Transcription
You talk about blacking out. I don't know if I can get a closeup of my phone. This is, this is a, this is one of the, the documents that, that the Justice Department released. It's 100 pages, right? And this is what it looks like. I don't know if you can see. It's all black. It's just 100 pages of redaction. That's, that's the transparency we're getting here.
The legal deadline to release the Epstein files has arrived. And guess what? Donald Trump and his Department of Justice have failed to release all of them. That's not a delay. That's a cover-up. Plain and simple.
Shocker. Instead, the Trump regime did what it always does when the clock runs out. It moved the goalposts by changing the meaning of "on time."
So, today is the, is the 30 days where, and I expect that, that we're going to release several hundred thousand, um, documents today, and, and those documents will come in, in all different forms, photographs and, and other materials associated with, with all of the investigations into, into Mr. Epstein. Um, and, and just, just so everybody appreciates, President Trump has said for years that he wants full transparency and he wants the Department of Justice to release everything that we can with respect to this investigation in cases.
All right, I'm going to stop Trump's personal attorney turned deputy AG, Todd Blanch, right there. Everything that Todd Blanch says should be questioned because this is the same Todd Blanch who privately interviewed Ghislaine Maxwell, accepted her lies at face value, and then oversaw her transfer to a low-security federal prison in Texas where she received special treatment. That's how this administration treats a convicted child sex trafficker.
Ghislaine Maxwell serving 20 years in prison for sex trafficking. Is clemency on the table for her in exchange for testimony?
I'm allowed to do it, but nobody's asked me to do it. I know nothing about it. I don't know anything about the case, but I know I have the right to do it. I have the right to give pardons. I've given pardons to people before.
Something I haven't thought about. It's really recommended.
It's, I'm allowed to do it, but it's something I have not thought about.
Well, I'm allowed to give her a pardon, but I, nobody's approached me with it. Nobody's asked me about it.
You know, I haven't heard the name in so long. I can say this that I'd have to take a look at it. I would have to take a look. Did they reject that? She wanted to appeal her conviction. They said that they were not going to hear her appeal.
I see. Well, I'll take a look at it. I'll speak to, I will speak to the DOJ. I wouldn't consider it or not consider. I don't know anything about it. So, but I'll speak, I will speak to the DOJ.
Canada.
I don't know. I mean, I'd have to speak to the DOJ. I'll look at it. I'll, I have a lot of people who have asked me for pardons. Uh, uh, I call him Puff Daddy has asked me for a pardon.
But she was convicted of child sex trafficking.
Yeah. I mean, I'm going to have to take a look at it. I have to ask DOJ.
Yikes.
So, yes, when this same administration floats the idea of a pardon for Maxwell, that's not shocking. It's on brand.
Don't know. I haven't really been following her too much. I just wish her well, frankly. Uh, I've met her numerous times over the years, especially since I lived in Palm Beach, and I guess they lived in Palm Beach. Uh, but I wish her well.
The fact that Trump literally wished her well should disqualify every word coming out of him and his DOJ. Now, Blanch's statements on Fox News are doing a lot of heavy lifting because if you actually wanted transparency, you would release the files by the deadline as the law requires, no spin, no rollout, no excuses. And just to show you how transparent his administration really is, let's talk about what actually came out. A judge just unsealed a 119-page grand jury document connected to Epstein, and Trump's DOJ redacted every single page. I'm not kidding. Every single page.
Our initial estimation, and again, this is just, this is our estimation right now, it, it could be that they, that we're only getting about 10% of what the DOJ has, and of that 10%, 5% of that has already been released, and the other 5% is highly redacted. So we're getting very little so far. We hope to get more in the days ahead. But this is Pam Bondi. Donald Trump should release all the files today and immediately. This is a cover-up directed from the very top. Jeffrey Epstein's best friend, Donald Trump.
