9/22/25: Epstein Probe Blocked, Trump Demands AG Prosecute Opponents, US Allies Recognize Palestine

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2:25Let's turn to Epstein just quickly. Wanted to make sure that we continue to track all of the turns of this investigation. So very recently, you'll remember Alex Acosta. Who was that? He was the Labor Secretary under Donald Trump in the first term. Prior to that, though, he's the infamous special – he's the prosecutor, the federal prosecutor, U.S. attorney, who gave the sweetheart non-prosecution agreement to Epstein back in 2007, where effectively the Palm Beach County PD was pursuing an investigation against Epstein. They said they didn't have the resources to be able to pursue it. They turned it over to the feds.

2:58The feds, some FBI agents and others said that they had a very clear-cut case against Epstein. Alex Acosta basically takes over the case and strikes a non-prosecution agreement with Epstein where he agrees to plead guilty to some very, very low-level charges, register as a sex offender. He gets to serve his time basically in and out for work release in the Palm Beach County Jail. And that non-prosecution agreement eventually gets struck down in court in 2018 for violating the rights of the Epstein victims because they did not inform them of the sweetheart deal that they struck. Obviously, there's been a lot of questions.

3:30Why did Alex Acosta even do this when he knew he would have violated the victim's rights? When he obviously, at least according to people who were involved in the case at the time, thought that they had a much more of a slam dunk case. There's been conspiracy. Allegedly, there's that quote attributed to him that, quote, he belonged to intelligence. That's potentially one avenue for why things went down. The other is that the Bush administration, people like Kenneth Starr and others, or Alex Dershowitz, who was hired by Epstein's lawyers, basically put immense amount of pressure using money and special connections to convince it.

4:07But no matter what, we can all agree that deal was corrupt and it was ridiculous considering what they had, which the Department of Justice eventually said that Alex Acosta violated DOJ policy by pursuing that. Now, potentially scapegoating here. Well, all of that being said, Alex Acosta now recently appeared before the House Oversight Committee behind closed doors to answer some questions. And some of the members talked about how he was evasive, how he denigrated some of the victims, and how in a lot of ways he still does not accept responsibility for giving him that sweetheart deal. So let's take a listen to one of the first quotes from a legislator who was able to question Alex Acosta.

4:44Congressman Dave Minn out of California 47, and before coming to Congress, I was a law professor at UC Irvine. And I'll tell you, after the first hour of sitting with Alex Acosta, I found him to be completely non-credible as a witness. His answers were evasive, they obfuscated, and they were just not believable. Just to give you one example, we know that his chief federal prosecutor, in addition to bringing a long charging memo and a prosecution memo, had actually said that the computer evidence that was being withheld by the defense at that point in time, all these files, the surveillance videos, perhaps how pornography, they were not producing it.

5:19She had said that that was a smoking gun that would put this whole thing to bed. When I asked Alex Acosta about this, his response was that he didn't actually review the evidence on this case and would have no input on this, which is just impossible to believe, given the high-profile nature of Jeffrey Epstein at the time, given the fact that Alex Acosta was having meetings with the attorneys for Jeffrey Epstein, contemporaneous with all this. Completely non-creditable. I doubt we'll get a lot of honesty out of him today. But what we're hoping to get is a roadmap to the types of evidence that we can demand from, as the oversight committee, from the Epstein estate.

5:52A roadmap to that. And of course, we're going to continue to get, I believe, a lack of remorse, a lot of obfuscation out of Alex Acosta. Very frustrating, but we are going to get answered. Evasive, didn't provide clear answers. I mean, this is a very important high stakes interview because he's being transcribed under oath. He's going to be asked about intelligence. But a lot of the more important stuff is some of the background info of the basics of how he mishandled the case in the beginning. In fact, at sometimes claiming that he never even reviewed victim testimony before signing this deal.

6:24What does that tell you guys? Is that, in my opinion, this is my pure speculation, pressure from the top. Get this to go away. That is frankly, like in what other trafficking investigation involving minors would you ever not review the testimony of victims? Right. How is that possible? So his cope is basically like, oh, well, I didn't think these victims would stand up to scrutiny. And I was worried we wouldn't get a conviction at all. So it's like, OK, well, then surely you closely reviewed the victim's testimony, right? Yeah, exactly. No. Right. And this really is like, you know, this is sort of the core of where all the questions flow from about whether he's intelligence.

