of the pictures that make their political enemies look bad, which makes me wonder if the DOJ has been frantically working to protect President. That is why we are not seeing the full files today. I am going to go back to my desk to start looking through the files and to really try to take it all in so I can give you a more comprehensive analysis reporting. I'll be on Chris Hasten I on Ms. Now. I'll post that tomorrow. You know, I'll try to write for my substack. Tara Palmeri.com the Red Letter. You go to T A R A P A L m e r I.com and I will be giving you my full takes, my analysis, my reporting, how you can support my independent journalism. So just go there. It's how you can find my work. You can listen to me and Jim sort of take it all in. I think there are probably a lot of dead moments because it is there are a ton of files, like a lot, a lot, a lot, a lot of files to go through. And so I'm going to get on it now and you guys can get on it as well and come back here. Like I said, go to the red letter. That's where you'll see my reporting. Thanks. If you're anything like me, then you hate running around from store to store to store for holiday gifting. But you still want to get people that you love something beautiful, something timeless, something that they will wear for years. And that's why this year I'm going to quince from Mongolian cashmere sweaters that only cost $50 title and wool coats. Everything is premium quality at a price that actually makes sense. I personally wear a lot of their silk tops I on this show because they're so reasonably priced and they're made with premium materials from ethical trusted factories priced so far below luxury brands. I don't know how they do it. Their craftsmanship is shown in every single detail. The stitching, the fit, the drape, it's elevated. It's timeless. It's, it's clothing you'll wear forever. So if you want to find gifts that you'll want to keep for yourself, Then head to quint.comtara for free shipping on your order and 365 days of returns. They're now available in Canada too. That's Quince Q U I n c e.com Tara T A R A to get free shipping and 365 days of returns. Quince.com/tara all right.
B
Welcome to the Jim Acosta Show. And it's another day that ends in Y and the Epstein gate cover up. The Trump administration has already announced, folks, that it will not meet the Friday deadline for the Justice Department to release all of the Epstein files. Apparently, they're going to start releasing some of the files, but not all of the files. And so let's talk about this now with Tara Palmeri, who writes the red letter substack. She has followed the Epstein case for many years now. Tara, great to see, as always. I mean, what do you make of this development? I mean, we, we sort of thought, I mean, I won't speak on your behalf. I'll just speak on my behalf. I sort of thought, a lot of people thought that they would be playing games with this, and it seems like that's the case. But what's your read of where we are right now?
A
Yeah. So, I mean, as of Monday, the Justice Department had written a letter to two judges, Bermans and Engelmeier, saying, like, we're still going through the process by which we identify victims. We, we haven't, you know, even identified all the victims because new people are coming forward. They have like an email victim hotline. So they were very much behind in terms of redacting the victim information to protect those victims. So if they're saying that on Monday, I had had zero doubt that by Friday they were going to be able to get this together. They didn't even have a process yet. They didn't even have mechanisms. They didn't even have a full list of victims. So I'm not surprised at all. And, you know, the idea that they're redacting thousands of pages means that it's going to be a lot like what you see right now when you go to the Epstein files on the FBI's website.
B
Yeah. And Todd Blanch was basically letting the cat out of the bag earlier this morning on fox. Let's listen to this. And for the DOJ to make the Epstein files public after the president signed a law requiring those to be released. So in these files, are we going to learn any new information about Epstein and people that may have been associated with him? So, yes. So today is the, is the 30 days. And I expect that we're going to release several hundred thousand documents today. And those documents will come in all different forms, photographs and other materials associated with all of the investigations into Mr. Epstein. And just so everybody appreciates President Trump has said for years that he wants full transparency and he wants the Department of Justice to release everything that we can with respect to this investigation in cases. And we saw during, during the Biden administration radio silence from the very Democrats that are screaming from congressional steps today that we haven't done enough. But guess what? Okay. And, I mean, and Tara, I guess I should just note in the last several minutes, I'm seeing that on the Department of Justice website, they have now started releasing some of these materials. As Todd Blanche was saying on Fox this morning, they don't plan on rele. The materials, but on the DOJ website, they have started to release some of these materials. I, I don't think we know exactly what we have at this point. It says. I'm looking at the website right now. It says first phase of declassified Epstein files. BOP Bureau of Prisons. I suppose that means video footage, Maxwell proffer memoranda and correspondence. So there, there's some stuff here. It's. And, and we need to caution the viewers on the website, it says download all files and it's a zip file, but it's not all the files. They've said that they're not releasing all the files. So, I mean, as you were saying earlier, this is very murky. This is very unclear as to what's happening.
