00:00Thank you. I'd seek unanimous consent to introduce a red-letter newsletter article from September 4th,
00:09What Happened When an Epstein Survivor Confronted GOP Rep. Hageman, Boarding of Flight.
00:15Without objection.
00:17Mr. Chairman.
00:19You see?
00:20No.
00:20Gentleman from New Jersey. I'll come to the gentleman from Washington next.
00:24Gentleman from New Jersey is recognized.
00:25Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
00:27I guess it's one of those times I want to express that I don't quite understand where the other side of the aisle is coming from here.
00:37You know, this Epstein issue has been there for years.
00:41It was here during the Biden administration.
00:44It was here when just about all the members who spoke today were here.
00:50And yet not a word. Virtually not a peep.
00:52We're going to have the opportunity to speak to the very pertinent players in this.
00:58The Oversight Committee is doing good work now as we speak.
01:03But what bothers me is when you take an issue as serious as this and the legislation that we should be voting on today and mix it in with politics.
01:12And what do I mean by that?
01:13My good friend, Mr. Raskin, who I deeply respect, but he didn't talk about any of this with Epstein until a few months ago.
01:21Would the gentleman yield?
01:22No, I will not. I'm going to finish.
01:24His main account didn't even mention the Epstein files once until June 5th of this year, this very year.
01:31Mr. Goldman didn't mention it really in his files until May 12th.
01:35Mr. Moskowitz, to the best of our knowledge, has never really mentioned it until recent time.
01:42I hear the moral righteousness, the righteous indignation, the supposed moral clarity.
01:49Where was it then?
01:52But now, because there's a change of administrations,
01:56now, because it can sideline what's a very important bill, we're not going to let that happen,
02:01and all of a sudden, everybody's morally righteous, everybody's morally pure, everybody's morally concerned.
02:07We're all concerned about this issue.
02:11Right or left, Republican or Democrat, we are.
02:14But when it is used as a political tool, it is shameful to those young people who suffered.
02:22It is shameful to this institution.
02:24We have work here to do, and to just start bringing it up now.
02:29You know, if we saw for year after year after year after year, these folks had brought it up, but they did not.
02:36But now they do.
02:38I think that is shameful.
02:39I think it's disturbing.
02:40I don't know where the real moral righteousness or the moral clarity is because I don't see it there.
02:48So, Mr. Chairman, I, you know, for one, as just one member of this committee,
02:52we suggest that we move forward and make sure that this good legislation that's been sponsored by Mr. Fry moves through that unaccompanied alien children under 12 years and older,
03:04that we protect them and take care of them, because we can do that now.
03:09We can't completely undo what is the past, but we can move forward and make sure, in many ways, that something else horrible doesn't happen.
03:18With that, I think somebody asked for me to yield.
03:21Yes, kindly.
03:22Ranking member, yes, I yield.
03:23Well, thank you very much, and it pains me to hear you impute hypocrisy and surplus moral self-righteousness to me.
03:32And it hurts me to have to do it.
03:34Well, I'm going to have to contradict the whole premise of your little filibuster against me,
03:40because I'm going to introduce, for the record, a letter I wrote on July 10th, 2019,
03:47when I was chairman of the Subcommittee on Civil Rights and Civil Liberties of the Oversight Committee.
03:51It's addressed to the Honorable Alexander Acosta.
03:54Dear Mr. Secretary, we're ready to invite you to testify at a hearing on July 23rd at 3 p.m. in room 21540.
04:00I reclaim my time.
04:01I get your point.
04:02Okay, wait for that.
04:03Let me finish here.
04:04I want to read exactly what it's about.
04:06It's my time.
04:06But wait a second.
04:07I'll let you go back.
04:08I'm from New Jersey.
04:08I will say this.
04:09You have spoken more about it today in this one hearing than in all those previous years combined.
04:15I'll yield back to you again.
04:16All right.
04:17So the hearing will examine your actions as U.S. attorney for the Southern District of Florida
04:21and authorizing a non-prosecution agreement for Jeffrey Epstein,
04:24as well as the finding by a federal court that you violated the Crime Victims Rights Act
04:29by keeping this non-prosecution agreement secret from the many victims of Mr. Epstein's crimes.
04:35Your testimony is even more critical now that federal prosecutors in the Southern District of New York unsealed a new indictment earlier this week
04:41outlining a host of additional charges against Epstein, including luring dozens of teenage girls to his homes in New York City and Palm Beach
04:48and paying them to engage in sexual activity with him.
04:51My friend, Mr. Van Drew, I was railing about this.
04:54You may have forgotten because that was during the Democratic period of your career when you were on our side of the aisle.
05:00I reclaimed.
05:00And you've blocked it out now.
05:01I know.
05:02Thank God.
05:02You may have blocked it out, but I didn't.
05:04I reclaimed my time.
05:05I reclaimed my time.
05:07Gentlemen from New Jersey.
05:08Thank God I did change.
05:10And this is just a good example of that.
05:12Well, you have political amnesia.
05:13It's my time.
05:15I still have many friends on the other side of the aisle.
05:17But here's the point.
05:18You still have spoken about it more today and yesterday and the day before than you did in all those years.
05:25That's the point.
05:25Well, are we trusting the same fact checkers on that than you trusted in New Jersey?
05:29You're much, much more angry now than you ever were then.
05:33And I call that into question.
05:34I do.
05:35And that is my right.
05:36And I respect you, ranking member, but I feel strongly that what you're doing here is wrong.
05:41We have an important bill here.
05:42We need to move this bill through.
05:45I yield back.
05:46Gentlemen, yields back.
05:46The gentlelady.
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