Trascrizione completa di Mega Edition: Inside the White House Fallout Over the Epstein Files (11/7/26)

it's somebody that was also a victim, well, there 68 00:03:58.939 --> 00:04:03.360 you go. And unfortunately, Jean-Luc Brunel and Jeffrey Epstein, they 69 00:04:03.379 --> 00:04:05.819 had a revolving door of girls that were being abused 70 00:04:05.840 --> 00:04:08.120 between the two of them. And never mind all the 71 00:04:08.180 --> 00:04:11.099 other scumbags that got involved. Should we talk about George 72 00:04:11.139 --> 00:04:14.319 Mitchell or Bill Richardson or Glenn Dubin or Les Wexner? 73 00:04:14.819 --> 00:04:19.970 Because all of them have been credibly accused. No investigation, 74 00:04:20.310 --> 00:04:23.149 nobody being brought in, nothing. And so with just those 75 00:04:23.170 --> 00:04:26.050 two dudes alone, It shows you that Jeffrey Epstein trafficked 76 00:04:26.069 --> 00:04:29.149 girls to other people. How many more people do you want? 77 00:04:29.490 --> 00:04:32.709 How many other co-conspirators would make it trafficking for you? 78 00:04:33.189 --> 00:04:36.149 Intended to put to rest years of speculation and end 79 00:04:36.209 --> 00:04:39.360 a pressure campaign to release the voluminous material in the 80 00:04:39.379 --> 00:04:43.600 department's possession, the memo instead had the opposite effect, setting 81 00:04:43.639 --> 00:04:48.100 off a backlash that was notably loud among the MAGA base. Look, 82 00:04:48.120 --> 00:04:51.430 people should be given credit for that. The people that 83 00:04:51.459 --> 00:04:56.139 are MAGA, the people that were MAGA, who decided that 84 00:04:56.180 --> 00:04:59.579 Donald Trump calling them a traitor was too much, that 85 00:04:59.620 --> 00:05:01.860 Donald Trump trying to cover this up was too much, 86 00:05:02.500 --> 00:05:06.240 those people should be applauded. It's not easy to go against, 87 00:05:06.339 --> 00:05:08.500 you know, all your friends and all your other beliefs 88 00:05:08.519 --> 00:05:11.519 and all that stuff. So we should give them some credit, right? 89 00:05:11.540 --> 00:05:14.620 It's okay to have a little grace. Not everybody's your enemy. 90 00:05:15.079 --> 00:05:17.220 And I've told you a million times, you're going to 91 00:05:17.240 --> 00:05:19.079 have to work with people that you might not agree 92 00:05:19.120 --> 00:05:22.519 with politically on a whole host of issues to get 93 00:05:22.579 --> 00:05:26.430 something done here. But that's how politics works, right? That's 94 00:05:26.470 --> 00:05:30.269 what detente is. You don't have negotiations with people that 95 00:05:30.290 --> 00:05:33.509 you agree with. You negotiate with people that you might 96 00:05:33.529 --> 00:05:35.769 have some disagreements with. And the best way to do 97 00:05:35.810 --> 00:05:38.829 that is to find some middle ground. And if going 98 00:05:38.889 --> 00:05:41.829 after Jeffrey Epstein and his network is not middle ground, 99 00:05:42.560 --> 00:05:46.560 then I don't know what is. And it was about 100 00:05:46.579 --> 00:05:49.319 to get worse. The Wall Street Journal was preparing a 101 00:05:49.379 --> 00:05:53.689 damaging article about Trump's relationship with Epstein. The president's desperate 102 00:05:53.709 --> 00:05:57.199 attempts to kill the story had failed. His team now 103 00:05:57.240 --> 00:05:59.620 had to get everyone onto the same page about how 104 00:05:59.639 --> 00:06:02.939 to counter the growing swarm of attention. They needed a 105 00:06:03.000 --> 00:06:07.100 gesture of transparency to appease an increasingly angry base, but 106 00:06:07.360 --> 00:06:09.759 also a way to convey the message that the president 107 00:06:10.019 --> 00:06:14.170 was sympathetic to his supporters' concerns. Which itself was a problem, 108 00:06:14.709 --> 00:06:17.269 because he clearly wasn't. Well, that's true, he called us 109 00:06:17.310 --> 00:06:20.350 all traitors. He said anybody who's following along with this 110 00:06:21.069 --> 00:06:24.290 is his enemy, basically. Imagine the president of the United 111 00:06:24.350 --> 00:06:30.189 States being mad because people want accountability for a human trafficker. Like, 112 00:06:30.230 --> 00:06:33.050 have we fallen that far? Where people hear this, look 113 00:06:33.089 --> 00:06:35.860 at this, and just shrug their shoulders. And they're like, ah, yeah, 114 00:06:35.889 --> 00:06:37.939 you know what? He has a point. No, he doesn't 115 00:06:37.980 --> 00:06:40.620 have a point. He's trying to cover this up. And 116 00:06:40.639 --> 00:06:42.959 this is what I've been telling you guys. Everybody wants 117 00:06:43.000 --> 00:06:46.399 that splashy gotcha moment. But in the real world, this 118 00:06:46.420 --> 00:06:49.199 sort of shit is messy. It's not splashy. And a 119 00:06:49.240 --> 00:06:52.639 lot of times, it's not salacious. You get people like this. 120 00:06:53.399 --> 00:06:57.519 on financial crimes. You get them on covering up for 121 00:06:57.579 --> 00:07:01.540 other people. That's how it's always worked. And for all 122 00:07:01.560 --> 00:07:03.540 these people that have been carrying on about Donald Trump 123 00:07:03.560 --> 00:07:07.610 now for eight years with all kinds of crazy stuff, Russia, P-Gate, 124 00:07:07.689 --> 00:07:10.250 you name it. But what you have here is an 125 00:07:10.470 --> 00:07:13.970 actual cover-up. And instead of focusing on that, you have 126 00:07:13.990 --> 00:07:18.529 people focusing on other things that are unprovable. Now, that 127 00:07:18.550 --> 00:07:21.149 doesn't mean I don't believe that it happened, but it's 128 00:07:21.189 --> 00:07:24.069 not what I believe. It's about what we can prove. 129 00:07:24.689 --> 00:07:26.050 And I don't think you need to be some kind 130 00:07:26.129 --> 00:07:29.290 of famous investigator to realize that the fix is in 131 00:07:30.149 --> 00:07:33.310 and that there's a gigantic cover-up being run and managed 132 00:07:33.769 --> 00:07:38.069 directly by the White House. And I thoroughly believe that. 133

00:07:40.000 --> 00:07:42.399 Vice President J.D. Vance took a seat at the head 134 00:07:42.420 --> 00:07:44.939 of the table in the John F. Kennedy conference room 135 00:07:45.319 --> 00:07:48.500 of the Situation Room Complex. This is a huge problem, 136 00:07:48.759 --> 00:07:51.399 he told the group. I read around him. where the 137 00:07:51.420 --> 00:07:54.000 White House Chief of Staff Susie Wiles, the White House 138 00:07:54.019 --> 00:07:58.730 Counsel David Warrington, the Press Secretary Caroline Leavitt, the Deputy 139 00:07:58.769 --> 00:08:03.910 Chief of Staff Taylor Budowich, the Communications Director Stephen Chung, 140 00:08:04.329 --> 00:08:08.110 the Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanch, the Associate Attorney General 141 00:08:08.930 --> 00:08:12.089 Todd Baby Billy Blanch, and the Deputy Chief of Staff 142 00:08:12.310 --> 00:08:16.269 James Blair. Attorney General Pam Bondi and the FBI Director 143 00:08:16.310 --> 00:08:20.870 Kash Patel joined on speakerphone. The vice president appeared panicked 144 00:08:21.189 --> 00:08:23.269 to others in the room about the way the subject 145 00:08:23.310 --> 00:08:27.089 of Epstein was already dividing the MAGA coalition. Yo, he 146 00:08:27.129 --> 00:08:34.250 knows what's up. 100% he knows. This whole entire thing 147 00:08:34.710 --> 00:08:39.029 has caused big problems. And I think there's a lot 148 00:08:39.070 --> 00:08:40.649 of people that are going to be sitting out the 149 00:08:40.690 --> 00:08:42.950 midterms because of it. And I think it's going to 150 00:08:42.970 --> 00:08:51.179 have disastrous repercussions for the GOP. Some senior officials had 151 00:08:51.200 --> 00:08:53.980 the impression that Vance had bought into the darkest theories 152 00:08:54.039 --> 00:08:57.080 about Epstein and a cabal of predators hidden within the 153 00:08:57.139 --> 00:09:00.620 country's ruling class. Well, is that wrong? Maybe not to 154 00:09:00.659 --> 00:09:02.559 the level that some people are trying to make it out, 155 00:09:03.019 --> 00:09:07.570 but predators nonetheless. What, being predators in a financial sense 156 00:09:08.070 --> 00:09:13.190 is okay? I mean, people just don't get it. And 157 00:09:13.289 --> 00:09:17.899 it drives me crazy. Breaking news, we're all slaves. Every 158 00:09:17.940 --> 00:09:20.940 last one of us. You got debt. Congratulations, you're a slave. 159 00:09:21.820 --> 00:09:24.690 And you're a slave to Jeffrey Epstein's people. The same people, 160 00:09:24.730 --> 00:09:28.409 by the way, that ruined the whole entire world in 2008. 161 00:09:28.409 --> 00:09:30.370 So if you think this is just about girls being 162 00:09:30.389 --> 00:09:33.789 trafficked or kids being abused, you have not been paying attention. 163 00:09:34.409 --> 00:09:38.090 Wiles would tell others that the vice president had proved 164 00:09:38.129 --> 00:09:42.240 himself to be a major conspiracy theorist. Another top official 165 00:09:42.559 --> 00:09:45.320 said later that Vance had been pounding on the Epstein 166 00:09:45.340 --> 00:09:48.340 issue since the release of the memo. He was privately 167 00:09:48.399 --> 00:09:51.639 pressing for the administration to release all the Epstein files, 168 00:09:52.279 --> 00:09:56.909 everything in the Justice Department's possession, even encouraging a congressional investigation. 169 00:09:57.509 --> 00:09:59.950 And look, he's not wrong for that. I think that... 170 00:09:59.909 --> 00:10:03.039 Vice President Vance is on point. And that was the 171 00:10:03.080 --> 00:10:06.919 campaign promise that was made by the administration. So I 172 00:10:06.940 --> 00:10:08.779 think that Vance is just trying to live up to 173 00:10:08.840 --> 00:10:11.360 that promise, right? Now look, don't take it for, I 174 00:10:11.840 --> 00:10:14.419 think Vance is doing a great job, or I support him. 175 00:10:14.740 --> 00:10:17.759 I don't. But of all these robber barons that populate 176 00:10:17.799 --> 00:10:21.139 Donald Trump's administration... It looks like Vance is the only 177 00:10:21.200 --> 00:10:23.360 one that even cared. Vance told the group that he 178 00:10:23.399 --> 00:10:26.220 believed that all files should be released as soon as possible. 179 00:10:26.659 --> 00:10:28.860 He argued that Congress was going to force the release 180 00:10:28.879 --> 00:10:31.740 of the files eventually. It was already clear that a 181 00:10:31.759 --> 00:10:35.600 bipartisan coalition in favor of such action was forming on 182 00:10:35.639 --> 00:10:39.019 Capitol Hill, and the momentum was going in one direction. 183 00:10:39.980 --> 00:10:42.679 If the administration got out ahead of this and released 184 00:10:42.740 --> 00:10:47.500 everything voluntarily, including whatever material existed about the president, it 185 00:10:47.519 --> 00:10:51.549 would at least get credit for transparency. The alternative was 186 00:10:51.570 --> 00:10:54.070 to let the story drag on for months as information 187 00:10:54.090 --> 00:10:57.710 dripped out, each new revelation renewing a cycle of suspicion 188 00:10:58.009 --> 00:11:02.340 and fury. Better to rip the bandage off and move on. Yo, 189 00:11:02.360 --> 00:11:04.460 they would have been so much better served to listen 190 00:11:04.480 --> 00:11:07.539 to J.D. Vance. He had the right of it here. 191 00:11:08.519 --> 00:11:11.679 Get out ahead of it. Look, it might be embarrassing, 192 00:11:12.159 --> 00:11:14.639 and it might cause you some grief, but the more 193 00:11:14.659 --> 00:11:17.200 you hide it, the more you act like nothing's going on, 194 00:11:17.649 --> 00:11:20.490 the worse it gets when people figure out that they've 195 00:11:20.509 --> 00:11:23.830 been bullshitted. And I think J.D. Vance was hip to that, 196 00:11:24.210 --> 00:11:27.860 but unfortunately, the rest of the administration is dancing to 197 00:11:27.889 --> 00:11:35.620 Donald Trump's tune. Vance even floated to colleagues in