And honestly, this is even worse than that one time that Trump rolled out MAGA influencers to wave around a binder like it was the Dead Sea Scrolls. Remember that? The binder that said, "The most transparent administration in history." The binder that proudly mentioned the 45th and 47th president of the United States, Donald J. Trump. That binder was filled with old, already redacted documents, many of them redacted even more than before. We somehow got less information than we already had, which honestly takes effort. That's why Cash Patel's FBI has been working overtime to redact names, stall releases, and bury anything connected to Trump. Even Dan Bongino, a hardcore Trump supporter, promised that he would expose the Epstein files. Except then he saw Trump's name all over them. And suddenly, silence. No exposure, no bombshells, just a resignation via tweet. Trump didn't even pretend to support releasing the files until June 2024, when Fox News put him on the spot.
Would you declassify the 9/11, um, files?
Yeah. Would you declassify JFK files?
Yeah.
Would you?
I did. I did a lot of it.
Would you declassify the Epstein files?
Yeah. Yeah, I would. All right.
I guess I would. I think that less so because, you know, you don't know it. You don't want to affect people's lives if it's phony stuff in there, 'cause there's a lot of phony stuff with that whole world.
You don't have to be a stable genius to know that this guy was going to delay, delay, delay. I mean, Trump hesitated as soon as they brought up Epstein. Then he warned about phony stuff in the files. That right there was the tell. Even after returning to office, Trump has repeatedly tried to distance himself from Epstein, lashing out at reporters for daring to ask about the dead pedophile that he used to party with.
Are you still talking about Jeffrey Epstein? This guy's been talked about for years. You're asking, we have Texas, we have this, we have all of the things, and are people still talking about this guy, this creep? That is unbelievable.
Trump calling Epstein a creep is rich, especially coming from a guy who has a long documented history of creepy behavior, like watching underage girls get undressed at Teen USA pageants.
Donald Trump loves a beauty pageant. And by his own admission, he was no stranger backstage while owning parts of three different pageants for nearly two decades.
They're standing there with no clothes. Is everybody okay? And you see these incredible looking women and so I sort of get away with things like that. They'll go backstage before a show and everyone's getting dressed and ready and everything else and you know, no men are anywhere. And I'm allowed to go in because I'm the owner of the pageant and therefore I'm inspecting it. Everything is good.
Trump is such a creep that he sexualized his own daughter for years.
Said that if Ivanka weren't my daughter, perhaps I'd be dating her, you know.
What's the favorite thing you have in common with your father?
Either real estate or golf.
Donald, with your daughter? Well, I was going to say sex, but I can't relate that far.
Yeah, she's really something. And what a beauty, that one. If I weren't happily married and, you know, her father. No.
Trump is so obsessed with his own daughter that he will literally stop a nationally televised press conference just to creep on a woman that he thought looked like Ivanka. And that happened this week.
The two of those guys, the greatest. Then we have a man who, to me, this is the most interesting story. Boy, do you look like Ivanka. Has anyone ever told you that? I'm looking. I'm saying, is that Ivanka? Could you just turn around for the camera? Does she look, does she look like Ivanka? It's the most unbelievable thing. I, so I wouldn't, I didn't want to take a chance. I say, "Is that Ivanka? You look just like Ivanka, which is a great compliment, actually."
Creep.
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So, like I said before, Trump was never going to release the files, especially when his name is all over them.
President Trump signed that law 30 days ago, and we have been working, um, tirelessly since that day to make sure that, that we get every single document that we have within the Department of Justice, review it, and, and get it to the American public. LIAR.
The most important thing that the attorney general has talked about, that director Patel has talked about, is that we protect victims. And so what we're doing is we are looking at every single piece of paper, um, that we are going to produce, making sure that every victim, their name, their identity, their story, to the extent it needs to be protected, is completely protected.
First off, that's, we've already seen what Republicans do when they claim they're protecting victims. They unredacted Virginia Dupre's name in a desperate attempt to make Donald Trump look better. Except it didn't. It backfired. And it showed exactly who they were actually protecting, especially when the DOJ redacted the names of government officials and politically exposed individuals in its latest release of files related to the sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
I expect that we're going to release more documents, um, over the next couple of weeks.
Wait, wait, hold on. Where have I heard that before?
Two weeks. Couple of weeks. Two weeks. Couple of weeks. Two weeks.
Two weeks. Two weeks.
This is the same playbook that Pam Bondi used with her so-called phase one Epstein binders, which was about 300 days ago. And just days before that release, Bondi said on Fox News that she had the files on her desk.