A
Yeah, I mean, I wish I could read them on air, but it's. Yeah, probably a huge. Dan Mengan, my old colleague at the New York Post at CNBC with a. Or see who's always good at this stuff.
B
I mean, I'm just looking at this on my phone right now. There's a picture of a hallway with a piece of furniture. I don't know what any of these pictures are. There's a closet. To my producer, Matt, I did just send this to you, and I may have accidentally downloaded all of this to my phone, which is probably a bad idea.
A
Epstein Library is what they're calling it.
B
Epstein Library. Yeah. And this is literally happening right now.
A
I am not a robot. You are in line.
B
Yes, I see a workout room, more workout equipment. My producer Matt is going to get this up here in just a second. Don't worry, folks. But I don't. I'm just going through this so far. This may take quite a while to go through. I mean, I'm seeing what looks like hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of files of photographs and Lord knows what else. For some reason, Epstein took a lot of pictures of his workout equipment. I don't know why that is. And his stuff in his closet, their room, pictures. And Tara, what about this concern that a lot of people have expressed that they were going to scrub, you know, the files so they. They don't damage Trump or they don't damage people that, you know, Trump wants to Protect. That would be contrary to the law. The, the law says they have to release all available files and documents. But protect people's faces, Protect the faces of survivors identities and so on.
A
Yeah, I mean that's the thing. Like we're kind of leaving it up to themselves to self regulate. Right. And have they ever been good at that, the Department of Justice?
B
No, they. Not under this administration.
A
Yeah. Yeah. Specifically in this administration. It's. Yeah. Well, actually across three administrations, I would say, or more than that.
B
Three decades in which as it relates to this case. That's for sure. That's true.
A
Don't know. You know why he had that sweetheart deal. Why? When Maria Farmer made that phone call, 1996, the FBI, nobody ever followed up with her case. You know, we don't know why for so long he was able to, you know, get away with this. I'm sorry, Jim. I'm like the data set, set one zip. I'm like, I'm kind of salivating over this right now. I. You know, I mean, not to be. Oh, no application to open it. Okay.
B
Yeah, if you just look. If you just hit View files, it will, it will allow you to start viewing it. But all I'm saying.
A
Download it.
B
You don't have to download. I'm seeing rooms and, and now I'm starting to see some blueprints on this page. Yeah. As soon as we get this up and going on on the stream folks, we'll, we'll.
A
Oh, wow.
B
Okay.
A
Yeah, you can just look at it as a PDF.
B
You can just look at these PDFs.
A
Okay. I'm basically right. The first ones are just of his home really.
B
It looks like the eps. Would this be the Epstein home in New York or if Florida, I guess. We don't know.
A
Well, I. It looks more like his one in. In New York. Shoot. Did I just lose my spot? Yeah, it's. It's pretty.
B
I'm not seeing any pictures of any people as of yet. And I've gone through four pages of this and I'm just seeing. There's a lot of pictures of just. And I guess it's the. These might be FBI photos, right? Because when they. And they go and they survey crime scenes and so on, they take lots of pictures of just. Here's the. Here's the gym. Yeah, this is what it looks like on the DOJ website, folks. If you're looking at this, this is the. I think this is the very first PDF that's on here as far as I can tell. And it's a Photo of a hallway with a piece of furniture in it. And this is my producer, Matt, just going through each of these one by one, folks, live. I mean, this just, everybody knows this just hit the DOJ website.
A
Yeah.
B
In the last several minutes, we're all getting the breaking news alerts on our phones and devices because this is happening in real time. And so if I, I'm going to do as we're scrolling, I'm actually curious.
A
About these, these Jane Doe cases.
B
Now. It looks like I'm seeing the exterior of the New York apartment building and. Or residents. And this looks like the. This is the residence in New York, is it not?
A
Let me see. It looks like it, yeah.
B
The door with the. So some of this may be the photographs that were taken inside the residence.
A
I guess these are just what, like FBI, just FBI files?
B
Yeah. This is data. Yeah. I mean, folks, this is just all happening in real time. In case you're wondering, like, why are Tara and Jim doing this? The Epstein files have been released. And I want to caution everybody who's watching, this is not the totality of the Epstein files, at least as. As far as we know right now, because Todd Blanche, the deputy Attorney General who has been, you know, showing favorable treatment to Ghislaine Maxwell and so on, he said on Fox earlier this morning that they can't or they're not going to put them all out by tonight's midnight deadline. So we're seeing with so far. Go ahead.
