Will we ever get to the bottom of the Epstein files?

0:00Julie K Brown:Support for Here and Now Anytime comes from MathWorks, creator of MATLAB and Simulink software, to design and develop engineered systems, accelerating the pace of discovery in engineering and science. Learn more at mathworks.com. WBUR Podcasts, Boston. I don't see a whole lot of change between him and Bondi. They both were minimizing the importance of these files. The new acting attorney general wants to move on from the Epstein files.

0:44Julie K Brown:It's Monday, April 6th, and this is Here and Now Anytime from NPR and WBUR. I'm Chris Bentley.

0:53Julie K Brown:Today on the show, tweets cannot reopen the Strait of Hormuz. We have to open the Strait of Hormuz, I think, on our own. I don't think we can do it through the president's kind of bluster and true social posts. We're going to have to open it with military risk. Also, we speak with America's greatest cross-country skier about living in the moment. Sometimes I'm just hanging on by my fingernails, to be totally honest. So I'm truly not thinking about medals or results or what it means to the team or historically. You really just are in that moment. What can I do right here, right now to be my best?

1:34Julie K Brown:But first, what happens with the Epstein files now that Pam Bondi is out as Attorney General? The new acting Attorney General, Todd Blanche, wants the Department of Justice to move on. saying the files should not be a part of anything going forward. But congressional committees are still investigating Epstein's serial abuse of girls and his ties to powerful people. And Bondi may still have to testify about what she knows. Here's Democratic Representative Ro Khanna. I mean, if we could chase Hillary Clinton, who hasn't been in office for 20 years, certainly we can get Pam Bondi to explain why she covered up documents, why we haven't had prosecutions.

2:16Julie K Brown:Republican Nancy Mace has also said she's not backing away from Bondi testifying about Epstein. The government is still sitting on lots of documents, and there is no shortage of calls for criminal investigations of people in Epstein's orbit. So what does the new boss at DOJ mean for the files and for victims seeking justice? The Miami Herald's Julie K. Brown helped blow the lit off Epstein's abuse decades ago, and also exposed how authorities allowed him to remain free for years. Today, she told Scott Tong, victims are not very optimistic about the tenure of Todd Blanche. Let's face it, I mean, he was the person that is responsible for putting Maxwell in this minimum security facility that she's in in Texas.

3:09You mean Ghislaine Maxwell, Epstein's longtime accomplice.

3:14Julie K Brown:And he has made quite a number of statements, I think, that have been somewhat dismissive of these victims. So I think that they're hoping for the best, but preparing for the worst, you know, because I don't see a whole lot of change between him and Bondi. They both were sort of minimizing the importance of these files from the beginning. What do we know about any documents that still have yet to be released? There's a lot that's still out there that we haven't seen. We know, for example, that there are probably many more victim interviews that probably have not been put online. We know that there are FBI reports, hand notes that have not been released concerning this victim who claimed she was abused by sexually abused by Donald Trump.

4:16Julie K Brown:There are still documents that seem to be missing from the files concerning that. So it leaves you to wonder how much else there is out there that we don't even know about. Yeah. You've been following this for decades. when you step back, what are the most important questions still yet to be answered here? Well, I always go back to the beginning. I think the first failure was that they didn't put him behind bars to begin with, because had they done their jobs in Florida back when they knew he was abusing underage girls and they had 40 of them, 40 victims back then, and instead chose to just led him essentially off the hook with this is back in 2008.

5:02Yes. Correct.

5:04Julie K Brown:I think that that decision has never been fully investigated. I mean, how do you allow that to happen? How do you limit the scope of his crimes? Not tell the victims what you're doing. Treat the victims as if they committed the crimes, allow him to essentially stalk the victims while the FBI was investigating. How does that happen? I mean, I still believe that it's never been adequately investigated. And it's important because had they done that back then, we might not be talking about this case right now. Yeah. Going forward, you know, Pam Bondi is still scheduled to testify before a congressional oversight committee on Epstein and the documents.

5:50If she does appear, how important will that be now?

