00:00Would you like to respond to anything Ranking Member Garcia had to say?
00:04I appreciate his statement that this has been bipartisan thus far.
00:15I think this is an opportunity for this committee to demonstrate that we can work together in a bipartisan way.
00:22This is a bipartisan issue.
00:23Every Republican I know in Congress wants the Epstein files to be released.
00:32Every Republican in Congress I know wants the people that were trafficking women to be held accountable.
00:44Every single Republican I know wants the government officials who were involved in any potential cover-up or blackmail operation,
00:54if there was one, to be outed and held accountable.
01:00So we're going to try to do everything we can to get this, and I think we've demonstrated that.
01:05I'm a Republican.
01:09We subpoenaed Bill Barr.
01:12We subpoenaed Alex Acosta.
01:14We subpoenaed Pam Bondi for the Epstein documents.
01:18I don't remember when I was in the minority a Democrat chairman subpoenaed any Democrat officials in the administration.
01:30So we've demonstrated we don't care about political party.
01:34We don't care about what your last name is.
01:37We don't care how powerful you are.
01:40We want to know the truth, and we're doing everything we can,
01:43and I hope that the Democrats will work with us in this endeavor and not politicize it.
01:52I agree with you, and I was in that hearing for most or the meeting with the victims today,
02:00and I appreciated very much, Mr. Garcia, what you said about this being a bipartisan effort
02:07and there being so many Democrat members there.
02:11But I also agree that there hasn't been this level of interest in this issue before.
02:18Right.
02:19I've been here a long time.
02:20It dates back, what we learned from today, it dates back to 96.
02:23It dates back six administrations, six prior administrations.
02:27So there have been many other administrations that could have released it and for whatever reason hasn't.
02:33But thus far, this administration is producing documents like we've asked, and I appreciate that.
02:40Right.
02:40So you've stated a little bit already the information that you've already received from the Trump administration
02:49after the subpoena for the records was executed, and how quickly the committee started receiving the information.
02:57As soon as the subpoena went out, we heard from the Department of Justice, their attorneys started communicating with our attorneys,
03:04and they started gathering the documents, and I think we got the documents in record time.
03:10I can't remember a time when we subpoenaed the Merrick Garland Department of Justice and never got anything from them.
03:17So I applaud Pam Bondi and the Trump administration for working with the committee and for being transparent.
03:27And as you just mentioned, there have been times when you have requested information.
03:38I can remember what, I'd been here three months, and I was on the oversight committee, on the subcommittee,
03:45and we had a bureaucrat come in, and the chairman of the committee said,
03:50I've asked you for three years to give us information.
03:53And the person just sat there.
03:55Yeah.
03:55I wouldn't say a word and wouldn't respond in any way.
04:00Wouldn't you rather have a subpoena in hand above everything else, even a law passed by Congress?
04:07Absolutely.
04:08Which can be challenged in court immediately to get this information?
04:12Absolutely.
04:12We're doing what that discharge petition wants done.
04:17And we're three steps ahead of that discharge petition.
04:20We've already deposed former Attorney General Bill Barr.
04:23We've already subpoenaed the estate, the Epstein estate, for all the documents.
04:28And you said September 8th the material would come from them?
04:32I'm sorry?
04:32You said the Epstein estate is going to start producing material?
04:37September 8th.
04:38September 8th.
04:39They're going to produce the documents from the estate.
04:41I believe September the 16th or 19th one, Alex Acosta is coming in for a deposition.
04:47And I know that during our discussion, Ms. Crockett and Raj Cristomorte, I believe, asked questions about what we should ask Acosta.
04:58So everybody, both sides are going to get equal time to interview Acosta on all of that.
05:04And again, the administration has complied with our request.
05:09And, you know, they're, I think we're getting those documents.
05:14And as we speak, they should be being uploaded to a website right now.
05:19And it's my understanding that the Massey document, the Massey legislation, only asks only for information from the administration.
05:33Is that correct?
05:34That's right.
05:35It doesn't go beyond the administration.
05:37And we're going to go beyond it.
05:38We're already getting the documents from the administration.
05:43And we've moved way past, because that discharge petition was filed six weeks ago.
05:50We've already deposed, you know, again, a former attorney general.
05:54We've got dates set for others to come in.
05:59We're downloading 34,000 pages of documents.
06:02We met with the victims today and got more names that they said in front of, you know, in front of the minority.
06:09And we're going to press forward with that.
06:12So we're way ahead of this discharge petition.
06:15I don't think it's necessary at all.
06:17And you are going to be in a very unique position of being the arbiter of any needed redactions,
06:27keeping that decision in the hands of members of Congress, correct?
06:32Correct.
06:32And there were, one of the victims today made it very clear she didn't want her name, you know, made public.
06:39Others said they were willing to let their names be public and were willing to testify in a public hearing.
06:45And so, you know, that's, you have to know, you have to have, grant privacy, privacy rights to the victims.
06:54Some of the victims want their names out there, and some want their names to be redacted.
06:59That's my understanding that was not sufficiently taken care of in the Massey legislation.
07:06And I also want to mention that Mike Johnson, Speaker Johnson, sat through the whole meeting today with the victims,
07:13the entire two-and-a-half-hour discussion we had, bipartisan discussion.
07:19And what I heard from the victims was that they feel for the first time that they're being heard.
07:27They feel that they're being heard, but they made it very clear they don't have a lot of trust in anyone affiliated with the government
07:36because they believe that their government has let them down.
07:39And the timeline of that would date over both Republican and Democrat administrations in the past.
07:46Correct.
07:46So, let me see if I can put all this together.
07:50You believe a formalized investigation by the House is the best path forward to obtain the records
07:57and disclose them to the people.
08:02Yes.
08:03You've made a commitment.
08:04And our resolution makes a commitment to disclose everything that can possibly be disclosed
08:13short of violating the privacy rights of others.
08:18Yes, ma'am.
08:19One hundred percent.
08:20And by having the full House vote and speak in support of this investigation,
08:26it will be helpful to you in executing the mission that you're about.
08:31Is that correct?
08:32Absolutely.
08:32If we have to go to court for something, if it's a good bipartisan vote in the House of Representatives,
08:37that only helps.
08:40Okay.
08:40I appreciate that very much.
08:42Mr. McGovern.
