Texas U.S. Senate candidate James Talarico holds a news conference alongside survivors of Jeffrey Epstein’s abuse, drawing renewed attention to the allegations surrounding Epstein and calls for transparency and accountability. The event puts the experiences of survivors at the center of the discussion as Talarico addresses the broader political and public debate surrounding the Epstein case.
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NewsTranscript
00:00When did holding sexual abusers accountable become controversial?
00:07When did Ken Paxton decide it was okay to ignore these survivors?
00:14Today, I am calling on Ken Paxton to stop ignoring these survivors and their requests to meet,
00:21and I'm calling on him to use his power as Attorney General
00:25to sue the Department of Justice over the mishandling of these Epstein files.
00:31Corrupt officials like Todd Blanche released names and photos of survivors without their consent.
00:39Corrupt officials are still covering up for Epstein's abuse by refusing to release 2.5 million additional files.
00:48Our Attorney General here in Texas has the power to get justice for these survivors,
00:54and he's refusing to do so.
00:56Ken Paxton has a history of covering up abuse, a history of protecting pedophiles.
01:03He has an opportunity to use his power, his authority, to get justice, and we are demanding that he do
01:10so.
01:10An eight-year-old boy right here in Waco was repeatedly sexually assaulted for nearly three years,
01:17starting when he was in third grade.
01:19His abuser was Adam Hoffman, a well-connected lawyer here in Waco.
01:25Hoffman was arrested and charged with a first-degree felony.
01:29He should have served 25 years to life in prison for abusing that eight-year-old boy,
01:36but instead he served less than a month in jail because Ken Paxton gave Adam Hoffman an Epstein-style sweetheart
01:45deal.
01:45Adam Hoffman admitted to abusing this child, and he walked free after 29 days in jail.
01:54He didn't even have to register as a sex offender in Texas.
01:57That was part of the sweetheart deal Ken Paxton gave him.
02:02You know, I want to quote the mother of the eight-year-old boy.
02:09This case was treated differently because of who Adam Hoffman was and who represented him.
02:16Paxton's office gave Hoffman a sweetheart deal.
02:20That is corruption.
02:22Those are the words of the mother of the eight-year-old boy who was abused by Adam Hoffman.
02:28And I think she's exactly right.
02:31We need answers in this case.
02:33We need to know why this sweetheart deal was given to an admitted child predator.
02:39We need to know why he was back on our streets, why he is able to still abuse children.
02:45We need answers to these questions immediately.
02:48It's why today I am calling on Ken Paxton to release the Hoffman files.
02:53All text messages, all emails, all documents, all internal memos relating to the Adam Hoffman case.
03:01Those documents need to be made public immediately so Texans can get answers about this corrupt deal.
03:08If there's anything that all Texans can agree on, Democrats and Republicans, progressives and conservatives,
03:16it's that no one, not even the Attorney General of Texas, should be able to cover up crimes against children.
03:23Many of you know that before I was an elected official, I was a public school teacher.
03:29I taught middle school in San Antonio ISD.
03:31As a Texas educator, I was required by law to report any concerning behavior from my students.
03:38If there were any signs that there was abuse at home, I was required to report those things immediately.
03:45I would hope that the top law enforcement official in our state would be held to the same standard as
03:52a middle school teacher.
03:53Ken Paxton had the chance to protect a child.
03:57Instead, he protected a predator.
04:00I find that unconscionable and I think most Texans do too.
04:04As I indicated in my opening statement, I wanted to talk about the death of Mr. Epstein.
04:09Do you concur with the opinion that it was a suicide?
04:15That was the finding of the coroner, sir.
04:17Okay.
04:18Do you have any evidence to suggest otherwise?
04:20I do not.
04:20How could this have happened?
04:23Unfortunately, sir, the death and the whole situation is still under the investigation of the FBI
04:29and the Inspector General's Office.
04:31And I'm really not at liberty to discuss specifics of this case.
04:35I can discuss issues around institutional operations, but I can't specifically talk about that particular issue.
04:42Okay.
04:43With a case this high profile, there's got to be either a major malfunction of the system or a criminal
04:50enterprise at foot to allow this to happen.
04:53So are you looking at both?
04:55Is the FBI looking at both?
04:57If the FBI is involved, then they are looking at criminal enterprise, yes.
05:00Do we have people in custody today of this high profile nature?
05:06Have we done anything to adjust since Mr. Epstein's death?
05:10Sir, we take every inmate's life very seriously in the Bureau of Prisons.
05:14A high profile inmate is no more important or significant in terms of our operations than just the average inmate
05:20that comes our way.
05:21What do you mean high profile?
05:21Somebody's on a suicide watch.
05:24I would like to explain our suicide watch system, if I may.
