Latest / The Vault: The Epstein Files / One Year In, The Epstein Inquiry Still Has More Questions Than Answers

Transcript

One Year In, The Epstein Inquiry Still Has More Questions Than Answers · The Vault: The Epstein Files

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: What's up everyone and welcome to another episode of the
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: Epstein Chronicles. One of the major issues that people are
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: concerned with when it comes to the commission that's looking
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: into Epstein's crimes is the fact that the commission itself
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: has no teeth. And now that we're a year on,
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: there really hasn't been much movement. And unfortunately, it looks
• 0:25
  Speaker 1: like everything I thought that was going to happen is happening.
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: The whole entire idea of the committee was to control
• 0:32
  Speaker 1: that blast radius. They never wanted to get close to
• 0:35
  Speaker 1: the truth. That was never the goal. They wanted to
• 0:38
  Speaker 1: do enough that they can come back to you and say, look,
• 0:40
  Speaker 1: we did our best. This stuff is still buried. It's
• 0:43
  Speaker 1: still hidden. And we're just never going to get to
• 0:45
  Speaker 1: the bottom of it. That was the plan. And the
• 0:50
  Speaker 1: discharge petition threw chaos into that plan. And we now
• 0:55
  Speaker 1: know that it left them scrambling. So much to the
• 0:57
  Speaker 1: point that they had high-level meetings at the White House.
• 1:01
  Speaker 1: So you know they were panicking behind the scenes. And
• 1:04
  Speaker 1: they should have been. But of course, now comes the distractions.
• 1:09
  Speaker 1: And the biggest distraction, obviously, was the war in Iran.
• 1:14
  Speaker 1: And I have to tell you, it did its job.
• 1:16
  Speaker 1: Because the vast majority of people, they pivoted, right? There's
• 1:21
  Speaker 1: a war. People are going to follow that. There's a
• 1:23
  Speaker 1: lot going on. You have the Israeli issue. Just a
• 1:26
  Speaker 1: whole lot going on. So of course people are going
• 1:29
  Speaker 1: to tune in. They're going to look at what's going
• 1:30
  Speaker 1: on in the war. They're going to look at this, that,
• 1:32
  Speaker 1: the other thing. And that's what they've always counted on. Exhaustion.
• 1:37
  Speaker 1: And people being so confused and tired by this topic
• 1:41
  Speaker 1: that they just keep it moving. And look, I understand.
• 1:45
  Speaker 1: This topic is not for the faint of heart. It's depressing.
• 1:49
  Speaker 1: It's not fun. And frankly, there's nothing enjoyable about it.
• 1:52
  Speaker 1: But I feel like this conversation has to happen. After
• 1:55
  Speaker 1: all these years and all these failures, I think we
• 1:58
  Speaker 1: owe that to the survivors. Today's article is from the
• 2:02
  Speaker 1: National Post and the headline, One Year In, Epstein Inquiry
• 2:06
  Speaker 1: Has Found Few Answers. One year? Try about four decades.
• 2:12
  Speaker 1: This article was authored by Swakar Ali. As the U.S.
• 2:17
  Speaker 1: House Oversight Committee's inquiry into Jeffrey Epstein approaches its one-year mark,
• 2:22
  Speaker 1: The witness list has included some of the highest profile
• 2:24
  Speaker 1: figures ever to appear before the panel. And they were
• 2:29
  Speaker 1: all there voluntarily. Nobody showed up there with any kind
• 2:34
  Speaker 1: of threat of actually being in trouble. And that was
• 2:37
  Speaker 1: all part of it. Billionaire moguls, members of Epstein's inner circle,
• 2:42
  Speaker 1: and a former US president have been among the dozen
• 2:45
  Speaker 1: plus witnesses. All have sought to distance themselves from the
• 2:49
  Speaker 1: deceased sex offender's crimes. None have had much to say
• 2:52
  Speaker 1: to help lawmakers bring charges against any wrongdoers. Yeah, because
• 2:56
  Speaker 1: they're the wrongdoers themselves. Breaking news, people aren't ratting on themselves.
• 3:02
  Speaker 1: Not unless you threaten them with serious jail time. And
• 3:04
  Speaker 1: wouldn't it be nice if the government had a tool
• 3:06
  Speaker 1: to do that? Oh wait, they do. They chose not
• 3:08
  Speaker 1: to use it. Imagine going after Jeffrey Epstein in any
• 3:12
  Speaker 1: regard and not using RICO? Tell me the fix is
• 3:15
  Speaker 1: in without telling me. In the UK, ties to Epstein
• 3:20
  Speaker 1: caused a leadership crisis, led to the former Prince Andrew
• 3:23
  Speaker 1: losing his honors and princely title, and triggered police investigations.
