00:00There's been more fallout from the latest release of the files related to investigations into the
00:05convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. Former British minister and ex-ambassador to the U.S.
00:11Peter Mandelson has resigned as a member of Prime Minister Keir Starmer's Labour Party after new
00:16reports of his ties with the late Epstein. Meanwhile, Norway's Crown Princess Mete Marit
00:22has apologized for her, quote, embarrassing friendship with the financier. Ellen Gainsford
00:27takes a look at some of the figures implicated.
00:32British newspapers were castigating in their criticism of Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor after
00:38fresh photos of the former prince were among the latest release of documents relating to
00:43disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein. In an additional revelation, a second woman came forward over the
00:49weekend alleging Epstein sent her to the U.K. to have sex with Mountbatten-Windsor. Following these
00:55new disclosures, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer says he believes the former prince should testify
01:01before the U.S. Congress. In terms of testifying, I have always said anybody who has got information
01:08should be prepared to share that information. You can't be victim-centered if you're not prepared
01:13to do that. Epstein's victims have to be the first priority. Also obligated, the British politician
01:19and former diplomat Peter Mandelson, who has resigned from the Labour Party after banking records
01:26appeared to show Epstein transferred $75,000 to accounts linked to him. Mandelson claims he has
01:33no recollection of the payments. He was fired last year from his role as British ambassador to the U.S.
01:38over his ties to the former financier. Elon Musk's name also appeared in the documents,
01:44discussing potential visits to Epstein's Caribbean compound. The Tesla CEO has denied ever traveling
01:51to the island. And there was an apology from Norway's crown princess Meta Merit, who called
01:56her friendship with Epstein embarrassing. Los Angeles' Olympics chief Casey Wasserman expressed regret
02:03after emails revealed a flirty exchange between him and Epstein's associate Ghislaine Maxwell.
02:09While the documents contain more than a thousand references to Donald Trump, they hold little
02:14new information about the friendship between the U.S. president and the convicted sex offender.
02:22For more on this story, we can bring in Reid Brody, who's a former New York State Assistant Attorney
02:27General. Thank you very much for being with us on France 24. I want to start by asking you,
02:33what is the possibility of additional criminal charges in the wake of this latest release?
02:39Well, that's an important question. I mean, I think the documents reveal a pattern of allegations
02:45being documented but not being pursued. I mean, throughout the documents, we have FBI presentations
02:52listing prominent names, prosecution memos detailing specific encounters. Yet we hear, and we heard
03:00this weekend from the Justice Department, that there will be no investigations.
03:05And so I think these documents expose a real accountability gap. I mean, why were these
03:13complaints documented but not investigated? Why are these, you know, where are the complete
03:19FBI files? And why are perpetrators' names being redacted while survivors are exposed? I think a lot of
03:26this is historically on the Justice Department. But at the heart of this last chapter, unfortunately,
03:32is a Justice Department that has a total conflict of interest. Attorney General Pam Bondi and Deputy
03:40Attorney General Todd Blanche were Donald Trump's personal lawyers. That's why they were appointed.
03:47You know, since Watergate, there's been a norm in the U.S. of Department of Justice independence.
03:53But the Justice Department for the last year has been functioning as Donald Trump's private law firm.
03:59And so just on the Epstein files last year, we saw that once controversy started to brew
04:05and calls grew for Jelaine Maxwell's testimony, Todd Blanche went to see her in prison and then
04:14transferred her to a less restrictive federal facility. I mean, we've seen this, you know, in
04:20Minnesota. We've seen, you know, after the killing of Renee Good, they didn't investigate the ICE
04:25officer. They invested Renee Good. You know, we see prosecutions against Trump's political
04:30adversaries, such as New York Attorney General Letitia James or FBI Director James Comey. So I'm
04:37not very sanguine that the Justice Department is going to, you know, investigate. But, you know,
04:46that doesn't close the book. There are a lot of other possibilities.
04:48So what does this mean for the victims, for Epstein's victims then? Is the prospect of
04:53justice or closure getting further and further away?
04:58Well, I don't know. I mean, clearly the great absentees from this debate are once again the
05:03victims. I mean, you see throughout the files, teenage girls, sometimes 14 or 15, who tried
05:09to alert authorities, who went to the police, who described the massages, and nobody listened.