The DOJ may be releasing the list of Jeffrey Epstein's clients. Will that really happen?
It's sitting on my desk right now to review.
You said last week that you have the Epstein files on your desk. Is when can we see them? And what's taking so long to release them?
I do, Jesse. There are well over, this, this will make you sick. 200 victims. 200. So we have well over, over 250, actually. So we have to make sure that their identity is protected and their personal information. But other than that, I think tomorrow, you know, the personal information of victims. Other than that, I think tomorrow, Jesse, breaking news right now, you're going to see some Epstein information being released.
And then less than five months later, the DOJ released a memo saying that Epstein died by suicide and there was no client list.
You said Jeffrey Epstein committed suicide. People don't believe it. Well, I mean, listen, they have a right to their opinion, but as someone who has worked as a public defender, as a prosecutor, who's been in that prison system, who's been in the Metropolitan Detention Center, who's been in segregated housing, um, you know, a suicide when you see one, and that's what that was.
He killed himself. You again, you want me to, I've, I've seen the whole file. He killed himself.
This whole thing has been a cover-up since day one. Ever since Trump took office and they realized that his name was deep, deep, deep in these files, they've been hard at work to delay, redact, reframe, and erase.
You've seen most of the files. Uh, who, if anyone, did Epstein traffic these young women to besides himself?
Himself. There is no credible information. None. If there were, I would bring the case yesterday that he trafficked to other individuals. And the information we have again is limited. So the answer is no one.
For the information that we have.
In the files.
In the case file.
Suspicious.
Remembering your oath to tell the truth. Did you ever tell Donald Trump his name is in the files?
I have never spoken to President Trump about the Epstein files.
Did you ever tell the attorney general that Donald Trump's name is in the Epstein files?
The attorney general and I have had numerous discussions about the entirety of the Epstein files and the reviews conducted by our team.
Did you tell the attorney general that Donald Trump's name is in the Epstein files?
And we have released where President Trump is.
A simple question. Did you tell the attorney general that the president's name is in the Epstein files?
During many conversations that the attorney general and I have had on the matter of Epstein, we have reviewed.
The question is simple. Did you tell the attorney general that Donald Trump's name is in the Epstein files? Yes or no?
Why don't you try spelling it out?
Yes or no? Director's the alphabet.
Yes or no?
No. ABC. Director, did.
It sounds like you don't want to tell us. Did you tell the attorney general that Donald Trump's name was in the Epstein files?
Why don't you try serving your constituency by focusing on reducing violent crime in this country and the number of pedophiles that are legally harbored in your sanctuary cities in California? I'll work with you on that. I belong to the gentleman from California.
Did you tell the attorney general that Donald Trump's name is in the Epstein files?
Question has been asked and answered. You've not answered it, and we will take your evasiveness as a consciousness of guilt.
And still, Trump loyalists will defend this till their dying breath. They're claiming the libs got owned. That this somehow backfired on Democrats. Some people like alleged grifter Misfit Patriot are even trying the whataboutism play. But Bill Clinton is in the files. All right, then investigate him, too. I don't give a, I'm not in a Clinton or Democrat cult. If anyone committed crimes, then lock him up. The difference is that MAGA worships Trump, so they would never go after him.
But we also need to be clear at this moment. I've been on the phone with Jamie Raskin and the judiciary team, uh, most of the day. Uh, and we agree we're going to likely have to take legal action if the Trump administration continues to stonewall, continues to not provide his full transcripts. And clearly, they don't have a real interest in transparency. The searchable bar that they've included that's supposed to be searchable for the public is not even functioning correctly. And so this is not a real release. This is continuing a cover-up that's been going on now for months.
By slow-walking the Epstein files, the administration guaranteed that no disclosure will ever feel complete, no explanation will ever feel final, and no release will ever settle the story. Thanks for watching What Was That. If you want more episodes, articles, and breakdowns, go to whatwasthat. Join the community to become a paid subscriber today. It's just me behind the scenes, so every bit of support really makes a difference. And if you'd rather listen on the go, you can find What Was That on Apple Podcast, Spotify, or wherever you get your shows. Until next time, I'm Gabe Sanchez, and this has been What Was That.