A
Yeah. That is his house in. In the.
B
In New York.
A
In New York, yeah.
B
Okay. Here's a room that has pictures of people on the wall. Nothing important there, I don't think.
A
Meanwhile, Elise Stefanic drops out of her race against Kathy Hokel and is leaving Congress.
B
Did she really? Oh, wow, that's interesting. That is fascinating.
A
She chose to announce at the same time the Epstein files were released. So I wonder if there's a scandal.
B
Involved trying to Bur. We also saw today, Tara, that, I mean, the House of Representatives, Mike Johnson, speaker of the House, recessed one day early so all these Republican lawmakers wouldn't be in town as this was all coming out. But I mean, the way they've handled this, going back to what you're saying earlier, Tara, is. I mean, it's. It is kind of what we expected, that this was not going to be, you know, certainly not a competent release of the files, not an organized release of the files. But also, you know, the House Oversight Committee and the photographs they put out.
A
What is that?
B
The Democrats on the House Oversight Committee they put out photographs that were very important and relevant. This is just a dump.
A
No, that's. No, that's actually their laundry area. That's where they're pressing their. I guess, pressed all.
B
He had a laundry, I guess, in the building? Yeah.
A
Yeah. Well, he owned the whole building. It was one of the largest townhouses in New York.
B
Oh, right, right.
A
It's crazy, right?
B
Yeah. And so this. I guess this is going to take time, but what do you think? I mean, what are your expectations for this, Tara? What do you think we're going to get at the end of this?
A
I mean, I'm seeing Jane Doe complaints, lots of them. And one of them is talking about going to the island. She. You know how she was recruited? Paid. You know, she had to pay. Was paid 200 to 300 for a massage. Had to, you know, recruited her friends. Yeah, it's, you know, you don't see the name, thank God. But, yeah, you're seeing. You're seeing witnesses. Jane Doe's complaints. I'm looking at court records right now. Just because.
B
Oh, you are in the files. Interesting.
A
Yeah. Jane Doe 3. All of from Jane Doe 1. J. Jane Doe 3.
B
What about this Bureau of Prisons? There was a Bureau of Prisons note. I kind of wonder what that was. That seemed. Bureau of Prisons video footage raw, video enhanced. That became very relevant because there were these concerns that there was an interruption in the video in the. In the prison where Jeffrey Epstein was being held before he was found.
A
So there is something about the prison in here.
B
It looks like there's Bureau of Prison video that's been released. Yes, I would.
A
That's. I was wondering about that. I was like, I wonder if they're gonna.
B
There it is right there. We're showing it now. This is it, folks.
A
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B
His story, according to the Department of Justice? Again, take it as it is. This says video one in parentheses, RAW video, and then there's video two in parentheses, enhanced video, and then there's videos by hour. And it goes from 6pm to 6am it looks like in the time frame that Jeffrey Epstein allegedly committed suicide. So this is some of the other material that's been released. It's on the DOJ website and everybody, you know, for folks who don't remember, there was this whole hullabaloo and I talked to Mark Epstein about this himself. He doesn't think that his brother committed suicide. He thinks his brother was murdered. And one of the issues that came up was a tiny interruption in the video as it was being recorded at the Bureau of Prisons. And there was a concern that the video just, it's not, it's not a complete video or was not Also have.
A
A really great shot. Like what, what are we supposed to be seeing here?
B
Right. Apparently the video is. It doesn't show everything.
A
Yeah, I don't, we're not seeing Jeffrey Epstein or his cell here.
B
Yeah.
A
Seeing people walking in and out.
B
Yeah. I'll find a story just to refresh everybody's memory on this.
A
Yeah, I've also talked to Mark about this. He's. Yeah, obviously hired doctors, specialists.
B
You know, this is what the Guardian reported. This was September 3rd. It's easy to memory hold all this stuff folks, because we've been following this for so long. But a so called missing minute of CCTV footage, key ingredient of conspiracy theories surrounding the prison death of the sex offender Jeffrey Epstein has been found contradicting the assertion of Attorney General Pam Bondi that it was recorded over. The video was in a cash material including 33 pages of records related to the disgraced financier and former Donald Trump associate. See here FBI released hours of surveillance footage taken from outside Epstein's jail cell on the night he died. Observers quickly realized from timestamps that a block of 1 minute from 11:59pm to midnight on August 10th was not there. Epstein was found unresponsive in a cell at 6:30am you know, this video appear, you know, came to, you know, came to be a part of the controversy. And all this because people thought, okay, this is something that shows that there was some sort of weird thing that was going on. But I, I guess they have found the complete footage and now they've released it to show the public that maybe there was nothing untoward there. But of course we're gonna have to monitor all of this. It looks like there is an image of Bill Clinton and Jeffrey Epstein in one of the files.
