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The Last Word with Lawrence ODonnell - Season 13 - Episode 18
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00:01They are going to lie. They had already proven that to us before Donald Trump
00:06decided to start the most expensive war in American history. They're going to lie.
00:13They're going to lie about how much it cost. They're going to lie about everything
00:17about it. That's what they do. They lie the way Donald Trump has taught them to
00:23lie. They have proved they are willing to lie about anything as long as they can
00:29lie about it. They know in many cases the truth will come out and expose some of
00:37their lies. Kristi Noem knows now that her lies about Renee Good and Alex Preddy
00:42being domestic terrorists in Minneapolis who deserve to be murdered by Donald
00:47Trump's invasion forces eventually collapsed under the weight of the truth,
00:52the video recorded truth. And when their lies collapse, they will pretend they
01:00never lied. And in Donald Trump's deeply perverse case, as we have known from the
01:08start about him, he will simply never stop lying. A reporter trying to catch Donald Trump in a lie to
01:17his face
01:17will simply be handed another lie by Donald Trump, as we saw him do today about the war he decided
01:25to
01:26start, which in its first 12 days has cost more than 11.3 billion dollars. A reporter trying to catch
01:38Donald
01:38Trump in a contradiction to his face will simply get a Trump riddle in reply like this. Today, a White
01:47House reporter said to Donald Trump, you just said it is a little excursion and you said it is a
01:54war. So
01:55which one is it? To which Donald Trump said, well, it's both. It's both. Ask a clown a question and
02:02you will get a clown's answer.
02:04No other president has ever been asked that question because no other president has ever referred to
02:11starting a war as a little excursion, which Donald Trump has now done repeatedly and did again today,
02:16thereby insulting the sacrifice of the seven soldiers killed in his war and the 140 wounded,
02:23which new reports now reveal include injuries much more serious than Donald Trump's Defense
02:27Department ever wanted to admit, including one possible amputation, other traumatic brain injuries,
02:34injuries and 25 now hospitalized with serious injuries in Germany, according to CBS.
02:42Reporters had to dig out what we now know about those injuries from the department run by the
02:48only defense secretary in history who had to promise to stop drinking in order to win his Senate
02:53confirmation from a Republican controlled Senate. That is the same defense secretary who said in the
02:59first days of Donald Trump's war that news reporting about the American deaths in Donald Trump's war was
03:07intended to quote, make the president look bad. Those were his words. Make the president looks bad. That's what he
03:18was worried about.
03:19And if you think it is impossible to be more vain than Donald Trump, meet Pete Hegseth, who ordered news
03:30photographers banned from the Pentagon because of what he considered unflattering photographs of him during his
03:38recent rare appearance in the press briefing room talking about Donald Trump's war. Imagine how deeply perverse
03:46you have to be to ban news photographers from the Pentagon because of this photograph.
03:57Washington Post reports the Defense Department has barred press photographers from briefings on the
04:04ongoing U.S.-Israeli military conflict with Iran after they published photos of Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth that his
04:10staff deemed unflattering according to two people familiar with the decision who spoke on the condition of
04:16anonymity out of fear of retaliation. Imagine living in fear inside the Pentagon because the only man
04:29in the building who promised not to drink in order to get his job doesn't like the way he is
04:35photographed.
04:35There has never been a smaller mind employed in the Pentagon than Donald Trump's Secretary of Defense who
04:42pretends he's a Secretary of War and now lives in fear of photographers. Donald Trump is surrounded by
04:52small minds in a way no president before him has ever been. That is Donald Trump's design. Donald Trump's
04:59first term cabinet could not possibly ever reach the stupidity levels that Donald Trump's current cabinet and staff
05:06reach on a daily basis. Stupid is an accurate but woefully inadequate word to describe the Trump team's approach to
05:16Donald Trump's war. New reporting by The New York Times indicates there is even more proof that from the start,
05:23they have had no idea
05:25what they're doing and no ability to anticipate the most obvious results of launching such a war, including blocking 20
05:37% of the world's oil supply
05:39from moving through the Strait of Hormuz, thereby sending the world's oil price skyrocketing along with the price of gasoline
05:47in the United States.