extraordinary 198 00:11:35.659 --> 00:11:38.840 PR gambit that the White House enlist Tucker Carlson to 199 00:11:38.940 --> 00:11:42.980 interview Epstein's longtime girlfriend and co-conspirator Glenn Maxwell in prison. 200 00:11:43.620 --> 00:11:45.799 It might help the president if Maxwell was willing to 201 00:11:45.840 --> 00:11:49.190 state that Trump had not been part of any wrongdoing 202 00:11:49.490 --> 00:11:53.250 with Epstein. Well, that's a bad idea. That was stupid. 203 00:11:54.090 --> 00:11:57.190 Because nobody believed Glenn Maxwell. Only the people that want 204 00:11:57.210 --> 00:12:00.080 to believe what Trump's saying. Right? It's all about confirmation 205 00:12:00.120 --> 00:12:03.120 bias with a lot of people. Me? I'm following the evidence, 206 00:12:03.360 --> 00:12:06.860 wherever it goes. And the evidence certainly looks like Donald 207 00:12:06.879 --> 00:12:10.429 Trump is engaging in a cover-up. That's what the evidence 208 00:12:10.490 --> 00:12:12.669 is telling me. And the more we hear from insiders, 209 00:12:13.009 --> 00:12:15.009 the more we hear about what was going on on 210 00:12:15.029 --> 00:12:18.289 the ground. the more convinced of it I am. Even 211 00:12:18.370 --> 00:12:22.669 unsubstantiated allegations and anecdotes about Trump should go out, Vance argued. 212 00:12:23.230 --> 00:12:26.149 They were going to surface regardless, and if the administration 213 00:12:26.210 --> 00:12:29.460 published them first, it would demonstrate good faith and take 214 00:12:29.500 --> 00:12:33.840 the oxygen out of the conspiracy theories. His arguments fell 215 00:12:33.879 --> 00:12:37.059 on skeptical ears, but some advisors thought it would be 216 00:12:37.100 --> 00:12:40.659 good to have Justice Department officials call a news conference 217 00:12:40.700 --> 00:12:44.080 to explain their position on the Epstein affair, going beyond 218 00:12:44.100 --> 00:12:48.110 the memo that precipitated the crisis. At this point in 219 00:12:48.129 --> 00:12:51.200 the meeting, Blair spoke up. With all due respect, he said, 220 00:12:52.200 --> 00:12:55.500 the communication strategy of this group got us here. I 221 00:12:55.539 --> 00:12:57.980 don't know what's going to get us out. And if 222 00:12:58.000 --> 00:12:59.919 you're going to go in front of the press, you've 223 00:12:59.940 --> 00:13:02.440 got a lot of work to do. He began to 224 00:13:02.580 --> 00:13:06.429 ask pointed mock questions, demonstrating how difficult a news conference 225 00:13:06.470 --> 00:13:10.570 might be. As the president's former defense attorney, Blanche had 226 00:13:10.590 --> 00:13:13.669 a unique vantage point in the discussions. He was better 227 00:13:13.710 --> 00:13:16.259 equipped than anybody else. In the room, to weigh the 228 00:13:16.340 --> 00:13:21.610 ideas being discussed against Trump's personal and political interests, Blanche 229 00:13:21.870 --> 00:13:24.549 laid out what he saw as their best option. And 230 00:13:24.590 --> 00:13:28.230 here's how the cover-up works. Donald Trump gives Blanche the orders, 231 00:13:28.629 --> 00:13:31.700 and then Blanche puts him into action. And then later 232 00:13:31.740 --> 00:13:33.759 on down the road, if anybody says, hey, Trump told 233 00:13:33.799 --> 00:13:37.019 him to do that, he has plausible deniability. And he'll 234 00:13:37.059 --> 00:13:40.559 also say that our conversations were privileged. So it gives 235 00:13:40.620 --> 00:13:43.909 Trump that armor. But it sets Todd Blanche up to 236 00:13:43.950 --> 00:13:47.289 take the fall. And I think that that might occur 237 00:13:47.320 --> 00:13:49.399 at some point. I think that if there's a real 238 00:13:49.440 --> 00:13:52.679 investigation into this cover-up, I think that Todd Blanche is 239 00:13:52.700 --> 00:13:55.000 going to be the one that's holding the hot potato. 240 00:13:57.259 --> 00:13:59.990 Option one was to petition federal district courts in Florida 241 00:14:00.250 --> 00:14:03.470 and New York to unseal grand jury testimony, the secret 242 00:14:03.490 --> 00:14:07.549 transcripts of prosecutors, presentation of witnesses, and evidence in their 243 00:14:07.669 --> 00:14:12.690 efforts to obtain indictments in past Epstein-related cases. As those 244 00:14:12.929 --> 00:14:16.289 were almost certain to contain no significant new information, everyone 245 00:14:16.330 --> 00:14:19.210 agreed that this option was a good idea. And not 246 00:14:19.350 --> 00:14:22.250 only because a release was unlikely to damage the president. 247 00:14:23.250 --> 00:14:25.909 And look, there's no doubt that that was the goal. 248 00:14:26.389 --> 00:14:28.529 We talked about it at the time. And I told 249 00:14:28.570 --> 00:14:30.590 you that the whole entire point of what they were 250 00:14:30.610 --> 00:14:35.009 looking to do was to slow things down. And then, 251 00:14:35.029 --> 00:14:37.879 of course, get some information out there that is recycled. 252 00:14:39.019 --> 00:14:41.809 Then they can say, look, We're working hard to get 253 00:14:41.850 --> 00:14:44.649 you all this information. We're doing everything in our power, 254 00:14:45.169 --> 00:14:49.460 every single day, to be transparent. Meanwhile, behind the scenes, 255 00:14:49.940 --> 00:14:55.340 they're doing everything but. Under the federal rules of criminal procedure, 256 00:14:55.399 --> 00:14:58.620 the secrecy of grand jury material is regarded by most 257 00:14:58.659 --> 00:15:03.899 federal judges as almost always inviolate. And the bar for 258 00:15:03.960 --> 00:15:07.139 any release is exceptionally high. If the court refused to 259 00:15:07.200 --> 00:15:10.450 unseal them, as Blanche predicted... they could shift blame for 260 00:15:10.490 --> 00:15:14.190 withholding the Epstein material away from the Trump administration and 261 00:15:14.250 --> 00:15:17.169 onto the judges. Exactly what they tried to do, and 262 00:15:17.230 --> 00:15:21.860 exactly

what I pointed out at the time. And all 263 00:15:21.899 --> 00:15:24.779 the better if the judges had been appointed by Democratic presidents. 264 00:15:25.220 --> 00:15:27.600 Blant's suggestion would make it appear that the White House 265 00:15:27.940 --> 00:15:31.159 wanted the materials released when it was almost certain not 266 00:15:31.179 --> 00:15:34.029 to happen. We call that a cover-up where I'm from. 267 00:15:35.450 --> 00:15:38.570 Option number two was to have Justice Department lawyers question 268 00:15:38.610 --> 00:15:41.909 Maxwell and publicly released the transcript, a twist on the 269 00:15:41.970 --> 00:15:46.669 idea proposed earlier by Vance. Blanche offered to interview Maxwell himself. 270 00:15:47.370 --> 00:15:49.929 What if we get her to talk to Congress, Vance suggested. 271 00:15:50.789 --> 00:15:54.129 Blanche raised the possibility that Maxwell's lawyer might expect something 272 00:15:54.169 --> 00:15:56.889 in return for her candor. Oh, she got it, didn't she? 273 00:15:58.210 --> 00:16:00.950 Nice little move down the club fed. Everything's all good 274 00:16:00.990 --> 00:16:06.049 for Ghislaine. Warrington, the White House counsel, responded by laying 275 00:16:06.100 --> 00:16:10.000 out the available choices without advocating any of them. Maxwell 276 00:16:10.039 --> 00:16:12.379 could be given a pardon, he said, or she could 277 00:16:12.399 --> 00:16:15.659 have her sentence reduced. At that, several around the table 278 00:16:15.980 --> 00:16:20.389 spoke up to register their strong disapproval. Pardoning Maxwell, a 279 00:16:20.409 --> 00:16:23.330 trafficker of young girls, would create a huge PR problem, 280 00:16:23.610 --> 00:16:26.669 Chung said. He predicted that in the wake of a pardon, 281 00:16:27.070 --> 00:16:29.990 the Epstein accusers would be fanning out on TV, telling 282 00:16:30.029 --> 00:16:34.529 their stories, and ripping the administration to shreds. Blair was 283 00:16:34.710 --> 00:16:37.990 also adamantly opposed to a pardon. We can't offer Glenn 284 00:16:38.029 --> 00:16:40.750 Maxwell anything, he said. I don't know why we would, 285 00:16:41.190 --> 00:16:43.570 and B, if we give Glenn Maxwell any sort of 286 00:16:43.610 --> 00:16:46.230 break whatsoever, and then she turns around and says nice 287 00:16:46.250 --> 00:16:48.870 things about us, or says nice things about us, and 288 00:16:48.909 --> 00:16:51.759 we give her a break, it'll undermine the entire point 289 00:16:52.039 --> 00:16:55.399 of her saying good things. That'll feed the conspiracy theory, period. 290 00:16:56.139 --> 00:16:58.240 If there's nothing for her to say that hurts us, 291 00:16:58.559 --> 00:17:01.860 we shouldn't have to offer her anything. That's a pretty 292 00:17:01.899 --> 00:17:06.029 fair assessment, no? The consensus was that calling for the 293 00:17:06.069 --> 00:17:08.569 release of the grand jury material was the best course 294 00:17:08.589 --> 00:17:11.519 of action. Wiles

told the group she would discuss the 295 00:17:11.559 --> 00:17:13.819 matter with Trump and ask if he would send a 296 00:17:13.839 --> 00:17:16.839 Truth Social post calling for the release of the sealed 297 00:17:16.859 --> 00:17:20.480 grand jury documents. Just then, the Wall Street Journal article 298 00:17:20.539 --> 00:17:23.400 they had been trying to kill was published online. Cell 299 00:17:23.420 --> 00:17:26.799 phones are forbidden in the Situation Room, so a staff 300 00:17:26.839 --> 00:17:30.480 member brought in printed copies of the explosive report, which 301 00:17:30.519 --> 00:17:33.980 detailed how Trump and many others had created birthday cards 302 00:17:34.039 --> 00:17:37.309 and letters to be assembled by Maxwell into a special 303 00:17:37.349 --> 00:17:41.549 birthday book for Epstein in 2003. The birthday card attributed 304 00:17:41.589 --> 00:17:45.609 to Trump depicted a nude woman, hand-drawn and inscribed, with 305 00:17:45.650 --> 00:17:50.150 an imagined dialogue between the two men about a wonderful secret. Imagine? 306 00:17:50.869 --> 00:17:54.549 A wonderful secret, is it? The drawing was signed with 307 00:17:54.589 --> 00:17:58.069 what appeared to be Trump's distinctive jagged, sharpie signature in 308 00:17:58.089 --> 00:18:01.750 a place of the woman's pubic hair, another part of 309 00:18:01.789 --> 00:18:07.089 the cover-up that looks to be provable. If this was 310 00:18:07.130 --> 00:18:10.569 something that was forged, why is there no investigation? You 311 00:18:10.609 --> 00:18:12.849 would think, like I've said a million times, that if 312 00:18:12.890 --> 00:18:16.319 the President of the United States is being impersonated by someone, 313 00:18:16.960 --> 00:18:19.359 we should probably know, and there should be a gigantic 314 00:18:19.380 --> 00:18:22.839 investigation into who and why. We haven't seen that, though, 315 00:18:22.880 --> 00:18:26.500 have we? Well, that's weird, considering Donald Trump likes to 316 00:18:26.539 --> 00:18:29.740 use the FBI to go after everybody, but not the 317 00:18:29.759 --> 00:18:33.589 people that allegedly forged this letter. Seems a bit suspect 318 00:18:33.640 --> 00:18:36.369 to me. In the days before publication, Trump, in the 319 00:18:36.450 --> 00:18:40.980 effort to quash the story, called News Corp Executive Robert Thompson, 320 00:18:41.329 --> 00:18:45.730 News Corp owner. Rupert Murdoch, the journal's editor-in-chief, Emma Tucker. 321 00:18:46.170 --> 00:18:49.630 Practically shouting, the president told Tucker, who was British, that 322 00:18:49.690 --> 00:18:52.269 she must hate America. He told her he would file 323 00:18:52.349 --> 00:18:56.069 a lawsuit. But none of his bullying had worked. And 324 00:18:56.130 --> 00:18:58.849 now the group sat quietly reading the full story in 325 00:18:58.890 --> 00:19:02.730 the Situation Room. Wiles ready to public denial for the president, 326 00:19:03.019 --> 00:19:07.140 which he soon posted

