Latest / The Vault: The Epstein Files / No Pardon for Maxwell? Todd Blanche Faces Senate Questions Over Epstein Justice
Transcript
- 0:00Speaker 1: What's up everyone, and welcome to another episode of the
- 0:03Speaker 1: Epstein Chronicles. Todd Blanche made an appearance both for the
- 0:09Speaker 1: Senate yesterday and of course he had some questions thrown
- 0:12Speaker 1: at him that had to do with Jeffrey Epstein, and
- 0:16Speaker 1: according to Todd Baby Billy Blanche, he won't be recommending
- 0:20Speaker 1: that Gallainne Maxwell gets a pardon. The only problem with
- 0:24Speaker 1: that is, well, besides that he's a liar, is that
- 0:27Speaker 1: his boss is the one who makes that decision. So
- 0:31Speaker 1: it has nothing to do with Todd Blanche. If Donald
- 0:34Speaker 1: Trump wants to pardon Gallan Maxwell, that's what he's gonna do.
- 0:38Speaker 1: So forgive me if I don't take any comfort in
- 0:41Speaker 1: Todd Blanche telling us that's not gonna happen. Today's article
- 0:46Speaker 1: was published by the Guardian and the headline Todd Blanche
- 0:51Speaker 1: says he would not recommend a pardon for Gallaine Maxwell.
- 0:54Speaker 1: This article was authored by Anna Betts. Todd Blanche, the
- 0:58Speaker 1: acting US Attorney General, pulled lawmakers on Tuesday that he
- 1:02Speaker 1: would not recommend a pardon for Glenn Maxwell, the longtime
- 1:05Speaker 1: associate of Jeffrey Epstein who's serving a twenty year prison
- 1:08Speaker 1: sentence for sex trafficking crimes. Well, isn't that noble of you?
- 1:13Speaker 1: What a great guy, Todd, blanchees not going to recommend
- 1:16Speaker 1: a pardon for a child molester. Hey, Todd, why'd you
- 1:20Speaker 1: move her? Why don't we start there? Glenn Maxwell should
- 1:23Speaker 1: have never been moved from Tallahassee to Texas. Still no answers.
- 1:31Speaker 1: Blanche comments came during a Senate hearing on Tuesday, where
- 1:34Speaker 1: he was testifying before the Appropriation Subcommittee over budget requests
- 1:39Speaker 1: for the Justice Department. During one exchange, Chris Van Holland,
- 1:42Speaker 1: a Democrat from Maryland, asked Blanche whether the Justice Department,
- 1:46Speaker 1: and he is the acting Attorney General, could commit to
- 1:50Speaker 1: not recommending a pardon for Maxwell. Yes, I can commit
- 1:53Speaker 1: to that, of course. Blanche, who's a former personal lawyer
- 1:56Speaker 1: for Trump, responded, what was the matter. He's just saying
- 2:02Speaker 1: whatever he thinks people want to hear. If Donald Trump
- 2:07Speaker 1: wants to pardon Glan Maxwell, that's what's gonna happen. Now. Look,
- 2:10Speaker 1: I'm not gonna tell you that that's definitely for sure
- 2:13Speaker 1: gonna go down. I don't know. And if you would
- 2:15Speaker 1: have asked me a year ago, I would have said
- 2:17Speaker 1: no way. But now I'll bets are off, and that's
- 2:21Speaker 1: because the Epstein situation has made Trump and the Trump
- 2:24Speaker 1: administration even more unpredictable than ever. The statement comes as
- 2:32Speaker 1: Maxwell exhausted a series of appeals of her conviction, with
- 2:36Speaker 1: the US Supreme Court in October declining to hear her petition.
- 2:40Speaker 1: Why would they want to hear it? We all saw
- 2:42Speaker 1: the trial, we all saw the evidence. Did Glenn Maxwell
- 2:46Speaker 1: really think she was gonna be able to bullshit her
- 2:48Speaker 1: way out of the conviction? Not gonna happen, not with
- 2:53Speaker 1: a court now, maybe with Donald Trump and his buddies,
- 2:57Speaker 1: but now with the court, zero chance. Earlier this year,
- 3:03Speaker 1: Maxwell appeared before the House Oversight and Reform Committee, but
- 3:07Speaker 1: invoked her Fifth Amendment right and refused to answer the
- 3:10Speaker 1: panel's questions. Her attorney told lawmakers that she would only
- 3:14Speaker 1: speak if granted clemency. Granted clemency, what about just burying
- 3:20Speaker 1: her under the jail, you know, until her sentence is over.
- 3:25Speaker 1: There got to be a basement, right, put her there.