05:48The New York Times reports Donald Trump and his sycophantic incompetence couldn't see that one coming.
05:55The Times reports on February 18th as President Trump weighed whether to launch military attacks on Iran, Chris Wright,
06:02the energy secretary, told an interviewer he was not concerned that the looming war might disrupt oil supplies in the
06:08Middle East and wreak havoc in energy markets.
06:10Some of Mr. Trump's other advisers shared similar views in private, dismissing warnings that the second time around, Iran might
06:18wage economic warfare by closing shipping lanes carrying roughly 20% of the world's oil supply.
06:24The episode is emblematic of how much Mr. Trump and his advisers misjudged how Iran would respond to a conflict
06:33that the government in Tehran sees as an existential threat.
06:38After Donald Trump said that Iran would have to choose a leader acceptable to him, Iran chose a new leader
06:45who was the son of the previous leader and possibly even more hardline than his Ayatollah father.
06:52Donald Trump lied about that today, saying, quote, they have a new leader every three weeks, every three days.
06:59That's one of those lies where Donald Trump becomes instantly dissatisfied with the lie that he has told and then
07:07exaggerates it into a worse lie.
07:09He hears himself say three weeks and decides to change it to three days.
07:14The last Iranian leader lasted 37 years.
07:20His son, who is now 56 years old, is on his way to a 30-year run if he dies
07:25at age 86 like his father did.
07:27But Iran's first Ayatollah died at age 89.
07:30So the number three is relevant here, but it's not three weeks or three years.
07:36We have now had exactly and only three Ayatollahs running Iran over 47 years.
07:47A new report by Rudis tonight says Donald Trump's own intelligence agencies has assessed there has been no real effective
07:56change in the leadership of Iran.
08:00The most famous object ever to take its place on the Oval Office desk was made in a federal prison
08:09in Oklahoma for the president of the United States, Harry Truman.
08:14A U.S. Marshal had it made and delivered to the president.
08:27Harry Truman lived those words in the presidency and never tried to evade responsibility for his decisions or the decisions
08:35of his subordinates.
08:36In an address to the National War College in 1952, President Truman said when the decision is up before you
08:45and on my desk, I have a motto which says the buck stops here.
08:48The decision has to be made. That decision may be right. It may be wrong.
08:52If it is wrong and it has been shown that it is wrong, I have no desire to cover it
08:58up.
08:58I admit it and try to make another decision that will meet the situation.
09:02And that is what any president of the United States has to do.
09:07Donald Trump doesn't see it that way.
09:10And he proved that again today in the most vile possible way with another ugly Trump lie.
09:20In his final address to the nation from the Oval Office, Harry Truman said,
09:24The president, whoever he is, has to decide.
09:27He can't pass the buck to anybody.
09:29No one else can do the deciding for him.
09:31That's his job.
09:33And in that final address to the nation, President Truman said this.
09:42There is no job like it on the face of the earth.
09:45In the power which is concentrated here at this desk and in the responsibility and difficulty of the decisions.
09:52I want all of you to realize how big a job, how hard a job it is, not for my
09:59sake, because I'm stepping out of it, but for the sake of my successor.
10:04He needs the understanding help of every citizen.
10:09Harry Truman would be sickened by what his successor did today.
10:15When Donald Trump lied about what we now know was an American Tomahawk missile targeted at a girls' school in
10:24Iran.
10:25A U.S. official familiar with the matter told MSNOW that a preliminary investigation by the Pentagon has found that
10:32U.S. forces bombed a school in Iran due to dated targeting information that identified the building as part of
10:39an adjacent military complex.
10:41So that's the government's own preliminary investigation confirming what the New York Times has been reporting for days, which the
10:49Trump team was claiming was some kind of harassment of the White House.
10:54That is what Donald Trump's press secretary called New York Times accurate reporting about the American missile attack on that
11:01girls' school.
11:02Harassment. That was her word for it.
11:04Today, the New York Times reports a visual investigation by the Times showed the building housing the school had been
11:10fenced off from the military base between 2013 and 2016.