05:26I can't talk specifically about Epstein, but we have different tiers of response if we identify an inmate who appears
05:32to have suicidal thinking.
05:34And I came into the Bureau as a psychologist.
05:36I've worked with lots of suicidal inmates.
05:38I was a warden at our psychiatric facility in Butner, and I know how difficult it is to always be
05:42able to predict who is suicidal and who is not.
05:44But once an inmate is identified as potentially suicidal, we have a suicide watch operation that we can place them
05:49in.
05:50It's a very stark, very difficult setting where everything is stripped from the room except a mattress.
05:54They get a coarse gown like to wear that cannot be twisted in any way that they could hang themselves
06:00from it.
06:01They have one mattress and one blanket, and they are watched constantly.
06:04There's nothing else in that room.
06:06Is Mr. Epstein on suicide watch?
06:07Yes, he watched.
06:08However, the average time on suicide watch is only about 24 hours because it is such a stark and actually
06:14depressing situation.
06:15We then can move them to another tier of observation, which is called psychological observation.
06:20Did that happen in this case?
06:21I can't speak specifically, but I am sharing this with you so that you understand our procedure, sir.
06:26They then can move to another tier, which is psychological observation, where they get their clothes back.
06:32They're in a more normalized setting.
06:34They are watched and scrutinized every moment of the day, but that is a much more normal environment.
06:39Do they have roommates?
06:40I'm sorry, sir?
06:42Do they have roommates?
06:42No, they do not when they're on psychological observation because they're being watched continuously.
06:46Did Mr. Epstein have a roommate when he allegedly committed suicide?
06:50No, he did not.
06:50Okay.
06:52Go ahead.
06:53They move into psychological observation.
06:56Psychologists see them routinely, interview them repeatedly, and once it's determined that the threat of suicide seems to have passed,
07:05then that inmate can be returned back to open population.
07:09Well, clearly, it didn't work here, so we await the report because all the victims of Mr. Epstein have to
07:16have their heart ripped out.
07:18They'll never see justice.
07:22Dr. Sawyer, can you think of any other incidents in the history of the BOP that have caused as much
07:28crisis for public trust for your institution as Epstein's death?
07:31I can only speak since 1976 when I joined the Bureau.
07:36I don't know prior to that, but I would say it's probably gotten the most public attention.
07:40There are lots of taxpayers and citizens who've never thought about the BOP, and you have lots of good patriotic,
07:45hardworking folks there.
07:46I get that, but in terms of a crisis of public trust in general, but also in terms of your
07:51workforce, this death happened in the middle of August, early August.
07:55It's Thanksgiving, and you're here to testify today, and you say you're not allowed to speak about this incident.
08:00I think that's crazy.
08:02Can you distinguish among types of investigations, at least for us?
08:05Because I'm aware of at least three Epstein investigations.
08:08You get a whole bunch of women who were raped by this guy.
08:10This is a sex trafficking ring in the United States.
08:14This guy had evidence.
08:15He's got co-conspirators, and there are victims out there who want to know where the evidence has gone.
08:21Can you tell us a little bit more about the different investigations?
08:24I understand there's at least one that you're directed by Maine Justice not to speak about, but there are at
08:28least three investigations.
08:30Can you unpack them, please?
08:31There are two investigations that are ongoing.
08:34One is the FBI's investigation, and the other is the Inspector General's investigation.
08:37Both inside BOP, but there's a third one outside, which is why Epstein was in your institution to begin with.
08:42Yeah, and that, sir, is completely out of my...
08:45I get that.
08:46There's a lot here where DOJ has failed.
08:48There's a lot here that BOP has failed.
08:50Let's just be clear, so we have a level set for everybody in this room.
08:52You're in your job because of this crisis, right?
08:56You come here today, and you say you can't testify about it, but the reason you're director now is because
09:01the last guy got fired, right?
09:02Senator, I can't tell you what I don't know.
09:04I have received no information from the FBI investigation yet, nor no information from the Inspector General.
09:10Once those entities go into one of our facilities, we are forbidden from talking to anybody in the institution.
09:15We can send in a team and look at wherever there might have been a security flaw or something,
09:19but we are not allowed to talk to anybody in our institutions about anything that happened over the episode.
09:25With all due respect, you still have an obligation to speak to the girls who were raped by this guy
09:30today.
09:30You may not have to speak about every particular of the guards that were arrested last night,
09:35but the fact that there is an ongoing attempt by the United States government to find out if there's still
09:41any evidence about the co-conspirators,
09:42you do have an obligation to speak to those girls who were raped today.
09:46You may not speak about the specifics of the charges against those two guards this morning who were taken into
09:53custody,
09:53but more broadly, you should be able to unpack, have we changed any processes about how cases like this are
09:59handled?
10:00It's been more than 90 days, and you said, I think your quote was, we treat every inmate the same.