on social media. Shortly after this, 327 00:19:07.200 --> 00:19:09.720 the president posted again. He was going along with the 328 00:19:09.769 --> 00:19:13.049 plan his advisors had hashed out in the Situation Room, 329 00:19:13.490 --> 00:19:15.660 though it was clear he didn't like having to do it. 330 00:19:16.450 --> 00:19:19.589 Based on the ridiculous amount of publicity given to Jeffrey Epstein, 331 00:19:19.990 --> 00:19:23.190 I've asked Attorney General Pam Bondi to produce any and 332 00:19:23.210 --> 00:19:27.109 all pertinent grand jury testimony subject to court approval. This 333 00:19:27.170 --> 00:19:31.490 scam perpetuated by the Democrats should end right now. Scam? 334 00:19:32.029 --> 00:19:35.329 Imagine calling this a scam? No, Mr. President, the only 335 00:19:35.369 --> 00:19:38.089 scam that's being run is the one you're running. on 336 00:19:38.109 --> 00:19:42.740 the American people. In response to a request for comment, 337 00:19:42.779 --> 00:19:46.470 a White House spokeswoman, Abigail Jackson, repeated Trump's claim that 338 00:19:46.509 --> 00:19:49.670 he was innocent in all Epstein-related matters, adding that by 339 00:19:49.690 --> 00:19:53.349 releasing thousands of pages of documents, cooperating with the House 340 00:19:53.410 --> 00:19:57.920 Oversight Committee's subpoena request, signing the Epstein Files Transparency Act, 341 00:19:58.559 --> 00:20:02.380 and calling for more investigations into Epstein's Democrat friends, President 342 00:20:02.420 --> 00:20:06.000 Trump has done more for Epstein's victims than anyone before him. 343 00:20:06.420 --> 00:20:08.319 Why don't you ask the survivors how they feel about 344 00:20:08.339 --> 00:20:11.339 that comment? Because I assure you, they do not agree. 345 00:20:11.359 --> 00:20:13.960 All right, folks, we're going to wrap up episode one 346 00:20:13.980 --> 00:20:16.400 right here. And in the next episode dealing with the topic, 347 00:20:16.440 --> 00:20:19.039 we're going to pick up where we left off. All 348 00:20:19.059 --> 00:20:21.900 the information that goes with this episode can be found 349 00:20:22.440 --> 00:20:25.420 in the description box. What's up, everyone? And welcome to 350 00:20:25.440 --> 00:20:29.460 another episode of the Epstein Chronicles. In this episode, we're 351 00:20:29.480 --> 00:20:31.720 going to get right back to that New York Times 352 00:20:31.779 --> 00:20:38.200 article about Donald Trump and the Epstein Files. This article 353 00:20:38.240 --> 00:20:41.900 was authored by Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan. At the 354 00:20:41.940 --> 00:20:45.109 start of last summer, as far as outside observers could see, 355 00:20:45.529 --> 00:20:47.549 Trump appeared to be at the pinnacle of his power. 356 00:20:47.970 --> 00:20:50.990 He had just bombed nuclear sites in Iran, completed a 357 00:20:51.009 --> 00:20:54.650 blitz of executive orders to reshape the immigration system, and 358 00:20:54.710 --> 00:20:58.849 ran through Congress his signature piece of domestic legislation, the 359 00:20:58.890 --> 00:21:01.880 Big Beautiful Bill. He was using the levers of the 360 00:21:01.910 --> 00:21:05.299 government to go after his enemies. And out of fear 361 00:21:05.660 --> 00:21:11.069 and desperation... America's corporate titans were falling over themselves to genuflect. Look, 362 00:21:11.089 --> 00:21:13.990 a lot of those people, they wanted favorable deals. And 363 00:21:14.009 --> 00:21:16.049 they knew that the Trump administration was going to wheel 364 00:21:16.109 --> 00:21:18.250 and deal. So they're going to do what's best for 365 00:21:18.269 --> 00:21:23.269 their companies. My beef is with the administration and their nonsense. 366 00:21:24.190 --> 00:21:26.380 The absolute greed and corruption that we see on a 367 00:21:26.420 --> 00:21:32.599 regular basis is just unreal. But behind the scenes, the 368 00:21:32.660 --> 00:21:36.000 Epstein crisis was paralyzing the Trump administration to a far 369 00:21:36.079 --> 00:21:39.740 greater extent than the public knew. In their public statements, 370 00:21:39.980 --> 00:21:44.779 Trump's advisors were full of bravado, dismissing the crisis. In reality, 371 00:21:45.140 --> 00:21:47.809 it was consuming the highest ranks of the administration as 372 00:21:47.849 --> 00:21:50.750 no issue had for the president's team since the Russia 373 00:21:50.769 --> 00:21:54.529 investigation in his first term. His aides were determined to 374 00:21:54.549 --> 00:21:57.210 keep their rising sense of panic out of public view. Yo, 375 00:21:58.609 --> 00:22:01.279 this should have been more than Russia. That Russia shit, 376 00:22:01.390 --> 00:22:03.440 I hate to tell you, a lot of it was contrived. 377 00:22:04.940 --> 00:22:06.900 I know people don't want to hear it, because it 378 00:22:06.940 --> 00:22:09.900 doesn't fit in with their confirmation bias and shit, but 379 00:22:09.920 --> 00:22:13.400 it's true. And all the way back then, that there 380 00:22:13.440 --> 00:22:16.799 wasn't enough there there to send anybody to prison. Meanwhile, 381 00:22:16.859 --> 00:22:20.210 the Epstein files were rife with all kinds of corruption. 382 00:22:21.130 --> 00:22:23.289 And if people would have just focused back then, when 383 00:22:23.309 --> 00:22:25.670 this was all happening in real time, we could have 384 00:22:25.710 --> 00:22:32.859 actually got something done. But unfortunately, that never happened. The 385 00:22:32.900 --> 00:22:35.779 Justice Department had struggled with just how to dispose of 386 00:22:35.819 --> 00:22:38.579 the Epstein matter since the beginning of Trump's second term. 387 00:22:39.380 --> 00:22:42.980 The issue was all-consuming for the president's political base, but 388 00:22:43.039 --> 00:22:46.859 also potentially compromising for the president himself in ways that 389 00:22:46.900 --> 00:22:51.240 officials in the new administration didn't fully understand. Any path 390

00:22:51.269 --> 00:22:55.509 forward would be fraud. Some of that complexity was self-inflicted. Yes, 391 00:22:55.549 --> 00:22:59.589 it was, all of it. They created this problem for themselves. 392 00:22:59.869 --> 00:23:04.140 Donald Trump created this problem for himself. Here's an idea. 393 00:23:04.740 --> 00:23:07.299 Just live up to the promises you made while you 394 00:23:07.319 --> 00:23:11.039 were on the campaign trail. Let the chips fall where 395 00:23:11.079 --> 00:23:14.509 they will. Let the American people decide. But instead, you've 396 00:23:14.529 --> 00:23:18.029 got to gatekeep. Instead, you've got to protect your people. Instead, 397 00:23:18.890 --> 00:23:23.029 you have to bring Leon Black's son into the administration. 398 00:23:24.130 --> 00:23:29.630 So yeah, all your problems, self-inflicted. Some of that complexity 399 00:23:29.670 --> 00:23:32.269 was self-inflicted. In the engine room of the MAGA movement, 400 00:23:32.569 --> 00:23:35.970 the Epstein files were potent fuel. Elon Musk had used 401 00:23:36.009 --> 00:23:39.430 his social media platform to repeatedly question why a client 402 00:23:39.470 --> 00:23:43.069 list had not been released. Donald Trump Jr. and J.D. 403 00:23:43.089 --> 00:23:47.319 Vance had invoked the Epstein files as a broader campaign 404 00:23:47.359 --> 00:23:50.339 message to argue that powerful people were hiding the truth 405 00:23:50.640 --> 00:23:55.339 from Americans. Tucker Carlson and the young conservative leader, Charlie Kirk, 406 00:23:55.759 --> 00:23:58.339 had each insisted that the government should release the documents 407 00:23:58.660 --> 00:24:00.670 and each floated the idea that that there was an 408 00:24:00.710 --> 00:24:05.420 expansive cover-up and progress. Well, that's because there is. And 409 00:24:05.440 --> 00:24:07.920 you don't have to agree with Charlie Kirk or agree 410 00:24:07.940 --> 00:24:11.680 with Tucker Carlson to understand that. Just because you don't 411 00:24:11.700 --> 00:24:14.279 agree with somebody doesn't mean they're not right. Look, I 412 00:24:14.299 --> 00:24:17.240 don't agree with Maggie Haberman all the time. She's right 413 00:24:17.269 --> 00:24:20.589 in this article. And I think that whole entire thing 414 00:24:20.890 --> 00:24:24.529 of having to agree with everything somebody says is dumb 415 00:24:24.569 --> 00:24:28.029 as hell. I'm not going to agree with everything somebody 416 00:24:28.069 --> 00:24:32.250 says ever. I have my own opinions on a wide 417 00:24:32.289 --> 00:24:34.970 variety of things, and I'm willing to listen to anybody. 418 00:24:35.410 --> 00:24:38.410 Whoever has the best ideas, that's who I'm voting for. 419 00:24:40.789 --> 00:24:43.809 Trump himself had been cagey. On the Lex Friedman podcast 420 00:24:43.849 --> 00:24:47.190 in September of 2024, when asked about releasing the client list, 421 00:24:47.470 --> 00:24:50.690 Trump responded, I'd certainly take a look at it. Adding, 422 00:24:50.759 --> 00:24:53.440 I'd have no problem with it. The list probably will 423 00:24:53.480 --> 00:24:56.640 be made public, he said. But he sounded less than enthusiastic. 424 00:24:57.579 --> 00:25:01.890 In private, Trump later told Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene that 425 00:25:01.910 --> 00:25:04.329 a release of Epstein material could hurt some of his friends. 426 00:25:05.170 --> 00:25:07.789 He repeatedly insisted that he had done nothing wrong and 427 00:25:07.829 --> 00:25:10.210 that the whole saga was fake news designed to harm 428 00:25:10.250 --> 00:25:14.019 him politically. And that's his go-to move, right? Anytime that 429 00:25:14.059 --> 00:25:17.240 Trump is truly in jeopardy, he calls it a hoax. 430 00:25:17.920 --> 00:25:20.059 And he gets purchased with that because of what happened 431 00:25:20.079 --> 00:25:23.039 with Russia. I mean, the American people heard Russia, Russia, 432 00:25:23.099 --> 00:25:26.720 Russia for how many years? How many hearings? And then 433 00:25:26.759 --> 00:25:30.390 what came of it? So when people hear this, they're like, oh, 434 00:25:30.730 --> 00:25:34.230 just another routine move, another hoax to try and get Trump. 435 00:25:34.589 --> 00:25:36.450 That's what his base thinks. And you can say what 436 00:25:36.490 --> 00:25:39.839 you want about Trump and the administration, but they're effective 437 00:25:40.240 --> 00:25:43.240 communicators when it comes to their own party, their own people. 438 00:25:43.759 --> 00:25:48.259 Very effective. They know exactly what buttons to push. And 439 00:25:48.299 --> 00:25:51.619 he has carefully built this whole entire persona of him 440 00:25:51.660 --> 00:25:53.970 being some kind of martyr. And he knew that it 441 00:25:53.990 --> 00:25:55.930 was going to be effective. He knew that if he 442 00:25:56.009 --> 00:25:59.180 used that strategy and said that, that it would protect him. 443 00:26:00.069 --> 00:26:03.269 And it sure has, hasn't it? All the people out 444 00:26:03.289 --> 00:26:05.369 here that were running their yap for all these years 445 00:26:05.410 --> 00:26:08.769 about Epstein, who now say it's a hoax, what a 446 00:26:08.849 --> 00:26:13.170 bunch of morons. Like, why would anyone believe anything they 447 00:26:13.210 --> 00:26:16.390 have to say? Now, it's one thing if the evidence 448 00:26:16.410 --> 00:26:18.789 would have pointed you in a different direction after you 449 00:26:18.829 --> 00:26:21.910 had one belief, right? Like, if somebody was to show 450 00:26:21.990 --> 00:26:24.980 up tomorrow with all of the evidence of what happened 451 00:26:25.000 --> 00:26:27.460 in that jail cell, and it turned out that it 452 00:26:27.500 --> 00:26:31.019 was 100% suicide, I'd be the first one to get 453 00:26:31.099 --> 00:26:32.940 on here and tell you, look, I've been wrong the 454 00:26:32.960 --> 00:26:37.250 whole time. It was obviously suicide. Because, for me anyway, 455 00:26:38.750 --> 00:26:40.650

the only thing that matters is getting as close to 456 00:26:40.670 --> 00:26:44.750 the truth as we possibly can. And anybody standing in 457 00:26:44.769 --> 00:26:51.769 the way of that, well, I have questions. But his 458 00:26:51.829 --> 00:26:54.670 posture was overtaken by the growing frenzy among his supporters. 459 00:26:55.890 --> 00:26:58.980 Throughout 2024, Greene had made it her mission to force 460 00:26:59.000 --> 00:27:01.880 the release of the files, and there were so many others. 461 00:27:02.339 --> 00:27:06.480 The far-right influencer Laura Loomer, the conservative activist Scott Pressler, 462 00:27:06.880 --> 00:27:09.990 Chaya Raychick from Libs of TikTok. But when it came 463 00:27:10.029 --> 00:27:13.289 to propagating the Epstein files as evidence of the deep state, 464 00:27:13.769 --> 00:27:17.650 capable of evil, two podcasters were not to be outdone. 465 00:27:18.289 --> 00:27:21.980 Kash Patel and Dan Bongino. Well, there's no doubt that 466 00:27:22.000 --> 00:27:24.920 those two were the loudest voices talking about the Epstein files. 467 00:27:25.400 --> 00:27:28.720 And then they get access to them, and we get nothing. 468 00:27:29.200 --> 00:27:31.500 We get told that there's nothing there, and that it 469 00:27:31.539 --> 00:27:35.329 was all just a big mistake. And they really thought 470 00:27:35.369 --> 00:27:38.069 people were going to buy it. They really thought that 471 00:27:38.109 --> 00:27:41.130 they were going to get Joe and Jane America to 472 00:27:41.170 --> 00:27:46.210 buy into that nonsense. Well, how's it working out for them? Patel, 473 00:27:46.470 --> 00:27:50.779 a National Security Council Director for Counterterrorism and Defense Department 474 00:27:50.799 --> 00:27:54.269 Chief of Staff in the first Trump administration... had repeatedly 475 00:27:54.349 --> 00:27:57.839 claimed in podcast interviews that the government was hiding Epstein's 476 00:27:57.880 --> 00:28:01.160 black book or client list, and he frequently asserted that 477 00:28:01.180 --> 00:28:05.079 the FBI was deliberately withholding names to protect the powerful. 478 00:28:05.559 --> 00:28:10.400 They were! That's true, but so is Kash Patel. It's 479 00:28:10.460 --> 00:28:13.940 all one big-ass club, folks, and none of us are invited. 480 00:28:16.250 --> 00:28:19.730 Patel promised that the second Trump administration would release everything 481 00:28:19.769 --> 00:28:23.819 to restore public trust, and they've made it worse. broken 482 00:28:23.859 --> 00:28:28.920 promises on a boulevard of broken dreams. On the Dan 483 00:28:28.960 --> 00:28:32.420 Bongino show, Bongino's background as a Secret Service agent had 484 00:28:32.460 --> 00:28:35.619 lent authority to his claims of a cover-up. What the 485 00:28:35.660 --> 00:28:38.759 hell are they hiding with Jeffrey Epstein? He'd ask his 486 00:28:38.799 --> 00:28:42.160 large audience of MAGA devotees. The release of the client 487 00:28:42.180 --> 00:28:45.660 list would rock the political world, he predicted, though Washington 488 00:28:45.680 --> 00:28:49.519 Swamp was not telling you the truth. Well, that's true too. 489 00:28:49.759 --> 00:28:54.369 They're not, and neither did Dan Bongino. just another useless 490 00:28:54.410 --> 00:28:57.509 son of a bitch. Another person who promised that he 491 00:28:57.529 --> 00:29:00.009 was going to do the right thing, going to expose people, 492 00:29:00.230 --> 00:29:04.849 bring transparency, didn't do any of it. In fact, tucked 493 00:29:04.869 --> 00:29:07.990 his tail between his legs and dipped right back to 494 00:29:08.009 --> 00:29:12.769 the podcasting world. So as they took office in 2025, 495 00:29:12.759 --> 00:29:16.140 Trump's advisors were subject to intense pressure of their own making. 496 00:29:16.819 --> 00:29:20.440 Attorney General Pam Bondi quickly made things much worse. First 497 00:29:20.480 --> 00:29:23.940 in a Fox News interview, On February 21st, she appeared 498 00:29:23.980 --> 00:29:27.380 to confirm the existence of an Epstein client list, something 499 00:29:27.420 --> 00:29:30.140 that the MAGA base had believed was sitting in the 500 00:29:30.180 --> 00:29:34.089 files hidden, and hinted that its release was imminent. Asked 501 00:29:34.130 --> 00:29:37.369 whether the Justice Department might release the names, she responded, 502 00:29:37.910 --> 00:29:41.019 It's sitting on my desk right now to review. But 503 00:29:41.140 --> 00:29:44.519 many viewed what came six days later as even more 504 00:29:44.920 --> 00:29:48.960 of an egregious misstep. The whole entire thing was poorly planned, 505 00:29:49.319 --> 00:29:53.369 poorly managed, and poorly carried out. And if we can't 506 00:29:53.420 --> 00:29:56.829 prove a cover-up here, it's not because there's no evidence, 507 00:29:57.910 --> 00:30:04.140 it's because the willpower isn't there. On February 27th, the 508 00:30:04.160 --> 00:30:07.339 White House Communications Office scheduled a lineup of Cabinet officials 509 00:30:07.680 --> 00:30:11.779 to brief popular right-wing influencers in the Roosevelt Room. The 510 00:30:11.819 --> 00:30:15.460 session began with Vice President Vance, followed by Secretary of 511 00:30:15.480 --> 00:30:19.589 State Marco Rubio, walking the influencers through the administration's agenda. 512 00:30:20.269 --> 00:30:24.710 In attendance was a who's who of online MAGA, Mike Cernovich, 513 00:30:24.950 --> 00:30:29.730 Liz Wheeler, Colin Rugg, D.C. Drano. The President himself brought 514 00:30:29.769 --> 00:30:32.869 them to the Oval Office. and gave them custom-designed challenge 515 00:30:32.890 --> 00:30:37.630 coins as a token of his appreciation. Before everything went wrong, 516 00:30:37.990 --> 00:30:40.210 one of them would remark, It was the best day 517 00:30:40.230 --> 00:30:43.349 of my life. What a bunch of clowns those people are. 518 00:30:44.349 --> 00:30:46.839 All those people with the white

