Latest / The Epstein Chronicles / Judge Berman Denies The DOJ's Request To Unseal Maxwell Grand Jury Documents
Transcript
- 0:00Speaker 1: What's up, everyone, and welcome to another episode of the
- 0:03Speaker 1: Epstein Chronicles. Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, let's not
- 0:09Speaker 1: kid ourselves. What we just witnessed was not some bold
- 0:12Speaker 1: attempt by the Trump administration to unlock the secrets of
- 0:16Speaker 1: the Epstein grand jury. This was political theater dressed up
- 0:19Speaker 1: as reform. For the third time, a judge has slammed
- 0:23Speaker 1: the door shut on their request, and yet you almost
- 0:25Speaker 1: get the sense that the denial was the whole point.
- 0:29Speaker 1: Everyone in that orbit knows full well how grand jury
- 0:32Speaker 1: law works. Those documents are sealed by design, protected by
- 0:36Speaker 1: rules that go back over a century. The judges weren't
- 0:40Speaker 1: going to break precedent for Trump or anyone else. And
- 0:43Speaker 1: that's exactly why the administration leaned into it. They were
- 0:47Speaker 1: never going to get those files, but they wanted to
- 0:49Speaker 1: say that they tried. Because here's the thing, when you
- 0:53Speaker 1: know the outcome in advance, you control the narrative either way.
- 0:57Speaker 1: The administration knew that the courts would deny them, and
- 0:59Speaker 1: with that denial, they could step back and say, see,
- 1:02Speaker 1: we're the victims of a cover-up. We wanted transparency, but
- 1:05Speaker 1: the establishment shut us down. That was the strategy from
- 1:08Speaker 1: day one. And now, predictably, the chorus of allies is
- 1:12Speaker 1: singing the same tune, TV appearances, social media rants, op-eds,
- 1:17Speaker 1: in sympathetic outlets, all hammering the point that the system
- 1:21Speaker 1: has tied their hands. It's not about truth, it's about
- 1:24Speaker 1: building a ready-made excuse. And what makes it worse is
- 1:27Speaker 1: how deliberate the playbook is. By engineering a loss they
- 1:31Speaker 1: knew they'd take, the administration gives itself political insulation. They
- 1:35Speaker 1: can throw up their hands and declare themselves powerless while
- 1:38Speaker 1: pretending to have been the champions of disclosure. And the
- 1:41Speaker 1: public is supposed to swallow it whole. That their effort
- 1:44Speaker 1: was genuine. That their frustration is authentic. And that the
- 1:48Speaker 1: fault lies not with them, but with the courts, the
- 1:51Speaker 1: deep state, the nameless machine that always seems to be
- 1:54Speaker 1: working against them. It's convenient scapegoating, and it's being rolled
- 1:58Speaker 1: out like a campaign slogan. But let's be blunt. If
- 2:01Speaker 1: they really wanted the Epstein truth to come out, there
- 2:04Speaker 1: were other ways to push, other levers of power they
- 2:07Speaker 1: could have pulled. They could have declassified records, compelled cooperation,
- 2:11Speaker 1: leaned on agencies with a full force of executive authority.
- 2:14Speaker 1: They didn't. Instead, they staged a move they knew would
- 2:18Speaker 1: collapse under its own weight, and then turned around and
- 2:21Speaker 1: weaponized the denial as proof of the very corruption they
- 2:25Speaker 1: claimed to be fighting. It's a shell game, a sleight
- 2:27Speaker 1: of hand designed not to deliver justice, but to protect
- 2:30Speaker 1: themselves from having to do anything meaningful in the first place.
- 2:35Speaker 1: And now, we're living in the aftermath of that performance.
- 2:38Speaker 1: Three denials later, the administration and its allies are parading around,
- 2:42Speaker 1: not embarrassed by the losses, but energized by them. They've
- 2:46Speaker 1: spun failure and ammunition, weakness, into a talking point. And
- 2:51Speaker 1: in that spin cycle, the survivors are forgotten once again,
- 2:54Speaker 1: the evidence stays hidden, and the truth slips further out
- 2:57Speaker 1: of reach. This was never about unlocking Epstein's secrets. This
- 3:02Speaker 1: was about creating a shield, a ready-made excuse for inaction,
- 3:05Speaker 1: and laying the blame anywhere but where it belongs. And
- 3:09Speaker 1: the worst part? That's the narrative being pumped right now,
- 3:12Speaker 1: on cue, exactly as it was scripted. Today's article is
- 3:18Speaker 1: from CBS News, and the headline, Judge declines to unseal
- 3:22Speaker 1: grand jury materials in the Jeffrey Epstein case. This article
- 3:26Speaker 1: was authored by Stephan Beckel, Jacob Rosen, and Caitlin Watson.
