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00:00Tonight, the powerful wealthy men in the newly released Epstein Files will show you the names,
00:06the timeline of their emails with Jeffrey Epstein, and what they're saying about it now.
00:10Then, an update on when the partial government shutdown is expected to end,
00:15and will it mean any real change on how ICE operates in American cities.
00:19Plus, money power politics, new reporting on the half a billion dollar deal between Abu Dhabi royalty
00:26and guess who? The Trump family crypto business.
00:29As the 11th hour gets underway on this Monday night.
00:40Big, deep breath required tonight.
00:42Good evening once again. I am Stephanie Ruhle, and we are now 273 days away from the midterms.
00:48Tonight, we're keeping a close eye on Capitol Hill as House Speaker Mike Johnson tries to figure out
00:53if he's going to be able to end the partial government shutdown.
00:55And we're going to get into that in a moment.
00:57But you know, we are beginning tonight with what President Donald John Trump said today
01:03about sex criminal Jeffrey Epstein. Watch this.
01:07I have nothing to do with Jeffrey Epstein.
01:09And in fact, if you look at the DOJ, they announced, you know, they released three million pages.
01:14It's like this is all they're supposed to be doing.
01:17And frankly, the DOJ, I think, should just say we have other things to do because that whole thing has
01:23turned out.
01:23I mean, other than Bill Clinton and, you know, Bill Gates and lots of people that have.
01:28There are a lot of questions about it, but nothing on me.
01:32Of course, the DOJ can't say they have other things to do.
01:35It's required by law to release this.
01:37In fact, Donald Trump's name is all over the newly released three million pages of Epstein files.
01:43The New York Times identified more than 5,300 files containing more than 38,000 references to Trump,
01:51his wife, Mar-a-Lago, and other related words and phrases in the latest batch of files.
01:56Today on social media, the president denied being friendly with Epstein,
02:00despite the photos that we have all seen that are on your screen right now.
02:03Now, it is very important to note the newly released files do not contain any direct exchanges between Trump and
02:10Epstein,
02:10and the references to him are not proof of any wrongdoing.
02:14Side note, Donald Trump doesn't email anyone.
02:17But of course, the DOJ is still holding on to millions more pages of documents,
02:22and some of the ones that were released are heavily redacted.
02:26Now, two of the lawmakers who spearheaded the release of these files,
02:29Republican Thomas Massey and Democrat Ro Khanna,
02:32are now trying to get access to the full unredacted documents.
02:36Now, when it comes to Jeffrey Epstein and those millions of pages of documents,
02:40we would not be here today without the women who stood up publicly to speak about what they experienced.
02:47And as we learn more about Epstein's years of abuse,
02:50we are learning more about the huge network of contacts he had with powerful men in technology,
02:56real estate, finance, American politics, and British royalty.
03:00Pretty much everyone in charge of everything.
03:03But before we start to go through these, and it's going to take a minute, so bear with me, but
03:08it is important,
03:09I want to remind you of the timeline.
03:11While Epstein was not arrested on federal charges until 2019,
03:15he pleaded guilty to soliciting prostitution from a minor, also known as a child, in Florida back in 2008.
03:23All of the emails I'm about to take you through happened after that.
03:26And remember, these are just some of the people we learned about in the latest batch.
03:31Let's start with Elon Musk, the richest man in the world and one of Donald Trump's most powerful allies.
03:36Last year, Musk posted online, quote,
03:39Epstein tried to get me to go to his island and I refused.
03:42But the new documents show Musk trying to socialize with Epstein.
03:46In 2012, he asked Epstein, quote,
03:48What day and night will be the wildest party on your island?
03:52Then emails in 2013 appeared to show Epstein's staff coordinating a visit for him to SpaceX,
03:57one of Musk's many companies.
03:59In response, over the weekend, Musk wrote the following,
04:01I had very little correspondence with Epstein and declined repeated invitations to go to his island.
04:07But Musk did not address his emails asking to visit and party with Epstein or giving him that tour of
04:14SpaceX.
04:14Then there's Steve Tisch.
04:15He's a film producer and co-owner of the NFL's New York Giants.
04:19Tisch is mentioned more than 400 times in the new files.
04:22Messages between Tisch and Epstein show Epstein offering to connect Tisch to several women.
04:27In one 2013 exchange about a woman, Tisch wrote, pro or civilian?
04:33In a statement from the Giants, Tisch said, quote,
04:35We had a brief association where we exchanged emails about adult women.
04:39And in addition, we discussed movies, philanthropy and investments.
04:42I did not take him up on any of his invitations and never went to his island.
04:47And as we all know now, he was a terrible person and someone I deeply regret associating with.
04:52Next, and you knew he would be on this list tonight, Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor.