11:15Three public entrances were open to the school.
11:18Ground was cleared and play areas, including a sports field, were painted on asphalt and walls were painted blue and
11:25pink.
11:25So the outdated targeting information that Donald Trump's team of incompetence was using that attacked that school was at least
11:3710 years old.
11:39And now 175 people, most of them children, are dead.
11:43First, Donald Trump lied, as he always does.
11:46He first attempted to blame Iran, saying Iran could somehow obtain and operate an American Tomahawk missile,
11:52which is, of course, a complete screaming lie that Donald Trump only tried once.
11:56And the next day, Donald Trump said there's an investigation going on, so he wasn't going to talk about it.
12:01And then today, today he reached a new low in Trump lying when he tried to claim he didn't know
12:08about the attack.
12:09He didn't know about the dead children.
12:12He actually said the words, I don't know about it.
12:17And so during Donald Trump's lifetime, we have watched the presidency go from the buck stops here to, I don't
12:26know about it.
12:29Please keep Harry Truman in mind and imagine him watching Donald Trump respond today to the question,
12:40as commander in chief, do you take responsibility for that?
12:47A new report says that the military investigation has found that the United States struck the school in Iran.
12:54As commander in chief, do you take responsibility for that?
12:57That is what?
12:58As commander in chief, do you?
12:59For what?
13:00For the strike on the school in Iran.
13:02A new report says the military investigation has found it was the United States that struck the school.
13:07I don't know about it.
13:11I don't know about it.
13:12And then he wandered off in search of another question.
13:15Of course, the next White House reporter changed the subject for him as he knew that would happen.
13:21And he is lying. Of course he's lying.
13:24This time he's lying about the deaths of girls in Iran brave enough to try to get an education,
13:29the girls who could be the future for the kind of Iranian society we would all like to see.
13:34Some of those girls might have helped lead Iran into that future.
13:39And Donald Trump, once again, disgraces the American presidency, this time by saying,
13:44I don't know about it, when he is asked about the death of those girls killed by an American Tomahawk
13:54missile.
13:56Donald Trump doesn't know about a lot of things.
13:58Donald Trump doesn't know most things that he needs to know and should know.
14:02But Donald Trump knows those girls were killed by one of his Tomahawk missiles.
14:10And he knows those girls would be alive today if he did not decide to start his war in Iran.
14:20The war that he called today a little excursion.
14:26In a little excursion, girls don't get killed in their classrooms.
14:32In a little excursion, soldiers don't face amputation.
14:36In a little excursion, soldiers don't have brain damage.
14:39In a little excursion, soldiers are not killed.
14:45Donald Trump's war is what killed those girls.
14:53Leading off our discussion tonight is Democratic Congressman Adam Smith of Washington.
14:57He is the top Democrat on the House Armed Services Committee.
15:02Congressman Smith, I want to go straight to, especially as a West Coast representative,
15:08I'm sure you got calls from the West Coast today when Donald Trump's FBI made it,
15:15tried to make it known that the West Coast needs to worry about a missile attack launched from Iran.
15:25What can you tell your constituents and America about that tonight?
15:31Well, I mean, the fundamental question, one of the fundamental questions is,
15:34are Americans safer because of Donald Trump's war?
15:37And the answer to that question is no, for a whole bunch of different reasons.
15:40But this report from the FBI underscores it.
15:42As you pointed out in your monologue, Iran views this as an existential threat because it is.
15:48Donald Trump has said he wants to take out the regime.
15:51And so they are lashing out, certainly across the Middle East, but elsewhere.
15:55And they have various terrorist cells and proxies.
15:58And we have to be ready for that, which, of course, Trump and his administration is not.
16:03I don't have specific reporting on the details of this.
16:06I'm getting a classified call tomorrow.
16:08But Americans everywhere have to be ready for the fact that Donald Trump has plunged us into a war that
16:15is expanding on a daily basis.
16:18There's been a lot of reporting today saying that this theory, this FBI theory of a drone attack on the
16:25West Coast is technologically impossible for Iran.