5:54Julie K Brown:I think it's still important. She was a government official who had a front row seat to what was happening with these files, even if it was behind the scenes. And I think it will be interesting to see how forthcoming she is about what is happening. I'm sure she's going to try to evade answering some of the more important questions about, for example, why they just initially decided they were going to be transparent and release everything to saying we're not doing, we're going to release anything. I mean, that's quite a jump in a short period of time that happened here. And so I think it's important that she be asked what changed.

6:40Yeah. Separately, Julie, congressional investigators are trying to reschedule testimony of a woman who was a guard at the Manhattan prison the night Epstein was found dead. It was declared a suicide. In your mind, is it clear he died by suicide?

6:58Julie K Brown:In my mind, it should never have been concluded so quickly that it was a suicide without doing your due diligence in investigating. investigating remember he was found laying on the floor of a cell just a couple of weeks before he died and the first thing that he told people that happened to him was that his cellmate tried to kill him and was trying to extort him he never went back on that story he tried to then say he didn't remember but he never denied it and just the fact that that happened should have been enough for the FBI to seriously investigate whether there was some other cause of death here besides suicide.

7:43Julie K Brown:I think that that was, you know, he was the highest profile inmate at that prison at the time. How do you leave someone like that alone and have these series of failures, including, you know, that the cameras weren't working? there were such a series of failures in this case that I think all of it needs to be thoroughly examined. Yeah. It's Julie Kay Brown, a member of the investigative team at the Miami Herald. Julie, thank you once again. Thank you.

8:20Coming up next, if we don't get what we want, quote, we're blowing up the whole country, end quote.

8:28Julie K Brown:That is part of President Trump's latest rant about the war with Iran that he and Israel started more than a month ago. After the break, a retired rear admiral says, don't expect the Strait of Hormuz to be safe to sail through anytime soon.

9:01Support for this podcast comes from Is Business Broken? A podcast from the Mehrotra Institute at Boston University.

9:09Julie K Brown:On the show, host Kurt Nickish asks the thorny questions necessary for this moment about the role business plays in society. Questions like, why are executives paid so much? Why is innovation in healthcare so hard? Is ESG just greenwashing? And of course, Is Business Broken? Follow Is Business Broken wherever you get your podcasts.

9:56Julie K Brown:coming April 22nd, wherever you get your podcasts. This message comes from Charles Schwab. When it comes to managing your wealth, Schwab gives you more choices like full service wealth management and advice when you need it. You can also invest on your own and trade on Think or Swim. Visit schwab.com to learn more. This message comes from Prolon. Feeling heavy and depleted, Prolon's five-day fasting mimicking diet aims to make it easy to reset your body habits and energy developed at usc's longevity institute the goal of prolon's nutrition program is to rejuvenate you from within by working at the cellular level to support fat loss glowing skin and sharper focus get 15 off plus a bonus gift when you subscribe at prolonlife.com slash npr State media says Iranian leaders have rejected an American proposal for a ceasefire, which was actually submitted two weeks ago, long before Trump's latest threat to bomb bridges and power plants in Iran.

11:02The U.S.

11:03Julie K Brown:and Israel, it should be said, have already attacked schools, universities, and other civilian infrastructure across Iran. It has not persuaded them to reopen the Strait of Hormuz to American ships. Our next guest spent years navigating that strait for the U.S. Navy in the 1980s. Mark Montgomery is a retired rear admiral. He's now at the pro-Israel think tank called the Foundation for Defense of Democracies. Here's his conversation with Scott Tong. Iran, as we know, shot down a U.S. F-15 strike Eagle, setting off this dramatic rescue over the weekend. But what does this tell us about Iran's air defenses?

11:44We heard early in the war, the Defense Secretary, Pete Hegseth, saying Iran has no air defenses. Well, I mean, clearly they have some air defenses. I think it's fair to say that most of their medium altitude and high altitude air defenses have been destroyed. But I think probably we'll end up finding out that they had manned portable air defense systems, you know, highly evolved stingers, things like that. And the aircraft was operating at an altitude that they could take advantage of that, and they shot it down. So for someone to say their air defenses are eliminated is very aspirational. Yeah.