04:57And if you're going, who's that?
04:59Of course, it is the man formerly known as the United Kingdom's Prince Andrew.
05:03His name appears several hundred times in the new documents.
05:06That includes an invitation for Epstein to have dinner at Buckingham Palace in 2010
05:12and photos that appear to show Andrew kneeling over an unidentified woman lying on the floor.
05:19Andrew has long denied any wrongdoing.
05:20Then there's Brad Karp.
05:22Remember this name?
05:23The chairman of the powerful Wall Street law firm, Paul Weiss.
05:27For years, the firm represented Apollo Global Management,
05:30whose co-founder, Leon Black, is closely tied to Epstein.
05:34The documents show Epstein's team arranging for Karp's children to attend a Woody Allen film screening.
05:39And in 2015, the day after a scheduled dinner including Karp and Allen,
05:44Karp emailed Epstein to say the following,
05:46You are an extraordinary host and you're amazing.
05:50Paul Weiss issued this statement to the New York Times earlier today.
05:54Mr. Karp attended two group dinners in New York City and had a small number of social interactions by email,
06:00all of which he regrets.
06:02And that, of course, brings us to Donald Trump's Commerce Secretary, Howard Lutnick.
06:07Last year, Lutnick acknowledged that he used to be neighbors with Epstein
06:10and spoke about the time Epstein had him over for dinner and gave him a tour of his house back
06:15in 2005.
06:16Watch this.
06:19We left.
06:20And in the six or eight steps it takes to get from his house to my house,
06:25my wife and I decided that I will never be in the room with that disgusting person ever again.
06:34So I was never in the room with him socially, for business, or even philanthropy.
06:42If that guy was there, I wasn't going because he's gross.
06:47Well, here's what the New York Times said from the new Epstein files revealing about a trip Lutnick was planning
06:54with his wife and his kids.
06:57Quote, Lutnick planned a visit to Epstein's island in 2012, though he previously said he severed all ties with Epstein
07:05around 2005.
07:06Reached by phone on Friday, Lutnick said he could not comment about the island visit because he had not seen
07:12the latest Epstein documents.
07:13Quote, I spent zero time with him, Lutnick said, and then he hung up the phone.
07:18The gathering was set for December 23, 2012.
07:21A day later, an assistant to Epstein forwarded Lutnick a message from Epstein with the following quote.
07:28Nice seeing you.
07:30Tonight on Fox News, Laura Ingram asked Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche about the men who partied with Epstein.
07:37And here's what he said.
07:39It is not a crime to party with Mr. Epstein.
07:42And so as horrible as it's not a crime to email with Mr. Epstein.
07:46And then some of these men may have done horrible things.
07:48And if we have evidence that allows us to prosecute them, you better believe we will.
07:53But it's also the kind of thing that that the American people need to understand that it isn't a crime
07:59to party with Mr. Epstein.
08:02You better believe we will.
08:04As a gentle reminder, Todd Blanche is formerly Donald Trump's personal attorney.
08:09Let's take another breath.
08:11I know that was a lot, but it mattered.
08:14Now let's get smarter.
08:15With the help of our leadoff panel this evening, Luke Broadwater is here, Pulitzer Prize-winning White House correspondent for
08:20The New York Times,
08:21Daniela Diaz, congressional reporter for Notice, and my dear friend Susan Glasser, staff writer for The New Yorker.
08:26All right, Susan, as Todd Blanche said, emailing with Epstein might not be illegal,
08:31but right now a whole lot of very powerful people are aggressively apologizing for doing it.
08:37What's your reaction to all of this?
08:40Yeah, Steph, thank you so much for walking us through it.
08:42I think the key point here is one that you made by telling people, pay attention to the dates here.
08:49The conduct that we're talking about is conduct that occurred after Epstein was a known pedophile,
08:58after it was already clear what kind of a person he was.
09:02I think it's really important to emphasize that Howard Lutnick is the Senate-confirmed Commerce Secretary.
09:12He is a participant and in the inner circle of the Trump administration.
09:16And, you know, in addition to having just blatantly lied, I mean, I found listening to that podcast, it doesn't
09:25do it justice.
09:25But just to see him do this apparent play acting in such a recent interview and pretending that he had,
09:33you know,
09:33nothing whatsoever to do with Epstein for years.
09:37I mean, again, this guy is a senior cabinet official right now.
09:40And, by the way, the papers also disclosed a contribution, I believe it was a $50,000 contribution in Lutnick's
09:49name.
09:49And you noticed in that interview he said, oh, and I also had nothing to do with him in philanthropy.
09:55So, you know, I think it's important that people are going through these,
09:59that people are examining their own institutions to see if there are people who have connections to Epstein.
