Transcription
Okay, thank you everybody, and I'm proud to be joined by my colleagues here. We have had a task force focusing on this issue, and these members, and some others, are, uh, active and proud members of our task force.
So, look, 27 days ago, every single senator sent Donald Trump a clear and simple message: Release the Epstein files. Congress passed a law, not a suggestion, not a request. The law requires DOJ to release the files by Friday, December 19th. In 3 days, President Trump has a choice: Follow the law and release the files, or break the law and continue to hide the truth from the American people.
Let me be blunt. We fully expect Trump, Bondi, and their minions to dodge, delay, or partially release these files. If they release some documents and hide others, the American people will see right through it. And they'll ask the obvious question. We are all asking the obvious question that looms: President Trump, what are you trying to hide? President Trump, what are you trying to hide? That's the question the American people are asking.
Now, over the past few weeks, Senate Democrats, including my colleagues here with me, have been preparing for every scenario. We're working with the victim's attorneys. We're working with legal experts. We're working with people very familiar with this case to ensure full compliance of the law. If the administration withholds some documents unlawfully, we will know. If they abuse narrow exemptions to hide the truth, we will know. And there will be serious legal and political consequences.
This law passed with near-unanimous support. The survivors deserve the truth, and the American people are demanding it. This isn't political. Democrats and Republicans agree. The American people deserve the truth. So, Donald Trump, release the Epstein files. Stop hiding. Stop delaying. Come clean with the American people. And if you don't, the question will only get louder and louder and louder: Trump, what the hell are you trying to hide?
Senator Widen's done great work on the financial end of this and has been a great member of our team.
Thank you.
Sorry.
Go ahead.
No, you go first, please.
Go.
You're closer to the microphone.
Thank my colleagues. And there are two coverups that need to be discussed this morning. The first involves the Department of Justice, and that is urgent business that we're focused on this week. The second coverup is being conducted by the Treasury Secretary, Scott Bessant, and it deals with the financial aspects of how the sex trafficking came to be. So let's talk about them one at a time.
First, as Senator Schumer said, there's good reason to be skeptical of whatever spin the Trump administration puts out on Friday. Here's why: This wouldn't be the first time Bondi tried to trick the public with a binder full of chicken feed. That's what she did back in the spring, which infuriated MAGA voters who took Trump and his cronies at their word that they'd released the files.
Second, the cushy treatment by the Trump administration of Ms. Maxwell is totally unacceptable. She was right at the heart of the most notorious sex trafficking ring in modern American history. Despite that, Donald Trump himself said a pardon for Maxwell is on the table.
Third, the Trump administration did assign hundreds of FBI agents to look at the Epstein file, but it wasn't to hunt down any more pedophiles. It was really to comb through the files for Donald Trump's name. Why? To protect him from public scrutiny from the beginning. That's what they focused on with respect to Epstein. So Trump and Bondi do not deserve the benefit of the doubt.
Second, we need to look at what Scott Bessant and the Treasury Department is up to here. They've got another massive set of Epstein files. It is a critical fight for transparency and to find out how this horrendous sex trafficking operation was funded. For nearly four years, finance committee investigators have been on this, and we have been following the money. And to do that, you've got to get access at the Treasury Department to the records that we have seen. The staff of major Republicans have seen them. And the file is made up of thousands and thousands of bank documents. And my investigators say that it is a financial road map into how Epstein hurt so many families. It shows who was paying Epstein and where his money was going. It shows what banks enabled his trafficking despite evidence of money laundering and despite the knowledge that he was a sex offender. It shows payments that look like the result of blackmail. It shows big outflows of money to Eastern Europe, Turkey, and Russia. And it includes the names of women and girls.
My investigators saw a large, large portion of these records in 2024 under the Biden administration. But the Trump administration is denying us the file today. It's important for the American people to find out how all of this was financed. And that means getting our hands on the file to investigate further. The Secretary of Treasury, Mr. Bessant, has refused now multiple times to hand it over to our investigators. Ridiculous excuses again and again. So, we have introduced legislation to compel him to turn this over to Senate investigators. And I will tell you that Epstein survivors are already filing suit already against banks because they think that this information is so critical to find out finding out how they were exploited. So, it is time for the stonewalling to end. That's why I so appreciate what my colleagues have done to get this information out on Friday, and the administration is required by law to release the Epstein files at DOJ. I'm here to say it's got to be done at the Treasury Department as well, because we find in America you capture corruption by following the money. And that's what was so critical at this point to the second investigation.
