Lawyer For Eleven Epstein Survivors Discusses Next Steps

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3:24Ben Meiselas:Now, as I think everybody predicted, the Trump regime was not going to be forthcoming and transparent with the release of the Epstein files, whatever the hell it is that they think they turned over on Friday. It's not what the people were looking for. I mean, even the official DOJ spokesperson account says the initial deadline is being met as we work diligently to protect the victims. They weaponize the victims, survivors to say that's why this was just an initial deadline. It wasn't. The Epstein Transparency Act clearly stated that all files were to be produced in a searchable format subject to appropriate legal redactions, which must be justified.

4:11Ben Meiselas:And everything was supposed to be searchable. Well, the search function and whatever the hell they released on Friday wasn't working at all. If you put in Maxwell's name, Epstein's name, Trump's name, it shows no results. It's weird. You had to like wait in a line to even access these, whatever, the photographs. There's some photographs of like Bill Clinton and Michael Jackson with Epstein. There's no context to the way that these photos were even produced. And we know that there are terabytes of data that the FBI and DOJ has. We know that back in March, they spent what a total of literally tens of thousands of hours with thousands of DOJ and FBI officials going back through it in March.

5:02Ben Meiselas:then we learned from an exclusive CNN report over the past 48 hours or so that there was another thousand national security lawyers and agents who somehow got pulled into this apparently some DOJ lawyers didn't even want to be involved in this at all so I mean what are we talking about like 100 ,000 150 ,000 man hours have been or person hours you know put put into this thing for them to turn over this like do they think that we are stupid I mean it's so offensive and I could only want to try to think about more than anything right now, what the survivors are going through, who I think at every step of this way has been disrespected by this DOJ, have not been consulted by this DOJ when they saw what this DOJ did, moving Ghislaine Maxwell from a maximum security facility in Tallahassee, where she belonged to rot for the rest of her life for being one of the people in this leading this child sex trafficking ring, moving her to a minimum security facility.

6:00Ben Meiselas:So I want to hear from one of the representatives right now, the lawyer for the survivors, Eric Fudali. Eric represented 11 survivors, recently filed a lawsuit against the FBI on behalf of eight of these survivors based on their negligent handling of this investigation decades ago. But I want to speak to you first, though, about, you know, one, what's your reaction to all of this, what the survivors have been going through, what they are going through now with this. You know, it's their story. They want this stuff out there. They want the transparency and their names are invoked in a way to shut down transparency and to protect these rich and powerful men who were the ones perpetrating the sex trafficking

6:45Arick Fudali:ring. It's very well said. You know, unfortunately, this is nothing new for the survivors. The survivors and I have been banging my hands, banging my head on the table for years about this. The survivors have been wronged by administration after administration, Justice Department after Justice Department for decades and decades. This is nothing new for them. You know, I hate to say that, you know, they're used to it by now. They're used to being used. They're used to being exploited. You know, they were exploited by Jeffrey Epstein, and then they were exploited by the politicians, you know, who surrounding themselves with Jeffrey Epstein.

7:16Arick Fudali:So they just continue to be wronged. You know, in the 90s, the FBI learned of credible allegations against Jeffrey Epstein and nothing was done about it. In 2008, Alex Acosta caught Jeffrey Epstein dead in his tracks, did nothing about it, slap on the wrist. Jeffrey Epstein was arrested and finally in federal custody and was able to kill himself. As you said, Ghislaine Maxwell was finally the only person ever, only person in all of this, decades and decades of investigations into the most prolific predator of our time. She's the only one who's been convicted. And what happens, you know, just recently, a she's given a platform by the Department of Justice to just make things up and, you know, spout nonsense.

7:56Arick Fudali:And then she's rewarded for spouting nonsense after giving that platform by moving to a minimum security resort style prison. So while I hate to be so negative about this, and put it in these terms, but this is literally nothing new for these survivors. They continue to be wrong, they continue to be exploited. And despite that, what's so inspiring is they continue to stand up, they continue to fight, They continue to be empowered and they continue to not take no for an answer. And the survivors are the only reason right now that we've gotten anything, that this law was passed, that we've seen any documents and hopefully we'll continue to see documents.

