00:00Well, we're able to talk more about this now. We're joined on the line from Lisbon by Reid Brodie,
00:06who is a human rights lawyer and also a former New York State Assistant Attorney General,
00:12as well as a lawyer with the organisation Human Rights Watch from 1998 to 2016.
00:19Hello, Mr Brodie. First of all, welcome to the programme. Thank you so much for giving us your
00:24time. I know you are a very busy person. Maybe first of all, we can look at Ghislaine Maxwell
00:30then yesterday at this hearing via Telelink. She exercised her right to remain silent.
00:40We know that she was interviewed last year by the US Deputy Attorney General, who is also Trump's
00:46personal lawyer. And after that, she was moved to a more comfortable prison. Are you one of those
00:52people who believe she did a deal with the Deputy Attorney General over what she would or would
00:57not reveal? Well, it certainly looks that way. I mean, you know, as you've said, she sits at the
01:03centre of this entire sex trafficking operation and certainly knows more than anyone alive who was
01:11involved. And last July, it was the day after this committee issued a subpoena for her that Deputy
01:21Attorney General Todd Blanche, who, as you said, was Trump's personal, formerly Trump's personal
01:28criminal defence lawyer, rushed to Florida to interview her. Now, normally, the Deputy Attorney
01:34General of the United States doesn't sit down with a convicted sex trafficker. And as you mentioned,
01:40shortly after that interview, she was transferred to a minimum security prison in Texas.
01:47Neither her lawyers nor the DOJ nor the Bureau of Prisons has ever explained this.
01:57Whistleblowers from that prison have alleged that she's getting concierge-like VIP treatment,
02:05special meals delivered to her special visiting privileges, access to a pet, after-hours gym.
02:11And inmates who spoke out about this were reportedly transferred to a higher security prison as a
02:19punishment. And as you reported, she said she'd be happy to talk if she got clemency. And, you know,
02:26I am, I mean, this totally smacks of, you know, some kind of a deal. I mean, of the administration
02:36basically, you know, putting her in a position where she cannot speak out. And, you know, she has
02:43asked for clemency. Clearly, I mean, Donald Trump would give her clemency if he thought he could get
02:48away with it. But the political fallout at this point would certainly be too great. So I'm afraid
02:55here that the fix is kind of in as relates to Gillian Maxwell.
03:00As well as her refusing to give those names in any hearings, when the documents are released,
03:09the names of so many powerful people are redacted. And yet some of the names of the victims,
03:16some photographs of the victims have been released. They are out there. They have been,
03:22as some people say, thrown to the wolves. Is there growing outrage in the United States about that?
03:27Well, I mean, there certainly is. I mean, this, you know, these files are a window into the world of
03:35the financial and political elite. You know, we see tech billionaires, finance titans, real estate
03:42moguls, politicians, all emailing Epstein asking to go to his island well after he was convicted of
03:49pedophilia. And, you know, these are the people running the country. I mean, we're talking about
03:53cabinet secretaries, Elon Musk, Bill Clinton, Donald Trump, Bill Gates. You ask about the outrage in
04:01the U.S. And there is a lot of outrage. But, you know, what is what is really interesting contrast
04:08here has been how how the fallout has been so different on both sides of the Atlantic. You know,
04:16in Europe, senior figures have been have resigned or been forced out. Peter Mandelson
04:21resigning from the Lords and, you know, Jack Lang in France stepping down from the Arab World
04:28Institute, senior diplomats in Norway and Slovakia. I mean, we're just reporting on Keir Starmer,
04:34you know, being on the ropes. He didn't even know Epstein. But in the United States,
04:39there have been very few consequences for the prominent officials whose names have surfaced.
04:46And, you know, I mean, let's take, you know, U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick.
04:52He said publicly on a podcast a couple of years ago that after visiting Epstein's house,
04:58when he saw a massage table in the house and Epstein put his face close to Lutnick's face and
05:05said, I get the right kind of massages. Lutnick said, I am never going to. He said this publicly.
05:10He said, I decided I would never see this man again. Now we know that Lutnick accepted an
05:16invitation to visit Epstein's private island. He was apparently engaged in business ventures with
05:21them. So there's a real disconnect between what is going on in Europe and and and and the lack of
05:27consequences that these rich and powerful people are are seeing in the United States.
05:33Yeah, it would, as you say, be very ironic. You know, Keir Starmer in Britain, who has endured
05:39quite a lot from the fallout of this and has never even met Jeffrey Epstein. And yet we're looking at
05:44the situation in the U.S. where you hear allegations, but there seem to be no prosecutions
05:49being started. Can the states prosecute some of these people or open prosecutions,
05:56open court cases against them, even if the Department of Justice does not?
06:01Well, absolutely. I mean, and I don't expect that the Department of Justice will prosecute.
06:07I mean, as we've said, I mean, you know, Pam Bondi was put there as attorney general because of her
06:14loyalty to Donald Trump. She had been Trump's lawyer. The deputy, Todd Blanch, had been his criminal
06:22defense lawyer. So I don't expect to see the DOJ prosecute. But state prosecutors, especially in New York,
06:30where I was an assistant attorney general, they can act for certain serious sexual crimes,
06:36including rape in the first degree, predatory sexual assault against the child. There is no
06:42statute of limitations in New York and in many other states. So prosecutors can bring charges no
06:48matter how many years have passed. But of course, the evidence has to be developed. And so we need to
06:54see all of that evidence. And all of these people who are in the files should be called either before
07:02Congress or, you know, to testify about why they were what they were doing. I mean, hundreds of people
07:10of the rich and powerful, their names are in these files. They need to be questioned.
07:16Well, that's really interesting. Thank you so much for your time, Reid Brody. Of course,
07:22you yourself, former New York State Assistant Attorney General. Thank you for your time. We
07:26do appreciate it. That was Reid Brody there for our viewers.
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