16:29What is your understanding of that?
16:32Yeah, I don't know, to be perfectly honest with that.
16:35I will say that I don't have an enormous amount of confidence.
16:39And Donald Trump's FBI has also been widely reported.
16:42They've recently fired some of their primary Iranian experts because they dared to be part of the investigation into Donald
16:49Trump.
16:49So the incompetence problem that you pointed out is deep in the administration.
16:54That's part of the problem being prepared for this.
16:56I need to get more details on what's possible, what Iran might have.
16:59But the bottom line is we're at risk.
17:01And I really want to emphasize one other point.
17:03The biggest thing that all of us policymakers and everyone in the country needs to be focused on is stopping
17:07this war.
17:08It was a terrible idea.
17:09It has gone horribly.
17:10But we need to get it stopped as soon as possible because it's only going to get worse day by
17:15day in terms of the negative impacts.
17:17And we're not going to be able to achieve the various different goals that President Trump and others advocating this
17:23war have been trying to achieve.
17:25It needs to stop now.
17:30What is it like really trying to find out how much a war like this actually costs?
17:37Yeah, it's normally difficult, but it's particularly impossible because the Trump administration is not transparent.
17:43They do not share the information with Congress that they're supposed to share.
17:46We've been trying to get the cost of the boat strikes going on in Latin America and the operation in
17:52Venezuela.
17:52And that started in September.
17:54And they still haven't provided any information on that.
17:57But I think the estimates that it's costing between one and two billion dollars a day are pretty accurate.
18:02Now, keep in mind, that's just the cost to the U.S. Treasury.
18:05The cost to the economy, our economy and the global economy, is even far greater than that.
18:13And as we go forward, what are the kinds of ways that Congress might be able to get control of
18:20these costs?
18:21Yeah, well, I mean, we've got to press them as hard as we can, press for the information.
18:25And we will do that.
18:26It would help enormously if I was chairman of the committee instead of ranking member.
18:31That gives us subpoena power, a lot more ability.
18:34And I would think that if we win, hopefully we get back in the majority, we're going to have to
18:39do that.
18:39Because even information that the Republican majority is asking for in different issues isn't being provided.
18:46We are going to have to press them.
18:47And I think we're going to have to use legal process to get after that information.
18:51What is happening to American weapon stock?
18:57They're going down rather significantly.
19:01I mean, we already had a problem in terms of munitions.
19:05We haven't updated the manufacturing of them so that they're manufactured more quickly than we had the conflict in Ukraine.
19:12Israel's various wars we've helped out.
19:15We were already in a bad spot.
19:17We also had the war against Yemen, which a lot of people have forgotten.
19:20But we spent three and a half months bombing the hell out of Yemen last year as well.
19:24So, yeah, we were getting pretty low.
19:27They have not yet given us the numbers.
19:28Again, another aspect of the complete lack of transparency.
19:32Two big things they haven't given us.
19:33They haven't given us the numbers on what weapons we have left.
19:36Also, even as every day they claim that they are meeting their objectives,
19:39they have not given us what exactly those objectives are and what exactly they've destroyed to date.
19:46So we're going to keep pressing.
19:47But the lack of transparency now is a huge problem.
19:51Congressman Adam Smith, thank you very much for starting off our coverage tonight.
19:55Thank you, Lawrence.
19:57Coming up, as we reported last night, there was no good news for Donald Trump in Tuesday's special election in
20:04Georgia
20:04in Marjorie Taylor Greene's very Republican congressional district.
20:09With the Democrat coming out on top in that primary election, Georgia Senator John Ossoff joins us next.
20:22Last night in Marjorie Taylor Greene's former congressional district in Georgia, a Democrat won.
20:29That's right.
20:30The top vote getter in last night's election in that very conservative Trump-supporting district in Georgia
20:37was Democrat retired Brigadier General Sean Harris.
20:43General Harris will face Trump-endorsed Republican Clay Fuller in a special runoff election on April 7th
20:50to replace Marjorie Taylor Greene in Congress.