- 3:28Speaker 1: No chick fil a, no plan with puppies, just darkness.
- 3:32Speaker 1: I'm done with these people, especially people that have already
- 3:35Speaker 1: been convicted. And in April, reports emerged that members of
- 3:38Speaker 1: the committee were divided over whether Trump should consider pardoning
- 3:42Speaker 1: Maxwell in exchange for her cooperation in the Panels Epstein investigation. Well,
- 3:48Speaker 1: he doesn't have to worry about Thomas Massey anymore or
- 3:51Speaker 1: Marjorie Taylor Green. So it looks like the GOP they'll
- 3:55Speaker 1: be able to run roughshod. But that also means the
- 3:59Speaker 1: GEO he owns this Epstein issue now, and I promise
- 4:03Speaker 1: you this is going to have lasting effects that outlast
- 4:07Speaker 1: Donald Trump. So all these people out here that are
- 4:10Speaker 1: running their fat fucking yaps carrying water for the administration,
- 4:14Speaker 1: just remember this administration isn't forever, but your shame when
- 4:18Speaker 1: it comes to Epstein. That most certainly is. Last year,
- 4:22Speaker 1: the Trump administration faced growing pressure to release more documents
- 4:26Speaker 1: related to the Epstein investigation. It dispatched Blanche, who was
- 4:30Speaker 1: Deputy Attorney General at the time, to interview Maxwell about
- 4:34Speaker 1: the Epstein case. The interview, conducted over two days in July,
- 4:38Speaker 1: was followed by the Justice Department releasing the transcripts and
- 4:42Speaker 1: audio recordings shortly after that meeting. In August, Maxwell was
- 4:47Speaker 1: transferred from low security prison in Tallahassee, Florida, to a
- 4:50Speaker 1: minimum security camp in Texas, where most prisoners are serving
- 4:55Speaker 1: time for non violent offenses and white collar crime. At
- 4:59Speaker 1: the time, experts described the move as unprecedented. Do you
- 5:05Speaker 1: think they would have given l Choppo that kind of deal?
- 5:08Speaker 1: What about El Mio? Probably not huh. But Glenn Maxwell,
- 5:14Speaker 1: let's get her moved asap. Come on, her crimes weren't
- 5:18Speaker 1: that bad. They're only crimes against children. No big deal.
- 5:23Speaker 1: Since then, reports of service that Maxwell is much happier
- 5:27Speaker 1: at the Texas facility than she was at her previous prison,
- 5:30Speaker 1: and there have been allegations that she's receiving favorable treatment.
- 5:35Speaker 1: Of course, Todd Blanche denied that too. Favorable treatment. What
- 5:39Speaker 1: do you mean, Glenn Maxwell, She's in jail, let's just
- 5:44Speaker 1: move on. During Tuesday's hearing, Blanche denied that Trump personally
- 5:49Speaker 1: sent them to interview Maxwell and claimed he didn't know
- 5:53Speaker 1: whether she was receiving better treatment at her new facility.
- 5:57Speaker 1: Oh bullshit. Who do you think controls the b that's right,
- 6:01Speaker 1: the DOJ. Stop the nonsense. The possibility of clemency for Maxwell,
- 6:09Speaker 1: however unlikely, has long outraged survivors and their advocates, and
- 6:13Speaker 1: I think that most Americans share that same exact sentiment.
- 6:18Speaker 1: Everybody knows that what's going on is absolutely fucked. The
- 6:22Speaker 1: problem is there's about five other situations happening at the
- 6:25Speaker 1: same time that are equally as fucked. Most importantly, what's
- 6:30Speaker 1: going on in Iran, which is an absolute disaster and
- 6:33Speaker 1: look as important as the Epstein story is. When average
- 6:37Speaker 1: people can't put gas in their car, can't afford to
- 6:39Speaker 1: go to work, can't afford to keep the lights on,
- 6:41Speaker 1: see inflation blasting up over four seeing mortgages go to
- 6:45Speaker 1: six point seven eight percent, they know there's a problem
- 6:49Speaker 1: and there's a lot of other things for the average
- 6:52Speaker 1: person to worry about, and that's why the Trump administration
- 6:55Speaker 1: has flooded the zone, confuse people, office gate and hopefully
- 7:00Speaker 1: bury what's going on with Epstein, and unfortunately their strategy
- 7:04Speaker 1: has proven to be pretty effective. Earlier this month, Spencer Covin,
- 7:10Speaker 1: chief legal officer and litigation director at Cold Law, which
- 7:14Speaker 1: has represented numerous Epstein survivors, told The Guardian that any
- 7:17Speaker 1: talk of clemency for Maxwell in exchange for testimony turns
- 7:21Speaker 1: justice on its head. It risks rewarding the very person
- 7:25Speaker 1: who helped enable the abuse, and not only that took
- 7:28Speaker 1: part in it. We have one person in prison because
- 7:31Speaker 1: of this, and these disgusting, disgusting people are talking about
- 7:35Speaker 1: granting her clemency. I wonder how many of those people
- 7:38Speaker 1: have used the hush fund to defend their own allegations.