7:05Why is it just that he was a rich guy and so he got this sweetheart deal? I mean, that would be an important thing to know. But look, we're not going to be Pollyanna about a two tier system of justice in this country. But rich people do go to jail here sometimes. Yeah, they do go to prison. They do, you know, have to like serve their time and justice is served in instances even where there are wealthy individuals involved. So was it really just that he was so rich and had such a high-powered legal team? Or was there something else going on here? Because we're talking about dozens of girls who had come forward at great risk and in very difficult circumstances.

7:41Many of them who had very traumatic backgrounds to begin with. And all of that gets swept aside. And then something that is undeniable is that this agreement, this sweetheart deal, actively violated it. I mean, a judge said this was illegal, actually violated those victims' rights. That's the only reason we know about any of this. Because it was all done in secrecy. And the victims were not notified at all. They had no idea until Jeffrey Epstein is being escorted into the courthouse and this thing was done and dusted. It's totally crazy still in retrospect how it all happened. Like, really, there's Occam's raise—actually, no, not true.

8:15Because one of the—the allegation for why it didn't involve intelligence or government support is basically, yeah, he had really rich lawyers. I just don't accept that. If you talk to the FBI or if you look at the interviews with the FBI agents, the Palm Beach County PD, the testimony that they had, it looked pretty damn clear. And remember, they had an indictment prepared against him before the non-prosecution agreement. Now, Alex Acosta says we didn't think it would hold up in court. A lot of the FBI agents on the case disagree. By the way, still have never been able to review that indictment, so I have no idea.

8:44So I would love for that to be released. That would be part of the Epstein files. Number two is that there was a call from Maine justice to make this go away. So let's explain. Alex Acosta, U.S. attorney for Southern Florida. Well, the number two over at the DOJ who is amenable to pressure for the at the time Bush administration. You have Kenneth Starr, the famous lawyer, special prosecutor or whatever involved in the Clinton case who is able to work the government. And then that's where the potential intelligence, potential intelligence connections, I'm going to choose my words carefully, could come into play where they call Acosta and they're like, listen, man, you need to make this shake.

9:24Just go away. And again, considering how the CIA and intelligence offices have done that before in pedophile-related cases, it doesn't seem outside the realm of possibility. It's just an empirical fact they have used their pressure on the Justice Department to protect intelligence assets caught up in pedophilia because they don't want sources and methods to be revealed in open court. That's just the truth. So I don't know. It could be a combination of all of the above, right? But the point is that that's why this is a case that you must dig into. The other possible, like, I don't know if you'd call this an innocent explanation, but you have talked about how Epstein was in Israel while this was all being negotiated.

10:05Yeah, that's true. And so possible that there was an implicit or explicit threat of like, if he doesn't get a deal that he's willing to accept, he's just not coming back. And then you have this like global kerfuffle about this pedophile and Israel's harboring him. And, you know, obviously we don't want to upset that relationship. So they just decided, OK, well, let's give him the sweetheart deal that he'll agree to. So he'll come back and at least serve some sort of time. And we can just make all of this go away. That would be another like, quote unquote, sort of innocent explanation that doesn't require him to be directly Mossad or CIA for that threat of like, I'm just going to stay in Israel and you're not going to be able to get me back whatsoever.

10:43And it's going to be this big, messy, international diplomatic fight if you do try to get me back. Yeah, that's a good point. It's true. I mean, even his timeline in Israel is very unclear. It was reported by Vicky Ward. The rumor was that he had fled to Israel with all of his assets. He called her and he was like, actually, I'm back in New York. Would you want to live in Israel? Kind of talking back. We know from Palm Beach Post, local media, that he arrived back in the United States from Israel around the time of all of this. So it's true. He was there. We know that for sure. Whether those threats and all that were made, we don't know.

11:19I've talked about here with the Alexandrovich case about how extradition basically doesn't exist between the U.S. and Israel. For any Jewish American, you can just flee there. I mean, there was a recent case. It took a decade to bring some guy back. And there's actually some pedophiles from the 1980s who are living there with total impunity and face no justice and no extradition whatsoever. So, yeah, you're right. It definitely could be. Last thing that we wanted to show everybody here is just from the lawmakers themselves about his evasiveness. Let's take a listen. Can you share what you've learned from Alex Acosta so far?

