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House Democrats Hold Palm Beach Field Hearing on Jeffrey Epstein Investigation (5/12/26) · The Vault: The Epstein Files

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  Speaker 1: What's up, everyone, and welcome to another episode of the
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  Epstein Chronicles. When you talk about Jeffrey Epstein, you have
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  to start in Palm Beach because Palm Beach was ground
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  zero for Jeffrey Epstein's abuse and it was in Palm
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  Beach where we first heard about the scope of what
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  Jeffrey Epstein was up to. Well, now, after all these
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  years and all these failures, there is going to be
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  a field teering in Palm Beach today that's being hosted
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  by the Democrats, and they're going to be focusing on
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  the failures down in Palm Beach when it comes to
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  Jeffrey Epstein and the people that he abused, and considering
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  the seismic f up that happened down in Palm Beach,
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  you would think that they have their hands full because
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  there was so much going on as far as that NPA,
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  as far as the deal, as far as impropriety from
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  the prosecutors that I have no idea how the people
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  are responsible for all of that have never really been
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  called out. So hopefully this will be the turning point
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  and hopefully Barry Krisher and everybody else involved in that
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  sweetheart deal will be forced to answer under oath about
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  how it all came to be, because from everything that
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  we've read, everything we've looked at, everything we've dove into,
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  is anybody really comfortable with how that investigation went down
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  in Palm Beach, with the NPA, with the emails, with
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  the pressure to DOJ brass and not only pressure, but
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  that pressure being well received by Philippe and by Mukhesy,
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  and that of course led to Jeffrey Epstein's sweetheart deal.
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  And I want you to keep in mind that any
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  one of these administrations that came after that sweetheart deal
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  was passed out could have done the same thing, looked
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  at it, and got rid of it, because Jeffrey Epstein
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  was obviously in dereliction of that agreement. I mean, how
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  many probation violations are we going to have? How many
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  times is he not going to check you in? How
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  many times is Jeffrey Epstein gonna thumb his nose at
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  not only the survivors but the rest of us. And
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  all of that was made possible by Barry Krisher, the
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  local team down there, and leadership at DOJ. It certainly
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  wasn't alex Acosta's fault. I know everybody wants to blame him,
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  but he's not the guy who made the final decision.
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  You know the analogy I always use. He's like the
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  middle manager at McDonald's. He can deal with what's going
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  on at the store, but he's not gonna make decisions
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  for the whole district. He's not making decisions for McDonald's itself,
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  just like alex Acosta's not making decisions for DJ Brass
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  not in a situation like the one we see with Epstein.
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  But that was the narrative that was pitched, and that's
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  the narrative that's been run with. But in my opinion,
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  the evidence tells us something different. So today we're gonna
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  see what these Democrats have to say about this Palm
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  Beach deal and about what happened during that first prosecution
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  of Jeffrey Epstein. And to build on what we were
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  just talking about, we have an article from twelve News
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  headline treated survivors like prostitutes, Representative Frankel says ahead of
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  WPB Epstein hearing. This article was authored by Skyler Shepherd.
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  US Representative Lois Frankel said on Monday that a long
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  awaited congressional field hearing in Palm Beach County will focus
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  on what she described as a historic failure of the
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  justice system that allowed Epstein's abuse of young women to
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  continue for years. And we keep hearing that, right, Oh,
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  there was this big failure, all these issues, everything went
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  wrong at the same time. What have they done in
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  the aftermath to fix those issues? Absolutely nothing, So please
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  spare me the bullshit. I don't believe the OIG report
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  for a minute. It's a whitewash. It's bullshit. And you
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  could see from the interviews that they didn't even push
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  that hard. Imagine interviewing employees at MCC and them giving
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  you the answers that we've heard in those depositions. I
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  would have lost my shit. I mean, everybody on staff
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  at MCC is more concerned with protecting the staff than
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  they are with figuring out what happened to Epstein. And
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  I think that's a tell in itself. Frankel, a Democrat
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  who represents Florida's twenty second district, will join House Oversight
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  Committee Democrats Tuesday at ten am for a field hearing
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  examining the handling of Epstein's case and the decision that
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  shielded him from accountability. Well, it's about time. I mean,
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  it's only what nineteen years too late, But here we
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  are testimonies expected from survivors, the survivor's attorney, and a
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  human rights advocate with a press conference schedule to follow.
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  Well that's good. Look, the public should be informed and
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  I think transparency at this point is the only way forward.
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  How could anyone try anything about this story without full transparency.
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  And that's why we do what we do here. That's
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  why I always provide you with a link, and that's
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  why we use these articles as a basis of our conversation.
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  I mean, it would be much more profitable for me
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  to sit here and tell you bullshit. Oh yeah, this
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  one did that, this one did that, he was doing this,
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  she was doing that, And that's the kind of shit
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  that sells, right, But I'm not interested in that. I'm
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  interested in getting to the bottom of what actually happened,
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  or at least as close as possible. So for me,
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  these kinds of hearings are good, right at least it's
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  a step in the right direction. And you never know
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  what kind of information is going to be released when
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  you have a situation like this pop up. So I'm
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  a fan of it, honestly, But at the same time,
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  there's no doubt that there's some political grand standing going on,
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  and there's still people that don't understand that this isn't
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  a left or right issue. This isn't us issue. And
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  as I've told you before, it's the people, you and
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  I versus the predators, and the sooner that people wise
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  up to that shit, the closer we're going to beat
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  a victory. This is where upom Beach County, I'm going
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  to apologize because there was a grave miscarriage of justice
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  by our state attorney back there, Barry Kusher, Frankel said
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  in an interview after a four million dollar federal funding announcement.