• 3:27
  Speaker 1: And Andrew getting arrested, kind of significant. Senior officials in Norway, Sweden, France,
• 3:33
  Speaker 1: and Slovakia have all faced a reckoning for their associations
• 3:36
  Speaker 1: with the disgraced financier. In the US, prominent figures have
• 3:41
  Speaker 1: been forced to resign, while some have been grilled by lawmakers. Oh, grilled,
• 3:46
  Speaker 1: is it? More like praised. Oh, he answered all the questions. Oh,
• 3:51
  Speaker 1: he's such a nice guy. Bill Gates, thank you for
• 3:54
  Speaker 1: all of your philanthropic work. Thank you for helping people
• 3:57
  Speaker 1: with vaccines. I don't give a fuck about any of
• 4:00
  Speaker 1: that if you want the truth. I have one question
• 4:03
  Speaker 1: and one question only. Why were you associating with Jeffrey Epstein?
• 4:07
  Speaker 1: And I want the truth. Not your bullshit answer. I
• 4:09
  Speaker 1: want the truth. What were you guys doing together? And
• 4:12
  Speaker 1: if you tell me philanthropy, I'm going to tell you
• 4:14
  Speaker 1: you're a liar. How about that? But a group of
• 4:19
  Speaker 1: Epstein survivors say the truth is still hiding. They have
• 4:22
  Speaker 1: criticized committee interviews for having largely been voluntary and not
• 4:26
  Speaker 1: under oath. Well, who does that sound like? Almost like
• 4:30
  Speaker 1: me and the survivors are on the same page, huh?
• 4:34
  Speaker 1: Billionaire investor Leon Black took a stance shared by many
• 4:37
  Speaker 1: of the witnesses when he said at his closed-door testimony,
• 4:41
  Speaker 1: I knew Jekyll. I didn't know Hyde. Did they all
• 4:43
  Speaker 1: get together to come up with that defense? That line?
• 4:46
  Speaker 1: Leon Black and Leslie Groff both used it. Look, I
• 4:50
  Speaker 1: have a lot of doubts about what's going on here.
• 4:52
  Speaker 1: And I certainly have a lot of doubts about the
• 4:55
  Speaker 1: people that are in charge of the whole process on
• 4:58
  Speaker 1: both sides of the aisle. Like people can play their
• 5:01
  Speaker 1: politics all they want. I'm so far away from that
• 5:05
  Speaker 1: and so removed from that, that I don't even care.
• 5:09
  Speaker 1: If people want to run around and think they're a party,
• 5:11
  Speaker 1: gives a fuck about them. Cool. Great. Have at it.
• 5:14
  Speaker 1: There is nothing I can say that's going to change
• 5:16
  Speaker 1: someone's mind. So for me, all I care about is
• 5:20
  Speaker 1: that we agree about this topic here. We can have
• 5:24
  Speaker 1: our disagreements later on. But about this topic? I don't
• 5:28
  Speaker 1: give a shit what side of the political aisle you're on.
• 5:31
  Speaker 1: I really don't care what your beliefs are, as long
• 5:33
  Speaker 1: as you want justice, and you want the people who
• 5:36
  Speaker 1: are responsible for this held accountable. And if that's you,
• 5:40
  Speaker 1: then we're allies at least right now. Later on down
• 5:44
  Speaker 1: the road, well, we can discuss what we don't agree on.
• 5:47
  Speaker 1: But for right now, On this topic, I think we
• 5:50
  Speaker 1: should all agree that these powerful people should be held accountable.