10:04And that was, I think, what was envisioned by the people who passed this law,
10:08is that at least there would be more transparency and potentially accountability
10:12as people are forced to answer questions about their own lies or misrepresentations about their relationship with Epstein.
10:19Passed on an overwhelmingly bipartisan basis.
10:22And I want to point out that podcast that you saw Howard Lutnick in, he was not getting grilled on
10:27Epstein.
10:27He chose to tell that story that after 2005 he was disgusted, he was repulsed, he wanted nothing to do
10:33with him.
10:34Until 2012, when he wanted to go to Epstein Island and have a meal with his kids and hang out.
10:39All right, Luke, the president is denied, denied, denied.
10:42He's even saying the DOJ is too busy.
10:44They should say they've got other things to do.
10:46But what are you hearing from the White House behind the scenes?
10:48Because I know it's a different picture.
10:51Yeah, I mean, this is the story that won't go away from Donald Trump.
10:54And if you look at Donald Trump's polling, it's actually the issue he's performing the worst with,
11:00with the American people.
11:02Almost nobody likes how his administration has handled the Epstein files.
11:06They still have not released, I think, about half the documents, right?
11:10They've released three million documents.
11:12They've withheld three million citing parts of the law that allow them to withhold documents.
11:18But they haven't necessarily gone through line by line and told Congress exactly which document they have and why it
11:26was withheld.
11:27So that still needs to come.
11:29We still need to hear from them on that.
11:31Why are half the files not released yet?
11:34And the more you hear about from the Epstein files, the worse it looks for everyone involved.
11:41You know, you just did an excellent job with the lead in tying all these rich and powerful people
11:48and how they minimize their role and minimize their connection to Epstein, only to find out later they actually were
11:55much tighter with Epstein.
11:57They had a much closer business, personal, and friendship ties with him.
12:02And, you know, Donald Trump's name does come up again and again and again.
12:06And they were friends for something like 15 years.
12:10There's, you know, so many documented parties they were at together, photographs of them together, exchanging messages.
12:18They did have a falling out.
12:20That's been reported on.
12:22But it wasn't like that they weren't close for a long period of time.
12:27Yeah, I'm not even saying it's illegal.
12:28But these are some of the most successful, esteemed business people in New York, L.A., and Silicon Valley.
12:35And it wasn't out of favor to go to a dinner party at the home of somebody who once solicited
12:41sex from a child.
12:42All right, Daniela, this one was a surprise to me because these Epstein files and his relationship with Jeffrey Epstein
12:48is certainly not a bright spot in Bill Clinton's life or his career.
12:53Yet tonight, Bill and Hillary Clinton have agreed to testify before the House Oversight Committee on this.
12:58How did we get here?
12:59I will tell you, I never, ever thought we'd hear from them.
13:04Oh, Stephanie, I was surprised, too.
13:06I was on Capitol Hill when the news broke, when it seemed like it was about to happen,
13:09that they would have a rule to put it on the floor, on the House.
13:13And then, lo and behold, the Clintons agreed to testimony, to testify in front of the House Oversight Committee.
13:21The details, to be clear, have not been ironed out.
13:24It doesn't seem that Chair James Comer has figured out or accepted the deal that's been negotiated
13:30or starting to be negotiated between the Clintons, their lawyer, and the House Oversight Committee.
13:35But look, remember that dump that we saw, the document dump in December,
13:40the one that really shared a lot of photos of Bill Clinton with Jeffrey Epstein, of course,
13:46before he was accused of any wrongdoing, to be clear, Bill Clinton has stood by the fact that he is
13:53innocent,
13:53was not aware, did not participate in anything that Jeffrey Epstein was doing.
13:57But it is noteworthy that Republicans have chosen to focus their attention on the Clintons,
14:03share the spotlight, focus the spotlight on the Clintons,
14:06and now it seems that we're going to have testimony from the Clintons,
14:09who, of course, Bill Clinton, in tons of photographs with Jeffrey Epstein.
14:14And to be clear, too, Stephanie, some of the Democrats on this committee also voted for contempt,
14:21which was supposed to be a House floor vote on Wednesday,
14:24to hold the Clintons in contempt if they didn't testify.
14:27Now that's not happening.
14:28It seems like we're going to hear from the Clintons.
14:31Unclear when, though.
14:32Well, if this is about the victims, which is what it should be,
14:35it should not matter what political party you represent, what business you run,
14:39what sports team you own.
14:40Susan, the judge in the Epstein case has now scheduled a hearing to address
14:44all of these redaction failures in the files that potentially exposed victims.
14:50Have we heard any kind of explanation from the DOJ?
14:54I mean, for people who have not seen these files, it is a mess.
14:57There are some victims that have their driver's license.
15:00I think somebody had their Social Security, their names.
