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The Beat With Ari Melber 2/17/26 | ️ Breaking News Today February 17, 2026
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00:00Welcome to The Beat. I'm Ari Melber, and we are following actual investigative developments
00:05in how Congress is dealing with the Epstein files. There's a billionaire, and if you don't
00:10know his name, you certainly know his business background. Les Wexner will be grilled tomorrow.
00:16This is part of what has become a bipartisan rebuke to Donald Trump over and over on the
00:21Epstein files. He said no new files. Congress made him release them. That's the story we've
00:26been following. He said, let it go. It's an old story. Congress said, no, there's more
00:29to do, and so it stays in the news because of these actual investigative developments.
00:34Now, Wexner had a long and very big kind of business relationship with Epstein. The question
00:42is what kind of business, but tens of millions of dollars were exchanged. This deposition
00:45will occur in Ohio. That's part of an accommodation of the witness who is 88 years old. Now, when
00:52I mentioned business, what these two men did in business is part of what's under investigation.
00:58So, on the one hand, we could tell you that Wexner was a successful businessman, a billionaire,
01:02and that he was also a benefactor of Epstein, that he helped him financially, and maybe that's
01:07all there was to it. We want to be careful and follow the facts, but lawmakers, investigators,
01:13and independent journalists have raised the question of just why so much of Wexner's money
01:18ended up in Epstein's pockets. At one point, Epstein was managing Wexner's finances. Then
01:24they did sever ties, and that was in 2007 as more heat came on Epstein. What we're learning
01:31from the files, though, is that Wexner is in there over a thousand times. Emails, lawsuits
01:37that seem to involve potentially both of them, and the DOJ has even modified some of the redactions
01:41to the 2019 FBI file that showed they were looking at whether Wexner had exposure related
01:47to the crimes they were investigating Epstein for. Now, we want you to understand what Wexner
01:52has said, and this is prior to even the new files release. He maintains that they had a
01:56kind of professional relationship, and that ultimately, he became disenchanted with what
02:00he viewed as Epstein's failures or misconduct with regard to finances. Now, Wexner will be
02:06only the second person to speak before Congress since the files were released. You can see a lot
02:10of the pressure on many of these individuals we've been tracking, while Trump Commerce Secretary
02:14Lutnik caught lying to minimize his visit to Epstein Island remains in the Cabinet. So there
02:20is a kind of a clash between accountability for some and not others. Congress has some
02:28efforts to investigate, and we've seen that in a, at times, bipartisan way. While there's
02:33also been an effort to distract or look at certain individuals, for example, the calls to investigate
02:39powerful men, some of whom might be implicated in this, are a long ways from going after Hillary
02:46Clinton. Here's what she's saying.
02:51What we're seeing, I think it's fair to say, is a continuing cover-up by the Trump administration.
02:56There's something about this administration's attitude toward this, which I think really leads
03:04us to conclude they have something to hide. They are slow-walking it. They are redacting
03:09the names of men who are in it. They are stonewalling legitimate requests from members of Congress.
03:16That has nothing to do with us. Something is going on. They know it. I know it.
03:23That's Hillary Clinton, who, of course, as I mentioned, has been targeted by some of the Republicans,
03:27although when you go looking for rich, powerful men who may have gotten away with something,
03:32she wouldn't really be on the list, not based on the files or the information we have.
03:37Now, Republican Thomas Massey, who has been really seen as a good-faith bipartisan collaborator here,
03:43working with Democrats to get to the bottom of this, says on any given day,
03:46I need one or two of my own co-conspirators to get something done. Once we get past Republican
03:50primaries, I think you're going to see defections. That's his reference to the fact that Trump still
03:57has, of course, more sway in primary season, but there is a lot more that they can do if they
04:01get
04:02the votes. Now, what's happening out there? What has happened in places where we've seen that the
04:08files show prosecutors and investigators might have been pressured out of doing a full investigation
04:14or fallen down on the job and the things we've shown you on our timeline? Well, this is interesting.
