Latest / DEEP INSIGHT / Blanche not putting promises to Congress in writing may DOOM his confirmation - Tim Heaphy

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Blanche not putting promises to Congress in writing may DOOM his confirmation - Tim Heaphy · DEEP INSIGHT

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  Speaker 1: Joining me now, Timothy Hafe, former federal prosecutor and former
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  Speaker 1: lead investigator to the House January sixth Committee. Welcome, my friend, Tim.
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  Speaker 1: Good to see you. So, if they are already giving
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  Speaker 1: taxpayer dollars to January sixth rioters, is this fund likely
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  Speaker 1: to block blanches confirmation?
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  Speaker 2: Well, what might do is confirmation Alex is his refusal
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  Speaker 2: to put in writing what he has said in testimony
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  Speaker 2: to the Judiciary Committee several times.
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  Speaker 3: Right he has said the fund is dead.
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  Speaker 2: There's no reason to file anything because it's not going forward.
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  Speaker 2: But there is an agreement, a settlement agreement filed in
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  Speaker 2: a federal district court which says the weaponization Fund will
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  Speaker 2: be created, and that agreement can only be altered by
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  Speaker 2: written agreement of the parties.
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  Speaker 3: So there is.
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  Speaker 2: An enforceable contract that has not been withdrawn or altered
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  Speaker 2: that he continually refuses to withdraw, right to to sort
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  Speaker 2: of undo in writing. And that's what has senators concerned because,
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  Speaker 2: as Congressman Raskin said, the President seems to think that
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  Speaker 2: there is some way for this weaponization fund or other
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  Speaker 2: compensation to go forward, and Blanche won't file something with
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  Speaker 2: the court, essentially killing the fund.
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  Speaker 3: That is the crucial issue here. Yep.
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  Speaker 1: So DOJ has dumped a windfall of cash on Senator
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  Speaker 1: Murkowski's home state of Alaska in the past few weeks,
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  Speaker 1: a one hundred and eighty million dollar loss settlement, four
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  Speaker 1: hundred million dollars for tribal healthcare, six million dollars for
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  Speaker 1: tribal law enforcement. DOJ officials have not explicitly disclosed any
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  Speaker 1: connection between these policy breakthroughs and wooing Murkowski's vote, and
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  Speaker 1: clearly her work on these issues certainly began long before
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  Speaker 1: Blanche's nomination. But does DOJ run the risk of appearing
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  Speaker 1: to curry favor and tim does that even matter?
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, Alex, I wouldn't go as far as to say
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  Speaker 2: there's an explicit quid pro quote here, right.
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  Speaker 3: The cases like the.
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  Speaker 2: Ones that you just highlighted in Alaska are the product
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  Speaker 2: of months and months, even years of work by career
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  Speaker 2: professionals at the Department of Justice. It may be that
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  Speaker 2: they have been announced around the time of the Blanche
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  Speaker 2: confirmation because of Senator Murkowski's interests, but I don't think
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  Speaker 2: that those substance of those matters is sort of ginned
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  Speaker 2: up to try to curry favor with Lisa Murkowski. I
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  Speaker 2: have real problems with this Attorney General nominee, but there
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  Speaker 2: are career professionals in the Department of Justice who continue
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  Speaker 2: to do important work every day to try to do
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  Speaker 2: the right thing, that cases like this through the system
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  Speaker 2: and giving them a benefit of the doubt. My guess
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  Speaker 2: is that this is the work those career people that
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  Speaker 2: have been toiling in the vineyard here on these matters
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  Speaker 2: for months.
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  Speaker 1: I am glad you just highlighted that, because with all
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  Speaker 1: the negative headlines sometimes about DOJ, it's easy to forget
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  Speaker 1: that there are those that are still keeping things running
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  Speaker 1: on track. So Epstein survived are still hoping for a
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  Speaker 1: breakthrough with Senator Tillis, who's questioning led to a hasty
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  Speaker 1: meeting with Blanche, Danielle Benski wrote that Blanche did not
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  Speaker 1: offer survivors accountability, did not resolve their concerns, and she
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  Speaker 1: urges Tillis and every Senator in fact to vote know
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  Speaker 1: on Blanche should his handling of the Epstein files alone
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  Speaker 1: tim be disqualifying well.