• 5:54
  Speaker 1: And I think that most Democrats and Republicans and anything
• 5:57
  Speaker 1: in between shares that view. Epstein pleaded guilty to soliciting
• 6:03
  Speaker 1: prostitution from a minor in 2008 and spent 13 months
• 6:07
  Speaker 1: in jail. He died in August of 2019 in a
• 6:10
  Speaker 1: Manhattan jail cell a month after being indicted on federal
• 6:13
  Speaker 1: sex trafficking charges. Black, the co-founder and former CEO of
• 6:18
  Speaker 1: Apollo Global Management, had paid Epstein more than $ 150 million
• 6:22
  Speaker 1: from 2012 to 2017. The private equity firm commissioned a
• 6:27
  Speaker 1: report that found the payments were for bona fide tax,
• 6:31
  Speaker 1: estate planning, and other related services. $ 150 million. Here's an idea,
• 6:36
  Speaker 1: just pay your taxes. I know, crazy idea. Mr. Rich Guy,
• 6:42
  Speaker 1: Leon Black, gotta get an extra penny. Gotta make sure
• 6:45
  Speaker 1: he has an extra dollar. If you haven't figured it
• 6:49
  Speaker 1: out yet, I'm disgusted by all of them. And I've
• 6:52
  Speaker 1: had enough. I've literally had enough. Republican Chairman James Comer
• 6:57
  Speaker 1: told reporters Black cut the meeting short after being asked
• 7:00
  Speaker 1: about the non-disclosure agreements he had signed with women. Of
• 7:04
  Speaker 1: course he did. He's a coward, he's a chump, and
• 7:06
  Speaker 1: he's a pussy. The NDAs are between him and other women,
• 7:11
  Speaker 1: Comer told reporters after Black walked out about an hour
• 7:14
  Speaker 1: into the voluntary interview. We want to know, was Jeffrey
• 7:17
  Speaker 1: Epstein involved in the NDAs? Was he involved in writing?
• 7:21
  Speaker 1: Was he involved in awarding funds to the women for
• 7:23
  Speaker 1: the NDAs? What was the reason for the NDAs? Was
• 7:27
  Speaker 1: he involved in intimidating Guzel Ganieva? Did he reach out
• 7:31
  Speaker 1: to the FSB to have people in Russia press her
• 7:34
  Speaker 1: and flex on her? Yeah, he most certainly did. We
• 7:36
  Speaker 1: saw the email. So what the fuck are we talking
• 7:38
  Speaker 1: about here? Black was issued two subpoenas for him to
• 7:42
  Speaker 1: appear at another hearing, which will be held under oath
• 7:45
  Speaker 1: on July 16th and to divulge information about any NDAs. Look,
• 7:50
  Speaker 1: I hate to throw some rain on the parade here,
• 7:54
  Speaker 1: but I have my doubts that we're going to get
• 7:56
  Speaker 1: the truth from Leon Black. Do you really think a
• 7:59
  Speaker 1: guy like Leon Black isn't scheming and conniving behind the
• 8:03
  Speaker 1: scenes right now? Oh, he most certainly is. Richard Kahn,
• 8:08
  Speaker 1: who worked as Epstein's accountant for more than a decade,
• 8:11
  Speaker 1: testified in March that he received money from Black, along
• 8:14
  Speaker 1: with billionaire, retailer Les Wexner, hedge fund magnate Glenn Dubin,
• 8:19
  Speaker 1: former Microsoft executive Stephen Sanofsky, and members of the prominent
• 8:23
  Speaker 1: Rothschild family, Comer said. Wexner, who was alleged to be
• 8:27
  Speaker 1: behind much of Epstein's wealth, told committee members in February,
• 8:30
  Speaker 1: Epstein was a Kahn man who duped him out of
• 8:33
  Speaker 1: millions of dollars. Oh, you mean the conversation that the
• 8:36
  Speaker 1: Republicans didn't bother having? I'm never going to let that down.
• 8:40
  Speaker 1: I'm never going to let it die, and I'm never
• 8:41
  Speaker 1: going to let them off the hook. How don't you
• 8:44
  Speaker 1: go and talk to Les Wexner when you say you're
• 8:46
  Speaker 1: serious about justice? It is so absurd that it's hard
• 8:50
  Speaker 1: to wrap my mind around. Democratic Congressman Suhas Submaranium described
• 8:55
  Speaker 1: Kahn as a fixer who played a central role in
• 8:58
  Speaker 1: Epstein's financial activities. He made payments for tuition and to
• 9:02
  Speaker 1: girls directly, and his name appeared on shell companies used
• 9:06
  Speaker 1: to channel Epstein's money. Submaranium noted. Kahn said in prepared
• 9:10
  Speaker 1: remarks shared with the media that he was not aware
• 9:13
  Speaker 1: of the terrible and unforgivable things that he did to
• 9:16
  Speaker 1: women and girls. Ah, had no idea. I was just
• 9:20
  Speaker 1: around for all of it paying these girls off, but
• 9:22
  Speaker 1: I saw nothing. I did nothing. How dare you even
• 9:25
  Speaker 1: question me? Today we heard from Mr. Kahn a lot
• 9:29
  Speaker 1: of inability to recall, inability to recall emails, text messages
• 9:33
  Speaker 1: he was involved in, Democratic Representative James Walkinshaw said, if
• 9:38
  Speaker 1: he was ignorant of Mr. Epstein's crimes, he was willfully ignorant. Well,
• 9:42
  Speaker 1: I can agree with that. Not a lot I agree with,
• 9:45
  Speaker 1: with Mr. Walkinshaw, but I agree with that. If you
• 9:49
  Speaker 1: say you're ignorant here, it's willful. Sorry, nobody could be
• 9:53
  Speaker 1: around this dude like they were and not know. The
• 9:56
  Speaker 1: congressional probe was spurred by public pressure and appeals from
• 9:59
  Speaker 1: survivors over the U.S. Department of Justice handling of the
• 10:03
  Speaker 1: case against Epstein and his associate, Glenn Maxwell. Maxwell is
• 10:07
  Speaker 1: the only other person besides Epstein to be charged by
• 10:10
  Speaker 1: the Justice Department. She's serving a 20-year sentence for her
• 10:14
  Speaker 1: role in recruiting some of the underage victims abused by Epstein.