binders? All part of 519 00:30:46.859 --> 00:30:51.859 the PSYOP. All part of the cover-up. Imagine sacrificing your 520 00:30:51.900 --> 00:30:54.140 morality to have a few minutes at the White House? 521 00:30:56.460 --> 00:30:58.579 When the Attorney General and her team walked into the 522 00:30:58.619 --> 00:31:03.190 Roosevelt Room carrying boxes, Bondi had brought binders as handouts 523 00:31:03.230 --> 00:31:06.059 for the influencers. Her aides would later tell colleagues that 524 00:31:06.099 --> 00:31:08.920 the FBI had prepared them with the assurance that they 525 00:31:08.940 --> 00:31:13.640 contained revelatory details. Someone on her staff said, watch this. 526 00:31:14.019 --> 00:31:16.900 This is cool. This is going to be epic. Yeah, 527 00:31:17.220 --> 00:31:23.829 an epic disaster. Epically ridiculous. But as Bondi's staff started 528 00:31:23.869 --> 00:31:26.730 distributing the binders, the blood pressure of other officials in 529 00:31:26.750 --> 00:31:29.849 the room skyrocketed. They had no idea what was in 530 00:31:29.869 --> 00:31:33.539 the handouts. The Attorney General was distributing something she was 531 00:31:33.579 --> 00:31:36.779 calling the Epstein Files that had not been vetted by 532 00:31:36.980 --> 00:31:40.390 anyone in the White House. One official, opening the binder, 533 00:31:40.710 --> 00:31:43.009 began flipping through the pages to see if Trump's name 534 00:31:43.029 --> 00:31:45.829 was mentioned anywhere. A few pages in, right in the 535 00:31:45.849 --> 00:31:48.890 middle of the page, there it was. Boy, I bet 536 00:31:48.910 --> 00:31:51.759 they were happy to find the other, what, 38,000 mentions? 537 00:31:52.119 --> 00:31:54.460 Keira Starmer, the British Prime Minister, was at the White 538 00:31:54.500 --> 00:31:57.750 House that day. If news broke that the Epstein files 539 00:31:57.769 --> 00:32:00.529 had been released before the president was to meet the 540 00:32:00.589 --> 00:32:03.069 press with the prime minister, that would be all the 541 00:32:03.109 --> 00:32:07.950 journalists would want to talk about. And Trump would be blindsided. Oh, 542 00:32:07.990 --> 00:32:11.589 poor Trump. Gonna get blindsided. Gonna have to talk about 543 00:32:11.609 --> 00:32:14.799 his buddy Jeffrey Epstein again. Well, guess what? It's not 544 00:32:14.839 --> 00:32:19.589 going anywhere. Time to meet that shit head on. One 545 00:32:19.619 --> 00:32:21.980 of Trump's aides hastily steered the influencers out of the 546 00:32:22.009 --> 00:32:24.549 White House, telling them that the content of the binders 547 00:32:24.789 --> 00:32:28.450 was embargoed until after the president's news conference with Starmer. 548 00:32:29.049 --> 00:32:31.869 But the communications office would be more than happy to 549 00:32:31.910 --> 00:32:36.549 talk about the files afterward. As the influencers left, they 550 00:32:36.569 --> 00:32:39.210 snapped selfies in front of the White House holding the binders, 551 00:32:39.529 --> 00:32:43.109 quickly posting the pictures on social media. They had now 552 00:32:43.170 --> 00:32:46.309 created a new shockwave of anticipation of what might be 553 00:32:46.349 --> 00:32:49.769 in them. And I remember when it happened. I knew 554 00:32:49.809 --> 00:32:52.650 for a fact that we were getting dog walked. I 555 00:32:52.670 --> 00:32:54.930 knew that we were going to get nothing. And guess what? 556 00:32:55.650 --> 00:33:00.359 We got nothing. Nada. Zilch. Un gots. Like some others 557 00:33:00.559 --> 00:33:03.490 in the White House, Bondi had either grossly underestimated or 558 00:33:03.579 --> 00:33:06.299 simply been blind to the voracious appetite of the MAGA 559 00:33:06.319 --> 00:33:11.220 base for information about Epstein. Her binders contained information about 560 00:33:11.259 --> 00:33:15.640 him and his activities, flight logs, contact lists, summaries of 561 00:33:15.740 --> 00:33:19.500 items taken from the residence after his 2019 arrest, and 562 00:33:19.539 --> 00:33:23.339 other material. But nearly all of it had been previously released. 563 00:33:23.680 --> 00:33:28.890 Bondi had somehow simultaneously oversold and trivialized the Epstein files. 564 00:33:29.490 --> 00:33:33.109 And now the influencers made to feel like dupes. Well, 565 00:33:33.130 --> 00:33:36.130 they are. They're just a bunch of grifters. Do you 566 00:33:36.150 --> 00:33:39.039 think any of those people care about Jeffrey Epstein? Or 567 00:33:39.079 --> 00:33:42.759 the survivors? Or any of the story? It's about engagement 568 00:33:42.799 --> 00:33:45.160 to them. Oh, they cared about it when they thought 569 00:33:45.180 --> 00:33:48.240 they were going to use it politically. That's when they cared. 570 00:33:49.029 --> 00:33:51.369 You know, just like the other side cares now. Oh, 571 00:33:51.410 --> 00:33:53.640 we got a political inroad here. We all of a 572 00:33:53.660 --> 00:33:56.160 sudden care. Well, I hate to break the news to you, 573 00:33:56.579 --> 00:33:58.500 but if you would have cared when it mattered the most, 574 00:33:59.259 --> 00:34:03.240 when this was all happening, maybe, just maybe, we wouldn't 575 00:34:03.259 --> 00:34:06.009 be here today. And it was people like Maggie Haberman, 576 00:34:06.789 --> 00:34:10.050 the author of this article, who was calling people like 577 00:34:10.110 --> 00:34:13.929 me conspiracy theorists. Meanwhile, we've been over the target for 578 00:34:13.989 --> 00:34:16.230 seven years. And all you had to do was listen. 579 00:34:16.710 --> 00:34:19.550 Just listen to what the survivors were saying. Listen to Virginia. 580 00:34:20.219 --> 00:34:22.829 Listen to what Maria had to say. Listen to all 581 00:34:22.869 --> 00:34:26.349 these women who actually lived it. And then you go 582 00:34:26.409 --> 00:34:28.210 and you look at all the court documents. You look 583 00:34:28.230 --> 00:34:30.829 at everything that came out. And the picture that

it 584 00:34:30.869 --> 00:34:34.610 paints is not very hard to recognize. In the Roosevelt room, 585 00:34:34.670 --> 00:34:37.230 Bondi told the influencers that this was just the first 586 00:34:37.269 --> 00:34:40.110 tranche of files. There would be more coming. She assured them. 587 00:34:40.590 --> 00:34:43.590 But that story would change too. Yeah, everything they told 588 00:34:43.670 --> 00:34:47.250 us changed. The campaign, it was, oh, we're going to 589 00:34:47.289 --> 00:34:50.329 have everything out. Then, it was, oh no, there's nothing 590 00:34:50.349 --> 00:34:54.690 coming out. And then, after the discharge petition, well, we're 591 00:34:54.710 --> 00:34:58.590 the most transparent administration in the history of transparency, so 592 00:34:58.610 --> 00:35:02.039 we're going to get everything out for you. Nothing comes out, 593 00:35:02.800 --> 00:35:05.380 nothing of substance, and they fight tooth and nail the 594 00:35:05.400 --> 00:35:08.559 whole entire time. If Donald Trump wanted to be transparent, 595 00:35:08.820 --> 00:35:12.039 he could be. Him and his Justice Department could have 596 00:35:12.059 --> 00:35:14.920 been as transparent as they wanted to be. But instead, 597 00:35:15.639 --> 00:35:17.909 we had to jump through hoops, And it became a circus. 598 00:35:18.199 --> 00:35:21.650 And for what? So Trump could protect his donors? Protect 599 00:35:21.690 --> 00:35:24.710 a few of Jeffrey Epstein's best friends? Or is there 600 00:35:24.750 --> 00:35:30.130 something more sinister that he's trying to protect? The Justice 601 00:35:30.150 --> 00:35:33.550 Department officials were reviewing the Epstein material, but months would 602 00:35:33.570 --> 00:35:37.019 pass before the department or any of Trump's closest advisors 603 00:35:37.340 --> 00:35:40.039 knew just how many documents there were. More than 3 604 00:35:40.039 --> 00:35:43.619 million pages of files related to Epstein, and potentially as 605 00:35:43.679 --> 00:35:47.409 many as 6 million. In the early months, officials were 606 00:35:47.449 --> 00:35:50.250 focused on going through the trove of what are known 607 00:35:50.309 --> 00:35:54.679 as 302 forms, records of FBI agents, interview notes with witnesses, 608 00:35:55.099 --> 00:35:58.940 some of whom were victims of Epstein. These were raw records, 609 00:35:59.500 --> 00:36:04.260 often containing unverified information. Trump was mentioned numerous times, as 610 00:36:04.300 --> 00:36:07.940 were other prominent men. Look, the 302 reports are telling. 611 00:36:09.219 --> 00:36:11.639 These are the words of the people who are interviewed, 612 00:36:13.099 --> 00:36:15.530 who the investigators think have knowledge of what's going on. 613 00:36:17.059 --> 00:36:21.010 So I would suggest that you take the 302 proffers seriously. Now, 614 00:36:21.030 --> 00:36:22.889 does that mean that people won't lie? Of course not. 615 00:36:24.489 --> 00:36:26.750 You have to be guarded. And I would