- 3:33Speaker 1: A federal judge in New York on Wednesday declined the
- 3:36Speaker 1: Justice Department's request to unseal grand jury material in the
- 3:40Speaker 1: case of late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, saying that prosecutors
- 3:43Speaker 1: had failed to demonstrate that special circumstances warranted the disclosure.
- 3:48Speaker 1: And like I just said in the opening there, all
- 3:50Speaker 1: by design. They knew this wasn't going to happen. And
- 3:54Speaker 1: I'm certainly not some legal mind, right? And I told
- 3:57Speaker 1: you from the jump that this was the whole entire point.
- 4:01Speaker 1: Judge Richard Berman of the U.S. District Court for the
- 4:04Speaker 1: Southern District of New York issued his ruling in a
- 4:07Speaker 1: 14-page decision denying the government's motion to unseal the documents.
- 4:12Speaker 1: And of course we had to hear right after this
- 4:14Speaker 1: that the judge isn't on the cover-up. That Judge Berman
- 4:17Speaker 1: is the one who is to blame here, not the
- 4:19Speaker 1: Department of Justice. You want to talk about a master
- 4:22Speaker 1: class in gaslighting? And they knew that people would suck
- 4:26Speaker 1: it up. You have people out there that are willing
- 4:29Speaker 1: to buy anything that's being pitched by the administration. It's
- 4:32Speaker 1: no different than the last administration who tried to gaslight
- 4:36Speaker 1: you about Joe Biden's mental acuity. We all knew that
- 4:39Speaker 1: that dude was cooked. But no, they had to run
- 4:42Speaker 1: their narrative, had to run their bullshit. And it's the
- 4:44Speaker 1: same thing that's happening right now with this whole entire
- 4:47Speaker 1: grand jury document situation. The DOJ knows just how hard
- 4:51Speaker 1: it is to get grand jury documents, and that's why
- 4:54Speaker 1: they asked for them. Notice they didn't say anything about
- 4:57Speaker 1: the NPA, right? Or anything else they have in their possession.
- 5:01Speaker 1: Berman wrote that the grand jury material in question includes
- 5:04Speaker 1: the testimony of just a single witness, an FBI agent,
- 5:08Speaker 1: who had no direct knowledge of the facts of the case,
- 5:10Speaker 1: and whose testimony was mostly hearsay. The documents the government
- 5:15Speaker 1: was seeking to unseal included roughly 70 pages of transcripts
- 5:20Speaker 1: of the agents' two presentations to the grand jury, a
- 5:23Speaker 1: PowerPoint exhibit, and a call log. Berman noted that the
- 5:26Speaker 1: Justice Department files on Epstein dwarfed those stemming from the
- 5:30Speaker 1: grand jury, proceeding before grand juries are typically kept secret.
- 5:35Speaker 1: A significant and compelling reason to reject the government's position
- 5:38Speaker 1: in this litigation is is that the government has already
- 5:41Speaker 1: undertaken a comprehensive investigation into Epstein's case and not, surprisingly,
- 5:47Speaker 1: has assembled a trove of Epstein documents, interviews, and exhibits.
