Transcription
Newly released documents that were missing from the Epstein files contain serious, unverified allegations against President Trump. The Justice Department posted three FBI memos describing interviews with a woman who accuses both Jeffrey Epstein and President Trump of sexually assaulting her when she was a teenager. The White House calls the accusations completely baseless. CNN's Paula Reid is in Washington with the latest.
And Paula, these were missing from earlier file releases, right?
That's right. And this individual was interviewed by the FBI four times. And initially, only one memo was released in that initial batch of documents released by the Justice Department. And that was an interview where she made allegations against Jeffrey Epstein, but not against President Trump.
Now, uh, yesterday these additional summaries were released and they detail the types of allegations that she made uh, against President Trump where she describes being introduced to him. Uh, she alleges uh, that he asked everyone to leave the room and quote, "Let's teach you how little girls are supposed to be." and then describes an encounter where he pushes her head down to his penis. And then told agents she bit Trump, who then allegedly struck her and said something like, "Get this little expletive out of here."
Now, in her third interview, she allegedly said that she was receiving threatening calls. And in her fourth interview, it's interesting, she told uh investigators that she was concerned about why she was even coming forward because the statute of limitations had passed.
Now, I do want to make sure we get in here the fact that President Trump has consistently denied any wrongdoing. In a statement yesterday, the White House described these allegations as quote, "completely baseless, backed by zero credible evidence."
The US Justice Department has released documents involving President Trump that had been missing, suspiciously rather, from the Epstein files. They include FBI memos from three interviews with a woman who alleges she was sexually assaulted by then-citizen Trump when she was a teenager. The president has consistently denied any wrongdoing. We should note that the inclusion of interviews in the Epstein files is not necessarily evidence of wrongdoing. It is an interview.
White House press secretary Caroline Levitt slammed the release of the documents, saying in part, quote, "The total baselessness of these accusations is also supported by the obvious fact that Joe Biden's Department of Justice knew about them for four years and did nothing with them because they knew President Trump did absolutely nothing wrong."
As the Trump White House continues to shrug off the scandal, Congress is pushing ahead, voting to subpoena Attorney General Pam Bondi. The subpoena to testify stems from the House Oversight Committee's investigation into the Epstein files and the federal government's handling of the case against Epstein and his sex trafficking accomplices.
My next guest is a survivor of Epstein, Annie Farmer, joins us now. Annie, let me start off by saying I know asking you about the worst experience of your life is not fun for you.
Not really for me either. Uh, how are you?
Oh, I appreciate that, Jake. I'm doing all right. I'm glad to be with you.
What questions might you have for Attorney General Pam Bondi?
Oh, uh, I have a lot. You know, I I was actually really happy to see that uh Pam Bondi has, you know, there was a people on both sides of the aisle came together to say that she needs to testify between the House Oversight Committee because I think, you know, when she was in front of the judiciary committee, she refused to even acknowledge survivors. Um the questions that were asked, there was a lot of, you know, deflection um and avoidance. And so really, you know, we still don't understand how this release of information was so terribly botched uh when again and again we see powerful people being protected and information about survivors, you know, not being um properly redacted. So I think we have a lot of questions for her.
I'll remind our viewers that uh when Attorney General Bondi was asked about a matter relating to the Epstein files, she started talking about how the Dow had reached 50,000 and that's what members of Congress should have been focused on.
Over the last few weeks, we have seen uh across the pond in foreign countries uh investigations start, foreign leaders uh get in trouble, even a former member of the royals. There has been some accountability for actions related to the case. What does it tell you that the US government is not, at least as far as we know, doing so in terms of investigations and accountability?
I think a lot of people are looking at this and wondering why, you know, what is it that's different that's happening here? I mean, we know this was a global conspiracy. So, I mean, a global there were people all over the world involved in this operation. And so, I'm glad to see that people are doing things overseas. It makes me hopeful um that real investigations could happen, but I do feel frustrated that that's not happening here. I think we need we need more of that.
You were invited to the State of the Union address last week. Uh tell us about that experience.
Uh yeah, I was um able to go with uh Congressman Robert Garcia, and you know, he's been a real champion um for this investigation in the House Oversight Committee, so I was glad to be there with him. Um it was uh it was actually pretty challenging though to sit through Trump's speech uh when he it seemed like he just had a different vision of the the country that he was presenting a different vision of events. you know, he of course did not acknowledge any of the survivors that were present and we weren't really expecting him to, but we were there to remind him that we're not going away, that uh, you know, the United States, I think, is very much still interested in getting to the bottom of this and wants answers.
Annie Farmer, thank you so much and best to your sister as well. We appreciate you coming here today and know it's not easy.
A very rare and stunning rebuke of the attorney general of the United States, Pam Bondi, by members of the president's own party. Yes. Five Republicans on the key House Oversight Committee defying their chairman and joining with Democrats to subpoena Bondi over the Justice Department's handling of the Jeffrey Epstein case. CNN Crime and Justice correspondent Caitlyn Poland is here with us. So tell us more about what these lawmakers want from the attorney general.
Well, they're making a turn. A lot of this investigation the House Oversight Committee has done around Jeffrey Epstein has been talking to people about Epstein himself. They brought in former President Bill Clinton for a deposition. They had Bill Bar, a predecessor of Pam Bondi. But now it's a question of how the Justice Department under Bondi's watch handled the redaction, the processing, and the public release of these files after Congress mandated transparency for them. Uh the representative Nancy Mace, a Republican on the committee, was the one that moved to subpoena Bondi for testimony about this and has made clear one of the issues here for the committee is that not all of the Epstein files have been released. Congress is not happy with the Justice Department and with Pam Bondi. And really, it has been a boondoggle for the Justice Department as they've been working through these files and getting them up. There were failures to redact information of victims exposing survivors private information. There are documents that have not been released still and questions about that. And also Pam Bondi is the person who a year ago said uh that the Epstein client list was on her desk and that never materialized as a real thing. So it's going to be a really tough deposition for Pam Bondi. We're waiting to see what the Justice Department does to respond. We'll wait with you, Caitlyn Pomez. Thank you very, very much.