- 7:42Speaker 1: A representative for Maxwell did not immediately respond to a
- 7:45Speaker 1: request for comment about Blanche's statement. During the hearing on Tuesday,
- 7:49Speaker 1: Van Holland also told Blanche that he'd spoken with several
- 7:53Speaker 1: survivors of Epstein's abuse, who told them that they were
- 7:56Speaker 1: extremely frustrated that Blanche keeps calling for people to come
- 7:59Speaker 1: forward with more evidence, but you have not met with
- 8:02Speaker 1: them to hear their stories. If I connect you with
- 8:06Speaker 1: these survivors, will you meet with them? Van Holland asked Blanche.
- 8:10Speaker 1: Why would he have to be connected. Shouldn't Todd Blanche,
- 8:14Speaker 1: the most powerful lawman in the world, be doing this already.
- 8:19Speaker 1: Blanche responded, absolutely, and what you just said is false.
- 8:22Speaker 1: I have met with them. I've met with many many
- 8:25Speaker 1: of the lawyers for the survivors of victims, as did
- 8:28Speaker 1: Attorney General Bondie. So whoever told you that unfortunately gave
- 8:32Speaker 1: you bad information? Yeah, I don't believe that. Sorry, I
- 8:35Speaker 1: don't believe Todd Blanche has been proactive. His whole job
- 8:38Speaker 1: has been to mitigate this. In response, a group of
- 8:45Speaker 1: seventeen Epstein's survivors released a statement on Tuesday saying Blanche
- 8:49Speaker 1: has not met with any of us as survivors. We
- 8:52Speaker 1: previously sought a meeting with former Attorney General Bondie and
- 8:55Speaker 1: Department of Justice officials, but no meeting occurred. They said,
- 9:00Speaker 1: we should not have to be this persistent to engage
- 9:03Speaker 1: with the DOJ, the department responsible for handling the Epstein files,
- 9:07Speaker 1: protecting their privacy and answering for years of secrecy and failure. Unfortunately,
- 9:14Speaker 1: that's just the case. The dj has no desire to
- 9:17Speaker 1: get to the bottom of what happened. The whole entire
- 9:20Speaker 1: goal is to keep it hidden, and they're willing to
- 9:25Speaker 1: go to great lengths to do that. But I don't
- 9:27Speaker 1: know if this strategy they're using is going to work,
- 9:30Speaker 1: especially down in places where there's a split voter base.
- 9:34Speaker 1: Now Kentucky. They might be onto something because people in Kentucky,
- 9:38Speaker 1: well let's just say it, they're going to vote for
- 9:40Speaker 1: whoever the Republican candidate is anyway. But in some of
- 9:44Speaker 1: these other places where the incumbent got voted out. That
- 9:48Speaker 1: might give the Democrats an inroad to flip in that seat.
- 9:52Speaker 1: So it's going to be very interesting to watch all
- 9:54Speaker 1: of that unfold. In the statement, they added that given
- 9:58Speaker 1: Blanche comments again asking DOJ to meet directly with survivors
- 10:02Speaker 1: and their counsel, not to ask survivors to start over,
- 10:06Speaker 1: but to hear their concerns, explain how these failures occurred,
- 10:09Speaker 1: and provide clear answers about the release, redaction and withholding
- 10:13Speaker 1: of Epstein related records going forward. Well, as much as
- 10:16Speaker 1: I'd like to believe Todd Blanche in his nonsense, I don't,
- 10:20Speaker 1: and I don't believe that Todd Blanche speaks for President
- 10:23Speaker 1: Trump when it comes to a pardon for Glenn Maxwell.
- 10:27Speaker 1: So his guarantees that he's not going to recommend that
- 10:30Speaker 1: Donald Trump do that they mean less than nothing, and
- 10:33Speaker 1: considering his actions go against everything he says, I think
- 10:36Speaker 1: it's going to be a hard sell to the American
- 10:38Speaker 1: people that Todd Blanche is the arbiter of truth and
- 10:42Speaker 1: that he's looking for justice for the Epstein survivors. And
- 10:45Speaker 1: as you can tell from the response by the Epstein survivors,
- 10:49Speaker 1: they're not buying it either. All the information that goes
- 10:52Speaker 1: with this episode can be found in the description box.