suggest that 616 00:36:26.769 --> 00:36:29.789 you're very cautious with what sort of slop you're putting 617 00:36:29.809 --> 00:36:32.710 into your brain when it comes to this topic. There's 618 00:36:32.730 --> 00:36:34.289 a lot of people out there just serving up a 619 00:36:34.369 --> 00:36:37.780 bunch of nonsense. In June, four months after the circus 620 00:36:37.820 --> 00:36:40.820 in the Roosevelt Room with the influencers Bondi and Blanche 621 00:36:41.119 --> 00:36:43.679 briefed the president on the status of the Epstein review. 622 00:36:44.550 --> 00:36:47.329 We've gone through the files, Blanche told Trump. There's not 623 00:36:47.349 --> 00:36:50.329 a lot there. A lot of child pornography, obviously. We 624 00:36:50.349 --> 00:36:53.610 can't put any of that out. There are some mentions 625 00:36:53.659 --> 00:36:57.420 of you, but nothing substantive. Most of Trump's advisors had 626 00:36:57.480 --> 00:37:00.420 rejected out of hand the idea of releasing the FBI's 627 00:37:00.800 --> 00:37:04.619 raw interview notes. More important, they wanted to avoid putting 628 00:37:04.679 --> 00:37:09.480 out anything that could damage the president. Cover-up. Folks, that's 629 00:37:09.500 --> 00:37:13.440 what this is. This is a cover-up. In motion. Everything's 630 00:37:13.460 --> 00:37:15.860 being done to protect Donald Trump. It has nothing to 631 00:37:15.900 --> 00:37:18.619 do with justice. It has nothing to do with real transparency. 632 00:37:19.539 --> 00:37:24.150 It's about protecting Donald Trump on Donald Trump's orders. If 633 00:37:24.170 --> 00:37:28.469 that's not a cover-up, I don't know what is. With 634 00:37:28.510 --> 00:37:31.550 full transparency and non-starter, a small group of White House 635 00:37:31.590 --> 00:37:34.800 and Justice Department officials decided to draft a memo that 636 00:37:34.820 --> 00:37:37.539 would explain why the department was not releasing any further 637 00:37:37.579 --> 00:37:41.630 information about Epstein. But even the process of composing the 638 00:37:41.650 --> 00:37:44.539 memo was fraught, in part because no one wanted their 639 00:37:44.579 --> 00:37:47.000 name on it, and in part because of a deep 640 00:37:47.039 --> 00:37:51.039 concern within the leadership of the FBI. You know what 641 00:37:51.059 --> 00:37:54.420 we need here? A whistleblower. We need somebody that was 642 00:37:54.500 --> 00:37:56.809 working on this behind the scenes to come out and 643 00:37:56.849 --> 00:37:59.190 drip all that tea. You know that there were people 644 00:37:59.230 --> 00:38:01.409 that weren't down with what was going on. You know 645 00:38:01.449 --> 00:38:03.650 there were people that wanted to go a different way. 646 00:38:05.349 --> 00:38:07.750 But all of this was done at the behest of 647 00:38:07.769 --> 00:38:10.260 Donald Trump. And it seems like every time we get 648 00:38:10.300 --> 00:38:16.139 new information, it just reaffirms that. For weeks, Patel and Bongino, 649 00:38:16.199 --> 00:38:19.769 the deputy FBI director, had grown more infuriated as they 650 00:38:19.789 --> 00:38:22.550 realized the scale of the mess for which they were 651 00:38:22.570 --> 00:38:26.389 now being blamed. They repeatedly raised alarms internally that the 652 00:38:26.469 --> 00:38:31.750 Epstein crisis was gathering momentum with Trump supporters. Bongino wanted 653 00:38:31.769 --> 00:38:34.829 to convey something definitive to the MAGA base, and he 654 00:38:34.869 --> 00:38:37.800 and Patel pushed for the immediate release of the surveillance 655 00:38:37.820 --> 00:38:40.679 footage From the federal facility where Epstein was found dead 656 00:38:41.019 --> 00:38:43.760 in his cell. That proved to be a disaster as well. 657 00:38:44.460 --> 00:38:50.300 What an absolute and utter disaster. Missing minute. Nothing adding up. 658 00:38:50.840 --> 00:38:53.219 Couldn't see anything. And then of course there's the orange 659 00:38:53.239 --> 00:38:56.909 blob that nobody's explained. Oh, it's Tova Noel. Well, no 660 00:38:56.949 --> 00:38:59.750 it's not. She says it's not her. So who is it? 661 00:39:04.730 --> 00:39:08.409 Bongino hated the Justice Department's nothing-to-see-here memo being drawn up 662 00:39:08.650 --> 00:39:12.110 for public release. He told Patel this would in no 663 00:39:12.139 --> 00:39:15.800 way align with their promises of transparency after taking over 664 00:39:15.840 --> 00:39:19.000 the FBI, and he objected to putting the FBI seal 665 00:39:19.320 --> 00:39:23.769 on the letterhead, but he was overruled. Patel privately shared 666 00:39:24.050 --> 00:39:27.429 many of Bongino's concerns, but in an internal email on 667 00:39:27.469 --> 00:39:31.670 July 2nd, the FBI director gave his support for the memo. 668 00:39:32.090 --> 00:39:34.400 But what's he going to do? Donald Trump wants the 669 00:39:34.420 --> 00:39:37.340 memo out. They're going to put it out. These people 670 00:39:37.380 --> 00:39:41.119 aren't courageous. They're not willing to stand up to somebody 671 00:39:41.159 --> 00:39:43.719 like Donald Trump if that means their career is going 672 00:39:43.739 --> 00:39:46.550 to be over. Thanks for the edits. I still believe 673 00:39:46.570 --> 00:39:49.579 that this is the correct vehicle forward, Patel wrote. with 674 00:39:49.599 --> 00:39:53.210 the occasional typo to a small group of colleagues, including Blanche. 675 00:39:54.050 --> 00:39:58.130 I'm happy to add any additional sentences to compete the shortfall, 676 00:39:58.590 --> 00:40:01.469 but I do think we address specifically why more can't 677 00:40:01.489 --> 00:40:05.869 be released as it relates to specific topics, i.e. court order, CSAM, 678 00:40:06.829 --> 00:40:12.099 victims protections, etc. Bondi rarely used her Justice Department email 679 00:40:12.400 --> 00:40:14.400 and was not on the chain where the group worked 680 00:40:14.739 --> 00:40:17.179 on the memo. She was aware of both the memo

681 00:40:17.239 --> 00:40:19.659 and the release of the prison video, but was not 682 00:40:19.679 --> 00:40:23.139 involved in editing the document. So what was she doing? 683 00:40:23.760 --> 00:40:27.519 Just a figurehead? I think that Blanche has been the 684 00:40:27.559 --> 00:40:31.019 boss this whole entire time. That's what I believe. And 685 00:40:31.059 --> 00:40:32.699 I think that he was put there by Donald Trump 686 00:40:33.099 --> 00:40:37.050 for this exact reason. If shit goes south, Blanche takes 687 00:40:37.090 --> 00:40:40.510 Lorraine's and he guides the ship home. And that's exactly 688 00:40:40.550 --> 00:40:44.130 what's happening right now as we speak. But Blanche needs 689 00:40:44.150 --> 00:40:47.789 to understand that Trump's not going to be president forever. 690 00:40:48.630 --> 00:40:51.739 And at some point, this bill is going to come due. 691 00:40:53.880 --> 00:40:56.840 Inside the White House, Trump had no interest in releasing anything. 692 00:40:57.260 --> 00:41:01.019 And senior officials, including Wiles and Blair, were initially unconvinced 693 00:41:01.360 --> 00:41:04.460 about the reach of the Epstein crisis. They told colleagues 694 00:41:04.500 --> 00:41:07.579 that Republican voters didn't care. And they had early data 695 00:41:07.840 --> 00:41:12.690 from Trump's chief pollster, Tony Fabrizio, to demonstrate it. The 696 00:41:12.769 --> 00:41:16.329 Epstein brouhaha, in their view, was driven by fringe conspiracy 697 00:41:16.369 --> 00:41:20.800 theorists and amplified by noisy online influencers who didn't represent 698 00:41:20.840 --> 00:41:23.880 a meaningful block of voters. If the White House engaged, 699 00:41:24.139 --> 00:41:27.000 it would only pump it up, putting the official stamp 700 00:41:27.320 --> 00:41:31.059 on the matter. Wiles, Blair, and others around Trump had 701 00:41:31.099 --> 00:41:34.360 seen him weather every storm imaginable for years, and in 702 00:41:34.400 --> 00:41:37.159 their view, this wasn't a storm, it was a passing 703 00:41:37.179 --> 00:41:39.800 cloud at most. I wonder if he feels that way now. 704 00:41:41.820 --> 00:41:44.719 Bongino told anyone who would listen that this was a 705 00:41:44.840 --> 00:41:48.489 grave miscalculation. It's not an online story, he told White 706 00:41:48.530 --> 00:41:51.929 House advisors. You don't understand. All right, folks, we're going 707 00:41:51.949 --> 00:41:54.130 to wrap up right here. And in the next episode, 708 00:41:54.349 --> 00:41:57.809 we'll finish this bad boy off. All the information that 709 00:41:57.849 --> 00:42:01.079 goes with this episode can be found in the description box. 710 00:42:01.420 --> 00:42:04.480 What's up, everyone, and welcome to another episode of the 711 00:42:04.559 --> 00:42:07.730 Epstein Chronicles. In this episode, we're going to pick up 712 00:42:07.969 --> 00:42:10.550 where we left off with the New York Times article 713 00:42:10.809 --> 00:42:15.260 that was authored

by Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan. On 714 00:42:15.280 --> 00:42:18.340 July 7th, the Department of Justice and the FBI released 715 00:42:18.380 --> 00:42:21.559 a memo. It was brief, an unsigned one and a 716 00:42:21.579 --> 00:42:24.860 half page statement explaining that after an exhaustive search of 717 00:42:24.920 --> 00:42:28.559 its database, hard drives and network drives, as well as 718 00:42:28.599 --> 00:42:32.920 physical searches of squad areas, lock cabinets, desks, closets, and 719 00:42:32.960 --> 00:42:36.420 other areas where responsive material may have been stored, and 720 00:42:36.480 --> 00:42:39.849 a corresponding review of more than 300 gigabytes of evidence, 721 00:42:40.409 --> 00:42:43.110 the department concluded that there was no evidence Epstein had 722 00:42:43.150 --> 00:42:47.590 maintained a client list. The memo also reaffirmed the official 723 00:42:47.630 --> 00:42:51.630 finding that Epstein's death in 2019 had been a suicide. 724 00:42:52.309 --> 00:42:54.699 The memo was accompanied by the release of video footage 725 00:42:55.000 --> 00:42:58.880 from the federal jail in Manhattan where Epstein died, footage 726 00:42:58.940 --> 00:43:03.300 that officials said supported the conclusion of suicide. And with that, 727 00:43:03.579 --> 00:43:06.730 the memo indicated that the Trump administration would not be 728 00:43:06.769 --> 00:43:10.739 releasing further information regarding the Epstein case and no further 729 00:43:10.800 --> 00:43:15.860 investigation of uncharged third parties was warranted. Imagine, after all 730 00:43:15.900 --> 00:43:19.019 that hubbub, after all the carrying on, after telling us, 731 00:43:19.559 --> 00:43:22.570 this time's going to be different. To send out that 732 00:43:22.630 --> 00:43:25.789 memo and just spit in everybody's face? Less than five 733 00:43:25.849 --> 00:43:28.730 months after Bondi had referred to a secret client list 734 00:43:29.090 --> 00:43:32.969 of high-profile predators, the case was closed. Or, so it seemed. 735 00:43:34.260 --> 00:43:37.059 If the administration expected that the memo would be the 736 00:43:37.099 --> 00:43:39.980 last word on the Epstein case, and that the president's 737 00:43:40.019 --> 00:43:43.469 most ardent supporters would accept the purported conclusions of the 738 00:43:43.510 --> 00:43:47.710 Department of Justice simply because the department and its investigative 739 00:43:47.789 --> 00:43:51.510 agencies were now controlled by Donald Trump, they were sorely mistaken. 740 00:43:52.130 --> 00:43:55.440 The memo was an earthquake, and it was received by 741 00:43:55.480 --> 00:43:58.119 a part of the MAGA base as an outright betrayal. 742 00:43:58.619 --> 00:44:03.800 It amounted to an abrupt disavowal of the sinister conspiracy 743 00:44:03.840 --> 00:44:07.280 theories that some of Trump's closest confidants had hyped during 744 00:44:07.300 --> 00:44:10.349 the Biden presidency, and that they had promised to expose 745 00:44:10.690 --> 00:44:15.210 once Trump returned to power. The release of the surveillance video, 746 00:44:15.409 --> 00:44:19.269 which Bongino and Patel had intended as a gesture of transparency, 747 00:44:19.670 --> 00:44:22.659 further fueled the fire. The Department of Justice ended up 748 00:44:22.699 --> 00:44:26.699 releasing roughly 11 hours of prison video, intended to show 749 00:44:26.739 --> 00:44:30.559 that nothing nefarious occurred, but the footage was missing a minute. 750 00:44:31.119 --> 00:44:35.460 a visible timestamp jump from 11.58, 58 p.m. to midnight. 751 00:44:36.199 --> 00:44:39.719 Bondi initially attributed this to a nightly system reset, and 752 00:44:39.760 --> 00:44:44.559 the footage was later restored and released. To many of 753 00:44:44.579 --> 00:44:47.699 Trump's followers, however, this was yet more evidence of a cover-up. 754 00:44:48.199 --> 00:44:51.219 White House officials complained privately that they hadn't been told 755 00:44:51.539 --> 00:44:55.139 about the gap before the release. Social media lit up 756 00:44:55.179 --> 00:44:58.980 with blame, not just for Bondi, but for Patel and Bongino, too. 757 00:44:59.969 --> 00:45:02.090 None of the three had ever experienced anger at this 758 00:45:02.130 --> 00:45:07.019 volume from Trump's conservative base. It was disorienting, especially for 759 00:45:07.059 --> 00:45:11.280 Patel and Bongino, whose power and influence had been built online. 760 00:45:11.780 --> 00:45:13.960 And you know it was a shock for them. Having 761 00:45:13.980 --> 00:45:17.400 everybody come after them like that? That must not have 762 00:45:17.420 --> 00:45:20.659 been very much fun. But guess what? They should have 763 00:45:20.699 --> 00:45:23.190 done the right thing. If you say you're going to 764 00:45:23.210 --> 00:45:26.369 release something, release it. And if not, you better have 765 00:45:26.389 --> 00:45:30.260 a good explanation as to why. And unfortunately for them, 766 00:45:30.739 --> 00:45:38.079 no explanation came. The movement that had treated them as 767 00:45:38.139 --> 00:45:40.980 heroes was suddenly turning on them. The two men were 768 00:45:41.019 --> 00:45:44.059 now tightly connected to a memo that stated in black 769 00:45:44.079 --> 00:45:47.559 and white that while information in the government's possession showed 770 00:45:47.780 --> 00:45:51.239 ample evidence of Epstein's own wrongdoing, there's no evidence of 771 00:45:51.300 --> 00:45:55.289 a wider conspiracy. The day the memo was released, Bongino 772 00:45:55.329 --> 00:45:58.090 showed up to a daily Justice Department meeting with the 773 00:45:58.190 --> 00:46:01.250 FBI staff, and the Attorney General. He was in a 774 00:46:01.309 --> 00:46:04.570 volcanic mood. As soon as he entered the room, he 775 00:46:04.630 --> 00:46:07.530 erupted at Bondi, shouting at her. You fucked this thing 776 00:46:07.590 --> 00:46:10.170 up from the start, Bongino yelled. The way you've

