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Deadline: White House 11/19/25 | ️ Breaking News November 19, 2025
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00:00Hi there, everyone. It's 4 o'clock in New York. Donald Trump's political albatross has now come
00:05knocking on the door of the Oval Office. Now that the bill to release all files related to
00:10the criminal case of Donald Trump's former friend, the dead sex offender Jeffrey Epstein,
00:14has passed with near unanimous support from Congress. All that's left is Donald Trump's
00:19signature. Once the bill is signed, Team Trump will be stuck in a trap largely of their own
00:24making. The administration could have fulfilled a campaign pledge and released all the files
00:28months ago. Remember this? It's sitting on my desk right now to review. That's been a directive
00:36by President Trump. I'm reviewing that. But now, after months of stonewalling,
00:42the Trump administration is bound by law. A law just passed by Congress to release all of the
00:48Epstein files. And frankly, the world is watching to see if there's any chance they comply. Here's
00:54what Attorney General Pam Bondi had to say when she was asked if the investigation Trump ordered
00:59into Democrats will be an excuse to stop the release. On the Epstein files, does the new
01:07investigation by the Southern District of New York U.S. attorney prevent the department from
01:12releasing all of the remaining files? So we have released 33,000, over 33,000 Epstein documents
01:19to the Hill, and we'll continue to follow the law and to have maximum transparency. Also,
01:27we will always encourage all victims to come forward.
01:32Following the law and maximum transparency when it comes to the Epstein files,
01:38the public isn't buying it. Those are two things this Department of Justice is not known for,
01:43even among Republicans. Again, if Pam Bondi wanted transparency when it comes to the Epstein material,
01:49she could have released the files instead of publishing an unsigned memo that said she wasn't
01:53gonna. It sought to sweep the whole thing under the rug. Comments like her comments today, though,
01:59are part of a pattern by Team Trump that suggests anything but maximum transparency. From that unsigned
02:06memo back in July, to the shifting explanations for why Epstein and Trump had a falling out,
02:12to the preferential treatment the Trump administration has given to Epstein's accomplice,
02:17Ghislaine Maxwell. On that front, NBC News has some new reporting that the Bureau of Prisons has
02:22fired the whistleblower who alleged to House Democrats that Maxwell was getting,
02:27quote, VIP treatment, as Congressman Jamie Raskin describes it. From that new reporting,
02:32quote, a whistleblower who came forward to House Democrats alleging convicted sex offender Ghislaine
02:37Maxwell received preferential treatment at a federal prison camp in Texas,
02:41says she was not motivated by politics. Instead, quote, this was about common human decency and
02:47doing what's right for all inmates. That was Noella Turnage, a nurse who worked at the federal prison
02:53camp, Camp Bryan, since 2019. She said that the Federal Bureau of Prisons fired her on November 10th.
02:59The decision came one day after the top Democrat on the committee, Congressman Jamie Raskin,
03:04wrote a letter to President Donald Trump saying they had received information from a whistleblower
03:10indicating Maxwell was working on filing a commutation application and receiving special
03:15treatment not typically afforded to inmates at Bryan. A brand new chapter in the push for transparency
03:21around the Epstein case is where we start today. Joining us, Democratic Congressman Robert Garcia of
03:26California. He's a ranking member of the House Oversight Committee. He has been pivotal in the push for
03:31the release of the Epstein files. Did you think 24, 72 hours ago that the vote to release the files
03:40would be near unanimous in the House and the Senate? I did not. I mean, look, we were hoping that we
03:49could get maybe first 12 to 20 Republicans just a week ago. Then it became clear that we might get up to
03:57100 Republicans just a few days ago. And then, of course, with Trump's complete panic when he knew
04:05he was going to lose the vote in a spectacular way. Only then did we, of course, see the Speaker and
04:10others chime in where the vote became essentially unanimous. And the action, of course, of the Senate.
04:16This is a huge win for transparency, for the American public, for good government. But most importantly,
04:22this is a win for the survivors of Jeffrey Epstein, who have been demanding action now for years. And so
04:29it's a good day for this country, but there is a lot of work ahead of us in the future.
04:34Let me center our conversation then around the victims. Here is an Epstein survivor talking about
04:41something that people don't always remember that they hold, and that is the power to name names
04:49if they choose to. Let me play that for you.
04:54Let me ask you something else, because, again, it's much bigger than a couple of people.
04:59Were you trafficked to other people?
05:01You can say yes, but you don't have to name names.
05:16You only share what you want to share. You don't have to be sorry for anything. And I'm asking you
05:21this because I think it's important to understand, as people do understand about Virginia's story,
05:26that it's not about just one person or two people. It's much bigger than that.
05:30You can share whatever you want to share.
05:34Terrible things had happened to me within my time with dealing with Jeffrey Epstein.