12:19We've been learning, of course, more the last couple of days about this dramatic rescue of the American airman. He reportedly spent more than 24 hours behind enemy lines in the mountains of Iran. Iranian forces appeared to be closing in, and it's reported the CIA tracked his location ping, shared the information with his special extraction team. When you read about the details we're getting, what strikes you? Well, a couple things. First, you know, combat search and rescue, C-SAR, is something we practice and are very good at, and we're willing to sacrifice a lot. I mean, we sacrificed two C-130s, a small helicopter, and an A-10, in making sure that we safely extracted this pilot.

12:59Those things are just things. We can buy new things. You can't get a new pilot easily. And so I'm glad we did it. We're very committed to this. We have been since Vietnam. And you see the end result of it this weekend. Yeah. Admiral, let me ask you about Strait of Hormuz. In your career, you escorted in the 80s oil tankers through this choke point in the Iran-Iraq war back then. What does it tell you that Iran still controls the Strait, only allows a few ships of its own and of its allies to go through. You know, you're right. And I have to tell you, I've probably transited the Straits of Humus 40 or 45 times each way over a career.

13:38And it's never, we've never take this light. I mean, you should, on a U.S. warship, it's treated like a high-risk combat operation each time because of the proximity to the threat. If you've misjudged whether they're willing to do something, you have almost no time to reply. So I worry. I worry across four different types of weapon systems, mines, drones, anti-ship cruise missiles, and surface attack craft. And I think particularly to me, the mines, because they're the ones that have, for which we have the least ability to remove the problem before it happens. And once you get mines in the water, you will be shocked at how slow mine removal is.

14:21You measure things in closer to months, not weeks. And you always say things like, I'm 60 % sure I've removed all but two of the mines from 90 % of the areas. I mean, it's just one of these things where you don't get the perfect, like when we blow somebody's missile launcher up, it's gone. The mines are much harder. Yeah. So when you step back and you kind of look at where we are with the Strait of Hormuz militarily, is it feasible for the US and its allies to effectively seize control? Well, we have effectively, safely escorted vessels in a high-threat environment in the 1980s, 90s, and 2000s in different iterations of threat.

15:00So yes, I do think we can do it. But I acknowledge that this is a high-risk decision by Admiral Cooper, the Central Command Commander. He's going to have to assess the mine, missile, drone, and small craft attack threats and determined the risk to the military mission is reduced enough that he can then do a very powerful escort. And this escort will have multiple American destroyers, combat aircraft overhead, A-10s and attack aircraft patrolling, and a persistent overhead imagery, making sure that we're seeing everything we can all at once. So, I mean, you got to get the risk low, you got to align your forces, and then you have to take risk.

15:43Mark, as you know, at the Pentagon, Secretary Hagseth reportedly fired the Army Chief of Staff late last week. Is this the time to make significant changes in military leadership? This is unbelievable to me. I mean, we're working hard to target and kill the Iranian versions of General George. And then we go fire a person like that. You know, we do the Iranian's job for him. This is ridiculous. But he's only one of 10 or 12 senior officers fired over the last year, including several during this combat operations time. Completely unacceptable and unprofessional by the Secretary of Defense. Finally, Admiral, you have advocated for regime change in Iran.

16:29At this point, what would success look like? I am for regime change in Iran. I'm not sure I would have started this war without having an armed insurgency on the ground like we had in Libya and Kosovo. And I was a little surprised that we didn't have that at Game Start. But at this point, we're not going to get regime change. We need to get a change in how the regime acts. And that's by removing their ability to impact their Arab neighbors in Israel and the United States. And to do that, we have to continue to destroy their ballistic missile systems, their drones, their maritime systems. the things we have been targeting successfully.

17:05But then we have to open the Straits of Hormuz, I think, on our own. I don't think we can do it through the president's kind of bluster and through the social posts. We're going to have to open it with military risk. And I think it's something we can do. But once we do it, then the Arab neighbors, our Arab partners, will know that we're in charge of the Straits of Hormuz and things are going to go a lot smoother over the next three to five years. That's Mark Montgomery, retired Rear Admiral, now Senior Fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies. Admiral, thank you so much. Thank you for having me, Scott.