04:18The state of New Mexico now has a new probe into Epstein's ranch there. Survivors have said they were
04:25abused. That ranch has been known for a long time. What we're seeing is how information,
04:29investigation and public pressure can lead to investigations that otherwise were not going to
04:35happen. Columbia has now sanctioned two individuals that they think helped Epstein's girlfriend gain
04:40admission there, again, through how his largesse may have distorted things long, far away from his own
04:46accused sex crimes, but just the sort of way he wielded influence. Two prominent business people
04:51facing consequences over their ties to Epstein. We reported, for example, on the Wasserman issue,
04:57his ties to Maxwell, not to any alleged crimes per se, have led to him having to sell off his
05:02entire
05:03talent agency. Others across the spectrum facing subpoenas or these pressure points we've shown you.
05:08The New York Times asked, why didn't anyone say something? And that what we're learning, again,
05:14from this unusual transparency effort, shows how a group can collude with dark secrets if they serve their
05:20interests. The price of admission to Epstein's world was, the Times says, silence. And so when you look at
05:28this entire issue, it has really gone topsy-turvy. It started as something that was so under-investigated
05:36with so little accountability that that became part of the scandal. And the question over years, would he
05:41really get away with it forever? And then, of course, he was ultimately, Mr. Epstein was indicted.
05:47He died in prison, awaiting trial. Maxwell, later indicted and convicted. So you had some baseline
05:54accountability, though very delayed. And the idea was, well, leave it there. And Donald Trump repeatedly
06:00said, leave it there. It's old news. Nothing more to see here. But he was overruled by some of his
06:07own
06:07supporters who, for whatever their reasons, wanted to get to the bottom of this and agitated, put pressure
06:12on Congress, which then, late but finally, came up with this bipartisan effort to get the files out.
06:18And one of the questions, remember, it's very easy to stand in judgment and look at things in hindsight,
06:24what they call, of course, Monday morning quarterbacking. But what you see now is that
06:31there was important information in the files. Doesn't mean it's going to lead to a bunch of
06:36indictments or convictions. We have a process that we have to follow in this country under the rule of law,
06:40even if some wish it otherwise. But what I showed you in the accountability, that having learned
06:45information about some of these individuals, other people in the public marketplace of accountability
06:50said, no, I don't want to be in business with them. Or no, that's not OK. Or no, short of
06:55indictment,
06:56which is a government process, the public said, we are reacting. And that's in the early days. As I've
07:01told you, we and other outlets have been going through these files. It takes time to do it right.
07:06There are millions of revelations. We are seeing a move for accountability.
07:11And this isn't a screenplay. This isn't a movie. If it were a movie, you'd say it's a little rich
07:17that
07:17there's accountability everywhere. But in the White House of the president who claimed
07:23in his most recent election that he wanted to get to the bottom of this and finding that the bottom
07:29or
07:29the involvement of this includes people in his own cabinet, he won't lift a finger to even publicly
07:36say they shouldn't have consorted with Epstein, let alone fire them, which is a far, far lower level
07:45than whether you're ever going to have the wider calls for accountability as mentioned.
07:49So there is something happening. And the information is having real world consequences.
07:54It's just everywhere but in Trump's administration. We're going to get into exactly these issues with
08:01civil rights lawyer Nancy Erica Smith when we return in about 90 seconds.
08:07It's clients under oath. I'm joined by Nancy Erica Smith, a civil rights attorney who's represented
08:13numerous victims of sexual harassment and assault. Welcome back. When you look at this and the Congress
08:20going forward, this is the continued work that Trump didn't want for his own reasons, but he was
08:26very public in saying that. And this sort of reflects a late effort to get more information,
08:32whatever the relationship may be with with Wexner. Your thoughts on this work, however tardy.
08:39Well, I think that Thomas Massey is a hero here and he's paying for it. He's described the threats
08:45he's receiving. He calls this the Epstein administration, which certainly seems true.
08:50Not only has Representative Raskin told us that Trump was mentioned, there were a million hits
08:56in the three and a half million documents that have been released, but the DOJ has violated the
09:03Epstein Transparency Act. So who knows what's in the other two and a half million documents and the
09:09redactions have not been cleaned out. So it just seems that Epstein ran an international ring of
09:15trafficking young girls, information, influence, and connections with the highest levels. And we see
09:22indictments in other countries and a prince is stripped of his princedom or whatever.