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  She accused prosecutors at the time of minimizing victims and
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  failing to pursue the case aggressively despite substantial evidence. They
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  demean survivors, Frankel said, Oh, they most certainly did. They
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  called those little girls prostitutes, hookers, They weren't trustworthy because
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  they talked about booze and drinking on their MySpace. What
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  nobody was ever a teenager before, like for real, for real,
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  Because I'll tell you what, it's a good thing that
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  social media didn't exist when I was a kid, because
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  we were wild in the fuck out, and I was
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  doing a lot worse than smoking cigarettes and drinking beer.
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  But sure, let's use that to demean these girls and
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  act like they were never abused by Jeffrey Epstein. And
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  for what, to make sure that he's protected, To make
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  sure that your stupid ass scheme, your stupid plot, keeps going. Epstein,
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  a wealthy financier, was first investigated in Palm Beach County
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  more than twenty years ago after a young woman came
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  forward with allegations, all of sexual abuse. Despite police building
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  a detailed case, Epstein ultimately received a secret plea deal
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  that allowed him to serve limited jail time while avoiding
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  federal prosecution, an agreement that later drew widespread condemnation. Well,
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  not widespread enough. We're still talking about it right the
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  deal that could go away tomorrow. But for that to happen,
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  we'd have to have a justice department and an administration
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  that didn't want to protect Jeffrey Epstein and his friends.
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  But unfortunately that is not a reality that we're living in.
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  Frankel said the way the case was handled locally had
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  devastating consequences. For what reasons, we don't know. Yet, she said,
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  referring to how Epstein was treated by prosecutors. But for
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  some reason, they allowed a predator to go loose for many,
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  many years. We all know the reason. Come on, and
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  it's the same reason they continue to work with people
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  like Whitey Bulger. They knew that Whitey Bulger was a
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  fucking serial killer. They knew that he was responsible for
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  untold misery and harm. Did they care? Of course not.
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  The means always justifies the end, right, unless you're the
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  person being killed or it's your daughter who's being molested.
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  But I guess people like Barry Krisher don't have to
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  worry about that, right. It's never their kids, it's always yours.
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  She said that Palm Beach County was an appropriate location
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  for the hearing because this is really where the prosecution
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  supposedly started and where intervention could have stopped the abuse earlier. Look,
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  she is not wrong, and I'm of the same mind.
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  I think that Palm Beach is ground zero for all
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  of it. And if they would have done the right
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  thing in Palm Beach and followed through with the prosecution,
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  how many people would have been saved. How many girls
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  wouldn't have had their lives ruined. And that's on the
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  prosecutors down in Palm Beach. That's on Barry Krisher, that's
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  on BELLOHOVLK, and that's certainly on alex Acosta's office because
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  while they certainly weren't the ones who made the final decision,
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  they sure did have no problem going along with it, right,
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  So that's their sin. And they could have easily stood
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  up and told the federal government their bosses, if you
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  go through with this, we're going to quit, we're going
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  to object, we're not going to follow through, and we're
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  going to go public. But instead they all got online, right,
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  all fell in line like good little soldiers. So how
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  many lives were ruined because they decided to do that,
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  I think that's the question that people are asking now.
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  Probably hundreds of young women were sexually abused because the
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  way this case was handled, Frankel said, adding that co
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  conspirators were also allowed to escape scrutiny. She's not wrong
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  about that either. So it's going to be interesting to
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  see what they have to say during this field hearing
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  later on today. Unlike most congressional hearings, which are typically
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  held in Washington, D C. The House Oversight Committee opted
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  to convene this hearing in West Palm Beach to spotlight
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  the local origins of the case and give survivors an
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  opportunity to be heard. Well that's nice, huh. An actual
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  forum for the survivors to have their say. This is
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  an opportunity to really put some focus back where it started,
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  Frankel said, maybe get some answers from some of the
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  folks as to why this miscarriage of justice occurred. Frankel
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  set her goal for the hearing extends beyond acknowledgment of
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  past mistakes. If we can get to the bottom of
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  why Jeffrey Epstein got his deal and who else was involved,
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  I think that would be important moving forward. She said,
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  one hundred percent. There needs to be a reckoning, and
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  the people that have caused us not to trust the
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  system need to be held accountable. There had to be
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  other people. Their names have been shielded. We need to
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  know who else was involved so that they can be prosecuted.
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  I really hope that that's the case, and I hope
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  that's what occurs, but I am not confident. She also
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  said that she hopes that Palm Beach County formally apologizes
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  to survivors, but stress that accountability matters more more importantly
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  to try to get to the bottom of why was
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  Jeffrey Epstein given a slap on the wrist for sexually
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  abusing so many young women and why that activity was
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  allowed to go on. She said, I hope we can
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  get some answers tomorrow. The hearing will include Democratic members
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  of the House Oversight Committee, Ranking Member Robert Garcia, and
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  local Democratic members of Congress from Florida. Media access is
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  controlled due to security requirements, so that's where we stand
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  as far as this field hearing that's going to be
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  held today, and once it wraps up, we'll talk about
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  it a little more on tomorrow's program. As for this one, well,
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  that's going to do it. All the information that goes
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  with this episode can be found in the description box.