Latest / The Epstein Chronicles / House Democrats Hold Palm Beach Field Hearing on Jeffrey Epstein Investigation (5/12/26)

Transcript

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

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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.