20:53In other good news for Democrats in Georgia, our next guest, Senator John Ossoff,
20:57is leading in a new poll that shows Senator Ossoff at least nine points ahead of all the potential Republican
21:03candidates included in that poll.
21:06Donald Trump went to Kentucky today to try to convince people that he has delivered on his promise of lower
21:13prices,
21:13even though gas prices are now skyrocketing and inflation has increased because of Donald Trump's unconstitutional and illegal tariffs.
21:22The Trump staff actually put a sign on the stage with the words,
21:28lower prices in front of an audience full of people who paid higher prices for gas to get to that
21:35event today.
21:37MS Now's Will McDuffie spoke to voters in Pennsylvania about the price of gas.
21:44We're on about 45, 50 cents more today than last week, almost five days ago.
21:51That's a lot in a short amount of time.
21:53Yeah, that's a lot. If it keeps going, it's not going to be good.
21:56As for right now, I'm less than a quarter of a tank, so it's between getting gas or going to
22:02the grocery store to get food for my kids.
22:04I actually stopped driving because gas prices have gone so high.
22:09I can't even afford to really go to work, so I've resulted in taking the bus now.
22:17Joining us now is Senator John Ossoff, Democrat of Georgia.
22:20He's a member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, the Senate Appropriations Committee, and the Rules Committee, running for reelection this
22:26year.
22:26Senator Ossoff, what do you make of those results last night in Marjorie Taylor Greene's district with the Democrat coming
22:33out on top?
22:35Lawrence, thanks for having me. And first of all, I want to tip my cap to General Harris and his
22:40team for the campaign they're running.
22:42And it just speaks to the intensity of mobilization and opposition and outrage that's directed at this administration,
22:52and not just among Democrats, among independents, and increasingly in Georgia among Republicans,
22:59who privately and more and more publicly are speaking out against this administration,
23:06its failure, its corruption, the chaos that it's sowing across the country and around the world.
23:13And look, Georgia is the front line. Georgia is the most crucial battleground state in the country.
23:21And, you know, this result last night shows the momentum that we've built.
23:26But some of the recent polling, you know, you put some up on the screen, I got to correct that.
23:30One of my opponents, a congressman from coastal Georgia, he's just three points behind me.
23:36This will be, despite the incredible momentum we're building,
23:40the tightest, hardest fought U.S. Senate race in the country this year.
23:44And I'm asking folks to take action right now and help me at electjohn.com, electjohn.com.
23:52The Marjorie Taylor Greene started this defection from Donald Trump in her district.
23:59I mean, she was the first Trump voter in her district to defect from him.
24:02But obviously in those results last night, Donald Trump has a problem in that district now.
24:10Donald Trump has a problem with every side of his coalition.
24:15You know, you got folks like Marjorie Taylor Greene, who are longtime MAGA devotees, furious at all the promises that
24:27the president made to MAGA, but his administration has broken.
24:30And then you got folks just across the state.
24:34These are middle of the road folks who tend to vote Republican, sometimes local Republican elected officials who just can't
24:44stand the incompetence, the abuses of power, the grotesque corruption.
24:48They see this guy and his family raking in billions of dollars from all over the world while the cost
24:56of living crisis in America gets worse and worse.
24:59And it's infuriating people and not just Democrats.
25:02So in the polling, we're seeing that Donald Trump's new war has the lowest support in history of any war
25:10in its beginning days.
25:12And polling in all war, the support for it declines over time.
25:16So it is very likely going down from here.
25:20And along with that, there's a massive number, over two thirds of voters who say they expect gas prices to
25:28continue to go up because of Donald Trump's war.
25:35Look, the thing to remember as well, first of all, energy prices cascade through everything.
25:42In the economy.
25:43Here's another angle.
25:45You know, Georgia's number one industry is agriculture.
25:48I was on the phone this morning with a cotton grower in Georgia.
25:52About a third of the international trade in fertilizer goes through the Strait of Hormuz.
25:58And we're coming up on the planting season.
26:00So farmers in Georgia and across the country are seeing fertilizer prices now going through the roof.
26:06Diesel prices now going through the roof.