15:02The whole point of the redactions was not to protect these men.
15:06It was to protect these victims.
15:08Yet they're all over this thing.
15:09And the DOJ has had since last spring to work on this.
15:14Before that, they've had these files for years.
15:17Yeah.
15:18I mean, you know, look, Steph, I have to say, sadly, it's not surprising that,
15:22you know, Trump's Justice Department, we see the kind of priorities they're focused on.
15:26Those are things like weaponizing the federal government to reinvestigate the 2020 election.
15:32And Donald Trump, you played a clip yourself tonight of the president of the United States
15:38saying that the DOJ should just ignore the law and forget about releasing the additional documents
15:43despite the fact that Congress voted in an overwhelming and bipartisan way to order them released.
15:48So, you know, so far we've had numerous examples, as you said, of some of the victims' personal information
15:54being released.
15:55Now DOJ, after the fact, is saying, well, we're taking that down.
15:59You know, I anticipate there will be more and more examples of that.
16:04You know, this is exactly why it's not standard practice for the Department of Justice
16:08just to dump out millions of files.
16:10I mean, this is extraordinary in the sense that there's no example like this that I am familiar with
16:17where this has ever occurred.
16:18And so Congress passed a law.
16:21They're not fully complying with the law.
16:23The president has said they should defy the law.
16:26And presumably they don't really have a good mechanism for ensuring that they're complying
16:31both with the law and people's personal privacy issues
16:35because they've never done something on this scale before.
16:38It's really, it's a mess.
16:40And it's continuing testimony, the fact that this one terrible man, you know, could leave
16:46such wreckage behind him.
16:49Luke, can you explain why these files were not released under the Biden administration?
16:55Well, you know, it's not standard practice for the Justice Department to release investigative
17:00files.
17:01I mean, if you cover any court case, most of that is kept secret.
17:06And that's for a number of reasons, because there are, you know, you have to protect investigative
17:12methods.
17:13You have to protect the innocent.
17:16Lots of times in a case there'll be false allegations against people that don't check
17:21out.
17:22You don't bring those charges out publicly and smear people without good reason.
17:27So there's a number of reasons why you would keep investigative files secret.
17:31But what happened here was because allies of Donald Trump raised the specter that Democrats
17:41essentially were part of a satanic pedophile ring abusing young girls, they created this
17:50huge clamor to release these files.
17:53And then once they got into office, they refused to release them.
17:57And so they forced Congress to sort of fight them tooth and nail to get these files out.
18:03And look, there was a conspiracy with Jeffrey Epstein.
18:07He was protected at the state level from facing more serious charges.
18:12And that had to be exposed by investigative journalism from the Miami Herald.
18:17And then and only then were more serious charges brought against him.
18:21So there was a cover up in this case.
18:23There absolutely was.
18:23And it did take investigative journalism to expose that.
18:28And there are many victims and there are allegations against other men.
18:33You know, Virginia Guffrey, before she committed suicide, accused former Prince Andrew of her
18:41being forced to have sex with him.
18:43So there, you know, there were allegations against other men, too, in here.
18:47And so I think there is a clamoring to see if there are other people who should be brought
18:50to justice.
18:51But so this is it is highly unusual, as Susan said, for this level of information to be coming
18:57out about a criminal investigation.
18:59But that is the political moment we're in.
19:01And that is because of what people on the right spread causing this whole clamor to exist.
19:09Danielle, a new topic.
19:10Other news did happen today.
19:12Immigration and DHS.
19:13Where does that funding bill stand?
19:15And I guess I would say more importantly, once negotiations start, what are the chances that
19:20they actually end in any real meaningful change to how ICE is operating in American cities?
19:26Well, to your first question, Stephanie, it does seem that the shutdown is going to end
19:31tomorrow.
19:32There was some back and forth about whether Speaker Mike Johnson could actually get some
19:39of his Republicans in his conference to sign on to passing this legislation when it comes
19:44to a vote tomorrow.
19:46That's not an issue anymore.
19:48Two holdouts, Anna Paulina Luna and Tim Birche.
19:52Actually, we're at the White House earlier today meeting with President Donald Trump to
19:55negotiate a deal because they said they wouldn't vote for a funding bill if the SAVE Act, a separate
20:01piece of legislation that has nothing to do with government funding, would also get a vote.
20:06It would add more protections to be able to have voters register, essentially.
20:14What it ended up becoming is the Senate, Senate Majority Leader John Thune, agreeing to put
20:21that bill on the floor.
20:22And now it seems like the shutdown is going to end tomorrow.
20:25Then starts, to answer your second question, the real problems.
20:28They have a two-week deal to fund DHS.