Thank you, Leader Schumer, and I thank my colleague, Senator Klobuchar. It's been working very well on this, and we appreciate it.
Thank you very much.
Thank you, uh, Senator Widen. Thanks for following the money. Something that's our creed as my former job as prosecutors, whenever you're, uh, solving a case from the, um, smallest u theft, uh, to big rings, and I appreciate that. So, let's remember what this is all about. This is about exploitation and abuse. These victims deserve justice. They deserve transparency, and they deserve accountability.
Example: Danielle Bensky, 17, recruited into Epstein's circle. Her mom had a brain tumor, and Epstein told her he could help her mom, but only if she abided by his demands, including recruiting other girls. He told her, "I can use it to help you, or I can make it very difficult for your mother." That horrific crime, one of many, is why the House voted 427 to 1 to release the files, and why the Senate unanimously passed the bill on Senator Schumer's um motion. That bill set a specific deadline, December 19th, and it is a must. It's not a may, it's a must. And it says that no record shall be withheld, delayed, or redacted on the basis of embarrassment, reputational harm, or political sensitivity.
With this deadline, they will show whether they are really going to stop covering up or they are going to protect these powerful abusers. If they redact these files heavily, it will be clear they are hiding something, because maybe it's because Donald Trump is mentioned 1,500 times. Maybe it's because they want to shield wealthy donors who are implicated in these files. Regardless of the reason, if these files are heavily redacted without justification, Americans will know that they are once again this administration siding with the rich and the powerful.
Remember, if the president was actually serious about truth and transparency, his administration would have released these files months ago. All the way back in March, the attorney general said everything is going to come out to the public. The public has a right to know. It's been 9 months. 9 months. And if the administration withholds or heavily redacts these records, it will be clear whose side they are on. We know the money. Follow the money. They haven't released those yet. And then when it comes to this, they literally have the power of the entire Congress telling them, "Get them out there now." That's what these next few days will tell us.
And with that, I turn it over to my colleague who's been working on this um for months and been right out front on it, Senator McCaskill.
We smell a rat. Why? The president campaigned on releasing the files. Pam Bondi assured everyone the files would be released. Cash Patel said the files will be given to the public. And yet here we are. Not a single bit of these files has been released. And then what happened? Well, we had over in the House bipartisan leadership with Ro Khanna and Thomas Massie and a discharge petition. And as the discharge petition started to reach the critical number required, the House went on eight weeks of vacation in order to avoid releasing these files. Has never happened in American history. And then we find as they were coming back, what happened? An announcement that some new investigations were being launched. That was on November 14th. And on the evening of the 18th, Senator Schumer went to the floor, asked for unanimous consent that the bill from the House be deemed passed when it arrived in the Senate, and unanimous consent was secured from all to send this message. And what happened the next day? Pam Bondi gets up and says, "We have this new information to justify new investigations." The timing of that's awfully suspicious.
So the leaders in the House and the Senate demanded a meeting. We wrote to Pam Bondi, Ro Khanna, Tom Massie, myself, Ben Ray Luján, and we were joined, and I welcomed the bipartisanship of Senator Murkowski, to say, "We want to know what you're up to. Meet with us and explain these new investigations. What is this new evidence? What are you undertaking? And how are you setting forward a plan to make sure all the documents are released on the 30-day notice?" We got a response. The response was, "We acknowledge receipt of your letter." That's it.
So, one of the things to watch for is the argument that vast sections had to be redacted in some cases to defend the integrity of some newly invented investigations. One way or another, we anticipate that Trump is going to continue to hide the files that should be released. We must not let it happen. We must not let it happen because we are about accountability for the perpetrators and justice for the victims, and that will not happen unless there is transparency and the documents are released in whole.
Thank you.
Senator Blumenthal.
Yes. Uh, thanks to my colleagues, most especially to Senator Schumer for being so steadfast and unyielding. Uh, I think we need to recognize why we are here. We are here because of the survivors. Because of the survivors pursuing relentlessly the hideous cause of their victimization, Epstein, but also the rich and powerful people who were Epstein's benefactors and his enablers. The survivors created that public pressure that led to the law forcing release of these documents. Donald Trump must listen to the survivors, and we will know what they are concealing because of the survivors. Your question may be how do you know that they're hiding stuff? The survivors will give us the knowledge we need to pursue the truth. They have been about the truth from the very start, and their truth has to prevail.