05:44I had encounters with people that I would rather not have.
05:50I think there's a lot of people that just want them to release the names. They're like,
05:54well, you have the names. Just do it. The problem with that is that these rich and powerful men
06:00can, A, they can sue you into homelessness would be a big part of it. But B, it puts serious threat
06:06on your life and your family's life. There were times where my sister was sitting across people,
06:11and they would push a picture of her own children in front of her and essentially say,
06:16I know where your kids go to school.
06:20I know where your kids go to school. This is what the victims are dealing with right now.
06:25That's right. And Nicole, I've spent some time talking to some of these survivors one-on-one
06:32whenever I can. I do that. I just did so a few days ago with another survivor.
06:37And one of the stories that she shared was about her sensing and knowing that she was being watched
06:44and that her home was being essentially watched and followed and that she really feared the safety
06:51for herself and her family. So you can only imagine when some of the most powerful men in the country
06:57with unlimited resources and unlimited connections to the highest levels of government,
07:03what that feels like to be surviving, to know the trauma you've been through,
07:09but want to just protect your family, yourself, and your friends. And so we have to allow the
07:14survivors to tell their story on their time. But rest assured, the Oversight Committee and certainly
07:19Democrats on that committee, we are taking great care in our conversations with these survivors,
07:24and they're providing us very important information that we're very grateful for.
07:28Who's watching them?
07:33We, look, we, there was the question, who's, who's, who's following them?
07:38Who's following them? Yeah. I mean, is it a government official or a private person's?
07:45I, you know, I'm not going to, I think that oftentimes they're not sure. And, you know,
07:51I'm not going to speak for all of them in the conversations that I have had. I know of two survivors
07:58that directly told me that they certainly felt that they were being watched in the past and that
08:05there was some type of surveillance happening that they felt to themselves and their family.
08:10And that's very serious. And so that's something that we are, we take very seriously and their
08:15protection and their safety in this moment is incredibly important to us. And we know that right
08:22now Donald Trump has the power to release the files. He didn't need the vote in the Congress.
08:28He didn't need the subpoena that oversight committee Democrats place on the files. Yet he continues to
08:34deny justice and closure and some sense of being able to move forward for these women and their families.
08:41And so this is an important moment right now where there's progress being made, but there's a lot of work
08:46ahead of us on the financial documents on ensuring the files are released by the DOJ on Pam Bondi being
08:52held accountable for her actions. And those are things you're going to hear a lot about in the
08:56coming days. If Donald Trump in the White House thinks that we're slowing down or this is over,
09:01they are, they are mistaken. We are actually just beginning this work.
09:06What does it even mean that Trump has ordered an investigation into Democrats? If you're investigating
09:13the deceased sex offender, don't you start with the known criminals, Epstein and Maxwell,
09:19and follow the facts? I mean, what do you understand the U.S. attorney in the Southern
09:25District of New York, Jay Clayton, to have undertaken? An investigation whose ends are known or an actual
09:32fact-driven investigation?
09:36Nicole, this is a really good question. I want to actually make something really clear. I've heard
09:40some discussion on your network and others about the difference between, for example, the discharge
09:47petition that Congress voted on almost unanimously and the subpoena that's in place that the Oversight
09:55Committee put in place. They both ask for the same things, which are full release of the documents.
10:01Pam Bondi, in the clip you showed earlier, said, well, we've already released 33,000 documents.
10:06That's because Oversight Democrats forced a subpoena that's currently still in place for
10:11all of the documents, and she was responding to that subpoena. Now, we know that those documents
10:15were essentially already available to the public, so it was just a smokescreen. But that was a response
10:22to our subpoena. The discharge petition and the law in front of the president is another way of getting
10:27the documents. But here's where this investigation you're discussing is important. We know that that is a
10:33sham investigation. We believe it's being set up because in the law that was passed in the Kana and
10:40Massey Bill, there is a provision in there that essentially speaks to that the Department of Justice
10:46is able to possibly withhold some materials if there is an ongoing federal investigation. This has been
10:52discussed at length. And so folks are worried, is Pam Bondi, is Donald Trump, are they launching an
10:58investigation, particularly this one against Democrats, to use it as a way to stop the release
11:04of the files and of this bill? And that is a critical concern. What has not been discussed in
11:09the last few days, and I purposefully we've been focused on this bill, I want to remind the Attorney
11:14General and the public that our subpoena does not have that language. And so if the Attorney General
11:21wants to use her sham investigation in the Southern District of New York to withhold evidence and
11:28documents on the bill that the President will hopefully just about to sign, she can't do the
11:34same for our subpoena. She is still legally obligated, regardless of any investigation, to produce every
11:42single document, photo, video, or material that she has in the possession of the DOJ to the Oversight
11:50Committee. That's something that we have not talked about a lot in the last few days, because our
11:54focus is on this bill. But you can believe that in the next few days and weeks ahead, we're going to
11:59remind the DOJ that her investigation she might try to use to stop the effort in the full house,
12:05she can't use that to stop the effort we have in the Oversight Committee.