20:32And Democrats are not going to let those two weeks go without putting down major reforms
20:37that they want to see, whether it be banning masks with these ICE agents, whether it be
20:43body cameras, which you already see Kristi Noem trying to react before by making that mandatory,
20:48whether it be not having roving agents around the country visiting different cities, agents
20:59arresting American citizens.
21:00This is going to be the major debate that we're going to see play out on Capitol Hill as Democrats
21:06fight with Republicans to see what they're able to land on to try to reform this agency
21:12that they say cannot go on without major changes.
21:15All right, guys, I'm going to let you take a drink, stretch your legs, maybe run to the
21:20bathroom quickly.
21:21But we've got too much news to cover.
21:23You've got to stick around after the break.
21:24But later in the program, Julie K. Brown, the journalist whose investigative reporting
21:28helped result in those federal charges against Epstein, she joins us to talk about this latest
21:34document dump.
21:34Nobody knows these files better than Julie K. Brown.
21:37But right after the break, that gang is returning.
21:39We're going to talk about Democrats winning big in the state of Texas.
21:43Not only did they narrow the GOP majority in the House, but they flipped a state seat on
21:48solid conservative terrain.
21:50It is giving Republicans, I don't know, a midterm election jolt, perhaps.
21:54The 11th hour just getting underway on a serious news Monday night.
22:05This weekend, we got an early midterm indicator from a Texas special election.
22:09The Democratic candidate for state senator won 57 percent of the vote, flipping a seat that
22:14went for President Donald Trump in 2024 by 17 points.
22:17That is a swing of more than 30 points.
22:20And Republicans, some are a little bit rattled.
22:22Florida Governor Ron DeSantis posted the following, a swing of this magnitude is not something that
22:27can be dismissed.
22:28Republicans should be clear-eyed about the political environment heading into the midterms.
22:33Luke, Daniela, Susan, still with us.
22:34Daniela, have the Republicans on the Hill echo DeSantis' concern, at least speaking to reporters?
22:41When I talked to Republicans today, Stephanie, it was clear that they saw this as not really
22:46something to reflect ahead of the midterms, not something that they should be concerned
22:51about in the coming months, that this was a one-off special election that does not concern
22:56them.
22:57But that has always been what they've echoed when it comes to seeing Democrats succeed in
23:02districts or in areas that President Donald Trump has previously won.
23:07I'm Latina, and I'm from Texas, and I personally found this state race very interesting because
23:14it was Latino voters who shifted their support and actually helped this state Senate candidate
23:22win this race.
23:23What I have been covering from the very beginning is the fact that after the 2024 election, it's
23:30clear that Latino voters are the new swing voters.
23:33They are affected by the economy.
23:35They are affected by what's happening in the country, and they're not glued to either
23:39party.
23:40I think that's what's really taking place across the country in these special elections,
23:44and it's something that when I do talk to Republicans, they are concerned about and do recognize.
23:50Susan, how much can we take away from this race?
23:52It's just one race.
23:54No, that's right.
23:55I mean, look, historically speaking, you know, you would be wise not to overinterpret this or
24:00that special election.
24:01I did note that not only was there this enormous swing from the last election in 2024, it's
24:07actually been since 1992 that Democrats won that district.
24:11So it's a deep, deep red district for a long time.
24:16I think it's interesting, too, that it's this interplay between local and national politics,
24:22right?
24:22We are living in a world where our races have become more and more nationalized.
24:27So in that sense, they are perhaps somewhat more predictive when you have a special election
24:31than they might have been a decade or two ago because we're living in such a different
24:36information environment.
24:37But interestingly, the local politics very much have prefigured this.
24:42There's a great piece of reporting I read today about this where there were a series of politicized
24:48school district races, basically, and conservative candidates, including the incumbent who had
24:55been working to take over school districts to ban books that had anything to do with, you know,
25:02forbidden topics like LGBTQ subjects and things like that.
25:06And I think partially you really saw local voters say, we don't want our school systems to become
25:13laboratories for national culture war ideology politics.
25:18So, you know, right now, poll after poll shows Democrats are not only leading in head-to-head
25:25matchups with Republicans, but in the enthusiasm numbers are off the charts for who is most motivated
25:32to come out and vote this fall.
25:35And so I think Republicans, whatever their comments are, are very alarmed about what the
25:40numbers are looking at right now.
25:42Well, I want to ask Luke about some very specific Republicans, because there's a Wall Street Journal
25:46op-ed that points out even after Minneapolis, some of MAGA's mouthpieces are saying the GOP should
25:52run more forcefully on immigration enforcement.
25:56This was White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller's strategy in 2018.
26:00And I know you remember that they lost a net of 41 House seats.
26:06Yeah, I mean, that's accurate.
26:08The White House, the strategists at the White House do believe that immigration and crime
26:13are their two strongest issues.