10:05We believe in America that every individual has equal dignity, but not every inmate has equal value for future criminal
10:13investigations.
10:14Jeffrey Epstein was still to testify in a case.
10:16Somebody who's already been convicted, who may be on suicide watch, there are lots of good reasons to not want
10:22that guy to be able to kill himself.
10:23This is different, because it isn't just about the individual inmate who might kill themselves,
10:28it's about the fact that that bastard wasn't able to testify against his other co-conspirators.
10:33So it is wrong, as a management matter, for you to say we treat everybody the same.
10:38We should be treating people who are yet to testify against other felons, against other rapists.
10:44They have a lot more priority for your institution, don't they?
10:48Senator, pretty much all of our inmates that are in any of our jail facilities are pretrial.
10:52They're still yet to testify, to be involved, to share information on other cases.
10:57I don't know what evidence you're asking of me.
10:59If you're saying, was there any evidence in his room, in his possession at the time?
11:02That was all confiscated by the FBI.
11:04In his brain, and in the cameras, and in the tapes, that the American public well understands appear to not
11:09be urgent enough for the Department of Justice.
11:12No, it's very urgent for the Department of Justice, and it's all been confiscated by the FBI, and it's all
11:16part of their investigation.
11:17That's why none of that is shared with the Director of the Bureau of Prisons, or anyone in the Bureau,
11:21until the investigations are completed.
11:24Once those are completed, I'd be very happy to come up here and talk with any one of you that
11:28want to hear everything about we glean from those investigations.
11:31But until I have that information, there's nothing I can tell you.
11:34If I don't have the information, I cannot share anything with you.
11:37Then how widespread is the problem of sleeping on the job?
11:40There are lots of people in the public who think this seems a very convenient excuse.
11:45And so, tell us, is it a systemic problem?
11:47Do we have a lot of people who sleep on the job when they're supposed to be guarding federal inmates?
11:51We have a few, sir, and we have been monitoring the cameras that are existing in every one of our
11:56institutions
11:57to determine how well and how effectively our staff members are doing their rounds and counts in the institutions.
12:02We have found a couple of other instances, and we have immediately referred those to the Inspector General's Office.
12:08And I'm encouraging that if people just chose not to do their job, we're hoping the U.S. Attorney's Office
12:14will pick up those cases
12:15and prosecute them for us, because we don't want those people in the Bureau of Prisons.
12:19They are dangerous to everybody, the inmates and the staff.
12:22And so we are zealously going about trying to determine which of our employees are good employees and who do
12:28their job,
12:29and that is the vast majority of the prison staff, but we do have some I know out there who
12:34obviously choose not to follow policy,
12:37choose not to do their job, and we want them gone.
12:40I do not want them in our institutions, and I am exploring those very, very carefully to identify them and
12:45get them out of our system.
12:46Now, if it's a training problem and they didn't know what they were supposed to do, that's our problem.
12:50That's management's problem. We have to do a better job training our staff.
12:53But if someone is well-trained, well-experienced, and chooses not to do their job, we want them gone.
12:59I assure you of that.
13:01I'm at time, so I'll just give you a preview of something I'm going to ask you for the record
13:05after the event.
13:06You made a really important statement about drone drops of different kinds of contraband into your institutions.
13:11That's obviously a new and hard problem.
13:13That's a problem against which we have to play defense, but there's also new opportunities for offense.
13:17And so what's your long-term strategy is inside the institution about cameras is something that I think a lot
13:23of us would like to hear more,
13:24and I'll send you a letter with some questions.
13:25Okay, very good. Thank you.
13:25Because Epstein's hallway should have still been monitored by cameras even if his guards were asleep,
13:31and we don't have information about whether or not there were adequate cameras there.
13:34And so I think a lot of us would like to understand where technology dollars are going.
13:38Absolutely. Thank you, Dr. Swerg.
13:38Thank you, Senator.
13:39Senator Blumenthal is next, but just follow up on this.
13:42Will there be an IG report regarding what happened?
13:44There should be. Usually after the inspector general's office investigates, they do come out with a report.
13:49If people are pending criminal charges, we're not going to interfere in their cases,
13:52but if there's an IG report, I promise you we'll get fully briefed by the committee here.
14:01How can I put this?
14:04Christmas ornaments, drywall, and Jerry Epstein.
14:10Name three things that don't hang themselves.
14:13That's what the American people think.
14:16That's what the American people think.
14:19And they deserve some answers.
14:22And I know that you're not in charge of these investigations.
14:27Yes, sir.
14:28But you talk to the people who are.
14:30And I need you to take a very respectful message today.
14:40Tell the American people what happened.
14:44And don't rush it so that they don't do a thorough investigation.
14:48But you and I both know they can make this a top priority and get it done more quickly than
14:55they normally would.
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