12:01I just stepped out of the transcribed interview with Alex Acosta. We'll be heading back in. And we've had several hours of questioning where primarily we are trying to, first of all, understand why Alex Acosta struck such a sweetheart deal for Jeffrey Epstein, why he helped Jeffrey Epstein evade the law. And I'm going to be quite honest with you. Thus far, Alex Acosta does not seem to be a credible witness to me. He is extremely evasive, very difficult to get straightforward answers out of him regarding what happened during this time, what he knew of the relationship between Donald Trump and Jeffrey Epstein, why he only focused on a single state prosecution, did not charge Jeffrey Epstein for federal crimes.

12:48So very important, you know, from the testimony of the legislators and others, hoping the transcript and all of that is made available very quickly. What's up, fam? I'm sports journalist Ari Chambers. Hey, what's up, y 'all? It's your girl, Sam Jay. And we're the hosts of Everyone Watches Women's Sports, a new podcast from Together and I Heart Women's Sports. Because let's be real, women's sports is giving us way too much to talk about these days. So Kelsey Finler, she became the first female solo rower to go from California to Hawaii. My first thought is just like, what's up with the snacks? Like, what are we eating?

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13:56Hey, Portlandia fans. Carrie Brownstein and Fred Armisen here. You know us, or rather, you know them. Tony and Candace, Nina and Lance, Spike, and yes, the chicken. We've played a lot of iconic characters over the years, but today we're showing up as ourselves to tell you about Podlandia, AO Rewatch, our brand new podcast. Each week, we'll revisit an episode of Portlandia from the very beginning, breaking down the sketches, exploring the backstories of our most iconic characters, revisiting the Portland locations you know and love, and opening up about our creative process. How did any of this get made?

14:29Why do we think that was a good idea? We're ready to talk about it. And we'll also be joined by the people who helped bring it all to life. Guest stars, collaborators, and friends, including director Jonathan Kreisel, the mayor himself, Kyle McLaughlin, legendary musician Amy Mann, and many more. Kyle is going for it here. You fully improvised, not just words, but a song, a melody. Well, I thought he was going to write, I thought you were all going to write a song. I remember you thinking that. Listen to Podlandia Ayo Rewatch on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

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15:54This is Sweet 305. Listen to Sweet 305 with Lele Pons as part of My Cultura Podcast Network on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Why don't we get to Bondi? Yeah, so this is an extraordinary development. Trump posted something on True Social that appeared to be intended as a DM. I'm curious what you think about this. We can put this up on the screen. And it's a sort of direct pressure on Pam Bondi over the prosecutions of his political opponents that he wants to see go forward. So he posted, Pam, I have reviewed over 30 statements and posts saying that essentially same old story as last time, all talk, no action.

16:33Nothing is being done. What about Comey, Adam Shifty Schiff, Letitia? They're all guilty as hell, but nothing is going to be done. Then we almost put in a Democrat-supported U.S. attorney in Virginia with a really bad Republican past, a woke rhino who was never going to do his job. That's why two of the worst Dem senators pushed him so hard. He even lied to the media and said he quit and that we had no case. No, I fired him, and there is a great case, and many layers and legal pundits said so. Lindsey is a really good lawyer. This is the person he's replacing this other prosecutor he's complaining about with and likes you a lot.

17:07We can't delay any longer. It's killing our reputation and credibility. They impeached me twice and indicted me five times, exclamation point, over nothing, all caps. Justice must be served now, President DJT. So the thought is that this was meant to be sent privately. I don't know if it was or not or if this was, you know, like an accident intentionally onto the main true social. It is wild if this is like how he sends messages because it's in the exact same cadence as his public posts with the weird capitalizations and the overhyping and the exclamation points or whatever. But the more important point here is what is he talking about?

17:46There was in particular an effort to charge Letitia James, who is the attorney general in New York, who Trump hates because she went after him for his overinflating of his real estate assets and lying about his net worth and blah, blah, blah, in order to secure loans at favorable rates. So he's mad at her for going after him in this prosecution. There were threats made directly to her from Ed Martin, telling her she should resign her position as a gesture of goodwill. She, of course, did not do that. And so instead, they were trying to get her on alleged mortgage fraud, with the allegation being that she had presented two separate residences as her primary residence, when in reality, obviously, only one of your things can be a primary residence.

18:28Without going into all of the details, there was no there there. There was one paper that was filed that was incorrect, But then she wrote back and said, no, no, no, this isn't my primary residence, just to be clear. So there was nothing that they could charge. This is also a tactic that they've used multiple times. This is the same thing that they tried to do with the Fed board, one of the governors on the Fed board, who they tried to push out under the same, like, very sketchy, oh, we're going to claim you did mortgage fraud thing. And there was one other that I'm blanking on that they tried to do the same thing.