been 777 00:46:10.210 --> 00:46:13.909 talking about this, that dumb fucking charade with the Epstein files, 778 00:46:14.550 --> 00:46:17.239 the they're on my desk nonsense, all the promises to 779 00:46:17.260 --> 00:46:22.500 folks out there. Look, he's not wrong about that. And 780 00:46:22.539 --> 00:46:26.059 when somebody's right, they're right. Not exactly what I would 781 00:46:26.079 --> 00:46:28.619 call the biggest fan of Dan Bongino, but he's not 782 00:46:28.659 --> 00:46:33.150 wrong here. and he had every reason to be fired up. 783 00:46:33.449 --> 00:46:38.539 This dude basically staked his career on this bullshit. Patel 784 00:46:38.579 --> 00:46:41.559 and Bongino both subsequently told the White House official that 785 00:46:41.599 --> 00:46:45.820 Bondi needed to resign. Two days later, on July 9th, 786 00:46:46.079 --> 00:46:48.449 the two men were summoned to a meeting with Wiles 787 00:46:48.630 --> 00:46:52.530 and Bondi in the Situation Room. They were the last 788 00:46:52.570 --> 00:46:55.849 to enter the small, wood-paneled room, seated around the table, 789 00:46:56.150 --> 00:47:00.570 where Bondi, Wiles, Blanche, and Taylor Budowich, one of Wiles' deputies. 790 00:47:01.260 --> 00:47:04.400 The moment Bongino sat down, Wiles told him that she 791 00:47:04.420 --> 00:47:07.199 had been informed that he leaked a sensitive story about 792 00:47:07.280 --> 00:47:10.340 Epstein and Trump to ABC News. I'll tell you what, 793 00:47:10.360 --> 00:47:14.239 Bongino replied. I'll give you $ 100, 000 cash right now. I'm 794 00:47:14.260 --> 00:47:17.510 not kidding. Walk out to West Exec, put that reporter 795 00:47:17.570 --> 00:47:23.289 on speaker, and get him to admit that I leaked it. $ 100, 000. 796 00:47:21.610 --> 00:47:24.949 Wiles snapped back. Well, we got ourselves into this. Bongino 797 00:47:24.969 --> 00:47:27.050 cut her off. No, no, no, no, no. We didn't 798 00:47:27.070 --> 00:47:30.170 get ourselves into anything. I warned you guys about this 799 00:47:30.230 --> 00:47:33.929 the whole time, and you ignored me. And exactly what 800 00:47:33.969 --> 00:47:36.510 I said was going to happen, happened. And now you're 801 00:47:36.530 --> 00:47:39.010 pretending I was in on this. I was never in 802 00:47:39.070 --> 00:47:41.050 on this. It's always nice to see the rats try 803 00:47:41.070 --> 00:47:44.820 and flee the sinking ship, huh? Bongino's aggressive response to 804 00:47:44.860 --> 00:47:48.420 Wiles startled the others. She was the White House chief 805 00:47:48.480 --> 00:47:52.559 of staff, essentially a stand-in for the president. Wiles put 806 00:47:52.579 --> 00:47:56.039 Bongino on the spot. Going forward, she said, we're all in. 807 00:47:56.539 --> 00:47:58.519 We're all going to agree to move forward. Are you 808 00:47:58.619 --> 00:48:02.780 in or not? No, I'm not, Bongino said. This is 809 00:48:02.840 --> 00:48:05.050 not my plan. I'm not part of this going forward. 810 00:48:05.090 --> 00:48:07.730 Forget it. I'm out of here. He stormed out of 811 00:48:07.769 --> 00:48:11.190 the Situation Room and onto West Executive Avenue, where he 812 00:48:11.210 --> 00:48:14.869 climbed into the back of Patel's armored SUV and directed 813 00:48:14.889 --> 00:48:18.820 the driver to take him to FBI headquarters. Some of 814 00:48:18.840 --> 00:48:22.139 Bongino's close friends hoped that he would resign right then 815 00:48:22.179 --> 00:48:24.239 and there. an act of protest that would have made 816 00:48:24.280 --> 00:48:28.139 him a MAGA martyr and only increased his following. Look, 817 00:48:28.179 --> 00:48:29.429 I would have had a lot less to say if 818 00:48:29.449 --> 00:48:31.530 he did that. At least he would have shown some 819 00:48:31.570 --> 00:48:35.909 integrity and some backbone. But no, he stuck around and 820 00:48:35.949 --> 00:48:40.269 ran cover. But the White House advisors intervened, urging him 821 00:48:40.309 --> 00:48:42.849 to stay. If he quit over Epstein and went public, 822 00:48:43.190 --> 00:48:47.329 it could severely damage the president. Bongino told associates he 823 00:48:47.349 --> 00:48:50.170 would remain for Trump's sake and keep pushing for more 824 00:48:50.550 --> 00:48:56.429 Epstein information to be released. but privately he seethed. In 825 00:48:56.489 --> 00:48:59.869 conversations with confidants, he lamented what the job had cost him, 826 00:49:00.269 --> 00:49:04.130 millions of dollars, and podcast revenue, family time, his audience. 827 00:49:04.809 --> 00:49:07.349 He was getting torn apart over a strategy he had 828 00:49:07.389 --> 00:49:11.250 opposed from the start. The relationships at the top of 829 00:49:11.269 --> 00:49:15.329 the Justice Department were by now beyond dysfunctional. In another 830 00:49:15.369 --> 00:49:18.530 July meeting in Wilde's office, Bongino and Patel told the 831 00:49:18.550 --> 00:49:21.730 Chief of Staff they suspected that Bondi had leaked negative 832 00:49:21.769 --> 00:49:26.679 stories about them. Yo, this is a shitshow. No wonder 833 00:49:26.739 --> 00:49:30.460 everything was so screwed up, folks. What an absolute clown show. 834 00:49:33.199 --> 00:49:36.619 Bondi fucked this whole thing up, Bongino later told the confidant. 835 00:49:37.349 --> 00:49:40.969 echoing Loomer's derisive nickname for the Attorney General. She was 836 00:49:41.010 --> 00:49:43.389 the one on TV saying, over and over, they had 837 00:49:43.409 --> 00:49:46.469 all this stuff. There was never anything. We were always 838 00:49:46.510 --> 00:49:49.679 clear about that. But now everyone thinks we did something wrong, 839 00:49:50.000 --> 00:49:53.559 and I gave up everything. Bongino complained that he'd given 840 00:49:53.679 --> 00:49:57.159 up his high-rated show and millions of dollars, and now 841 00:49:57.219 --> 00:50:00.219 it's all disappeared. Because people think we screwed something up 842 00:50:00.460 --> 00:50:04.690 with Epstein. You did.

You're a coward and a chump, 843 00:50:04.730 --> 00:50:09.750 damn Bongino. A real man would have been a whistleblower. 844 00:50:10.110 --> 00:50:15.230 A real man would have stood up. Bongino paused. This 845 00:50:15.289 --> 00:50:19.190 is going to be President Trump's Iran-Contra. While he's not 846 00:50:19.230 --> 00:50:23.820 wrong about that, it sure is. On July 12th, the 847 00:50:23.860 --> 00:50:27.179 President took to Truth Social to defend Bondi against criticism, 848 00:50:27.460 --> 00:50:30.039 to urge his boys and gals to stop wasting time 849 00:50:30.340 --> 00:50:33.599 and energy on Jeffrey Epstein, somebody that nobody cares about. 850 00:50:34.039 --> 00:50:37.920 And that's hilarious, considering that Trump himself and the administration 851 00:50:38.340 --> 00:50:44.480 couldn't shut up about Epstein for so long. Trump told 852 00:50:44.679 --> 00:50:47.019 aides he was very unhappy with some of his most 853 00:50:47.300 --> 00:50:51.900 influential supporters, including Charlie Kirk, Tucker Carlson, and Megyn Kelly, 854 00:50:52.300 --> 00:50:55.500 all of whom were publicly urging the administration to come clean. 855 00:50:56.260 --> 00:50:59.389 Kirk had held the Turning Point USA event the previous day. 856 00:51:00.340 --> 00:51:03.610 That turned into an Epstein grievance fest, with one speaker 857 00:51:03.949 --> 00:51:07.460 after another bashing Bondi, over the handling of the situation. 858 00:51:08.179 --> 00:51:11.039 Trump had called Kirk and scolded him. Trump is so 859 00:51:11.079 --> 00:51:16.380 thin-skinned that he's willing to go after his most ardent supporters, 860 00:51:17.239 --> 00:51:19.239 even if they just step out of line once. If 861 00:51:19.260 --> 00:51:23.019 they don't agree with everything, then you're a traitor. I 862 00:51:23.059 --> 00:51:27.530 just can't get down with the whole absolutism. Sometimes I'll agree, 863 00:51:27.730 --> 00:51:30.750 sometimes I won't. And if that's a problem, well, I 864 00:51:30.789 --> 00:51:33.090 don't give a shit. It's not my problem. It's yours. 865 00:51:34.630 --> 00:51:36.769 Nobody in Trump's orbit had a better feel for the 866 00:51:36.809 --> 00:51:39.389 younger part of the MAGA base than Kirk, who saw 867 00:51:39.409 --> 00:51:42.730 that the Epstein cover-up, as it was now viewed, was 868 00:51:42.789 --> 00:51:48.420 capturing attention to an alarming extent. Donald Trump Jr. and J.D. Vance, 869 00:51:48.619 --> 00:51:52.179 both of whom spent considerable time on X, were tapped 870 00:51:52.219 --> 00:51:55.519 into the same younger and hyper-online portion of the base, 871 00:51:56.199 --> 00:51:59.130 were also worried. They urged the White House to change 872 00:51:59.190 --> 00:52:01.849 course and force the Justice Department to to release more 873 00:52:01.869 --> 00:52:04.570 of the files. So basically, we had a MAGA civil war. 874 00:52:05.989 --> 00:52:10.210 And like usual, the Trump faction won. Vance made it 875 00:52:10.230 --> 00:52:12.389 clear to colleagues that he feared losing some of the 876 00:52:12.429 --> 00:52:16.780 so-called low-propensity voters, the young men, who are not traditional Republicans, 877 00:52:17.070 --> 00:52:21.179 but who had voted for the Trump-Vance ticket in 2024. Bingo. 878 00:52:21.619 --> 00:52:25.219 Almost to a person. Those people are out. They're not 879 00:52:25.280 --> 00:52:27.400 voting for Trump. They're not going to vote for this bullshit. 880 00:52:28.780 --> 00:52:31.679 So either they're sitting out the midterms, or they're going 881 00:52:31.699 --> 00:52:34.179 to vote against Trump's candidates, and I've heard that from 882 00:52:34.239 --> 00:52:38.480 numerous people. This was the audience that tuned in to 883 00:52:38.500 --> 00:52:42.000 the Manosphere podcasters like Joe Rogan, and it was worrisome 884 00:52:42.039 --> 00:52:45.719 that the podcast hosts themselves were now rebelling. But there 885 00:52:45.760 --> 00:52:48.760 was one major obstacle in the path of a solution. 886 00:52:49.780 --> 00:52:54.340 The president himself still had no interest in transparency. He 887 00:52:54.380 --> 00:52:57.219 wanted the whole Epstein issue buried, and he was snapping 888 00:52:57.260 --> 00:53:00.719 at anyone who mentioned it. His staff largely avoided the 889 00:53:00.760 --> 00:53:05.039 subject in their conversations with him, forced to worry among themselves. Finally, 890 00:53:05.139 --> 00:53:09.519 on July 16th, in an exasperated Truth Social post, seemingly 891 00:53:09.599 --> 00:53:11.719 desperate to make the case in a language that might 892 00:53:11.780 --> 00:53:16.030 resonate with his base, Trump somewhat nonsensically called the Epstein 893 00:53:16.070 --> 00:53:19.610 case a hoax by Democrats and then proceeded to heap 894 00:53:19.670 --> 00:53:23.369 abuse on members of his party and his base, disavowing 895 00:53:23.389 --> 00:53:27.530 their support, calling them past supporters and weaklings who had 896 00:53:27.610 --> 00:53:30.679 bought into this bullshit hook, line, and sinker. And look, 897 00:53:30.699 --> 00:53:33.639 the line was drawn. At that point, the line was drawn. 898 00:53:34.579 --> 00:53:37.159 And anybody that's still trying to place Trump as some 899 00:53:37.199 --> 00:53:40.900 kind of hero here is crazy. Donald Trump is the 900 00:53:41.019 --> 00:53:45.460 one single biggest impediment to transparency right now. And that's 901 00:53:45.500 --> 00:53:47.920 just the truth. Whether you want to believe it or not, 902 00:53:48.019 --> 00:53:50.519 I don't care. But if this man wanted this stuff 903 00:53:50.539 --> 00:53:53.570 to be out there, it would be out there. As 904 00:53:53.630 --> 00:53:56.090 the president was trying to redirect everyone away from the 905 00:53:56.170 --> 00:53:59.449 Epstein on social media, members of both parties began to 906 00:53:59.489 --> 00:54:03.769 push the other way. Many Democrats embraced the growing Epstein 907