26:15They've always believed that.
26:17They think when they start talking about other things, Democrats have more of an advantage.
26:22The problem for them is the power of a video.
26:25And everybody saw the killing of Alex Preddy, and they saw how he was outnumbered, and they
26:33saw how it looks like he is the person who is under attack and not being aggressive.
26:39And this happened when a lot of people were snowed in.
26:44Something like three-fourths of Americans have seen that video.
26:47And that's a powerful image in people's minds to remember.
26:51And you saw almost immediately polling on this issue about the way the Trump administration is
26:56enforcing immigration laws started to flip, even among Republicans.
27:00And so, yes, they may think overall big picture immigration is their winning issue.
27:05But when you have a video like that that sticks in people's minds about how they're doing
27:10immigration enforcement, it gets very, very tricky politically.
27:14And already they're facing tremendous headwinds.
27:19Just the other day, Donald Trump was sort of lamenting that it's going to be very tough
27:23for them to win the midterms.
27:25Well, we'll be watching.
27:26Luke, Daniela, Susan, thank you for starting us off this evening.
27:29When we return, the deputy attorney general declares the Epstein plays that review.
27:33It's over.
27:34But my next guest truly knows the depths of the Epstein crimes.
27:39It was her team that actually broke this case wide open.
27:43The Miami Herald's own Julie K. Brown joins us after the break.
27:54Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanch said that the Justice Department's review of the Epstein
27:58files is over.
27:59And some survivors, they are speaking out, saying that the agency's sloppy redactions have
28:05hurt the victims again.
28:06Watch this.
28:09They really failed all of the survivors on this after so many months of saying, we're
28:15being so meticulous about this and we care so deeply about this.
28:19So I think that that's where the slap in the face really hurts.
28:22It feels kind of in a way like additional intimidation, which is something that I think we all felt
28:30during our association with Jeffrey Epstein.
28:34Pulitzer Prize winning investigative reporter and a hero of mine for the Miami Herald, Julie
28:38K. Brown.
28:39Her team's investigation led to the arrest of Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell.
28:44She also wrote the book, Perversion of Justice, the Epstein story.
28:48If it was not for Julie K. Brown, most of us would never have known the name Jeffrey Epstein.
28:54Julie, I'm so glad you're here tonight.
28:56Three million more pages now out.
28:59What is your biggest takeaway?
29:01What questions do you still have?
29:04Well, you know, they only had one real job here all this time, and that was to protect the victims.
29:10And that was the excuse that they gave for taking so long to even turn over the three million that
29:17they released on Friday.
29:19So it's absurd that, you know, they had this one thing to do and that there were so many victims'
29:26names in this, you know, in this release.
29:30And in addition to that, it's the other irony is they're blocking out names of people in Jeffrey Epstein's emails,
29:40in the reports that they have.
29:42I've seen some of these 302 witness victim interviews that the FBI did.
29:48They're blocking out not only the names of possible suspects, but even details of the incident, like where it happened,
29:56whether it was in Epstein's home they were assaulted or, you know, who knows, on the island.
30:02There's just so much that is blacked out that really shows that this is not a transparent process.
30:12And on top of that, the one thing that they were supposed to do was redact the names of the
30:18victims, and apparently that wasn't done.
30:21And, Julie, it's worse than that.
30:23The New York Times reports that the government actually published dozens of nude photos of young women in the files.
30:31Their faces were visible.
30:32It is not clear if they were minors, but later in the day, they were mostly removed after the New
30:39York Times notified the DOJ.
30:42What do you make of that?
30:43I mean, they've had months and months and months, and they couldn't ensure that nude photos of these women weren't
30:52removed?
30:53Look, they removed, it's so silly, they removed something in these files about penile dysfunction.
31:02Jeffrey apparently got something in the email about that.
31:05They totally blocked out this advertisement, essentially, for penile dysfunction.
31:10I mean, I just don't understand exactly what they were thinking or what they were doing, other than maybe sending
31:16a message, as one of the victims said, sort of intimidation.
31:21But hold on, let's be honest.
31:23Do you really not understand what they were doing?
31:24Because from my perspective, it sure seems like they continue to bend over backwards to protect these guys.
31:30That's what it seems like.
31:31And also, to be honest with you, to some degree, I think they're protecting Trump, because I've seen his name
31:36pretty often in these witness statements.
31:39Now, he hasn't been implicated with any kind of wrongdoing or crimes, but there is a pattern here with these
31:45women going to Mar-a-Lago for these parties.
31:48And some of them have said in their witness statements that these parties, their words were, these were sort of
31:55prostitution parties.
31:57These were parties where they were picking up women.
32:00So this is a pattern in a lot of these documents that I'm seeing.