Thank you. And so, as I mentioned, we've had a task force of 13 members. We've divided up into different groups because we know we believe that they will not give full open disclosure where there's great accessibility. What is Trump hiding? We're going to find out everything that he hides that he has hidden, not just not releasing the report, but once he releases the report, what else he is hiding? And that's why that's why we assembled this task force. And we've had great success, great help from the survivors and their lawyers, from others who have prosecuted. Ron's done a great job on the financial end of it. Um, we're going to find everything out. He can he can run, he can't hide.
Questions on this subject?
Yes. What is your sense in terms of of the time frame? Is it end of day on Friday, or is it when you need to have these documents? And if you don't, is there a legal recourse that you are already planning?
Okay. The first question, we don't know when exactly they'll release it. They may try to do it at 11:59, uh, p.m. They have to do it by the 19th. That's the law. If they don't release the documents, there's going to be such an outcry from one end of America to the other that I think they'll be forced to do it. Just as they've resisted all along, but we're at this point. The public pressure, you know, as Abe Lincoln said, public sentiment is everything. You've rarely seen so many different political wings of each party come together and say, "We need this." So we believe they'll be required to do it. Obviously, we would pursue every legal, legislative, uh, and, um, administrative way to get this done as well, but public pressure will be everything.
Yes.
How are you planning on addressing this if they do release it and it's so heavily redacted that there's nothing?
Well, the law, the, uh, people who wrote the legislation drafted it very carefully. We've been consulting our lawyers on just that issue, and we will be able to first make the point that some of the redacted stuff doesn't have much of the redacted stuff doesn't have to be redacted, and we'll have chapter and verse on that. And second, um, we will be prepared to argue that in court. But again, our number one ally in this is the American people, and they are going to demand that it be released. And when we say this and this and this shouldn't have been redacted, what are they hiding there? It's going to increase a lot of heat on them.
And clearly, as Senator Schumer knows, having met with them, the victims are not also going to allow this to happen, right?
They're going to be leading the way. They want to know what's in these documents.
Yeah.
The victims are already filing lawsuits using the information we've gotten. They are not going to let this just go by the board.
Yes.
What is your plan for making progress on Senator Widen's bill with regard to Treasury?
Well, why don't I call on Senator Widen? We're going to keep pushing to find out what is behind Scott Bessant's stonewalling. The fact of the matter is, on Valentine's Day, before the administration, the Biden administration left, we went to look at the SARS, these suspicious activity reports, and we had the staff of senior Republicans, and we're going to keep pushing on a bipartisan basis to a get all the facts out because, as Senator Schumer has said, this is not a blue and red fight, and b to make the reforms that are necessary. So this never happens again. Too many banks looked the other way. Too many auditors decided this wasn't important. This was again and again a textbook case of disinterest in suffering and families and young girls, and we're not going to let it happen again.
We're also not going to bifurcate this. It's part of one large investigation, one large disclosure. And just as we will um do everything we can to alert the public what has happened on uh the the non-financial parts of the documents with all the horrible things that they did to these women, uh, we're going to continue to keep pressure on the financial parts too.
Yes.
Uh, so let's say these files do get released. Is it just going to be a public release, and you all are just going to let the American people go through go through them and make come to their own conclusions, or will Senate Democrats, will there be a coordinated campaign? Will there be anything that we can expect next year when you all?
The first step is to see is to get them all released. That will be our first job, and then once we have the releases, obviously, um, it's going to be clear as could be to the American people what has gone on here. But, you know, Democrats will be actively involved letting people know how disgraceful this has been.
The American people should see everything we see.
Yeah, they'll see it. Yes.
In terms of the timing, if you need to go to court after the release because it's, you know, there too many redactions or just everything's not there, is that something that can happen quickly?
We're going to, you know, we have great lawyers who are ready to go, and we will leave it to them as to the best sense of time, but certainly we want to let public pressure build and build and build.
And are you working with the Republicans on the court action because the law was bipartisan?
Um, we expect that we will have lots of bipartisan support. Thank you, everybody.
Thank you.
Oh, last one.
What steps are you guys taking when it comes to learning more about why Maxwell was moved? I don't know if you saw, but Susie Wiles, the president's chief of staff, saw that she had no idea the president had no idea. I'm curious, I don't know whether those will be.
She should should not have been moved, and I think when the files are made public, the pressure on, uh, what to disclose, how that happened, why that happened, and to undo it will be very, very real and strong.
Is that a focus of one of these tasks?
That is one of the one of the focuses is on what what happened and what they have tried and what they have tried to do to cover up everything, including what happened with Ghislaine Maxwell.