00:54:03.789 --> 00:54:07.489 scandal as a top focus in their messaging and as 908 00:54:07.530 --> 00:54:11.050 a weapon against Trump. That's a big problem too. All 909 00:54:11.090 --> 00:54:14.150 these same Democrats, or a lot of them, they were 910 00:54:14.190 --> 00:54:18.860 nowhere to be found in 2020, 2019. But all of 911 00:54:18.900 --> 00:54:21.179 a sudden, they feel like they can use it politically, 912 00:54:21.480 --> 00:54:24.309 so now they care? So look, I'm not under any 913 00:54:24.389 --> 00:54:28.809 impression that they're some kind of great crusaders. They're just 914 00:54:28.869 --> 00:54:31.010 a vehicle that we're using to get to where we 915 00:54:31.050 --> 00:54:36.860 want to go. Same thing with Massey, right? They were 916 00:54:36.880 --> 00:54:39.539 joined by a few renegade Republicans, which added to the 917 00:54:39.579 --> 00:54:44.440 political pressure on the president's team. Representative Thomas Massey, a Republican, 918 00:54:44.739 --> 00:54:49.599 and Ro Khanna, a Democrat, filed H.R. 4405, the Epstein 919 00:54:49.639 --> 00:54:52.909 Files Transparency Act, in the House. And although they did 920 00:54:52.949 --> 00:54:54.989 not yet have the votes for the bill, it would 921 00:54:55.010 --> 00:54:58.000 become the next battleground as the president dug in against 922 00:54:58.039 --> 00:55:02.119 releasing information. Which is hilarious, considering they're the most transparent 923 00:55:02.179 --> 00:55:05.119 administration of all time. You would think that it would 924 00:55:05.159 --> 00:55:07.630 have to be a battle. That Trump would be the 925 00:55:07.730 --> 00:55:10.909 one saying, you know what? It's time for full transparency. 926 00:55:11.309 --> 00:55:14.110 They were joined by a few renegade Republicans, which added 927 00:55:14.150 --> 00:55:18.489 to the political pressure on the president's team. Representative Thomas Massey, 928 00:55:18.800 --> 00:55:22.519 a Republican, and Ro Khanna, a Democrat, filed H.R. 4405, 929 00:55:22.519 --> 00:55:27.400 the Epstein File Transparency Act, in the House, and although 930 00:55:27.760 --> 00:55:29.519 they did not yet have the votes for the bill, 931 00:55:30.219 --> 00:55:32.440 it would become the next battleground as the President dug 932 00:55:32.519 --> 00:55:36.559 in against releasing information. Word reached the White House in 933 00:55:36.579 --> 00:55:39.630 late July, meanwhile, that a subpoena would soon be coming 934 00:55:39.949 --> 00:55:42.570 from the House Oversight Committee led by James Comer, a 935 00:55:42.630 --> 00:55:46.349 Republican from Kentucky. It had been pushed by committee Democrats, 936 00:55:46.570 --> 00:55:49.400 with the help of some Republicans, and it compelled the 937 00:55:49.440 --> 00:55:53.619 release of files the Justice Department had on Epstein. On 938 00:55:53.659 --> 00:55:56.340 the day that the Trump team learned about the looming subpoena, 939 00:55:56.840 --> 00:56:00.769 another

Epstein crisis meeting was convened in the Situation Room 940 00:56:01.150 --> 00:56:04.809 to discuss the pressure coming from Congress. It included most 941 00:56:04.829 --> 00:56:11.610 of the same people, Lyles and Vance, Blanche, Warrington, Patel, Bondi, Blair, Chung, Budowich, 942 00:56:11.969 --> 00:56:15.050 and Levitt. Blair told the group that they would try 943 00:56:15.090 --> 00:56:17.420 to make sure that they were cooperating fully with the 944 00:56:17.460 --> 00:56:20.050 White House subpoena. but that the priority was to release 945 00:56:20.090 --> 00:56:24.130 information that demonstrated Trump was not involved in Epstein's crimes. 946 00:56:24.909 --> 00:56:30.269 That's the priority, huh? Disgusting. Folks, look, this is a 947 00:56:30.309 --> 00:56:33.650 damning article, and if it's true, there is no doubt 948 00:56:33.929 --> 00:56:39.510 that there is a cover-up. Blanche gave an assessment of 949 00:56:39.550 --> 00:56:41.989 the Epstein material that he personally reviewed or had been 950 00:56:42.010 --> 00:56:46.030 briefed on, including a volume of Child Pornography. The conversation 951 00:56:46.289 --> 00:56:48.650 turned to how these files should be released to the public. 952 00:56:49.190 --> 00:56:51.760 The idea already in the works was to put all 953 00:56:51.840 --> 00:56:55.260 Epstein-related material on a website. That way they could overwhelm 954 00:56:55.300 --> 00:56:59.159 the magosphere with far greater volume of real information in 955 00:56:59.199 --> 00:57:02.780 the form of a huge database. That's called flooding the zone. 956 00:57:03.440 --> 00:57:05.599 And it's what they do when they're trying to confuse people. 957 00:57:07.559 --> 00:57:09.610 Put out a bunch of shit and hope some of 958 00:57:09.690 --> 00:57:14.170 it sticks. The website had been easy to build, and 959 00:57:14.190 --> 00:57:16.750 they were looking at potentially going live within a week. 960 00:57:17.309 --> 00:57:20.309 They had already accumulated a mountain of material that Blanche 961 00:57:20.329 --> 00:57:23.289 had been scrolling through, and it included piles of documents 962 00:57:23.550 --> 00:57:27.130 from both civil and criminal cases. They planned to release 963 00:57:27.170 --> 00:57:30.980 it all. Blanche could then appear on Rogan's podcast to 964 00:57:31.019 --> 00:57:34.260 promote the transparency from the White House. But as it 965 00:57:34.300 --> 00:57:37.599 turned out, this searchable website would not go live on 966 00:57:37.619 --> 00:57:40.340 their initial timetable, and the version of the site they 967 00:57:40.380 --> 00:57:44.219 originally conceived would never be released to the public. The 968 00:57:44.260 --> 00:57:46.280 whole last thing has been nothing but a scam from 969 00:57:46.320 --> 00:57:48.860 the very beginning. They never had any desire to tell 970 00:57:48.900 --> 00:57:54.550 the truth. Never. By late summer, it was plainly apparent 971 00:57:54.590 --> 00:57:57.469 to the president's top aides that the Epstein saga was 972 00:57:57.510 --> 00:58:00.190 not the same as the countless other crises they had 973 00:58:00.230 --> 00:58:03.920 weathered during their service to Trump. To their great surprise, 974 00:58:04.219 --> 00:58:07.639 and growing disquiet, Trump's old tricks of deflection and denial 975 00:58:07.940 --> 00:58:11.170 weren't working. In late July, the Trump team had discussed 976 00:58:11.230 --> 00:58:14.230 in their crisis meetings it was Blanche who interviewed Maxwell. 977 00:58:15.050 --> 00:58:17.650 Over two days, she told him she had witnessed no 978 00:58:17.690 --> 00:58:21.030 troubling behavior by Trump and didn't recall him sending the 979 00:58:21.050 --> 00:58:23.349 birthday card drawn in the shape of a nude woman. 980 00:58:24.110 --> 00:58:27.030 Soon after, she was quietly moved to a minimum security 981 00:58:27.070 --> 00:58:30.920 federal prison in Texas, a transfer left unexplained at first, 982 00:58:31.420 --> 00:58:35.409 which only deepened the public outrage. Blanche said nearly five 983 00:58:35.449 --> 00:58:40.690 months later that Maxwell had faced numerous threats against her life. Lies. 984 00:58:41.610 --> 00:58:47.380 All lies. So anybody who gets threatened gets moved? That's 985 00:58:47.420 --> 00:58:49.539 news to me, and I'm sure that's news to everybody 986 00:58:49.559 --> 00:58:52.960 that's locked up. As the calls for transparency grew louder, 987 00:58:53.300 --> 00:58:56.079 the top ranks of the Trump administration spent even more 988 00:58:56.119 --> 00:58:59.280 time in the bunker. By now, the Situation Room itself 989 00:58:59.619 --> 00:59:02.989 had become inseparable from the crisis. A guarded space where 990 00:59:03.030 --> 00:59:06.139 Trump's inner circle... work to steer the president around a 991 00:59:06.159 --> 00:59:09.550 scandal that would soon taint or consume careers at the 992 00:59:09.590 --> 00:59:13.869 highest level of business, science, and politics. Yeah, only about 993 00:59:13.869 --> 00:59:17.659 10 years too late. But I guess welcome to the party. 994 00:59:18.840 --> 00:59:21.719 On August 13th, Trump's team met again in the secure 995 00:59:21.760 --> 00:59:25.179 complex at 6pm for two hours to refine the Epstein 996 00:59:25.199 --> 00:59:31.670 defense strategy. Again, the group included Wiles, Bondi, Blanche, Patel, Blair, Budowich, Chung, 997 00:59:31.909 --> 00:59:35.929 and Levitt. Vance phoned in from Britain. The vice president 998 00:59:36.010 --> 00:59:38.750 once again pushed to release as much of the Epstein 999 00:59:38.789 --> 00:59:42.159 files as possible, and with an eye on the public messaging, 1000 00:59:42.840 --> 00:59:45.280 he proposed that he should be the one to appear 1001 00:59:45.760 --> 00:59:49.719 on Rogan's influential podcast. Vance had just gotten off the 1002 00:59:49.760 --> 00:59:51.960 phone with Rogan, and he later told the others that 1003 00:59:52.000 --> 00:59:54.989

Rogan said he wouldn't have Blanche on his show, but 1004 00:59:55.030 --> 00:59:58.010 he'd take Vance. Vance argued that if he were the 1005 00:59:58.050 --> 01:00:01.309 one to appear on Rogan's show, then only a part 1006 01:00:01.349 --> 01:00:04.090 of the conversation would be about Epstein. The rest of 1007 01:00:04.130 --> 01:00:06.590 the interview, he told the group, could be about the 1008 01:00:06.630 --> 01:00:09.829 president's recently passed legislation and what it would do for 1009 01:00:09.849 --> 01:00:13.929 working families. But the larger conversation before them was how 1010 01:00:13.949 --> 01:00:17.059 to handle the crisis and the public relations risk for 1011 01:00:17.079 --> 01:00:21.280 the administration. The challenge would be any embarrassing or damaging 1012 01:00:21.340 --> 01:00:25.849 allegations about the president, even if they were unsubstantiated, If 1013 01:00:26.010 --> 01:00:28.889 everything was publicly available on the website they had planned, 1014 01:00:29.469 --> 01:00:33.510 it could include all kinds of potentially humiliating material. Well, 1015 01:00:33.550 --> 01:00:37.190 here's an idea. Don't hang out with Jeffrey Epstein, and 1016 01:00:37.210 --> 01:00:40.429 there won't be humiliating material. Thanks for coming to my 1017 01:00:40.469 --> 01:00:44.329 TED Talk. Suddenly, one of the officials in the Situation 1018 01:00:44.369 --> 01:00:48.380 Room raised the subject of a disturbing but uncorroborated accusation 1019 01:00:48.699 --> 01:00:51.639 against Trump that had come to light in unsealed filings. 1020 01:00:52.119 --> 01:00:57.400 from a 2015 defamation case brought by Virginia Roberts against Maxwell, 1021 01:00:57.699 --> 01:01:01.099 which had been settled two years later. The secondhand accusation 1022 01:01:01.340 --> 01:01:04.599 alleging a specific type of sexual abuse was a perfect 1023 01:01:04.639 --> 01:01:07.260 example of something that would show up on the public 1024 01:01:07.300 --> 01:01:10.230 website and put the spotlight on Trump, whether it was 1025 01:01:10.269 --> 01:01:13.889 true or not. Roberts, who had met Epstein when she 1026 01:01:13.929 --> 01:01:16.969 was a teenage spa attendant at Trump's club Mar-a-Lago in 1027 01:01:17.010 --> 01:01:20.409 Palm Beach, became one of the sex offender's most outspoken victims. 1028 01:01:21.500 --> 01:01:25.099 Roberts stated in late 2016 that to her knowledge, Trump 1029 01:01:25.119 --> 01:01:29.159 had done nothing improper. She died by suicide, allegedly, in 1030 01:01:29.219 --> 01:01:32.469 April of 2025, three months after Trump returned to power. 1031 01:01:33.309 --> 01:01:35.949 The old Roberts case file included emails sent to a 1032 01:01:35.989 --> 01:01:39.849 journalist by another Epstein victim, Sarah Ransom, who later sued 1033 01:01:39.909 --> 01:01:44.929 Epstein and Maxwell. Epstein had also settled that case. In 1034 01:01:44.949 --> 01:01:47.429 the emails, Ransom claimed that she knew a girl

in 1035 01:01:47.510 --> 01:01:50.590 Epstein's sex trafficking ring named Jen, who said she had 1036 01:01:50.610 --> 01:01:54.550 sex with Trump. Ransom also claimed that Jen had told 1037 01:01:54.590 --> 01:01:57.489 her that Trump had a predilection for nipples and that 1038 01:01:57.530 --> 01:02:00.900 he had aggressively flicked and sucked hers. Ransom wrote that 1039 01:02:00.920 --> 01:02:03.360 she had seen evidence when she shared a bathroom with Jen. 1040 01:02:04.000 --> 01:02:06.940 They looked incredibly painful and they were red and swollen 1041 01:02:07.219 --> 01:02:11.639 and I remember wincing when looking at them. Ransom's credibility 1042 01:02:11.940 --> 01:02:15.309 was not uncomplicated. She had made another claim that she 1043 01:02:15.329 --> 01:02:18.570 possessed video footage of prominent men having sex with young 1044 01:02:18.590 --> 01:02:22.760 girls in Epstein's entourage. She later retracted the claims, saying 1045 01:02:22.800 --> 01:02:25.869 she feared for herself and her family if she proceeded. 1046 01:02:26.610 --> 01:02:29.389 But after a federal judge ordered the unsealing of some 1047 01:02:29.429 --> 01:02:32.889 of Roberts' case files in 2023, the document that connected 1048 01:02:32.929 --> 01:02:36.349 Trump to the claim about abused nipples was among the 1049 01:02:36.389 --> 01:02:40.570 material that came out. It was an unconfirmed allegation and 1050 01:02:40.590 --> 01:02:43.699 had not been made publicly, but the disclosure led to 1051 01:02:43.739 --> 01:02:46.880 some articles that were quickly lost in the swirl of 1052 01:02:46.920 --> 01:02:51.250 election-year news. Some of Trump's advisors in the Situation Room 1053 01:02:51.769 --> 01:02:54.530 had never heard of the nipple claim. Those who had, 1054 01:02:54.789 --> 01:02:57.530 and the ones who had, were only passingly familiar with it. 1055 01:02:58.489 --> 01:03:01.139 Many in the room thought this was just discredited nonsense, 1056 01:03:01.699 --> 01:03:04.699 but it might not matter. The ransom emails could get 1057 01:03:04.760 --> 01:03:07.960 new attention if they were included in a public-facing and 1058 01:03:08.019 --> 01:03:12.050 searchable Epstein library that carried the branding of the Justice Department. 1059 01:03:12.949 --> 01:03:16.829 An administration official had already searched for Trump-related material on 1060 01:03:16.869 --> 01:03:19.809 the still private test version of the website, and the 1061 01:03:19.849 --> 01:03:22.429 nipple material was among the first items to show up. 1062 01:03:23.130 --> 01:03:27.030 None of the credibility issues would come into consideration if 1063 01:03:27.070 --> 01:03:30.829 a government-endorsed database gave Ransom's claims about Trump a stamp 1064 01:03:31.170 --> 01:03:34.090 of validity. This is out there. One of the officials 1065 01:03:34.130 --> 01:03:36.650 told the group in the Situation Room, they're going to 1066 01:03:36.690 --> 01:03:38.550 make a huge

