House Oversight panel subpoenas Epstein estate

CNN

The House Oversight Committee has deepened its probe into the federal government’s investigation of the late, disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein, issuing a subpoena to his estate for an array of documents. #CNN #News  # news #breaking #24x7

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00:00Quote, reviewing the possible mismanagement of the federal government's investigation of Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell,

00:08the House Oversight Committee today announced that they will be interviewing former U.S. Attorney Alex Acosta on September 19th.

00:15Acosta, as you might remember, is the former Trump Labor Secretary who way back in 2007-2008 negotiated that sweetheart plea deal with Jeffrey Epstein.

00:25The committee is also issuing a subpoena for the Epstein estate, demanding to see NDAs, non-disclosure agreements, and Epstein's last one, Testament,

00:34and that alleged birthday book, and any potential list of clients involved in sex, sex acts, or sex trafficking.

00:42All of this follows the Friday afternoon release by the Justice Department of a transcript and audio of its interview with Ghislaine Maxwell,

00:50the convicted sex trafficker and Epstein associate, in her interview with Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche.

00:55She denied there being any sort of Epstein client list, and she said she never heard allegations that President Trump acted inappropriately.

01:04Maxwell also denied that Epstein paid her millions to recruit young women or lured a masseuse from Trump's Mar-a-Lago resort.

01:13Do you have a recollection of you ever recruiting a masseuse from Mar-a-Lago spa to give, to go give a private massage to Mr. Epstein?

01:24I've never recruited a masseuse from Mar-a-Lago for that, as far as I remember.

01:29I can't ever recommend doing that.

01:31That is a notable claim, perhaps false, because Virginia Giuffre, the outspoken Epstein victim who died by suicide earlier this year,

01:41claimed that Mar-a-Lago is specifically where Ghislaine Maxwell recruited her.

01:46Then, in the second day of her conversation with Todd Blanche, Ghislaine Maxwell said this.

01:52I realised that I was, the allegation at least, is that I met s*** in Mar-a-Lago, so I felt that I needed to address that,

02:04and I didn't want to leave that hanging, because that seems weird under the circumstances.

02:08And also, but I couldn't remember anyone, and that maybe, you know, it was a long period of time.

02:13So the issue is not that I'm trying to not say, but I just don't, I don't remember anybody that I would have,

02:19but it's not impossible that I might have asked someone for that.

02:23I don't, I don't know exactly what you said yesterday, but I don't think what you said yesterday is different than what you just said.

02:32Of course, the first blaring question here is, why should anyone believe anything that Ghislaine Maxwell has to say?

02:40Even in Trump's first term, the Justice Department labeled Maxwell a brazen liar.

02:45A key reminder is that the people who matter most in all of this are the victims, the survivors,

02:51people whose words should matter more than that of a convicted sex trafficker.

02:55In just a moment, I'm going to ask one of those victims her thoughts on all of this.

02:59But first, let's bring in CNN senior justice correspondent Evan Perez.

03:02Evan, what exactly does the House Oversight Committee want from the Epstein estate?

03:07Well, they're asking for a number of documents.

03:09Chiefly among them, they're asking for financial documents.

03:12They're looking for anything that could be construed as a client list.

03:17Obviously, you know that the Justice Department says there is no such thing as a client list.

03:21So they're looking for other ways to sort of get to that perhaps a list of people who may have been involved in some of Epstein's crimes.

03:29They're also looking for any nondisclosure agreements that he may have ordered people to sign as a result.

03:36And also, importantly, they're asking about that book, that book that the Wall Street Journal reported on.

03:43It was a birthday book that Ghislaine Maxwell says that she helped put together.

03:47If you remember in her interview, she doesn't remember whether Trump, Donald Trump, was one of the people who provided a letter for that book.

03:56That's what the Wall Street Journal has reported.

03:58The president himself has denied this, and he is suing the Journal and, of course, Rupert Murdoch over that allegation.

04:05And the committee, the House Oversight Committee, led by Chairman James Comer, also wants to hear from Alex Acosta,

04:11the former Trump Labor Secretary, who way back in 2007-2008 was the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Florida,

04:17and he negotiated that sweetheart deal for Epstein.

