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The Beat With Ari Melber 12/12/25 | ️ Breaking News December 12, 2025
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00:00on what has turned out to be a busy news Friday. Welcome to The Beat. We begin with the newly
00:05released evidence. These are Jeffrey Epstein photos that are coming to light for the first
00:10time today. They feature powerful politicians, including from both parties, and some of the
00:16world's richest men. Now, this is part of 95,000 images that were lawfully provided under these
00:24further transparency pushes. And these came from Epstein's estate, from his computer emails and
00:31other documentation, under, as I mentioned, a lawful subpoena from Congress, specifically the
00:36House Oversight Committee. These are newly coming to light. We're going to give you context as you
00:41see them. It is one thing to read about and hear about some of these relationships. There's Steve
00:45Bannon, Trump ally with Woody Allen. Another thing to see them with your own eyes and make your own
00:50judgments. House Democrats released about 85 images. Some include Trump. One includes former
00:56President Clinton. Trump surrounded by women who were in, I should say, Hawaiian leis. Their faces
01:02redacted by the committee. Another one shows Trump with an unidentified woman. We don't know, without
01:09further context, why the Epstein's estate had or saved these, what Jeffrey Epstein's interest was in
01:14them, whether or not they relate to something that Trump's own cabinet official has called alleged
01:19blackmail. The answers and context for that kind of question, those kind of issues would come up,
01:26of course, when we get the fuller Epstein files, which DOJ must turn over with a looming deadline.
01:32I'll get into that shortly, but the estate did not have written context with these images.
01:39The mirror selfie, now seen around the world, shows what you see here. Very simply,
01:48sex trafficker Epstein holding the phone next to, close to him, flanking him, long-time Trump ally,
01:56former White House official Steve Bannon. Now, we've reported on their extensive relationship,
02:02including their furtive secret efforts to, according to Bannon, help rehab Epstein's reputation.
02:07That included during a period where Trump was not having known contact with Epstein, and yet here was
02:12his ally helping him, and I have more on that later this hour as we dig through the context
02:17of some of these photographs. Here's a photo of President Bill Clinton signed. You can see Epstein
02:24and his now convicted and imprisoned associate, Jelaine Maxwell, and Jimmy Buffett and his widow,
02:31we should mention. Now, one thing that's important about these photos, and anyone who's followed any type of
02:38journalistic investigative reporting, where you have, say, one person accused of wrongdoing
02:42or convicted, in the case of Maxwell, and then other people, is being in the email, in the photo,
02:48or at the event, depending especially on the size of the event, does not tell you whether the other
02:53people are part of the alleged criminal activity. And that's an important distinction, both in law
02:58and in fair journalism. And many of the prominent people listed here had been previously tied to him
03:03in some manner. They have denied wrongdoing connected to Epstein. Several have said they didn't know
03:09about the extent of Epstein's now convicted crimes back then. The White House says that the Congress
03:16is cherry-picking these photos. The Democrats on the committee made what they view as, quote,
03:21random redactions, and all of it is to, they allege, quote, try and create a false narrative.
03:28Now, one point on that. I want to show you, of course, what the White House is saying, because
03:32that's part of the story and the reporting. And they, like other entities and individuals caught up
03:37in this, have every right to respond and explain the context. But when they say that releasing the
03:43evidence creates a false narrative, that is, of course, a contradiction with Trump's own claims.
03:49He spent 2024 vowing to release the files. That includes written files, photographic files,
03:56video evidence, includes all of it. And so he claimed he would do it. He failed to do it. And
04:02then, as you probably know, if you follow the news, was forced into doing it by signing that law with
04:06the deadline looming. So for his own White House to come around and say they're against the thing that
04:10he claimed he would do, then recently signed a law to do, is at a minimum rich. And it raises
04:17questions of its own. Will they comply with the new law they signed? And of course, why are they afraid
04:24of all this evidence and video? As for a top Democrat on the committee, he says there's more to come.
04:32Our plan is to demand that the president release the files, and we'll see what he does on the 19th.
04:37But I think, again, these pictures, some of these photos are really disturbing. And I know we've put
04:41some out today. There are many others. And some of the other photos that we did not put out today
04:47are incredibly disturbing. That's an assessment from a lawmaker who has seen more than anyone
04:55because they got the materials under subpoena. We also have reporting that a source who knows
05:00where the House probe is headed says, quote, fewer than 1,000 images actually contain any nudity.