12:09Let me just ask you a follow-up question about that. So that material is the substance that
12:15multiple news organizations reported Kash Patel and Pam Bondi had, I think, hundreds of FBI agents
12:23pour through to be able to flag all the mentions of Donald Trump in the files. That is a knowable
12:29and quantifiable amount of paper and electronic data. And you're saying that is all, to be responsive
12:36to the subpoena, that all has to be released? Right. And so, it all has to be released. So,
12:42and as a reminder, sometimes the public, you know, it sometimes gets confusing. The initial 33,000
12:49documents released by the DOJ was in response to the subpoena by the Oversight Committee.
12:54Since then, including like the birthday book and last week's trove of emails, that came through a
13:00subpoena by Oversight Democrats to the Epstein estate, which is not the DOJ. And so, all the
13:08materials and documents we've received up to this point have been through subpoena through the Oversight
13:13Committee. Those documents will continue to come to our committee, including the estate. So,
13:17the president may try to slow down the documents that will be released to the public in the full
13:22Congress through the Thomas and Conner bill, but he can't actually slow down or stop. The flow of
13:29documents are going to come to the committee. I think it's an important distinction. The American
13:34public should feel heartened that we already know that regardless of Donald Trump's actions at the DOJ,
13:40we're going to get more documents from the Epstein estate. They've already told us as much,
13:44and we'll be disclosing those to the public when we get those.
13:48Has this Oversight Committee subpoenaed the Federal Bureau of Prisons to investigate the claims
13:54by the whistleblower about the treatment of Ghislaine Maxwell?
13:57So, we're actually working with Judiciary on that very question right now, and we have numerous
14:03letters. We have an investigation open on Ghislaine Maxwell. We've partnered with Jamie Raskin on
14:07Judiciary. What's happened there is completely outrageous and part, obviously, of this larger
14:13conversation. I mean, it is crazy that this monster, this liar, this trafficker and abuser herself is
14:21being moved and is now in this less secure facility, essentially receiving VIP treatment. And yet the DOJ
14:29won't answer who actually ordered that move. No one will answer that question. And so this idea now
14:37that somehow, oh, by Donald Trump signing the bill is somehow about transparency and he wants to release
14:42the files. Give me a break. Donald Trump is leading the White House cover-up. He's directing,
14:49likely, this move of Ghislaine Maxwell or certainly Todd Blanch or someone at the DOJ. And of course,
14:54he was Donald Trump's personal lawyer before this job. So, this is a complex issue, but an important
15:00one. And in the weeks ahead, we're going to work on getting the financial records. We're going to press
15:05the Epstein estate for more documents. And if Pam Bondi cries foul on her sham investigation and tries
15:11to stop the files from being released to the public in the Congress, we will remind her
15:16that our subpoena does not include that same language that Massey put in their bill.
15:22One more question for you. Would you, with all of this bipartisan momentum and with Trump's credibility
15:27on this issue with his own base collapsing, would you subpoena Maureen Comey, who was the
15:35prosecutor who did a lot of the sensitive work around the sex crimes themselves and who has the
15:44trust and confidence of the victims? We would absolutely want to talk to every single person
15:51involved. I will say that we're also, you know, we're having many conversations, not all of which are
15:57public. And we have requested numerous conversations and depositions with a variety of people.
16:05Some require subpoenas, others are voluntary. And so, we are working through that process. But
16:10anyone that has information on this investigation should contact us. We've had contact, by the way,
16:16from whistleblowers on this investigation. To those in the FBI that might be watching right now,
16:23to the good civil servants, to the men and women who have worked on this case. There are hundreds
16:29of you out there that know what are in the Epstein files. Thank you for your work. And we're grateful
16:35because they know what's in them. And any destruction, any sort of move by the DOJ to destroy records or not
16:43give them to us, I think will be met by good civil servants responding in a strong way.
16:48Do you have reason to believe that documents are being destroyed at the FBI?
16:55I have, I believe that Donald Trump and Pam Bondi are willing to do whatever it takes to protect
17:01Donald Trump and the very wealthy men in this country that have hurt women. And I think that
17:08that is something that we have to take very seriously. Obviously, there is, I don't have immediate
17:12evidence in front of me right now of something happening. I certainly am worried about it,
17:17as should the American people. Congressman Robert Garcia, in the middle of every aspect of this
17:24story, thank you very much for your time today, for starting us off.
17:31We're going to sneak in a quick break and then bring in our panel to follow up on everything.
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