05:15Their complaints were dismissed for years. Even the 2007 sweetheart deal in, you know,
05:22the secret non-prosecution agreement that spared Epstein the most serious charges, they weren't even
05:27informed. You know, but I think, you know, there are pathways here. First of all, Congress can demand
05:33to see all of the files. Let's remember that the Justice Department said there were 6 million.
05:39We've only seen three. 200,000 documents have been redacted. We don't, I mean, just blank. I mean,
05:46pages and pages. And so, you know, they could go to ask a judge to see if these can be released,
05:53because there's a law that says that they have to be released. Second, you know, state prosecutors
05:57can take these cases up. I mean, in New York, where Jeffrey Epstein lived, where I was former
06:03Assistant Attorney General, for serious sexual crimes, including rape and predatory sexual assault
06:10against a child, there is no statute of limitations. That means prosecutors can bring charges at any
06:15time. And survivors, who were under 18 at the time, can now file civil lawsuits until 55. So,
06:24I think for, you know, the Justice Department is saying this is the end of the story. I think what
06:29we hear from survivors, what we hear from Democrats, is that this is not the end of the story.
06:35So, what's the likelihood that lawmakers do go ahead and try to get, you know, the entirety of those
06:41files? And what kind of timeframe could they be looking at if they go ahead with that?
06:48Well, I think, you know, there's a lot of rebellion in the Republican ranks over this. I mean,
06:52let's remember that Epstein occupies a mythic place in the MAGA QAnon worldview, this imagined
07:01proof of a hidden elite Democratic pedophile conspiracy, and that Trump, you know, when he
07:09was running for president, you know, he portrayed, he was portrayed as the person who would reveal the
07:15truth. He promised to make all these files public. And, you know, roughly one quarter of Republican
07:21voters believe these QAnon-adjacent narratives about this big, you know, pedophile ring. And so,
07:29it's not going to be so easy. I mean, a lot of Republicans have been leading the charge for this.
07:34I mean, the bipartisan law that required these release, you know, I mean, Trump gave in when he
07:41saw that he was going to lose badly, and it was passed almost unanimously. So, I think, you know,
07:48people are not going to be satisfied with 200,000 redacted pages, with three million pages still
07:53missing. And, you know, this is not, I don't think, the end of the story here.
08:00And the documents have also stirred new intrigue about implications of Donald Trump and Bill Clinton
08:06and all of this. But is it just simply that, implications, sensational context?
08:10Well, you know, I mean, we know that Donald Trump used to hang out with Epstein. I mean,
08:18he praised him publicly, saying that he, like me, he likes very young women. You know, Epstein in these
08:25files talks repeatedly about how Trump knew, you know, they were, you know, there's that famous
08:31birthday album, which includes a message attributed to Trump, where he's writing over the private parts
08:38of a naked woman with a handwritten note. There are allegations in these files. I mean,
08:44we knew about this in 2016. There's a woman using the pseudonym Katie Johnson, who filed a civil lawsuit
08:51saying that she was raped at age 13 at an Epstein residence by Donald Trump. That suit has been
08:58withdrawn. Trump denies it. The FBI at the time said they did not find it credible, and no charges were
09:04filed. But the fact is that, you know, in all of this, in all of this sex ring of ring conspiracy,
09:13many people, only one person has ever, aside from Epstein, has been prosecuted, and that's
09:19Jillian Maxwell. There were a lot of other people involved. And to think that all of this happened,
09:23and the U.S. Justice Department and the FBI do not have evidence against other people,
09:30I think people do not believe this, and I don't believe it. You mentioned that there are 3 million
09:36more documents missing that haven't been released. Do we know what these might contain? Has the
09:43Department of Justice given reasons as to why some have been withheld? You know, they have not given
09:50any reasons. We don't know, and we don't know about the redactions, and we don't know the difference
09:55between the 6 million they said were there and the 3 million that we got. Unfortunately,
10:03today, nobody believes the Justice Department. I mean, that, you know, we all saw in Minnesota,
10:10sorry, we all saw in Minnesota the killing of, for instance, of Renee Good. The Justice Department
10:16told us that what we saw was not what we saw. So, and the same with the killing of Alex Preddy in the
10:24beginning. So, it's hard to know, you know, it's hard to take them at their word. It's hard to trust
10:32them when they say 6 million, and then they only give you 3 million. We simply don't know. And
10:38unfortunately, at this point, we can't assume good faith on the part of the Justice Department.
10:43All right, Reid Brody, thank you very much for your analysis. As a reminder,
10:46you're a former New York State Assistant Attorney General. Thank you very much.
10:49You're welcome.
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