00:00Secretary, President received a luxury jet from the Qatari government valued hundreds
00:04of millions of dollars in apparent violation of the emoluments clause of the Constitution.
00:09Jared Kushner's real estate and financial deals with the Saudi royal family raised serious
00:13questions related to kickbacks and bribery that could be in violation of federal bribery laws
00:18and the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. White House advisor Peter Navarro, a friend of Donald Trump
00:22Jr., got the Pentagon to loan more than $600 million to Vulcan Elements, a small North Carolina
00:28startup founded just two years earlier, and Donald Trump Jr.'s venture capital firm has a
00:34stake in this company. Estimates of the company's valuation grew tenfold after the deal was announced.
00:40AAFS Infrastructure and Energy, which is on the cusp of securing a $1 billion contract to build and
00:47operate a pipeline across the Balkans, has ties to former National Security Advisor Michael Flynn and
00:53lawyer Jesse Bernal that defended the President and Donald Trump Jr. against a lawsuit that sought to
00:59hold them responsible for January 6th. This company would be allowed to ship fossil gas from the United
01:05States to replace Russian fuels. My question is, and we know that the administration gutted the public
01:12integrity section for the last 50 years, investigated, prosecuted crime related to government integrity,
01:19and they prosecuted both Democrats and Republicans. Simple yes or no question.
01:23What I've just mentioned, do you believe that what I've talked about is enough here for the next
01:29Attorney General to open a criminal investigation, yes or no? No, you just read a bunch of
01:35random, unsourced news articles and reports. No, that's not the basis to open a criminal investigation.
01:43I mean, you're looking around, but it's not. This is not the basis on which- It is not.
01:49Just reading something that's just a hypothetical off a news article, it's not. It's not a hypothetical,
01:53it is real. Did the President get a Guattari? What, did you read the press? Are you a knowledgeable
02:00about anything? Not the same press you do. Apparently not, my friend.
02:03Promise me. Apparently not. Did the President receive a luxury jet from the Guattari government,
02:08valued at hundreds of millions of dollars, which is a violation- The United States of America did.
02:12Of the Emeluments Clause of the Constitution. It is not. It is not.
02:17Wow. You do not belong in this job, Mr. Acting Attorney General. You should always and recuse yourself
02:25from these issues because you are the President's lawyer. You are not the lawyer- I am not the President's
02:30lawyer. Yes, you are. I am not. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
02:34Mr. Clyde. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. First, Mr. Acting Attorney General, I'm sorry to hear that
02:45the weaponization fund is not moving forward. You would have my full support. When our government
02:51is weaponized so as to steal money from innocent law-abiding citizens, whether by making the process
02:56into the penalty, or forcing citizens to spend their resources on legal fees for their defense, or by
03:01acting, or by actually seizing their bank accounts through civil asset forfeiture, when there is no
03:07criminal prosecution, it is only right and fair to make these citizens whole. And as a victim myself,
03:14for which every solitary member on this committee who is eight years or more in Congress voted for the
03:20bill that has my name on it, the federal law that has my name on it, against the IRS, people
03:27need to be
03:27made whole when the government has been weaponized against them. But what I'd like to talk to you
03:32about other than that is in 1873, Congress enacted the Comstock Act, 18 U.S.C. Section 1461, which prohibits
03:40the mailing of abortion-inducing materials in the United States. Although the statute has been amended
03:46numerous times, including as recently as 1994, Congress has never repealed these criminal prohibitions.
03:51And as Justice Thomas recently noted, the Comstock Act remains valid federal law and is fully
03:57enforceable. So my question to you is, how will the Department of Justice ensure that this federal
04:02law prohibiting the mailing of abortion-inducing drugs is properly enforced? And I wish I had more time
04:08to really go through this, because we in the state of Georgia have a heartbeat bill, and we prohibit this
04:16type of drug, all right, inducing abortions. And yet it can come across from other states, all right,
04:23and kill innocent unborn children. How will the Department of Justice ensure that this federal law
04:29is enforced? So that's an important law and an important question. And I will tell you that
04:36there's a lot of effort within the department, and it's not just at the Department of Justice,
04:41other agencies in the federal government, into how the best way is to make sure that we're protecting
04:47the rights of Georgians and other individual states, but also the rights of every American.
04:53And you're right, I wish we had more time to discuss that, because it's a complicated issue.
04:59On the first question that you asked, I could not agree with you more that this Department of Justice
05:05Justice was weaponized, unfortunately, against many, many Americans, and we're trying every day to fix it.
05:13And we've made a lot of progress, but we have a lot more to do.
05:16Well, thank you. And by the way, I had a apology from Mr. Lewis, the ranking member of that subcommittee.
05:23Y'all remember him, all right? He said, I want to apologize to you for what
05:27a piece of my government, what the IRS did to you. I wish you well. I thank you and I
05:33yield.
05:34Mr. Ivey. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I wanted to ask you, it's a follow-up actually to a letter that
05:40I think 57 of my colleagues and I sent. This is about the shootings of Alex Prady and Ms. Good
05:46in Minneapolis. The issue there is the Attorney General for the state, and I think some local
05:52prosecutors have said they haven't been able to get access to the evidence related to those shootings,
05:58so they can make their own independent judgments about whether they should move forward with cases or not.
06:03The letter we sent, I don't think has been answered, but are you going to be committing
06:09to sharing that information immediately to these state and local prosecutors? Why not?
06:15No, that's not what we do in criminal investigations.
06:17And I disagree.
06:19Well, I'm right. You're wrong.
06:20Well, let me say this. Your predecessor, Rod Rosenstein and I, when he was U.S. Attorney in Maryland,
06:26I was the state prosecutor. We shared evidence in these kinds of cases all the time,
06:30and then we made a determination about which would go forward. But the refusal to share evidence is...