A
No, pull it up.
B
Show that one Bill Clinton is in kind of a strange looking shirt with.
A
Oh, that came out yesterday. That means they were already starting to leak because that came out to the.
B
New York Post that started to leak out. That's right. Some of this stuff started to leak out.
A
So the DOJs. And, and then we saw in that memo that Republicans were sending around that, you know, they should make sure to give, you know, give their. Give all of the embarrassing stuff to the New York Post, basically.
B
Right. Get ahead of this. Blame it on Democrats. Show the Democrats are involved. Right. There was a strategy memo that got circulated. I think it was. Was a Politico or somebody reported on this memo, and it was basically being released talking points to House Republicans as to how to talk about the Epstein files. And one of the talking points was make sure you emphasize the Democrats who are caught up in this. This. So just, just everybody understands the frame.
A
I mean, if, if the rel. If the files are released in full. Yeah. The Democrats are going to look really bad. Trump was also a Democrat then.
B
Yes, he was, wasn't he? Yeah, but. But he, you know, can't he. He continued to maintain this relationship with Jeffrey Epstein for many years, and that is evident in the materials put out by the Democrats on the House Oversight Committee, which we've seen over the last several weeks. Yeah, I mean, Tara, this is going to be something that we're all gonna have to pour over over the next several hours, and there are gonna be a lot of folks with bleary eyes, you know, working the wee hours on this. Because the question becomes, did, did the Trump Justice Department simply try to put out stuff that was going to be damaging to Democrats at first? And as far as we can tell so far, in terms of what we've been able to pull out of these files so far, there's a lot of Bill cl. There are some Bill Clinton references that are sort of immediately available. Here's another photograph that looks like Bill Clinton right there. And of course, we don't know what the context is here. It looks like he was on some sort of trip at some point. And of course, we all know that Bill Clinton was also friends and associates with Jeffrey Epstein. And Tara, one of the things that the Republicans have tried to do is say, see, look, Bill Clinton, you know, Bill Clinton wasn't. Was hanging out with Jeffrey Epstein. You know, you can't just say Donald Trump. Donald Trump when Bill Clinton is in here, too. But Bill Clinton is not the President of the United States, and Bill Clinton is not the person who's been trying to cover this up since, you know, the beginning of this administration. It's been Trump and his. And his officials. And so you have to wonder, does Donald Trump appear at all if these photographs in any of these files that.
A
You will know that the DOJ is protecting certain people? If you do not see President Trump at all in the files.
B
Yeah.
A
And if all that you see are his enemies, like his Democratic enemies, I mean, there's also heads of banks, there's, you know, heads of academia, other institutions. If it seems like it's just political enemies, then you know that they have been spending round the clock, which we already know that they did in March. A thousand agents working 24 hours over in the weeks in May for a Freedom of Information request to make sure that President Trump's name was redacted with the argument that he was a private citizen at the time, and that's why they were doing it. 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 dsw.com and these look like.
B
Some diagrams of maybe the Bureau of Prisons facility where Jeffrey Epstein was staying. I believe that that is the stairwell that leads up to the cell area where Jeffrey Epstein was being detained, imprisoned. So there's a, there's a whole trove of stuff here. Some of it is going to be treasure, some of it is not going to be. But we'll spend some time. And I know, Terry, you want to get into it too. So I, I don't want to hold you up if you want to go and look at it. But if you see something that you're like, aha, you know, feel free to. Feel free to get.
A
I know. I feel like we're all there. You know, I'm. We're a mighty team over here of three on my, on my Tara pal. But we'll be honest, you're going through it too.
B
Absolutely.
A
Yeah.
B
You've been one of the go tos in all of this. Honestly. Yeah. I mean, yeah.
