During a Senate roll call vote on President Trump's nominees on Saturday, Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) and Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-OR) spoke in favor of moving the senate to consider S. 2557, a bill which mandates the Attorney General release the Epstein Files.
00:02I think we can and certainly should all agree that the case of Jeffrey Epstein is deeply
00:09disturbing with horrifying abuse of young women and girls.
00:15From the lenient plea deal he received in Florida in 2008 to the end of his case with
00:21the death in prison, survivors of his abuse have been denied the full accounting of his
00:28crimes and the justice that they deserve.
00:33It's also clear that a lack of transparency and accountability and contradictory statements
00:41by the Trump administration and its officials has led to even deeper public distrust of our
00:47justice system and especially the handling of this case.
00:54After all, Trump administration officials, including Attorney General Bondi, promised
00:59transparency in this case but instead gave the American people a binder of largely already
01:07public documents.
01:10It was a sham.
01:12Last month, the Department of Justice released a two-page memo informing the American public
01:19that the Department had completed its exhaustive review of the Epstein files and concluded
01:23that, quote, no further disclosure would be appropriate or warranted, unquote.
01:31We shouldn't be taking the word of any official in any administration on face value.
01:42The public should see these documents for themselves.
01:48And people ranging from the victims to the American public believe transparency is warranted,
01:56and it is.
01:58Just three days after the Department of Justice memo was published, the Senate Appropriations
02:05Committee unanimously agreed to an amendment I proposed to the Commerce, Justice, Science,
02:11and Related Agencies Appropriations Bill that would require two things.
02:15It would require the Department to retain, preserve, and compile the Epstein files and submit
02:20a report with the files to the respective subcommittee of the Appropriations Committee.
02:27I understood that earlier today Senator Barrasso made the point that that Commerce, Justice,
02:34Science Bill, Appropriations Bill was on the floor and that I objected to moving forward
02:40that bill, as I did for totally unrelated reasons.
02:45We also know that appropriation bills take a very long time to wind through the United
02:50States process, congressional process, got to go through the House.
02:57It could be months before that provision, if it continues to be in there, sees the light
03:05of day.
03:06It shouldn't take months.
03:08We should do it now, which is why the day after the Senate Appropriations Committee unanimously
03:13Republicans and Democrats together supported that provision to require the report and to
03:18preserve the documents.
03:20Senator Durbin and I wrote to the Attorney General and said, why wait?
03:24And that's the question, Mr. President, why wait?
03:29The victims, the American people, they deserve to see the files and know the full truth.
03:36And they deserve it right now.
03:39Just this morning, there was a new report.
03:44In Bloomberg, the headline says, the FBI redacted Trump's name in the Epstein files.
03:53We've always understood that Donald Trump's name was in the files.
03:59What we're learning today, at least according to these reports, is that the FBI redacted
04:06Donald Trump's name from those files.
04:11The question is, why?
04:17Nobody's name should be redacted from the files with respect to the perpetrators of these crimes.
04:26Clearly, in releasing files, we need to protect the names of any victims, but the perpetrators,
04:34we should know about their names.
04:37They should not be redacted.
04:41What we've seen, of course, from the President is an effort to change the subject entirely.
04:47Say that it was the Obama administration that somehow invented this whole dispute and debate.
04:56Well, we know that's not true.
04:58We know that's not true because of what President Trump has previously said and, of course, what
05:02his Attorney General has said.
05:06It's also deeply concerning that the Deputy Attorney General of the United States of America,
05:11who previously was Donald Trump's personal lawyer, skirted all the Department of Justice protocols,
05:18and went down to secretly interview Ghislaine Maxwell for hours over a couple days.
05:29I think we should have the transcript of that interview as well.
05:36We've also heard President Trump say that he has the power to pardon Ghislaine Maxwell.
05:48Well it's one thing to have the power, it's another thing to speculate publicly about using
05:53that power to pardon somebody who could testify in an incriminating way against all of the perpetrators.
06:04That reeks of a hint of the obstruction of justice.
06:11To signal to Ghislaine Maxwell that if she says the right things, the President of the United
06:20States could pardon her, that would be a corruption of the judicial process.
06:29A gross corruption of the judicial process.
06:34So I hope President Trump will immediately announce that he won't pardon this person,
06:41Ghislaine Maxwell, who was the associate of Jeffrey Epstein in perpetrating these crimes
06:48against young women and girls.
06:49The President of the United States should announce today that he will not do that.
06:55That's the way the President can put an end to the understandable concern that he is signaling
07:02that if she says the right thing regarding him, that she'll get a get out of jail free card.
07:12That would be a gross corruption of the process and of the justice system.
07:21So this is why we should do now what the victims deserve and what the American public demands,
07:29which is to support the proposal put forward by the Senator of Oregon, Senator Merkley.
07:37And so as if in legislative session and notwithstanding Rule 22, I ask unanimous consent that the Committee
07:45on Judiciary be discharged and the Senate proceed to the immediate consideration of S.2557,
07:52further that the bill be considered read a third time and passed, and the motion to reconsider
07:57be considered made and laid upon the table.
08:01Is there an objection?
08:02Mr. President.
08:03Senator from Wyoming.
08:04I object.
08:06Objection.
08:07Noted.
08:08Mr. President.
08:09Senator from Oregon.