• 10:19
  Speaker 1: She should be under the prison, by the way. Not
• 10:21
  Speaker 1: at Camp Ryan. Under the prison. The Justice Department review
• 10:26
  Speaker 1: into the Epstein investigation concluded last year that it did
• 10:29
  Speaker 1: not uncover evidence that would predicate an investigation against uncharged
• 10:33
  Speaker 1: third parties. The same memo also noted that Epstein had
• 10:38
  Speaker 1: harmed over 1,000 victims. Being associated with Epstein does not
• 10:42
  Speaker 1: imply criminal culpability, the department has said. Yeah? What if
• 10:47
  Speaker 1: you got money from him? while he was running a
• 10:49
  Speaker 1: criminal enterprise. That kind of makes things murky, you know?
• 10:54
  Speaker 1: While the interviews have fallen short of uncovering criminal activity,
• 10:57
  Speaker 1: they have revealed damaging information about powerful men. Bill Gates
• 11:01
  Speaker 1: admitted that he had three affairs, including one with a
• 11:05
  Speaker 1: Russian bridge player and another Russian nuclear physicist that Epstein
• 11:08
  Speaker 1: became aware of. Based on emails released in June, Epstein
• 11:13
  Speaker 1: may have been considering ways to blackmail him, Gates told
• 11:16
  Speaker 1: the committee. Well, that definitely tracks. And for all the
• 11:19
  Speaker 1: people out there who think that Epstein was not blackmailing people,
• 11:23
  Speaker 1: he most certainly was. Maybe not to the level some
• 11:25
  Speaker 1: people say, but don't think for a minute he wasn't
• 11:28
  Speaker 1: collecting compromise and dossiers. He was. Melinda French Gates has
• 11:34
  Speaker 1: said her husband's affairs and associations with Epstein contributed to
• 11:38
  Speaker 1: her seeking to end their 27-year marriage. Meanwhile, a prominent
• 11:42
  Speaker 1: member or members of U.S. President Donald Trump's second administration,
• 11:47
  Speaker 1: have also been called before the committee. Pam Bondi, who
• 11:50
  Speaker 1: was ousted as Attorney General in April, told lawmakers that
• 11:53
  Speaker 1: the release of the files was under the purview of
• 11:56
  Speaker 1: acting Attorney General Todd Blanche. Has there ever been a
• 12:00
  Speaker 1: bigger failure as an Attorney General than Todd Blanche? This
• 12:04
  Speaker 1: dude is an absolute clown. Not qualified, and certainly not
• 12:09
  Speaker 1: somebody that should be in that position. During the questioning, Ms.
• 12:13
  Speaker 1: Bondi invoked Mr. Blanche's name more than 30 times, pointing
• 12:16
  Speaker 1: to him as the person responsible for the DOJ's actions
• 12:20
  Speaker 1: involving the review, withholding, and botch release of Epstein-related records,
• 12:25
  Speaker 1: Garcia said. Well, that's true. Threw him right under the bus.