05:07That's from MS Now reporting. And again, if that makes this sound less salacious or exciting,
05:12so be it. But we want to fact check some of the claims and vows we've heard with what others say
05:18could be less than an explosive cachet coming. MS Now has obtained the cover letter from Epstein's
05:25estate. It said it was unable to confirm whether they were taken at the property, owned, rented,
05:30operated, or used by Epstein. Now that matters because Epstein is dead. Those lawyers have a legal
05:36obligation to comply with subpoenas and tell the truth. Of course, you're always on the lookout for any
05:41potential cover-up, but that information could be helpful to some of the people pictured. Because
05:46again, as I mentioned, in fairness, if you are at an event in New York randomly or Miami or LA
05:55randomly that's not the Epstein estate and you're in one photo, that could be different than flying
06:01out to meet him. Some photos we can identify the location. And if you're at a very small group
06:05gathering or intimate thing, that again could be different from other elements of how he lived his
06:11life. And in fairness, it is clear there are some people who seem to very clearly know about what
06:16he was up to, the birthday book incriminating for that reason. There are others who in passing may
06:21have been at these fancy events and been at wrong place, wrong time. It's easy to go on the internet
06:26or a podcast and paint everyone with one brush. The harder work, but the work that does matter to get
06:31the case and the story right and deal with accountability, is for the government, the investigators,
06:36as well as other investigative journalists, and try to determine what is the truth. The photos are a
06:41piece of that. And the DOJ faces the big deadline Friday. If you remember when this law was passed,
06:49well, time keeps ticking on. You see on the calendar, the Epstein files deadline is Friday,
06:54December 19th. That is because they gave them one month to comply from when it passed in November,
06:59putting huge pressure on the DOJ and the Trump White House to comply with the law they signed or be
07:05caught in another Epstein debacle of their own making. I'm joined by contributing writer from
07:11the New York Times, Molly Jong-Fast. Welcome to you. If you look at, say, here's a Bill Gates photo,
07:18which does not have a date. He has already been linked to Epstein and discussed, this is from
07:24getting on the jet, but he's discussed what he says was a mistake to ever meet with the guy. He says
07:29it was only about philanthropy. Woody Allen, who has his own long history, seen here, the house has
07:37obscured the woman's face at that table. What does a picture worth a thousand words mean
07:44with evidence like this coming public for the first time tonight?
07:48Well, what I think is really important, Ari, is what you said. Again, a picture can mean any number
07:53of things, and none of these people are guilty being in a picture, right? We just don't know. We
07:59don't have enough information. One of the things that I think is really important to remember about
08:03this is we're getting this information because Oversight has really been doing its job. And Robert
08:10Garcia, who you showed before, is the ranking member of Oversight. And I have to say, like, I've been
08:15really impressed. You know, they subpoenaed the Epstein estate and got these pictures. These are not part of
08:21the law that Donald Trump signed, you know, into law. That stuff will get released, you know,
08:27legally should be released by Friday. Again, who knows? But I do think it's really important to see
08:32that these photos are coming out. It doesn't necessarily mean anything about the people in
08:37them. But it also is, you know, obviously they had some kind of, you know, even very peripheral
08:44relationship. And the truth is that, you know, there was a lot, you know, when I think we'll see more
08:51information in these photos. And again, Garcia talked about how, you know, they are very worried
08:58about keeping a lot of this redacted and not injuring the victims. And that should be where
09:03everyone's mind is at. And you'll see, you know, a lot of those photos are redacted. Maybe they don't
09:08even need to be redacted, but they've been very careful, which I think is good. And I think they're
09:13really trying to be careful about what they release. And I just want to push back on what the White House
09:17said, you know, the White House said, well, these are partisan pictures. But, you know,
09:21they did release a picture with Bill Clinton, who is known to have been a Democratic president.
09:29True. And this involves how you release material as you get it. The ultimate cache in the files will
09:36be voluminous, just like the emails were. It really comes down to order. I mean, we live in a culture now
09:42where not everyone finishes the article, let alone a book-length set of Epstein files. So
09:49they did release, for example, those early emails. And there was a lot of discussion that the first
09:54ones mentioned Trump. But we got all the emails. I have more to remind people about the Bannon
09:58relationship because we got the emails that blew the lid on things. They were in email saying,
10:03let's keep this a secret, private entrances, cloak and dagger. Now we have the selfie photos. I have
10:07more on that later tonight. But to the point of selectivity, yeah, you get more of it.
10:12The deadline looms. And it is interesting that the House is trying to sort of say,
10:16if you play games on this, we already have some of this stuff. So these photos and more can come
10:22out. And it's not going to work. That dog won't hunt, as they sometimes say, to over-redact.