scene of this, even though it's not 1067 01:03:38.610 --> 01:03:41.760 true and everybody knows it. Blanche argued that in context, 1068 01:03:41.800 --> 01:03:45.210 the Ransom document and Ransom's disavowal of some of her 1069 01:03:45.309 --> 01:03:48.190 other claims would make clear why the allegations related to 1070 01:03:48.230 --> 01:03:52.750 Trump had never been pursued for prosecution. Besides, these allegations 1071 01:03:53.010 --> 01:03:56.190 were already available online because the what had been unsealed, 1072 01:03:56.550 --> 01:03:58.380 so there was no reason to leave them off the 1073 01:03:58.429 --> 01:04:01.639 Justice Department's website. The Vice President said that he thought 1074 01:04:01.659 --> 01:04:05.440 the President would be okay with releasing the Nipple-related documents, 1075 01:04:05.840 --> 01:04:08.519 arguing that Trump had been accused of worse. I think 1076 01:04:08.559 --> 01:04:10.840 we should put it out, he said. It would cause 1077 01:04:10.880 --> 01:04:13.119 people to say we're going further than we need to. 1078 01:04:13.760 --> 01:04:16.539 Wiles quickly responded that the president would not, in fact, 1079 01:04:16.760 --> 01:04:19.059 be okay with it. It was a point no one 1080 01:04:19.420 --> 01:04:23.019 wanted to continue debating. One official would later describe it 1081 01:04:23.079 --> 01:04:26.219 as surreal experience to be discussing nipples in the White 1082 01:04:26.260 --> 01:04:30.340 House Situation Room. Yeah, I would say so. Talk about embarrassing. 1083 01:04:32.260 --> 01:04:33.980 As if we have nothing else going on in the world, 1084 01:04:34.199 --> 01:04:38.059 in the country. But these people are busy with their cover-up. 1085 01:04:40.699 --> 01:04:43.460 This was, in miniature, the entire problem the White House 1086 01:04:43.500 --> 01:04:48.090 had with the Epstein files. Pyle's accusations were impossible to 1087 01:04:48.110 --> 01:04:51.829 disprove and equally impossible to make go away. Every door 1088 01:04:51.869 --> 01:04:54.449 they opened led to another room, and in every room 1089 01:04:54.670 --> 01:04:57.949 there were more claims from more women. For a few weeks, 1090 01:04:57.969 --> 01:05:00.530 they thought that they had found a way out. The 1091 01:05:00.550 --> 01:05:05.039 subpoena from Comer's committee had specifically requested Justice Department documents, 1092 01:05:05.280 --> 01:05:08.739 communications with the White House, and material from the Epstein files. 1093 01:05:09.179 --> 01:05:13.309 and Maxwell criminal case, not material from civil litigation such 1094 01:05:13.349 --> 01:05:16.349 as the ransom emails. They could comply with the letter 1095 01:05:16.389 --> 01:05:19.829 of subpoena, post the Justice Department material to a stripped-down 1096 01:05:19.869 --> 01:05:22.789 version of the plan website, and leave the rest aside. 1097 01:05:23.650 --> 01:05:27.070 Civil cases were separate matters outside of the remit of 1098 01:05:27.090 --> 01:05:30.530 the Justice Department, and the subpoena allowed for another escape hatch. 1099 01:05:31.150 --> 01:05:34.510 The Justice Department could withhold certain documents as long as 1100 01:05:34.570 --> 01:05:37.780 it explained to the House lawmakers what they were and 1101 01:05:37.820 --> 01:05:41.900 why they were held back. But that strategy collapsed quickly. 1102 01:05:42.480 --> 01:05:46.880 More Republican lawmakers would press for additional disclosures, including former 1103 01:05:46.900 --> 01:05:49.960 Trump allies like Greene and Lauren Boebert. And the Trump 1104 01:05:49.980 --> 01:05:53.469 administration was slow to comply with even the initial limited 1105 01:05:53.510 --> 01:05:57.889 set of documents required by the House subpoena. All by design. 1106 01:05:58.650 --> 01:06:01.789 Trying to gum it up. The slower it goes, the 1107 01:06:01.849 --> 01:06:06.610 better off for them. By mid-November, the partisan coalition the 1108 01:06:06.690 --> 01:06:09.670 Trump team had worried about since the summer... finally had 1109 01:06:09.690 --> 01:06:12.969 the votes to force the administration's hand. The Epstein File 1110 01:06:13.010 --> 01:06:16.570 Transparency Act passed the House and Senate in quick succession, 1111 01:06:17.050 --> 01:06:20.659 and on November 19th, Trump, yielding to the inevitable, signed 1112 01:06:20.679 --> 01:06:23.500 it into law. The new law went further than the 1113 01:06:23.519 --> 01:06:26.519 House subpoena. It sought a broader tranche of files and 1114 01:06:26.539 --> 01:06:29.420 contained a warning to the administration that no record shall 1115 01:06:29.460 --> 01:06:33.309 be withheld, delayed, or redacted on the basis of embarrassment, 1116 01:06:33.610 --> 01:06:38.329 reputational harm, or political sensitivity or including to any government official, 1117 01:06:38.590 --> 01:06:42.050 public figure, or foreign dignitary. It sought everything that Trump 1118 01:06:42.090 --> 01:06:44.449 had spent the better part of a year trying to suppress. 1119 01:06:44.969 --> 01:06:48.030 The legislators who passed the bill had no idea how 1120 01:06:48.070 --> 01:06:51.039 many files they had mandated to be released within a month. 1121 01:06:51.940 --> 01:06:55.539 The pages would end up numbering in the millions. And 1122 01:06:55.559 --> 01:06:59.219 the president and his family and places like Mar-a-Lago estate 1123 01:06:59.480 --> 01:07:03.320 would be referred to more than 38,000 times, according to 1124 01:07:03.340 --> 01:07:07.559 a New York Times analysis. The Trump Justice Department said 1125 01:07:07.599 --> 01:07:10.190 that there was no client list, but the entire episode 1126 01:07:10.429 --> 01:07:13.710 was another flashing light in an era where belief in 1127 01:07:13.730 --> 01:07:16.269 the American system of justice had corroded to the point 1128 01:07:16.730 --> 01:07:19.590 of collapse. Well, this isn't just a making of the 1129 01:07:19.630

--> 01:07:23.090 Trump administration. All the administrations leading up to it, too. 1130 01:07:23.849 --> 01:07:26.519 They bear some of the burden. They should have stepped up. 1131 01:07:26.820 --> 01:07:29.099 They should have stopped Epstein. They should have been the 1132 01:07:29.239 --> 01:07:32.840 ones to release all this. But nobody has. And that's 1133 01:07:32.880 --> 01:07:36.139 the biggest problem. Both sides are in on it. and 1134 01:07:36.179 --> 01:07:43.510 that's why everybody has to be held accountable. Raw witness 1135 01:07:43.550 --> 01:07:47.150 accounts and evidence from incomplete criminal investigations were never meant 1136 01:07:47.190 --> 01:07:50.769 to be seen by the public. There were long-standing systems 1137 01:07:50.849 --> 01:07:53.869 in place to protect both the accused and the accuser. 1138 01:07:54.309 --> 01:07:57.510 The files amounted to a public dump of any Justice 1139 01:07:57.550 --> 01:08:00.670 Department document that mentioned Epstein's name, no matter whether the 1140 01:08:00.710 --> 01:08:04.809 information was confirmed as accurate or not. The release pages 1141 01:08:05.130 --> 01:08:08.860 did not name Many powerful men, among them was Epstein's 1142 01:08:08.880 --> 01:08:12.199 former close friend, now the President of the United States. 1143 01:08:13.340 --> 01:08:16.380 In a January 2020 email, a federal prosecutor told a 1144 01:08:16.380 --> 01:08:19.600 colleague that Trump had flown on Epstein's private jet far 1145 01:08:19.659 --> 01:08:23.470 more than anyone knew. Flight records in the files showed 1146 01:08:23.510 --> 01:08:27.609 at least eight trips between 93 and 96, sometimes with 1147 01:08:27.649 --> 01:08:31.850 his second wife, Marla Maples, sometimes with his children. That's nice, huh? 1148 01:08:32.850 --> 01:08:35.619 Bring your kids on Jeffrey Epstein's plane, come one, come all. 1149 01:08:36.750 --> 01:08:39.890 In January 2024, Trump declared that he would never have 1150 01:08:39.930 --> 01:08:43.630 been on the plane. Just another lie. Everything this man 1151 01:08:43.689 --> 01:08:46.479 says about Epstein is a lie, so why would that 1152 01:08:46.500 --> 01:08:50.560 be any different? What else remained undisclosed? The question would 1153 01:08:50.579 --> 01:08:53.970 only sharpen his people, comb through what was redacted or missing. 1154 01:08:55.189 --> 01:08:58.489 The Justice Department, after more than 3.5 million documents were 1155 01:08:58.510 --> 01:09:03.380 made public, said no otherwise. others needed to be released. Trump, characteristically, 1156 01:09:03.680 --> 01:09:06.899 was creating his own reality. He had long claimed that 1157 01:09:06.960 --> 01:09:10.560 everyone else was corrupt, especially his critics. These files, he 1158 01:09:10.579 --> 01:09:14.060 would say, despite the avalanche of references to himself, were 1159 01:09:14.079 --> 01:09:16.350 the proof. There are a lot of questions about it, 1160 01:09:16.579 --> 01:09:18.890 he told reporters. Trump had declared Epstein a dead issue 1161 01:09:18.930 --> 01:09:21.029 during the summer, but as he began the second year 1162 01:09:21.050 --> 01:09:24.850 of his presidency, his own team could see the voter 1163 01:09:24.869 --> 01:09:28.310 concerns about Epstein were still breaking through at an alarming extent. 1164 01:09:28.340 --> 01:09:31.180 In an eternal memo circulated to roughly a dozen Trump 1165 01:09:31.260 --> 01:09:50.170 advisors in late March of 2026, The president's pollster, Fabrizio, 1166 01:09:50.510 --> 01:09:54.149 summarized findings from two nights of focus groups conducted that month. 1167 01:09:55.130 --> 01:09:58.369 Fabrizio's memo listed the Epstein files as the six most 1168 01:09:58.409 --> 01:10:02.729 important issue raised in the focus groups behind inflation, the economy, 1169 01:10:03.010 --> 01:10:07.420 foreign policy, immigration, and healthcare. But ahead of data centers, 1170 01:10:07.659 --> 01:10:12.619 military issues, crime and safety, and being pro-working class. In 1171 01:10:12.659 --> 01:10:15.760 the section on key takeaways of the focus group, Fabrizio's 1172 01:10:15.800 --> 01:10:19.010 memo stated that There is a consistent mention of the 1173 01:10:19.069 --> 01:10:22.529 Epstein files, which come up in every group and is 1174 01:10:22.600 --> 01:10:25.399 a real negative with some of these voters. Yeah, I'd 1175 01:10:25.460 --> 01:10:29.500 say so. The way it's been handled is completely unacceptable. 1176 01:10:30.279 --> 01:10:32.899 And anybody who's not in the cup for Donald Trump 1177 01:10:33.340 --> 01:10:37.090 knows there's a cover-up going on. And it's infuriating to 1178 01:10:37.109 --> 01:10:40.470 the regular person. They see it. They know it's happening. 1179 01:10:41.609 --> 01:10:45.569 But there's nothing they can do about it. The Epstein 1180 01:10:45.609 --> 01:10:48.850 crisis had exposed something that some of Trump's closest advisors 1181 01:10:49.189 --> 01:10:53.159 spent months refusing to see. The president could break institutions, 1182 01:10:53.500 --> 01:10:56.699 redirect the federal government against his enemies, and bring the 1183 01:10:56.739 --> 01:11:00.579 world's richest men into the Oval Office bearing tribute. But 1184 01:11:00.600 --> 01:11:04.430 he could not, it turned out, make Jeffrey Epstein disappear. 1185 01:11:05.250 --> 01:11:08.050 And look, that's because of you. Not me, not any 1186 01:11:08.069 --> 01:11:10.890 of the people talking about it behind a microphone, but 1187 01:11:10.930 --> 01:11:13.310 because all of you, you deciding you're not going to 1188 01:11:13.329 --> 01:11:17.170 move on, you deciding you want accountability, and you deciding 1189 01:11:17.569 --> 01:11:21.289 that the administration is talking a bunch of bullshit. And 1190 01:11:21.329 --> 01:11:23.529 no matter what they do, no matter how hard they 1191 01:11:23.550 --> 01:11:25.510 try to sweep this under the rug and make it 1192 01:11:25.550 --> 01:11:28.229 all go away, it's not going to happen. I think 1193 01:11:28.250 --> 01:11:30.670 that we've come too far at this point, and there's 1194 01:11:30.729 --> 01:11:35.579 nothing that the Trump administration or anyone can do To 1195 01:11:35.600 --> 01:11:39.000 get people not interested in what's going on. And I 1196 01:11:39.039 --> 01:11:41.039 think the more they dig in and the more they 1197 01:11:41.060 --> 01:11:44.460 try and hide things and the more they're being secretive 1198 01:11:44.779 --> 01:11:47.699 and all it does is confirm what all of us 1199 01:11:47.779 --> 01:11:53.479 already think. That Donald Trump and the White House is 1200 01:11:53.520 --> 01:11:56.369 engaging in an ongoing cover up. And if they think 1201 01:11:56.390 --> 01:11:58.670 we're going to move on, they got a whole ass 1202 01:11:58.710 --> 01:12:01.289 other thing coming. All right, folks, that's going to do 1203 01:12:01.329 --> 01:12:04.239 it for this one. All the information that goes with 1204 01:12:04.289 --> 01:12:07.149 this episode can be found in the description box.