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  Speaker 2: The former Attorney General Bondi explicitly said that then Deputy
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  Speaker 2: Attorney General Blanche was in charge of the Epstein production right,
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  Speaker 2: he owns that took it on as his responsibility. It's
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  Speaker 2: also really telling Alex that he has spent more time
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  Speaker 2: face to face with Gawaine Maxwell than he has with
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  Speaker 2: the survivors of the Epstein abuse. And that is relevant,
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  Speaker 2: and I think is understandably one of the many things
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  Speaker 2: that senators are highlighting. Right to give somebody the job
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  Speaker 2: of attorney general requires trust, and when this matter has
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  Speaker 2: been so horribly mishandled and there seems to be a
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  Speaker 2: lack of sort of sympathy for the victims here, then
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  Speaker 2: that is raising legitimate issues of trust.
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  Speaker 1: And by the way, Blanche only went at the behest
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  Speaker 1: of a senator who said, the only way you're going
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  Speaker 1: to get my vote in this confirmation process is if
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  Speaker 1: you go and meet with these Epstein survivors. So Jack Smith,
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  Speaker 1: former special counsel, now your law firm partner, has been
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  Speaker 1: referred to DOJ for a criminal investigation over his testimony
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  Speaker 1: to Congress and a voluntary closed door deposition in December.
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  Speaker 1: This is the part rankling GOP lawmakers.
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  Speaker 4: Let's watch, did you seek a search warrant for the
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  Speaker 4: content of any text messages from.
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  Speaker 3: Members from members? No, I don't recall it. It was
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  Speaker 3: just toll records. Correct.
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  Speaker 4: The toll records that you requested from the senators, did
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  Speaker 4: they include the content of the phone calls? No, the
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  Speaker 4: records that you requested, the toll records from the members
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  Speaker 4: of Congress include the content of text messages.
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  Speaker 2: No.
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  Speaker 1: Okay, we point out that Smith is now your colleague,
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  Speaker 1: so what can he do to defend against this.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, it's an absurd criminal referral. Alex absolutely crazy that
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  Speaker 2: that exchange, which was correct when he's talking about toll records,
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  Speaker 2: that toll records don't include any content.
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  Speaker 3: Of text messages or phone calls.
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  Speaker 2: They're simply an accounting of numbers called in connections that
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  Speaker 2: were made for periods of time.
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  Speaker 3: So any kind of theory that that is somehow misleading
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  Speaker 3: is completely absurd.
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  Speaker 2: It's another Shells on the Beach or mortgage fraud application.
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  Speaker 2: It is members of Congress trying to curry favor with
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  Speaker 2: the audience of one in the White House without merit
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  Speaker 2: or foundation. Jacksmith is an incredibly careful lawyer. He answered
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  Speaker 2: every question that was posed to him in that hearing
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  Speaker 2: and every other completely truthfully, with no intent to obfuscate.
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  Speaker 3: Just the opposite. I'll also point out.
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  Speaker 2: Alex that the lawyer asking him questions there is Marcus Childress,
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  Speaker 2: who is Jamie Raskin's chief counsel. So these are questions
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  Speaker 2: put forth by a Democratic member of Congress or the
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  Speaker 2: Democratic member's staff. So even in some crazy world in
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  Speaker 2: which Jack is politicized, do you think you'd be trying
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  Speaker 2: to help the Democrats not hurt them. The whole thing
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  Speaker 2: is absurd. It's not going anywhere. It is meant for
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  Speaker 2: headlines and to curry favor with the President of the
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  Speaker 2: United States, not with any serious lawyer or criminal prosecutor
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  Speaker 2: who will evaluate the referral.
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  Speaker 1: Okay, based on our conversation, my friend, I'm not going
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  Speaker 1: to give it any more oxygen.
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  Speaker 4: Thank you so much.
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  Speaker 1: It's good to see a Jain