- 5:51Speaker 1: And the government committed that it would share its Epstein
- 5:54Speaker 1: investigation materials with the public, Berman wrote. But somehow it's
- 5:58Speaker 1: the judge's fault. Somehow it's Judge Berman's fault that the
- 6:02Speaker 1: Trump administration doesn't want to be transparent. You see, the
- 6:05Speaker 1: Trump administration knew that people would bite and that this
- 6:09Speaker 1: narrative would gain some traction with their base. But I
- 6:13Speaker 1: don't think it's their base that they have to worry
- 6:14Speaker 1: about at this point. I think it's all those independents
- 6:17Speaker 1: that they folded into their coalition to help them win
- 6:20Speaker 1: the White House. Those are the people they need to
- 6:22Speaker 1: worry about, and I have bad news for you. If
- 6:25Speaker 1: Alex Jones is on the fence about you, you know
- 6:28Speaker 1: you're in big trouble. The government's the logical party to
- 6:32Speaker 1: make comprehensive disclosure to the public about By comparison, the
- 6:37Speaker 1: instant grand jury motion appears to be a diversion from
- 6:40Speaker 1: the breadth and scope of the Epstein files in the
- 6:43Speaker 1: government's possession, Berman wrote, quoting a decision by another New
- 6:46Speaker 1: York judge who denied the government's move to unseal material
- 6:50Speaker 1: in the case of Glenn Maxwell, Epstein's co-conspirator, who was
- 6:54Speaker 1: serving a 20-year sentence on sex trafficking charges. The information
- 6:59Speaker 1: contained in the Epstein grand jury transcripts pales in comparison
- 7:02Speaker 1: to the Epstein investigation information and materials in the hands
- 7:06Speaker 1: of the Department of Justice, he concluded. Well, yeah, no shit.
- 7:10Speaker 1: Grand jury documentation is sparse at best. That's what they
- 7:14Speaker 1: bring to get the indictment. And they don't even bring
- 7:17Speaker 1: all the information they have. They just bring enough. So
- 7:21Speaker 1: if you think the grand jury documents tell the whole story,
- 7:24Speaker 1: you have no idea what you're talking about. And anybody
- 7:27Speaker 1: trying to tell you that these grand jury documents are
- 7:30Speaker 1: some kind of key to what's going on here, they're
- 7:33Speaker 1: lying to you. The information contained in the Epstein grand
- 7:36Speaker 1: jury transcripts pales in comparison to the Epstein investigation information
- 7:40Speaker 1: and materials in the hands of the Department of Justice,
- 7:43Speaker 1: he concluded. Berman wrote that the grand jury material is
- 7:47Speaker 1: merely a hearsay snippet of Jeffrey Epstein's alleged conduct. He
- 7:51Speaker 1: cited possible threats. to victim safety and privacy as one
- 7:55Speaker 1: of the factors that weighed in favor of not releasing
- 7:58Speaker 1: the documents. The Justice Department declined to comment on Berman's ruling.
- 8:03Speaker 1: Of course they did. They don't need to comment. They'll
- 8:06Speaker 1: have all of their allies hit social media and talk
- 8:09Speaker 1: about how this decision is nothing more than part of
- 8:12Speaker 1: the cover-up. And then they'll point to this and say, see,
- 8:14Speaker 1: the administration wants transparency, but it's the courts and everybody
- 8:18Speaker 1: else who is standing in the way. And look, there's
- 8:21Speaker 1: certainly some truth to the courts having their own issues
- 8:24Speaker 1: when it comes to Jeffrey Epstein. I'm talking specifically about
- 8:28Speaker 1: the grand jury documents. Anybody who knows anything knew that
- 8:32Speaker 1: these things weren't going to be released. The family of
- 8:35Speaker 1: Virginia Roberts, one of Epstein's most well-known accusers who died
- 8:40Speaker 1: by suicide earlier this year, said in a statement, we
- 8:43Speaker 1: applaud Judge Richard Berman's decision not to release the grand
- 8:46Speaker 1: jury testimony in the Glenn Maxwell case. We wholeheartedly agree
- 8:50Speaker 1: with his assessment that the Department of Justice is creating
- 8:53Speaker 1: a diversion with its actions regarding the grand jury motion,
- 8:58Speaker 1: which distracts from the vast scope of the Epstein files
- 9:01Speaker 1: in the government's possession. Well, yeah, that's exactly what it
- 9:04Speaker 1: comes down to. And that's exactly what we've been saying
- 9:07Speaker 1: from the jump. And when I say we, not just me,
- 9:10Speaker 1: I'm talking about anybody with a brain in their head.
- 9:13Speaker 1: You don't have to be fucking Johnny Cochran to realize
- 9:15Speaker 1: that the fix is in. We recognize the critical importance
- 9:19Speaker 1: of protecting survivors. It's essential that we redact any information
- 9:24Speaker 1: that could jeopardize their safety or privacy. Their well-being must
- 9:28Speaker 1: always be our priority, the family said. At the same time,
- 9:32Speaker 1: we demand accountability for all individuals implicated in these heinous acts.