08:10I would.
08:11So did I understand you to say that the President of the United States has put forward
08:28the possibility of a favor to someone who could testify about the Epstein's
08:36conduct over many years?
08:39The President of the United States, when asked if he could pardon the late Maxwell,
08:45said yes, he has the power to do that pardon, to make that pardon.
08:50And her attorneys have made very clear through multiple public remarks that they would welcome
08:57that.
08:58And of course her attorneys would welcome that.
08:59She would love to get out of jail free.
09:05And so this is why the President today should make very clear that he will not pardon Ghislaine
09:12Maxwell because she was close associate in the crimes that she and Jeffrey Epstein committed.
09:21In any ordinary world, wouldn't this be considered witness tampering?
09:26Certainly, if the President of the United States is signaling to Ghislaine Maxwell and her attorneys
09:34that he would provide a pardon without any possible reason to do so other than for her to give testimony,
09:47in this case it would be false testimony because we know about the close association between Donald Trump and Jeffrey Epstein.
09:57That would clearly be witness tampering.
10:00And to my colleague from Maryland, did you also mention that the FBI redacted President Trump's name from certain documents?
10:11I did indeed, and this is a report that just came out.
10:17The headline is the FBI redacted Trump's name in the Epstein files.
10:22It's a Bloomberg report, and it's just one more example of what appears to be an effort to cover up any role that Donald Trump may have played in these crimes.
10:39Again, we don't know, and the best way for us all to know is to support your effort here,
10:46to support our mutual efforts, which is to just release the files.
10:52So I so much appreciate your amendment, which we advocated for, which you presented very well in the Appropriations Committee,
10:59that said all the files have to be retained so that nothing is destroyed.
11:05No missing minutes on a White House tape or anything equivalent.
11:13Why is it necessary to express this concern?
11:18Well, the concern, of course, is that the Trump administration would be tempted to destroy these files
11:29for the purposes of getting rid of evidence.
11:34As I indicated, reports today indicate that the FBI, and again, I don't know if they were instructed to do so.
11:41I do not know all the circumstances. What we do know are the reports from Bloomberg that Donald Trump's name was stricken from the files.
11:49If that is accurate, I'm just trying to understand why they would do so.
11:54If his name is in the files and it's simply in the context of he attended a certain event, something of that nature,
12:02or maybe Mr. Epstein went to an event at one of the President's properties, that would be a completely innocent role.
12:11Why would the FBI redact such a reference?
12:15Well, I think that's a question for all of us to ask the FBI, and we should follow up and ask the FBI.
12:24In the meantime, though, the best way, as you pointed out, and all of us have pointed out, and even Attorney General Bondi at one point pointed out,
12:33is just release the damn files.
12:36That's how we would get to the bottom of all of this.
12:39And don't redact anything from the files except to protect victims.
12:46But perpetrators should not have their names redacted from the files.
12:51Absolutely.
12:53Well, I so appreciate you bringing this additional information to bear.
12:58Our colleague across the aisle who objected noted that the Republicans also voted for this amendment, your amendment, in committee.
13:09So I'm wondering if we bring it back as a UC, as a bill, to pass right now, saying all information was retained.
13:18I wonder if our Republican colleagues would join us in that effort.
13:21Well, that's a very good point Senator raises.
13:26We had a unanimous bipartisan vote in the Senate Appropriations Committee on an amendment to do exactly that,
13:33to make sure the records were preserved so nobody tries to destroy evidence.
13:38And it required an exhaustive report detailing many of the questions that we have all raised regarding the Epstein files.
13:48As I said, the appropriations process takes a very long time to wind through the United States Congress,
13:55and there's no reason to wait on this.
13:57Again, if a majority of the Appropriations Committee, not just a majority,
14:02a unanimous vote in the Appropriations Committee took place, we could actually get this out right away,
14:08and hopefully the House would pass that, and then we could send it right to the President's desk.
14:14Well, I do hope you'll bring that back as a unanimous consent request later today, based on your amendment to retain all the files.
14:22We've already heard our colleagues object to releasing the files, but certainly they should join us in a unanimous way in retaining all the evidence.
14:32We certainly, and more importantly, the American people, and especially the victims, deserve to know that nobody will tamper with the files between now and the moment they're released.
14:46Again, the fastest way to address this issue, to meet the concerns, to meet the terrible, terrible abuse that was visited upon these young women and girls,
15:00is simply to release the files and do it now.
15:04Mr. President, point of information, are we going to proceed with a vote at 12 noon?
15:08Mr. President, time expires at 12.46, at 12.46, thank you for that information, and I believe Senator Markey has come to the floor to make some comments.
15:22I will just close with this notation.
15:26All across America, ordinary men and women know that if they commit a crime, they'll pay the fine.
15:34If they commit a crime, they'll do the time.
15:37They don't have fancy lawyers.
15:39They don't have friends in high places.
15:41They don't have the FBI redacting their name from documents.
15:44They don't have one caucus of the U.S. Senate blocking information from being released.
15:50On behalf of every ordinary citizen across America, we are going to continue to press for the powerful and the rich to be accountable.
16:00If they, in fact, participated in the abuse of young women and the rape of young women, we want them brought to justice, no matter what political party or what bank account they have, what part of the country they live in, or what friends they have.
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