09:29So why aren't we moving forward and why is it so difficult to get Congress to act? Well, thank goodness
09:37for Thomas Massey, but we don't have a Department of Justice. We can't even call it a Department of
09:42Justice anymore. When Todd Blanche, Trump's former lawyer, was asked, will you investigate the tips
09:49that have not been followed up on in the files? He said, no, there's going to be no investigations
09:54because they're unfounded. Well, how do you know they're unfounded if you don't investigate them?
10:00It's absurd. And meanwhile, we see this pampering Ghislaine Maxwell after Todd Blanche meets with
10:08her. And let's yes, let's dig into this new part with Wexner, because one question is, oh,
10:15did Epstein just get away because he was rich and powerful, could hire the best lawyers? As you know,
10:19there are individuals who've hired pricey lawyers and not gotten away with as much as Jeffrey Epstein.
10:24So another investigative question, I want to be very precise about this, not proven. Pam Bondi said
10:30they didn't see any leads to go after potential blackmail, which could be of powerful people or
10:36even people inside the government. And now we have the files and they might paint a different picture
10:41and Congress is going to make its own judgment. So I want to read from, again, what we're only learning
10:45because it's come out without presupposing the whole story. But illicit trysts is how the New
10:53Times headline their coverage of this part of the files and what they call, quote, leverage with the
10:59wealthy, quoting what we now have learned, where you have Epstein telling Wexner, who's going under
11:06oath tomorrow, you and I had gang stuff for over 15 years. I owe a great debt to you, as
11:12frankly you owe
11:14to me. And Epstein says he has no intention of divulging any confidence of ours. I'm curious how you as
11:23someone who's dealt in these fields interpret that. Would investigators want to look at that as
11:28just a statement where secrets are safe or sometimes people say those things as a veiled threat? Is that
11:36worth looking into when he's under oath tomorrow? I definitely think that is a veiled threat, not so
11:43veiled threat, actually, of blackmail. And there are other emails like that where I'll always keep your
11:50secrets. There are other emails in the in the three and a half million that have been released.
11:54So, yes, to me, it looks like blackmail should be investigated. And we also have Trump on the
12:00birthday card saying, may every day be a wonderful secret. What secret? What has to be kept secret
12:07here? So not investigating what's going on means we don't have a DOJ. Thank goodness we have Congress
12:14waking up a little bit. I don't have a whole lot of confidence in Mike Johnson's Congress House of
12:21Representatives right now. But maybe if you look at the polls, people are not real happy with the Trump
12:29administration right now. And this is a concern to people. And he created this concern by talking about
12:35the Epstein files all the time as if it was part of the ridiculous conspiracy of a Democratic
12:41pedophile ring run out of a pizza place in Washington, D.C. He created this in his own
12:47base. And now he has to say, I've been exonerated, which is what he said yesterday, which is completely
12:53false, just absolutely false. So they have a problem they created. Yeah, exactly. I validated it. And
13:02again, tomorrow we're going to see what Congress gets out of this, but certainly leads that were not
13:10followed. Nancy, Erica Smith, thank you as always for joining us. Thank you. Absolutely. We have Al
13:17Sharpton coming up later. Donald Trump, big government censorship, what he apparently his CBS's
13:23parent company didn't want you to see. We were told in no uncertain terms by our network's lawyers who
13:30called us directly that we couldn't. Democrats are pushing harder and wielding more potential powers,
13:36including a partial government shutdown to try to hold Trump accountable. And that's before the
13:41midterms, which if they win, there are already clues as to what they're going to do in governance.
13:47Subpoenas are coming if they win. That's according to a bipartisan firm that studied this,
13:52discussing a tsunami of congressional oversight, including not just Trump, but how corporate
13:57America may have broken rules or even betrayed their consumers and shareholders all to cave to Trump.
14:03A strategy where Democrats say, why send a subpoena to a cabinet agency that might produce
14:08arguments in three years when one to a company produces them in three weeks? Donald Trump has
14:14brought corporate America deep into his type of agenda. We will see how they react to being
14:19scrutinized that way. I am joined on a special day today. It is again, Che Day right here on the
14:26beat. Che Comanduri, a political strategist, veteran of several campaigns, including Obama's.
14:32Did you know it was Che Day? Che, you usually have a clue.
14:36I did not know it was Che Day, but I am pleased to see Che Day back in force.
14:42Back in force. It's the same great channel. We like to believe we work just as hard.
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