32:06So one would think that that would have been something that they would have pursued as far as an investigation
32:12is concerned.
32:14Listen, three million documents.
32:16We know that there are about three million more.
32:18Democrats in Congress are arguing that we need to get the rest.
32:22And by law, we're supposed to.
32:24But Todd Blanche is saying we're probably not going to see any more.
32:28How do you think this thing is going to end?
32:29If there are not more demands for transparency from the victims, where is this going to go?
32:38Well, I don't think we're going to learn much more under the Trump administration.
32:43I mean, we can hope that maybe in the next administration that maybe some of these documents will come out.
32:50But I think that he's making sure, you know, he told Trump, told Marjorie Taylor Greene that if these documents
32:56came out, that they were going to hurt his friends.
33:00And we really haven't seen too many of his friends' names in here.
33:05So I'm not sure what he meant by that.
33:07But it just seems like there's a lot more work to do here, a lot more investigating to do here,
33:15even though Blanche seems to think it's game over with the Epstein case.
33:20I don't know what he meant by that.
33:22But I have a feeling if all those lines that weren't blacked out were visible to us, we might understand
33:29what friends he was talking about.
33:30Julie, thank you for joining us in this late hour.
33:33And thank you for your extraordinary, fearless, tireless reporting.
33:37When we come back days before Trump's second.
33:40Do not go anywhere.
33:41You need to hear this story.
33:42Days before the president's second inauguration, a foreign government took a major stake in the president's crypto company.
33:48Months later, that government gained access to our tightly guarded AI chips.
33:54One of the reporters who uncovered this extraordinary secret deal joins us for a very important money power politics.
34:01Do not go to sleep.
34:02Do not go to the bathroom.
34:03You need to watch this.
34:10Oh, baby, it is time for money power politics.
34:12And tonight there is a new story that is forcing us to ask the question yet again, is the White
34:18House for sale?
34:20The Wall Street Journal has extraordinary reporting that lieutenants to an Abu Dhabi royal secretly signed a deal with Trump
34:28to with the Trump family to purchase a 49 percent stake in their cryptocurrency venture, World Liberty Financial, for half
34:34a billion dollars.
34:35Just four days before Trump's inauguration last year.
34:38That is according to company documents and people familiar with the matter.
34:42Half of that money was reportedly paid up front to two Trump family entities, a one hundred and eighty seven
34:49million dollar windfall.
34:50And while that deal was taking shape, the United Arab Emirates government was in the process of securing its own
34:57deal with the Trump administration to acquire highly sought after AI chips,
35:02despite serious national security concerns that those chips could be passed on to China.
35:06We should note a World Liberty spokesperson says that Trump did not have any involvement in the deal.
35:12A White House spokesperson told the journal the president's assets are in a trust managed by his children and there
35:17are no conflicts of interest.
35:18And the White House counsel said the president has zero involvement in business deals that would implicate him and his
35:24constitutional responsibilities.
35:26Sam Kessler joins us now.
35:27He is with The Wall Street Journal and he is the lead reporter on this extraordinary and hugely important piece.
35:32And Ron and Sana, our favorite, is back veteran financial journalist and publisher of The Message of the Markets on
35:37Substack.
35:38Holy cow.
35:39Hallelujah.
35:40And congratulations.
35:41This is incredible reporting.
35:44We'd love for you to tell us how you got it, but we will not ask you that.
35:48Donald Trump promised that this would be America first.
35:52But all I see here is Trump family first.
35:55Explain.
35:56I mean, I think you laid out the core of this article that we wrote in that great introduction.
36:01What's important, I think, to focus on is just the parties that were involved in the timing of this deal.
36:08So it's not I can't really comment on, you know, whether the president is for sale or anything like that.
36:13But you just do have to look at the timing of this deal and the parties that I mentioned before,
36:19where it's, for example, Sheikh Tachnun, who was on the other side of this deal that we're talking about today.
36:24He is often referred to as the spy Sheikh.
36:27He is not only the brother to the president of the UAE, but he's also that country's national security advisor.
36:35And so for the president four days before the election, his family, rather, to enter into a deal directly with
36:41a spy Sheikh worth five hundred million dollars and then make policy later on down the line that affects not
36:50only the Sheikh's country, the UAE, but also his own business empire, his own companies, that being the Sheikh's companies.
36:57It's pretty extraordinary.
36:58The A.I. race is hugely important, and it is between the United States and China, which is why the
37:04Biden administration did not want to sell these sought after chips to the Saudis because they feared they would end
37:11up in the hands of China.
37:12Correct.
37:12Yeah. So there were there were concerns that selling these chips to the Emiratis and in particular to to this
37:18firm G42, which is one of the firms in Sheikh Tachnun's vast one point three trillion dollar business portfolio would
37:26get back to China in some form.