• 12:30
  Speaker 1: And that's right on brand for Pam Bondi. For his part,
• 12:33
  Speaker 1: Blanche briefed the committee in March, but has since been
• 12:36
  Speaker 1: called on by survivors to testify under oath. A New
• 12:39
  Speaker 1: York Times investigation revealed that Blanche was in the Situation
• 12:43
  Speaker 1: Room with Trump and other administration officials to discuss how
• 12:47
  Speaker 1: to contain the political fallout from the release of the
• 12:50
  Speaker 1: Epstein files. Trump, whose name appears thousands of times in
• 12:54
  Speaker 1: the files, has not been accused of criminal misconduct. Well,
• 12:59
  Speaker 1: unless you start talking about the cover-up, then there might
• 13:02
  Speaker 1: be some problems. Survivors released a joint statement that said
• 13:06
  Speaker 1: they were deeply disturbed by the Times report and came
• 13:09
  Speaker 1: out against Blanche's nomination as Trump's permanent attorney general. Blanche
• 13:14
  Speaker 1: failed to deliver transparency, and he has gravely failed survivors,
• 13:18
  Speaker 1: they wrote. U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick, who was Epstein's
• 13:23
  Speaker 1: next-door neighbor in New York, testified in May that he
• 13:26
  Speaker 1: had met him three times, once during a tour of
• 13:29
  Speaker 1: Epstein's house with his wife in 2005, another brief conversation
• 13:33
  Speaker 1: about scaffolding on their property, and a meeting with Lutnick's
• 13:37
  Speaker 1: family on Epstein's private island for lunch in 2012. He
• 13:42
  Speaker 1: denied having any close relationship with Epstein. The testimony was
• 13:46
  Speaker 1: criticized for being voluntary and not under oath. Of all
• 13:50
  Speaker 1: the issues where you let people come in voluntarily, this
• 13:53
  Speaker 1: is it? I mean, come on. They've never told the truth.
• 13:56
  Speaker 1: What makes you think they're going to tell the truth
• 13:58
  Speaker 1: now that you're letting them come in voluntarily? Bill Clinton,
• 14:03
  Speaker 1: whose well-documented relationship with Epstein went back more than two decades,
• 14:06
  Speaker 1: was sworn in. He said his relationship with Epstein ended
• 14:10
  Speaker 1: in 2003 after he learned that Epstein didn't seem interested
• 14:13
  Speaker 1: in his global health initiatives. Was that before or after
• 14:17
  Speaker 1: he donated to your initiative, Mr. Clinton? And if you
• 14:20
  Speaker 1: think for a minute I believe what Clinton said, I don't.
• 14:24
  Speaker 1: He perjured himself, him and his wife both. If he
• 14:29
  Speaker 1: had been aware of Epstein committing any crimes, I would
• 14:32
  Speaker 1: have turned him in myself, Clinton said. Last week during testimony,
• 14:36
  Speaker 1: Doug Band, a longtime Clinton aide, contradicted a previous statement
• 14:40
  Speaker 1: to Vanity Fair that Clinton had visited Epstein's island. Lawmakers noted, Well,
• 14:45
  Speaker 1: what about Virginia? I believe what she said. That's it.
• 14:49
  Speaker 1: That's the whole statement. And she said that she saw
• 14:52
  Speaker 1: Bill Clinton on the island. Do with that as you will.
• 14:56
  Speaker 1: Emails exchanged between Band and Maxwell in the early 2000s
• 15:00
  Speaker 1: included pet names such as Baby Cakes and Boo Boo.
• 15:03
  Speaker 1: The Epstein files have revealed Band reportedly said he had
• 15:06
  Speaker 1: taken steps to take Clinton out of Maxwell and Epstein's orbit.
• 15:11
  Speaker 1: The former Prince Andrew and Trump, whose names appear in
• 15:14
  Speaker 1: the file thousands of times, should also appear before the committee,
• 15:17
  Speaker 1: survivors have said. Following closed-door meetings with survivors in June,
• 15:21
  Speaker 1: Comer has said he will also call Alan Dershowitz to testify. Look,
• 15:27
  Speaker 1: everybody should be called in. And everybody should be sworn in.
• 15:32
  Speaker 1: None of this should be on a voluntary basis. That
• 15:34
  Speaker 1: should have never even been an option. But unfortunately it was.
• 15:38
  Speaker 1: And when you're dealing with something like this that's been
• 15:40
  Speaker 1: buried in secrecy, it makes people wonder. And I think
• 15:44
  Speaker 1: people are right to wonder. Because if you want to
• 15:47
  Speaker 1: be trusted, you have to be trustworthy. And this committee
• 15:51
  Speaker 1: is anything but. All the information that goes with this
• 15:56
  Speaker 1: episode can be found in the description box.