17:47Julie K Brown:We've got to take one more short break, but when we come back, we'll get words of advice from one of the greatest winter athletes in the world. Stick around.

18:01This message comes from NPR sponsor Carvana. Your time is worth more than a waiting game. Carvana gives you a transparent offer for your car in minutes and picks it up from your door. Sell your car today at Carvana.com. Pickup fees may apply.

18:18Julie K Brown:Jessie Diggins is America's most accomplished cross-country skier. She also stands out for wearing glitter on her cheeks to race. She's a four-time overall World Cup champion and 33-time individual World Cup winner, as well as a four-time Olympic medalist, including one gold. America's own Jessie Diggins has just retired from racing at age 34, and she joined Scott to talk about her career. So we're going to hear now one of my favorite sports spectator moments ever. I don't even ski. This is the 2018 Winter Olympics in South Korea. This is you in the team sprint event with American teammate Keegan Randall.

19:01Let's listen. This is you in the anchor leg of the race. And it is Jesse Diggins delivering a landmark moment that will be etched in U.S. Olympic history. The first ever cross-country gold medal for the U.S. Oh, the screaming. I know everyone asks you about this moment. What do you remember about the end of the race and what you were doing?

19:25Julie K Brown:You know, the crazy thing to me is that I don't actually remember what it felt like to ski those final 100 meters because I was so focused. It's a product of just being so in the zone and in the moment. You know, you're so focused on each push of your ski that I truly don't remember that. But what I do remember and what's ultimately the only important part of that memory to me is how it felt to have my teammate Keegan jump on top of me. And then when we got up, we had hugs from all the other teams from around the world. But the best part was when we turned around and we saw the entire team along the finish line boards and people were screaming and crying and getting to hug our coaches and see what it meant to them.

20:14Julie K Brown:Because they had put their life's work into making moments like this for the team possible and to have it come true and get to celebrate it with them. that was the really special part to me so it was it was just all about that team moment and getting to celebrate as a nation yeah yeah well and we did but you know for you this has been a bit of your thing the comeback is this something that you practice for the rest of us who don't ski is there something you can tell us about how you get yourself ready for trying to come back at the end yeah well it's interesting because sometimes it's a calculated maneuver because similar to anyone who watches the tour de france and bike racing you know there's drafting and so sometimes you you don't want to be in the front you want to kind of store up your energy kind of like you're pulling the bowstring back and you're going to release and sort of launch your attack at exactly the right moment and so sometimes it's intentional and sometimes i'm just hanging on by my fingernails to be totally honest.

21:20Julie K Brown:So sometimes it's not intentional. And I'm just simply trying to dig down to the bottom of the well to get every last drop of energy out of my body onto the snow. And I'm truly not thinking about medals or results or what it means to the team or historically. You really just are in that moment. What can I do right here, right now to be my best version of myself in this race. Yeah. Well, Jessie Diggins, you have been open about struggles with an eating disorder back when you were 18, 19 years old. I wonder if you can talk briefly about it and why it's important to talk about it. Absolutely. You know, eating disorders are really still pretty stigmatized illnesses.

22:07Julie K Brown:And I didn't know much about it when I was 18 and starting to really suffer. But I've since learned, And it's a mental health issue, right? This isn't something that you ask for. It's not a behavioral choice. It's not your fault. But they are very serious life-threatening illnesses. And when I got really sick, I ended up leaning on my support system and learning that it was okay to ask for and accept help. And I ended up getting professional help with the Emily program. And I learned that my eating disorder wasn't about food or body image. it was really a coping mechanism for being really hard on myself, for stress, for perfectionism.

22:48Julie K Brown:And it was really important for me to put other tools in my mental toolbox that could help me deal with those things. And so I think it's really important for me to talk about it and share my journey and let other people know like, hey, if you're struggling with something, you're allowed to ask for help. That is okay. It doesn't make you weak. It actually makes you incredibly strong. And I am who I am because of the amazing people who have helped me. And I think it's really important to share that. Yeah. Did you really get very sick at the time? Yeah. When I was 18 and 19, I was really, really sick.