00:00Amendment to the rule. Yeah, Mr. McGovern. First, I just want to respond to the
00:05accusations made by some on the other side about our motives. Our position is
00:10that we should pass the bipartisan Massey-Connor bill, and we are fine with
00:15you also passing your resolution directing a committee to do what it is
00:20already doing. Your position is to block the bipartisan Massey bill. Those are the
00:26facts. And if you don't like every word of the bill, why haven't you come forward
00:32with any amendments to improve it? I'm fine with an up or down vote on it, but we
00:38could easily take testimony on the bill and add amendments to it. So the argument
00:43that it is somehow flawed, I think, rings hollow. And now I have an amendment to
00:48the rule. I move the committee consider, as adopted, amendment number one to H. Res.
00:54668 offered by Representative Garcia, which deems the Attorney General in
00:59contempt of the U.S. House of Representatives should the Department of
01:03Justice fail to fully comply with the subpoena of the Committee on Oversight
01:07and Government Reform, demanding the documents and other materials related to
01:13the Epstein case. We heard during testimony how useless this non-binding
01:18resolution is. No one is asking for an oversight investigation, but they are asking
01:23for the files. They're asking for all of them. And with this amendment, if after
01:2730 days the Attorney General does not release all of the Epstein files to the
01:31Oversight Committee, then the Attorney General will be held in contempt of
01:34Congress and fined until she complies. Enough fake actions. If you want the
01:39Oversight Committee to get all the files, then put your money where your mouth is. I
01:43urge a yes vote on my motion and I yield back.
01:47Well, I think this is a clear example of the politicization of what's going on here
01:55tonight. It's unprecedented to preemptively hold an individual in contempt of Congress
02:02when they're already complying with the directive of Congress. The Attorney General
02:07is releasing the files as requested. And you just want to do a got you amendment to get us
02:17to vote no and then say we voted no against holding the Attorney General in contempt.
02:24If she doesn't comply. What we need to do. Well, if she doesn't do it, you come back in 30 days and offer an amendment. Or if Mr. Garcia says, no, we're not getting all the information,
02:36you bring an amendment then to do that and we'll be happy to consider it. But for you
02:43to do this in advance shows again how political this whole operation is. And I
02:49think you've revealed yourself right here with your first amendment. We need to
02:55support the work, the bipartisan work that the Oversight Committee is doing on
03:00on pursuing and acquiring and releasing, publicly releasing all the documents and communications
03:08regarding the Epstein Amendment. You've already said tonight you trust nobody. You've revealed that too
03:15as you don't trust anybody. Well, we do trust people on our side of the aisle. And you know,
03:22not trusting is projection the way I see it. And so give the process a chance. If Attorney General does
03:33not release the material, then you can come back at a later date and say you have just cause to do this.
03:41Yeah, yeah. So that's the response. Well,
03:43Madam Chair, I would just say this is an amendment that Mr. Garcia, who testified here before, has offered.
03:48And I would also point out that there is no deadline in your underlying resolution. So we could be here
03:54three years from now. So I urge you, yes. We're not going to be here three years from now. I urge you, yes,
03:58vote on my amendment. Okay.
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