26:08Farmers are already getting hammered in the trade war.
26:12The rest of the world is retaliating against American farmers for all of Donald Trump's tariffs.
26:17And so this spells potentially very tough times in the weeks and months ahead for American agriculture, which is also
26:24going to directly impact food prices.
26:27So Donald Trump actually had this sign on the stage today saying lower prices.
26:34I mean, does he think that people don't see the signs on their gas pumps of what those prices are?
26:42I think the president appears increasingly to have lost touch with reality.
26:49And that is deeply concerning when you have a White House in which he is surrounded by yes men and
26:58yes women who cater to his every need.
27:00A cabinet much more concerned with winning his favor than giving him good advice or executing their jobs competently.
27:07And the nation now plunged into war.
27:11It is a deeply dangerous moment for the country.
27:14It speaks to the necessity of winning these midterm elections in a landslide and restoring checks and balances and sanity
27:21and competence to the governance of the United States.
27:24And so, again, I'm asking folks to help at electjohn.com.
27:27The Senate race matters.
27:29These midterm elections matter.
27:31There is an awful lot at stake for our country.
27:34Senator John Ossoff, thank you very much for joining us tonight.
27:37Thank you, Lawrence.
27:39And coming up, the Jeffrey Epstein investigation spearheaded by our next guest, Congressman Ro Khanna on the House Oversight Committee,
27:47deposed a very important witness today, Jeffrey Epstein's longtime accountant.
27:51Congressman Conor will join us next.
27:54He was in the room today.
28:00There is a new statue in Washington that Donald Trump's staff have surely not told him about, even though he
28:06appears to love statues.
28:08It's on the National Mall, and it is Donald Trump holding Jeffrey Epstein like Jack and Rose in the movie
28:17Titanic.
28:17The plaque on the statue says, the tragic love story between Jack and Rose was built on luxurious travel, raucous
28:24parties, and secret nude sketches.
28:29This monument honors the bond between Donald Trump and Jeffrey Epstein, a friendship seemingly built on luxurious travel, raucous parties,
28:38and secret nude sketches.
28:39There it is.
28:40Today, Jeffrey Epstein's longtime accountant, Richard Kahn, testified to the House Oversight Committee.
28:47Richard Kahn, who is also a co-trustee and beneficiary of the Jeffrey Epstein estate, told the committee that he
28:55did not know Jeffrey Epstein was trafficking and sexually abusing young girls.
29:03He confirmed there were five clients that paid money to Epstein, and that was Les Wexner, Lynn Dubin, Steven Sanofsky,
29:16the Rothschilds, and Leon Black.
29:18We've already deposed Wexner, and we're going to be deposing Leon Black very soon.
29:26Following today's deposition, the top Democrat on the House Oversight Committee, Robert Garcia, released a statement saying, in part,
29:33during his deposition, Kahn made some important admissions.
29:36He helped facilitate a fake marriage between two women connected to Epstein, admitted to impersonating Epstein in communication with banks,
29:45and confirmed Epstein spoke about Donald Trump a lot.
29:49It's not credible that he had no knowledge of Epstein's activities, and his testimony today only raises more questions.
29:56As executor of Jeffrey Epstein's estate, Richard Kahn oversaw the administration and liquidation of Jeffrey Epstein's assets, including the 2023
30:05sale of Jeffrey Epstein's massive ranch in New Mexico,
30:09a property where several Epstein survivors have said sex trafficking activity occurred.
30:15Joining us now is Democratic Congressman Roe Conn of California.
30:17He's a member of the House Oversight Committee, and he was in today's deposition.
30:21Congressman Kahn, what did we learn today?
30:24Well, first, we learned that Les Wexner and Leon Black allegedly had huge financial ties with Epstein.
30:32Now, look, Leon Black still has buildings named after him at Dartmouth.
30:36Both of these men need to be held accountable.
30:39And we also got the names of Rothschilds and two other powerful individuals who Comer is going to call.
30:45I directly asked Kahn whether the woman who has accused Donald Trump of rape when she was 13, whether she
30:56was paid a settlement by the Epstein estate.