10:28Obviously, there are fair redactions. I think any honest person can agree with that. To your point,
10:33and we can show again, there's a photo where women's faces are redacted. I'll put that back up.
10:37From an investigative view, it wouldn't be fair to just list all these women's faces if you don't
10:45know whether this is a case where some are alleged as victims, some are alleged as sex workers,
10:52others might be bystanders. So you don't just put someone's face out on TV and the internet and half
10:58the audience thinks that they fit a category. That's not fair to them. And this case shouldn't
11:04resolve with transparency that smears women. I don't think that's the additive. I don't think
11:10that's what honest brokers would do. I want to play a little bit of Republican Massey talking about
11:14the deadline. Take a listen.
11:17If DOJ doesn't release the files it has by next Friday, is there anything Congress can do to
11:23compel that to happen?
11:25Well, I mean, it's a crime if they don't. It's not like they're in contempt of Congress because they
11:31didn't respond to a subpoena. This is a new law with, you know, criminal implications if they
11:37don't follow it.
11:40That's some of the heat they're putting on. The truth is a bit more nuanced.
11:46You can go back to Watergate. There are fights about evidence where even a lawful subpoena
11:51or a law from Congress signed by the president takes a lot of time if the executive chooses to
11:57fight. But what does it tell you that some Republicans aren't going along with the usual,
12:03oh, I hope Trump does the right thing line? They're already saying, no, you better.
12:08Right. And again, this is a consequence of Trump, right? Mike Johnson was the speaker that Donald
12:13Trump wanted. Mike Johnson did not have a ton of experience. Mike Johnson has alienated a lot of
12:19Republicans in the House. And so we have discharge petitions like the discharge petition that got
12:25this Epstein information signed into law. I mean, we you know, it's funny. So often we see Donald
12:32Trump do something that he thinks will help him that ultimately ends up being very problematic for
12:38him. And you have Thomas Massey is just out there freelancing and he is not you know, he does not
12:44you feel that the speaker does not have the faith of a lot of these Republicans because they're doing
12:50these discharge petitions. So it is really interesting to see the caucus has really left him.
12:58Yeah, I want to play another Democratic member talking about what else they have that hasn't
13:04come out. This was a statement to CNN. Do you have pictures of people engaged in sexual acts as part of
13:14this? As part of this release, yes, there are pictures of people engaged in sexual acts.
13:19Molly, again, there has to be a serious fairness about how that information is used and other laws are
13:30implicated. Having said that, there are a lot of open questions about whether Mr. Epstein kept extra
13:37records, videos and otherwise for the purpose of blackmail, which then raises questions about whether
13:42government officials in either party were blackmailed or responding to other powerful people who were
13:50blackmailed. And if so, there could be extra crimes to review. Your view of what I think is a rather
13:56extraordinary statement by that member of Congress, either it's true, see above the blackmail issue. If it's not,
14:04that we would eventually learn that and that would be quite a false claim. So it's a big deal. What do you think of
14:08that? Yeah, I mean, look, there were video cameras in a lot of these rooms. We know the FBI had hundreds
14:15of hours of videos and tapes. I mean, this makes a lot of sense. And we've heard Congressman Garcia say
14:21something to the same effect, right, that there's blackmail material, that they're all pretty traumatized
14:26by whatever it is they've seen. And they're very worried about redacting the faces of the victims in
14:32order to not create more damage for these women who have been through hell. So I do think it's fair
14:38to say that there's certainly some terrible stuff. It has to be released in a way that is so careful
14:44for these women who have been through so much and where it does not make, you know, it does not
14:49re-traumatize them or make them, you know, some of these women are scared for their lives and or make
14:55them, you know, give them more public scrutiny because that is not what anyone wants. And so I think
15:00they're really trying to walk the line here. But the reason why oversight is doing a good job here is that
15:06they are keeping the pressure on the DOJ to release this information and to show that they can run a
15:14check on it to some extent, because otherwise, you know, we just don't have a lot of faith in the
15:19Trump DOJ for obvious reasons. Yeah, Molly, stay with me. Michelle Goldberg, who's been reporting on
15:26this, writing about in the Times when we return in 90 seconds.
15:30I'm back with Molly, and we are joined by the New York Times op-ed columnist Michelle Goldberg.
15:37Michelle, your thoughts on what we learned from this new evidence?