06:36No, no, that's not what I said. I didn't say I refuse to share evidence, sir. You said do I...
06:39I mean immediately.
06:40Right. That's what I said no to.
06:42We shared the evidence immediately.
06:45Yes, we did.
06:45That's right.
06:46Look, it's...
06:48You mentioned that it's important to make sure that bad guys don't just get arrested, but they pay
06:54back their victims. And that struck me as ironic given the number of pardons that this president has
07:01issued with respect to... I'll come back to you later. Devin Archer, Sioux Nation, $60 million,
07:08$43 million in restitution was wiped away by the pardon. Carlos Watson, $36.7 million was wiped away
07:17by the restitution. The Chrisleys, $21 million was wiped away by the restitution. Mr. Schwartz,
07:23I don't have... I don't remember what that number was in his particular case, but over and over again,
07:29victims have... of fraud. So they personally lost the money. It was taken out of their pockets.
07:35It's... issue a pardon. They don't get paid. They don't get made whole. Will you commit to trying
07:40to find a way to make those people whole who've been denied this access to the... As I said to
07:45you
07:46earlier, sir, the Constitution of our United States gives the president the power to pardon. That is
07:51not a decision for me to make or you to make. It's a decision for the president of the United
07:55States
07:55to make. Could I have just one more question, Mr. Chairman? With respect to civil liability for these
08:03people, which they're not pardoned for, would you... and the Department of Justice can pursue civil
08:08remedies in cases that involve... Depends on the case. Right. Depends on the case. Well,
08:13if they've been convicted for criminal liability already, certainly they can be convicted or...
08:17I mean, it depends on what the crime they were convicted of. Well, I just read them off to you.
08:21They were fraud convictions. You didn't read off the crimes. No, I mean, it just depends. I
08:26appreciate what you're saying. And you're right that a pardon doesn't cover civil liability. Well,
08:32I'm not going to commit to civil liability right here, no. Time of this gentleman has expired.
08:40Mr. Strong. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Attorney General Blanche, the National
08:45Children's Advocacy Center located in my district was the original model for the CAC approach
08:51nationwide and continues to play a leading role in training and best practices. How does the DOJ view
08:57the role of the National Center in strengthening Child Advocacy Center's capacity across the country?
09:03Mr. Yeah, look, it's extraordinarily important. That's a, you know, the work that they're doing
09:10and they've done for, I mean, at least many years now is key to the partnership and the future success
09:17of making sure that they're on the right path. So, look, the DOJ plays a small role in that. It
09:23doesn't play as important a role maybe as others, but that type of education and work is important.
09:30I understand that the victims of Child Abuse Act funded programs include the training and technical
09:36assistance for child abuse professionals. Grants are coming up for competition this year. How does the
09:42DOJ, you know, thinking about ensuring continuity so that the training pipelines and services are not
09:48disruptive? That goes through your department. That's what our grant folks do very well and they'll
09:53continue to do so and I definitely will happy to have my folks work with you to make sure that
09:57there's continuity there. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I yield back.
10:02Mr. Dean. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and thank you for the second round.
10:06I did want to explain what I held up here. Okay. For the viewing public, what you do as a
10:12member of
10:12Congress is you go in, you release your phone, you release anything that would have electronics,
10:18and you go in and you attempt to capture some redacted material. So I took a look at this email
10:26from Jack Goldberger, Wednesday, October 14th, 2009. The subject is Trump. It is to Jeffrey Epstein,
10:36and the language here that is not redacted reads, spoke to Alan Garten, Trump's attorney. Garten arranged a
10:4320-minute phone conference with Trump and Brad in lieu of a deposition. Following was discussed.
10:49The blacked out box is what was discussed, a regurgitation of that. I'll read to you what I was
10:55able to see underneath. As I say, it's shorthanded. It's clipped as a regurgitation of what took place.
11:02JE never expelled from Mar-a-Lago. No, he was not a member. May have been a guest. Never asked
11:08to leave.
11:08Mark Epstein said Trump on JE plane. Is that true? Answer. I've been on a lot of planes. May have
11:15been
11:15on his plane. No young girls on plane. What do you know about allegations against JE? Only what I read
11:22in the paper. Trump ever at JE House? I may have been there with my wife. Any young girls there?
11:28No. May
11:29have been some children of guests, but that's it. Trump specifically asked Garten to advise us of the
11:36interview. Brad had also talked to manager of Mar-a-Lago, Bert Lemke. Lemke confirmed JE never asked to
11:46leave Mar-a-Lago. I say that to say what a silly exercise that members of Congress have to go
11:51through
11:51to find out what actual conversations were taking place with the president in lieu of a deposition.
11:58This has nothing to do with redacting victims' names. My only point, my only, I don't have a question
12:04for you. My only point is you are gravely conflicted. It is so obvious you are gravely conflicted.
12:10These survivors deserve prosecutions. They deserved them years ago, and now it's in your lap. As Pam
12:17Bondi told us, they need an independent prosecutor. I hope you will do that. So if I, may I briefly
12:24respond?
12:26The law, the Epstein Transparency Act requires us to redact victims. We also have other laws that apply
12:34that require us to apply other redactions. That's not my law. That's your law. And what was just read,
12:41the reason why that was redacted, the reason why that was redacted is because that's a privileged
12:46communication between counsel. So the fact that it was read is fine, but that wasn't redacted because
12:52there were victims' names. That was redacted for another purpose, which we're legally obligated
12:57to do. I advise you to take a look at the Epstein Transparency. That concludes today's hearing.
13:04I want to thank our witness, Acting Attorney General Blanche, for being here and giving us his opinion
13:12over a great stretch. Without objection, members may have seven days to submit additional questions
13:20for the record. The committee stands adjourned. Thank you.
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