A
Thank you. It's just hard because there's so much. Right. And it's not like we're coming, you know, from the newsrooms where they have, you know, 20 bodies and, you know, lots of laptops to be able to control f this, control F that, you know, check this because that's going to be the first scan is control F Trump. Right. Like. Or control shift F. Trump to try to find him, if that's possible in these. In these files. But, you know, there's others too, that I'm interested in seeing because, you know, as you know, I traveled and know knew Virginia Duffrey really well and I know of the names of men that she was trafficked to. And I want to see if they end up in the files because they have pretty much been living without paying at all for what they did, so.
B
Well, it's very important. Yeah, it's very important that there be some I'm seeing. Okay. My producer, Sam is also sending me stuff and he has sent me yet another picture of Bill Clinton. And it looks like. Is he. Is this what I think it is? Looks like he's in a hot tub. It looks like a picture of Bill Clinton in a Jacuzzi of some sort of.
A
See it. Which also proves what the girls had been telling me all along, which is that. That they were constantly being filmed and recorded. Or does it look like he's posing or is it.
B
Yeah, I mean, it seems to me.
A
Oh, my gosh, it's naked.
B
Is that Glenn in the pool?
A
Yeah. She's naked. Yep.
B
Is she or is that a bathing suit?
A
Oh, no, you're right. That's a bathing suit. Okay.
B
It looks like she's got a bikini on.
A
Okay, now that we scrolled in, she's wearing a top.
B
Bill Clinton is wearing a bathing suit. There is a. There's another individual in the photo to far away.
A
Her knee looked like.
B
You know, I saw that too. The other person seems to have bikini on. But I think, Tara, your point earlier is the operative one, which is if all we're going to see is photographs of Bill Clinton and Democratic figures in this. In this dump that the Justice Department has put out.
A
Folks, we know it's politically motivated.
B
It is politically motivated. Put in asterisk next to this dump and you can call this the non Trump Epstein files release. And as soon as we start seeing, because we know from the House Oversight Committee Democrats, they've released photos of Donald Trump and Jeffrey Epstein. If the Trump administration is not going to put out photos of the President along with Jeffrey Epstein back when they were buddies, then you know that there's something fishy going on here.
A
Wait, can we zoom in on that?
B
Looks like Epstein with some young ladies who maybe are dressed in Hawaiian clothing or something. Not sure what this is going. What this is here.
A
So sick.
B
Yeah. And their faces are redacted. So. All right. Well, Tara, thank you very much. I'll let you get to it. If you see something, come back to me. We'll put you back on, but really appreciate it, and we'll see where this. This takes us. Thank you, Tara. Appreciate it.
A
That was another episode of the Tara Palmeri Show. I'll be back soon with more analysis and reporting as I dig into the Epstein files. You like this show? Subscribe. Rate it. Follow, share it with your friends. Subscribe Please go to tarapaumeri.com T A R A P A L M E-R I.com and sign up for the red letter. That is how you will get my exclusive reporting, by becoming a paid subscriber. And that is where I'll be reporting on the Epstein files over the next few days. I'll see you again very soon because this story is developing, and I will be updating you. I may even try to do some lives if I see something that I think really deserves, you know, some exploring. So talk soon.
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Podcast Summary: The Tara Palmeri Show – "Trump Targets Clinton in First Epstein Files Dump"
Date: December 19, 2025
Host: Tara Palmeri
Guest: Jim Acosta
This urgent episode covers the highly anticipated and controversial release of the first tranche of Jeffrey Epstein-related files by the Department of Justice under the Trump administration. Tara Palmeri, joined by journalist Jim Acosta, examines why this initial dump is dominated by photos and information damaging to figures like Bill Clinton, but seemingly omits references to Donald Trump and other political allies. The discussion is a live, real-time dissection of the Epstein files as they go public, with both hosts questioning the motivations, transparency, and political gamesmanship driving the release.
The conversation is rapid, incredulous, and skeptical, reflecting both the pace of breaking news and the hosts’ frustration with politicization and opaque government processes. Tara brings a seasoned reporter’s depth, balancing cynicism with a drive for real accountability.
This episode is a snapshot of the high-stakes, partisan maneuvering surrounding the partial release of the Epstein files. It raises pressing questions about government transparency, selective justice, and the willingness of those in power to warp public disclosures for political ends. Tara Palmeri promises further deep dives as she continues to sift through the files.
For Tara Palmeri’s full investigative reporting, sign up for "The Red Letter" newsletter at tarapalmeri.com.
Key Quote to Take Away:
“If all we're going to see is photographs of Bill Clinton and Democratic figures in this dump that the Justice Department has put out, folks, we know it's politically motivated.”
—Tara Palmeri (27:45)