04:21Why do they think it's so critical to hear from him?

04:24Well, you know what, Jake, because we really haven't heard much from Alex Acosta ever since he left the Trump administration

04:30when this story first kicked up.

04:322019, yeah.

04:33Right, exactly. When he resigned, we haven't heard much from him.

04:36And so I think it's actually one of the more important interviews that the committee is asking for,

04:41which is for him to explain why he entered into that very sweetheart deal

04:46that allowed Epstein to plead guilty to local charges in Palm Beach County

04:52and not really bring down the hammer from the federal government,

04:56which is eventually what happened with the Southern District of New York.

04:58Yeah, and he also got work release, and he also, they used a victim who was like 17 instead of 14.

05:06Right.

05:07A whole bunch of fishy stuff in there.

05:09The other blaring question, of course, is why is the Deputy Attorney General doing this, Todd Blanche?

05:16And also, if you read the transcript, it's very frustrating as a journalist.

05:20I'm sure you experience this too.

05:22He did not push back at all on some things she said that were clearly lies or at least deserved some follow-up.

05:29Right. I mean, this is partly why a lot of the criticism of this is that, you know,

05:33was Todd Blanche there as a Deputy Attorney General trying to get to the bottom of this?

05:37Was he there essentially helping Donald Trump find exculpatory information from Glenn Maxwell?

05:43That's what comes away. Listen to this exchange between the two of them.

05:50If you met Epstein, there is no way that this cast of characters, of which it's extraordinary,

05:56some of you in your cabinet, who you value as your co-workers and you know,

06:02would be with him if he was a creep or because they wanted sexual favors.

06:08A man wants sexual favors, he will find that.

06:10They didn't have to come to Epstein for that.

06:13Now, did some...

06:16Okay, I don't know.

06:18I wasn't there. I didn't see it.

06:20Um, so...

06:23When's the last time you think you were with Mr. Epstein when he got a massage?

06:36Um... I want to say... 2007.

06:46And, you know, there's a lot of the interview that goes like this over two days, Jake,

06:51and what you repeatedly see is the purpose that Glenn Maxwell is going after here.

06:57She's trying to get out of prison.

06:59She is hoping for a pardon, which is why it goes on, the transcript goes on for so long,

07:03back and forth about the birthday book and whether she remembers Trump contributing anything to it.

07:10And also that, you know, she never saw President Trump do anything untoward or anything wrong in her presence.

07:16And then, of course, the secondary part, which is that I did nothing wrong.

07:20I saw nothing, no crimes committed.

07:23And so this was her effort, really, better than anyone else's, right, to try to set the table for herself.

07:31All right, Edmund Perez, thank you so much.

07:36And joining us now is Liz Stein.

07:38She is a survivor of Epstein and Maxwell's trafficking ring.

07:42She now works as a survivor mentor and policy associate at the Support Center for Child Advocates in Philadelphia.

07:49Liz, thank you so much for coming on.

07:51I'm really interested to learn what your reaction is to the contents of the Maxwell transcript,

07:58the very fact of her being interviewed by the deputy attorney general,

08:02her prison transfer, and the overall treatment of Maxwell.

08:09I think that it's pretty obvious that she's not being truthful in this interview.

08:15And I think that something that the public might not be aware of if, you know,

08:20if you're someone who isn't following this case really closely,

08:23is that in her federal indictment, there were perjury charges stemming from a deposition

08:31that was held in a civil suit involving Virginia Giuffre.

08:38And when it came time for Maxwell's trial, those charges were severed

08:43because the prosecutors did not want the testimony from those charges to unduly influence the jury.

08:51And when she was ultimately convicted of the other counts, those charges were dropped.

08:57So we're already talking about someone who has been less than truthful previously.

09:03And I think that it's really difficult for us as survivors to have the government speaking

09:11to someone who's been convicted of this crime and giving her any weight whatsoever in terms of leniency.

09:19I mean, the move to a federal prison camp is really an unprecedented move

09:24for someone who's been charged with these crimes.

09:27And so I'm just curious why the government is putting so much stock in what Gillian Maxwell is saying,

09:34but they're not talking to the actual victims of this crime.

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