- 9:37Speaker 1: Those responsible must be held to the fullest extent of
- 9:40Speaker 1: the law. We will not accept anything less than justice
- 9:43Speaker 1: for Virginia and all the survivors. In July, the Justice
- 9:47Speaker 1: Department asked judges overseeing the Maxwell and Epstein cases to
- 9:51Speaker 1: release the grand jury material that formed the basis for
- 9:54Speaker 1: the federal charges against them, a move that came amid
- 9:57Speaker 1: uproar over the department's review. of the so-called Epstein files,
- 10:02Speaker 1: and decision not to release additional documents in the government's possession,
- 10:06Speaker 1: you know, after they told us they were going to,
- 10:09Speaker 1: after they gave us the whole rundown about how transparent
- 10:11Speaker 1: they're going to be, we're going to have day one releases,
- 10:14Speaker 1: the whole thing, only for them to spit directly in
- 10:17Speaker 1: our face. But go ahead, go off about the judges
- 10:20Speaker 1: and about how the fix is in. Epstein was investigated
- 10:23Speaker 1: by federal authorities in Florida in the 2000s, a probe
- 10:27Speaker 1: that ended in a non-prosecution agreement and a guilty plea
- 10:31Speaker 1: on state prostitution charges. He was arrested again on federal
- 10:35Speaker 1: sex trafficking charges in 2019 and died in a Manhattan
- 10:39Speaker 1: jail weeks later. Several investigations determined he died by suicide. Well,
- 10:45Speaker 1: considering the track record when it comes to truth, And
- 10:47Speaker 1: Jeffrey Epstein and what's happened here? Does anyone believe that narrative?
- 10:53Speaker 1: There has been increasing pressure on the Trump administration from
- 10:56Speaker 1: Democrats and many Republicans to disclose more information about the
- 11:00Speaker 1: Epstein case. The Justice Department issued findings of a review
- 11:04Speaker 1: of the Epstein investigation in July, saying it had found
- 11:08Speaker 1: no evidence of a client list or indication that Epstein
- 11:11Speaker 1: blackmailed prominent figures, an announcement that spurred more questions from skeptics. Well, yeah.
- 11:19Speaker 1: With everything that we know, how can you get up
- 11:22Speaker 1: there with a straight face and try and pitch that
- 11:24Speaker 1: bullshit to us? I mean, that is a bold move.
- 11:28Speaker 1: That's like Baghdad Bob standing on that building and telling
- 11:31Speaker 1: the Iraqis that there was no Americans in Baghdad. Republicans
- 11:37Speaker 1: in Congress have pushed for more transparency since the Justice
- 11:40Speaker 1: Department's review. The House Oversight Committee issued a subpoena to
- 11:44Speaker 1: the department for documents related to Epstein earlier this month.
- 11:48Speaker 1: The committee said Tuesday that it expects to receive documents
- 11:51Speaker 1: later this week, and intends to begin releasing them, pending
- 11:54Speaker 1: a review, to redact victims' information. Shouldn't that victims' information
- 11:59Speaker 1: be redacted already by the time they get it? Isn't
- 12:01Speaker 1: that what the FBI supposedly was doing? So what they
- 12:04Speaker 1: mean by review is to make sure that none of
- 12:06Speaker 1: their friends are involved, right? And then they'll release it
- 12:09Speaker 1: to us. You want transparency? You want us to believe you?
- 12:13Speaker 1: You want us to believe in what's going on? Here's
- 12:15Speaker 1: an idea. How about you have these meetings, these depositions...
- 12:19Speaker 1: in public. That way we can see for ourselves what
- 12:22Speaker 1: everybody has to say, what everybody looks like while they're
- 12:26Speaker 1: saying it, and the kind of questions that are being
- 12:29Speaker 1: asked from the members of the committee. But no, we
- 12:32Speaker 1: can't even have that. So it once again comes down to,
- 12:35Speaker 1: trust us, bro. And I don't know about you, but
- 12:39Speaker 1: the days of trusting the institutions in this country, for
- 12:43Speaker 1: me anyway, are long over. And considering the way things
- 12:46Speaker 1: are going, I doubt that trust is ever coming back.
- 12:51Speaker 1: Alright folks, that's going to do it for this one.
- 12:53Speaker 1: All of the information that goes with this episode can
- 12:56Speaker 1: be found in the description box.