15:43So I don't think, you know, as Molly said before, I don't think we learned all that much. It was no
15:47secret that Jeffrey Epstein had relationships with a lot of these men. What I do think some of these
15:54photos at least underlined is the relationship with Epstein, I mean, sorry, the relationship was
16:00Epstein's relationship with Steve Bannon, I think has been really underscrutinized. You know, there's a
16:06lot of other people who come out in these files whose reputations have been reevaluated. I mean,
16:12Larry Summers has had to step down from his position or his responsibilities at Harvard. Whereas
16:18Steve Bannon, who was deeply involved in this kind of rehabilitation project, and who still has 15
16:28hours, reportedly, of video footage of Epstein that he hasn't released, he has kind of gotten a pass,
16:35maybe because he has close relationships with some of the right-wing influencers who've pushed the
16:42stories and other fora. I mean, that I can't say. I just think, again, that the closeness of that
16:48relationship, like, I don't think I have mirror selfies with my very best friend.
16:56Yeah, I mean, go on, because you're speaking to one aspect that photos and certain types of evidence
17:03fact-checks, which is we get denials that minimize, well, this was a business meeting,
17:09or, and I did mention, in fairness, some people, including some women, could be in photos with him
17:14in public places that have nothing to do with the criminal activity at his residences. But on the
17:21other hand, to your point, Michelle, for some people in Trump world and other business officials who
17:26said, oh, well, it was only this, the photos help undercut that. It looks like actually there's quite
17:32a bit of socializing, not just quote-unquote networking.
17:35Right. And again, I mean, I think we knew this from some of the, from the emails that have been
17:41released. And when we saw that Bannon's relationship with Epstein was extraordinarily close, that, you
17:47know, Bannon was giving him all kinds of advice, maybe sending a plane to pick him up at one point.
17:53I mean, these were two, you know, these, these were men who were working very closely together
17:58at a time when Bannon was still very much in Trump world. And so, you know, again, I mean, it's just
18:07the, for some reason, I think Bannon has successfully pivoted on this issue. And he was able to then sort
18:15of make a lot of hay about being someone demanding the truth about Epstein, saying at one point that
18:22Epstein was the key that picks the lock of all sorts of, I think, globalist conspiracies. And yet, there's not
18:31been any real public demand that he give up all of the information that he's, that he's been able to collect.
18:42Molly?
18:43Yeah, I mean, I think Michelle has a really good point. And there are a lot, those photos do, they sort, they, they speak to a
18:50certain level of intimacy, right? It's not just the pilot and someone, it's like two of them hanging
18:57out together. But yeah, for sure. I mean, those videos should be released. And again, you know,
19:02this is just to make the case, again, that this is democratic leadership doing actually a really good
19:07job here, because they are put, this pressure is out there now. And look, if Steve Bannon releases all
19:15that video, that could be extremely helpful for any number of reasons, right? Just like a lot of this
19:21is a case that just needs to be solved, right? Like what happened to these women? And, you know,
19:26and I do think that this would be really helpful. So I do think that the, the push from the oversight
19:32committee to show we have these photos, and we can run a check if you try to redact everything,
19:39just to protect powerful men, which is not what anyone, I think, who signed that, that discharge
19:45petition wants. And Michelle, you've written about the almost politically psychic or psychological
19:54ballast of this story for different individuals. And I'm not, I'm not sure where we are in a very
20:04unpredictable story, but something larger has been uncorked, where some of the people fomenting it
20:09have clearly lost control of it. Where do those sort of issues in the public interest in this go,
20:16as we head into what is, of course, the holiday season? I mean, you could probably
20:19duck out Christmas and New Year's, but this doesn't seem like something that people would
20:24stop caring about in January if they think that the Trump DOJ is now, and I say this potentially,
20:32not currently, but potentially illegally hiding the material.
20:37And this would be, my guess is that one reason that oversight is releasing these photos and kind
20:42of dribbling out more and more is just to keep this in the news so that if Trump decides to do
20:49something shady with this deadline, they're able to marshal public pressure to just remind them that
20:56there are still all of these, you know, sort of unsolved mysteries about this case,
21:01and there's still huge amounts of information that are out there, but that the public hasn't seen.
21:08Yeah. And as you say, there are many different efforts to get stuff into the news. The public
21:13relations industry has that goal all year round. But when you drop hard, real evidence of a Democratic
21:23president and a Republican president with a deceased sex trafficker, yeah, it's going to make news.
21:29I want to thank both of you as we've gotten into all of this in detail. Michelle Goldberg and Molly
21:36John Fast, my thanks. And Michelle rightfully mentioned Mr. Bannon has at times not gotten full scrutiny
21:44for his strong links, some of them previously hidden links to Epstein. Well, that's our special report
21:50coming up.
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