8:31Arick Fudali:So I just, you know, I want to make the point. It's so remarkable that despite decades of being exploited and being wronged, they continue to be strong and they continue to make progress and cause change.

8:42Ben Meiselas:You know, before, again, I don't want to say the release of the Epstein files because this ain't it. Whatever that was on Friday. But the Trump regime tried to make the fall people, these federal judges, and tried to, I think, trick the public into believing this grand jury testimony was the kind of holy grail of info. and these three federal judges, one in Florida and two in the Southern District of New York, said, look, we'll release the grand jury testimony, but this is not additive to anything. You all, the DOJ, you have this info. You have the troves, which could be defined as terabytes or whatever the number is of what we expect there to be.

9:26Ben Meiselas:It's a massive amount, not even in the hundreds of thousands. You and I, I was the civil litigator. We're talking about enough documents and videos and all to fill up skyscrapers, you know, with with data. And so these judges, you know, and I think you saw Judge Engelmeyer do this and Berman do this. Tell us what you've got. We want to know a list of like what what documents exist. If you want to like if you want us to show you the grand jury's testimony as a federal judge, what do you got? And so I want I want you to talk about that. But I wonder what's your next step now, if this is what the DOJ is doing, if they're using the victims names for lack of transparency.

10:05Ben Meiselas:If there's a law on the books, the Epstein Transparency Act, could there be now intervening in some of those cases going to Judge Engelmeyer, going to Judge Berman, going to the judge in Florida and saying, hey, you already have jurisdiction over these matters. Order them to produce it. Let's have a discovery referee. Like, let's do this the right way. What do we do now? How do we enforce this law?

10:28Arick Fudali:That's a really great question. I mean, the first thing has been trying to get through these documents and you said it well yourself you know it almost felt like i was trying to buy concert tickets you know trying to get on at first even there was like a waiting room as if there was some sort of raffle or lottery to be able to have the privilege of seeing these documents at the doj you know you know you know so kind of them right to you know to make this website for us to review and there is zero context there was nothing right now as of friday there was 8 000 i think you know just files with no names.

10:57Arick Fudali:It's all EFTA and then a number. This is what we call in the civil litigation rule, a document dump, right? Where you just sort of hide things in plain sight by just throwing everything you can think of, a bunch of documents with zero context, no order, no rhyme or reason, and then force the people who actually want to get information to go through it. So that's already frustrating. But it's true. The laws are the laws. And I'm so sick of this administration and, you know, and frankly, you know, past administrations of, you know, continuing to just bend laws and continue to disregard laws like a release of the Epstein files didn't need a law.

11:31Arick Fudali:Trump could have just done it. The DOJ just could have done it. That's how things are supposed to be done. You know, if they really wanted to do what was best for the survivors, they wouldn't have made a couple, you know, a month's and almost years long charade of trying to hide these documents. The first request they would have said, you know what, the survivors want this. let's give them what they deserve. But they didn't do that. They forced Congress to make laws and flip-flop and go back and forth in their efforts to conceal, efforts to change minds, delays in swearing in Congress people. So, I mean, you're absolutely right.

12:01Arick Fudali:It's just such an exploitation and then using, pretending like they're doing what's right for the survivors is such a slap in the face and it's so re-victimizing. So to answer your ultimate question, my plan is to make sure, see what's been released. And if there hasn't been enough release, start looking into a lawsuits. You know, I am certainly not afraid to file lawsuits against this administration. I just filed, as you said, a lawsuit against the FBI today, this morning or Friday. And, you know, I'll continue to do that to make sure we finally get transparency, finally get accountability, because really the one thing these survivors want is closure.

12:36And this is, you know, today should

12:38Arick Fudali:have been the end. Today seems to be like the beginning of a very long journey. And now, you know, today should have been a day of closure. And instead, you know, it's a day of frustration.

12:45Ben Meiselas:And I think a day of psychological torture for people who have already experienced the worst type of PTSD imaginable. It's why I want to shed light on their story. For me, I approach the release of these Epstein files, frankly, through a nonpolitical lens at all, because it shouldn't be political. If there are Democrats on this, release the thing. And if that destroys their career, who cares? If they're Republicans, the same thing. These monsters need to be held accountable. This is about supporting the victims, these survivors. Let's talk about, as I mentioned at the outset, you've represented 11 of these survivors in your career.