30:58And he first said, yes, she was.
31:02And it was very clear what I was asking.
31:04Four hours later, he backtracked and said, no, no, he was talking about another woman.
31:08So we also need clarification of why he changed his testimony.
31:11And I'm looking forward to that transcript coming out.
31:15This is he's the kind of person that any real investigation of Jeffrey Epstein would have included.
31:23Of course, if you're doing a real investigation of Jeffrey Epstein at the FBI, you go to the accountant.
31:30Well, Lawrence, I mean, you know, we've talked about this before.
31:34The only reason that we wrote to the Epstein estate was because of your show.
31:38You did more work and your team to investigate this matter than the FBI or the Justice Department has.
31:44That's not hyperbole.
31:45That is fact, because you had Bradley Edwards on.
31:48And he said, well, why don't you go and subpoena the Epstein estate, which we did.
31:54And I thought it was such an obvious suggestion.
31:57I said, surely the FBI or the Justice Department would have done that.
32:00They have not.
32:01They have not investigated him.
32:04They have not investigated Les Wexner, Leon Black.
32:06I mean, it has been just a total abandonment of the survivors.
32:11The when he talked about Epstein's income from these people, that these people helped fund Jeffrey Epstein's lifestyle for what?
32:22What what?
32:23Why were they giving him money?
32:25Why?
32:25He was unable to answer that question.
32:28I mean, he said, well, they were a financial planning advice.
32:31These are the richest people in the United States, if not the world.
32:35You could get KPMG.
32:36You can get PwC.
32:38Rich billionaires like to keep their money.
32:40They are not going to hire someone just to plan who does not have the credential or the planning.
32:46And so the question is, why were they paying him off?
32:49And Senator Wyden has done incredible work in the Senate going after the financial transactions.
32:54There's the story of all the young girls were abused.
32:57That's front and center.
32:58But there are also the financial crimes.
33:00And we need far more investigation on that.
33:03And is did Khan prepare the Epstein tax returns?
33:09He did.
33:11He was not clear about that.
33:13He said that he was involved in the financial planning.
33:16I don't think he sat there himself and prepared it from the testimony.
33:20But he was certainly involved.
33:22And he admitted being involved in the financial planning.
33:27And so we would work with the accountants of those tax returns.
33:30What leads did the committee take out of this deposition?
33:35The leads were, first, we need to clarify whether the settlement was actually paid to the person who accused Donald
33:44Trump of rape.
33:45Second, the five people who need to be deposed, Leon Black, Les Wexner, the Rothschilds, and the two others in
33:53terms of the financial matters.
33:55Third, even Khan testified that over 100 women were abused.
34:00And he said that many of them in their settlements with the estate explicitly had carve-outs for other men,
34:07meaning that other people other than Epstein and Maxwell abused them.
34:11We need to figure out what those carve-outs were and who those men were because that will give us
34:16some evidence of what is being hidden in the Epstein files.
34:20Congressman Ro Khanna, thank you very much for joining us tonight.
34:25Andrew Weissman will join us next.
34:31Former federal prosecutor Senator Sheldon Whitehouse is telling Donald Trump's attorney general and FBI director to preserve their records,
34:39which is prosecutors speak for, we are going to investigate you.
34:43Senator Whitehouse told the attorney general, quote,
34:48DOJ has not produced to Congress all records related to Jeffrey Epstein as the act requires,
34:55including documents related to sexual assault allegations made against President Trump in 2019.
35:01Please preserve any existing and future records documents and materials related to DOJ's compliance with the Epstein files transparency act
35:10with respect to the sexual assault allegations referenced above,
35:15including any materials related to DOJ's decision to withhold these records.
35:21As you know, federal law, including the Federal Records Act, imposes an obligation to preserve federal records on all DOJ
35:28employees, including FBI employees,
35:30and makes violations subject to criminal prosecution.
35:35Joining us now is Andrew Weissman, former FBI general counsel and an MSNOW legal analyst.
35:40He is also the co-host of the podcast Maine Justice.