19:01And it's all coming from the same guy within the Trump administration who's trying to go after these opponents. So this prosecutor in the Eastern District of Virginia, very important court, handles a lot of the national security, high-profile terrorism cases. It's right across the river here in Alexandria. This prosecutor was like, I can't. There's no there there. I'm not going to charge a case where there is nothing to be charged. and so he's being pushed out and now Trump is exerting this pressure on Pan Badi of like you need to make up something against these people. Historically there was always a separation and an attempt to make sure there was an appearance of total separation between the president and the DOJ.

19:44So there's a sense at least that there's like you know neutral justice and it's not being politicized. That obviously with this president is completely out the window. Yeah, I think what has happened with the mortgage one is like with Lisa Cook in particular and Letitia James. Yeah. It's just obviously a pretext. I mean, whatever. They're doing the same thing with Shift. Right, oh, Shift. That's what it is. Yeah. Is mortgage fraud that common? You know, I mean, that's one thing I kind of learned from The Wire season one is that apparently mortgage fraud is as practiced by a lot of people. But my major question around this with the pretext for Lisa Cook and all of that is how do they expect that to stand up in court if you're going to use it against three separate obvious political opponents and say that it is in no way, quote, not a political persecution?

20:36That's why I was like, come on. Are we not getting more creative here in terms of mortgage fraud? It's one of those where what you have watched this happen is it's the same Jeff Sessions. I was just looking it up. July of 2017 is the first time Trump attacks Jeff Sessions when he's mad at him for recusing himself on the Russia investigation. We're exact same playbook here with what's happening with Pam Bondi is if you don't do – Trump genuinely believes the DOJ is like his personal lawyer. Like that's his view as basically from day one with Jeff Sessions. Well, with Bondi and all of them, because they actually have to bring a case against them, they're sometimes like, yeah, we can't do this because we'll lose in court or double jeopardy or something like that.

21:26Would we to take it to trial? And he just will not accept that. And so that's the fundamental tension. Why anybody who took the AG job, idiot, in my opinion. and like why you would ever want to be the AG for Donald Trump after what happened with Sessions. And then the next, I don't even remember his name, before Bill Maher, the act, Whitaker, that was his name. No, Whitaker. Bill Barr. Bill Barr. Yeah, not Bill Barr. Bill Maher. Yeah. That would be interesting. That would be a disaster. Yeah. Well, and just so you know, well, your point is an interesting one because I was thinking about this with Bondi, right?

21:57Like Bondi is a longtime Trump sycophant. She like let, she let him out of some charges on Trump University or whatever. Like she knows where her bread is butter. She's there because he knows she's going to do whatever it is that, you know, he wants her to do as long as she can figure out a way to do it, which she just can't even figure out how to do in this instance. But it's not like she's being beloved by the MAGA base. She's also like a scapegoat for when she came out and said that thing last week about like free speech and hate speech are two different things. And there were a bunch of people on the right who were like, look at Pam Bonney and how could she do this?

22:31Candace was saying stuff. I don't know who else, but a bunch of people on the right were upset about that. Trump says the same, like this obviously came from Trump, right? This comes directly from Trump. Trump says the same shit. They don't get upset with him. She takes all the incoming on any sort of like free speech stuff that they're unhappy with. So you get to be in this like position of being under Trump's thumb and just being a sycophant and having to go out there and do like basically humiliation rituals routinely. And then it's not like you're even getting love from the MAGA beast because they hate you too.

23:02And they feel like you messed up the Epstein thing, even though you're doing that for Trump's bidding. They feel like you're, you know, they don't like what you said on hate speech, whatever. So it doesn't seem like a great gig in my personal view. Yeah, why would it be? You're either the whipping boy for his idiocy or you're the whipping boy for not acting on his idiocy. So it's a terrible job. Exactly. Yeah. And one last thing just about this person that, you know, was forced out, who was the U.S. attorney for the the Eastern District of Virginia, and that Trump is talking about here. It's not like this guy was some lib.

23:31He was a former D.C. police officer, joined the Eastern District of Virginia back in 2010, was nominated for the role by Trump this year. So this was like the guy Trump put in literally this year. But since he wouldn't gin up some fake charges against Letitia James, he's being, you know, he was forced down. The new person they're putting in is a senior White House aide. Lindsay Halligan apparently has no experience really in this realm of law whatsoever. I think she was like insurance law or something like that coming into. But I guess they feel confident that she'll be the one that will make up these charges and figure it out in the way that Trump wants to.