37:27These were just national security concerns that came up throughout the Biden administration.
37:31So G42, that firm said that they had broken any ties that they had with China and with companies like
37:37Huawei before Trump went into office.
37:39When this deal was made after Trump was was was of course elected and inaugurated, people did not know that
37:47there was this preexisting contract between World Liberty Financial, the president's cryptocurrency firm and, you know, the same Sheikh Tachnun
37:55and, you know, the chips deal we talked about came came in sequence.
38:00What is your reaction to this reporting? I feel like it was two weeks ago.
38:03Yeah, I feel like it was two weeks ago. We're like Trump made one point eight billion dollars in his
38:08first year. Scratch that four billion and counting.
38:11Yeah. Well, Steph, I asked the staff to put together if we have a graphics of the emoluments clause of
38:16the Constitution deals with what the president can and cannot accept.
38:20No title of nobility shall be granted by the United States and no person holding any office of profit or
38:26trust under them shall with or without the consent of Congress, except any president, emolument, office or title of any
38:32kind, whatever from any king, prince, which is in the story or foreign state.
38:37It is a clear violation of the emoluments clause of the Constitution. Now, whether or not anyone in Congress does
38:43anything about this, since they did not authorize a transaction like that or certainly still has not remains to be
38:50seen.
38:50But this is an enormous conflict of interest that has already, I think, played itself out as as as noted
38:56in graphic detail.
38:57Is the Trump administration not worried about China and these national security risks that we're talking about? What's the reaction
39:03to that?
39:03I mean, it's it's really hard to say, of course, the president has taken a different posture towards China than
39:08the Biden administration, but he's also taken or in towards the UAE with regards to China and then compared to
39:14the Biden administration.
39:14But he's taken a different posture towards a lot of different things. So it's hard to say whether, you know,
39:20this deal, which is I think what you're insinuating, actually, you know, made him give up, you know, our national
39:26security establishments concerns in favor of making this deal.
39:29So it's it's hard to know. But there have been changes. And just when you look again at this timeline,
39:38it certainly raises questions, according to ethics experts, about conflicts of interest, if not those conflicts of interest certainly existing.
39:47Republicans were laser focused on Hunter Biden's business dealings during his father's presidency.
39:52Have we not heard from James Comer and the Oversight Committee investigating this?
39:57Not not not a single word. I mean, and Hunter Biden, who sat on the board of Burisma, which is
40:01a Ukrainian energy company, you know, and made a substantial amount of money and then later sold paintings for substantial
40:08amounts of money relative to what many might have viewed the actual value of.
40:12But having said that, it in many ways pales in comparison to what we're talking just in this set of
40:17transactions alone.
40:19And then when the New Yorker follows up with the fact the president may have made in the first year
40:24in office or at least his family or the trust that he is the beneficial owner of, by the way,
40:29four billion dollars in a single year.
40:31It is not like anything we've seen in history and that you can pick any administration you want and nothing
40:35like this has happened before.
40:37It's no surprise Democrats response to this reporting. Have you spoken to any Republican lawmakers?
40:42Help us understand. This story broke on Saturday. What is the fallout been since?
40:45You've actually not seen a huge response from Republican lawmakers.
40:49You haven't seen it. We'll check. Didn't read the paper this weekend.
40:53You have seen a pretty loud response. You know, actually, you did see if you consider the president a Republican
40:59lawmaker, which which she is.
41:01He did respond to our reporting earlier today in a question in the Oval Office.
41:05And he reiterated what what he said before, which is that his business empire is led by his children.
41:11Of course, I'm paraphrasing and he didn't know anything about this deal.
41:14But I think what's really extraordinary about this particular deal is, you know, on one hand, of course, the scale
41:21of it.
41:21Five hundred million dollars is just massive. But on the other hand, the most, you know, still confounding thing to
41:28me is that this was kept secret.
41:29And the thing that I just keep thinking about over and over and over again is, was this sort of
41:35a really remarkable deal just because of its scale?
41:39And they wanted to keep this particular deal quiet for some reason, because we know about a lot of those
41:43deals.
41:44You mentioned some of these articles. Or are there other deals out there just like this one?
41:49It begs that question. I do not know, but I'm sure you're probably going to find out.
41:54I'd love to find out.
41:56It certainly begs the question. We are out of time. Congratulations.
41:59Truly extraordinary and hugely important reporting.
42:03Gentlemen, thank you. We'll be right back.
42:09And I didn't even get to talk about Bad Bunny, talking about the power of love at the ground was
42:14my favorite topic.
42:16There was too much news. I'm going to have to sign off for tonight from all of us here at
42:20MSNOW.
42:20Thanks for staying up late with me. I'll see you again tomorrow.
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