35:44And Andrew, I want to pick up on a point that Congressman Kahn was just telling us about in the
35:49deposition today of Mr. Kahn, Jeffrey Epstein's accountant.
35:54What do you think as a prosecutor you would be looking for from the accountant?
36:01Well, there are lots of things to look for from an accountant, obviously tracing money and getting his explanations.
36:11But if he is saying that, yes, I can tell you where various transactions went, but I don't know really
36:21what they were for.
36:22In other words, I know money went from A to B, but I never heard what the purpose was.
36:27That's where, as an investigator, there's just there's just so much to look at.
36:33One, there are lots and lots of staff that worked for Jeffrey Epstein.
36:38In fact, the accountant said that all of those sort of so-called underlings are almost the first people that
36:46as an investigator you talk to.
36:48So if this was really a congressional committee to get at the truth before you put the accountant and the
36:55Lex Wexner people before the committee, you want to interview all of those lower level people to find out what
37:04exactly they knew.
37:06What were they doing?
37:08What were they doing?
37:08Where were people, for instance, was there a video recording sort of set up, which has been sort of widely
37:15reported?
37:17You want to know all of that.
37:18You also want to then have the FBI agents and the prosecutors, such as Maureen Comey, who you fired from
37:27the Department of Justice.
37:28You want her to come in so you have an idea of what have they done already.
37:32But also, as you've been talking about, what have they not done?
37:36So you're not sort of retreading ground that they may have done and then also find out what they haven't
37:43done so you know what you need to do.
37:45So there's just so many things here that as somebody who's done investigations, I'm like, this is so obviously not
37:52a serious investigation where you're trying to get at the truth.
37:57When you look at Senator Whitehouse's demand to preserve records at the Justice Department, there seems to be there's two
38:06possibilities there for him, which is that if the Democrats win the Senate, he would have subpoena power on the
38:12Judiciary Committee at that point to demand turning over things that they can't get now in the minority.
38:19But it also seems to anticipate the next Democratic attorney general and Democratic presidentially appointed U.S. attorneys who could
38:30be prosecuting people at the Trump Justice Department for their violations of this new law, the Epstein Transparency Act, as
38:40well as possible federal records violations.
38:44Absolutely. That's the way I read that as well, putting people at the Department of Justice on notice.
38:52So they later can't say, you know, I wasn't aware that these documents were going to be needed for some
38:59potential investigation is worth remembering that if the House flips, they too will have subpoena power.
39:07They also will have the ability to go to court because they will be able to vote and say that
39:14we as a body want to go to court to enforce the Transparency Act, which is widely, widely viewed.
39:22And I share that view that it is being violated each and every day.
39:27In fact, the Department of Justice has admitted that they have not turned everything over.
39:32But that's what the statute actually calls for.
39:35Yeah. And so what given the given the confines of how they're working now, Democrats in the minority in the
39:43House with the committee that the Democrats in that committee are doing their best under the circumstances, since they don't
39:49control the witness list.
39:51What do you think can be accomplished now this year?
39:57Well, this year could include the House flipping.
40:04Obviously, they wouldn't have, as you know, they wouldn't have all of the people in place until next year.
40:11But I think what they really need to do is either try and get things voluntarily or they can just
40:19try and put more pressure on their Republican colleagues.
40:23Remember, they did get the Epstein Transparency Act passed.
40:28And so if they come up with a list of people, for instance, who they really think need to be
40:34interviewed, they could be really be very public about why are you not doing this?
40:38We just saw a very performative example of that, where they called in both the former president, Clinton, and the
40:47secretary of state.
40:48But you don't see them calling in the current president, who had substantial contact with Epstein.
40:56Again, I'm not saying that should happen now.
40:58I think there's a lot of legwork that I would do if I were actually investigating what happened here.
41:04Was there a thorough investigation?
41:06And who knew what was going on?
41:09There's just so much to look at that has been left on the table.
41:13Andrew Weissman, thank you very much for joining us tonight.
41:17You're welcome.
41:22Andrew Weissman gets tonight's last word.
41:25The 11th Hour with Stephanie Ruhl starts now.
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