13:22Ben Meiselas:And one of them, most of them have been Jane Doe. One of them is named Rosa. And Rosa's story stood out to me as being demonstrative. They're all horrific like this. But talk to us about the story of Rosa, who was trafficked from Uzbekistan by a guy named Jean-Luc Brunel, who was part of this club of the Epsteins. And this whole model, I put it in quotes, these model agency people who use that as a pretext to be predators of these young girls. And they would go overseas, they'd find them and they'd traffic them back here in the United States. And Jean-Luc Brunel is someone who also died under mysterious or interesting circumstances in a prison in France while he was going through his proceedings in 2017 or 2018 or sometime or sometime in that period as well.

14:15Ben Meiselas:Tell us about Rosa.

14:17Arick Fudali:Yeah, absolutely. And just to echo what you said before, this is not a political issue for the survivors. It's not a political issue for me. I think every single person that had suspicious associations with Jeffrey Epstein, I don't care what side of the aisle they're on. I don't care what color ties they wear, you know, just they need to be investigated and prosecuted. There's evidence of misdoing it. This is not a political issue. It's become one. But it absolutely for the survivors and myself, this has nothing to do with politics. It's about justice. So yeah, so Rosa is a really fascinating story.

14:46Arick Fudali:And I'm going to start it by saying that one thing that I believe is underreported about Jeffrey Epstein, and I say this in the least complimentary, complimentary very popular way possible is Jeffrey Epstein was a master manipulator. He was a brilliant predator to put it in, you know, the worst possible way I can say it. He knew how to control people. And he was a he was really good at identifying the weakness of each one of his victims. And he would use that weakness over them. And it's so heartbreaking and is devastating to hear these stories. Because the other thing that's underreported is, I would say and this might be going a little, maybe going a little too far, but I would say the majority of the survivors that I've represented have spoke to.

15:29Arick Fudali:Well, of course the, the, the, the sexual abuse and the sexual predation of them has been ultimately so damaging and it is, you know, PTSD, but I would say in some circumstances and perhaps many of the circumstances, the fear and intimidation he instilled, uh, and the threats were even more damaging for some of these survivors. So that I think people don't realize is how, how I have many, I've spoke to many people as recently as this this past week, who continue to live in fear of Jeffrey Epstein, continue to see his face outside their window at night, continue to not, you know, lock their doors and have three alarms in their homes, because they're still so afraid of Jeffrey Epstein and his circle.

16:08Arick Fudali:So and that leads me to Rosa's story. Rosa was trafficked, like you said, by Jean-Luc Brunel from Uzbekistan. She was a young woman. She was she was over age of majority, but she was a very young woman who obviously dreamed of becoming a model and dreamed of coming to United States. Jeffrey Epstein had a trafficking scheme where he brought in women just like Rosa through Jean-Luc Brunel and others into the United States. He brought her and she was one of the first people she was introduced to when she got to the United States. He was wearing an ankle bracelet the day she met him, the very ankle bracelet that he was forced to be wearing by Alex Acosta, who gave him the sweetheart deal.

16:44Arick Fudali:So had Alex Acosta actually done what he should have done and fully prosecuted Jeffrey Epstein and not ignored victims and not told other his other prosecutors to ignore victim or to not tell the victims about, you know, the plea deal. He'd done what he was supposed to do. Rosa would have never met Jeffrey Epstein because he would have been behind bars. But no, he was, you know, had the slap on the wrist. He's wearing an ankle bracelet. And Jeffrey Epstein then continued to begin abusing and sexually abusing and sexually exploiting and manipulating Rosa while using her visa over her head. I mean, imagine being a young woman in the United States alone, no friends, no family.

17:20Arick Fudali:The only person there who has who can help you is the person who's also abusing you. And at the same time, also holding the power he has over you. I mean, it's such a haunting and heartbreaking story. And the fact that Rose has been able to stand up very recently and speak out and she appeared with me at the rally in DC and sit next to me on the stage, really just says a lot about her and what she's had to go through. And these are the type of stories that I think get lost in sort of the memification, if you will, of Jeffrey Epstein, and the jokes, and the political fodder, and the back and forth of, is Trump in the files, is Clinton in the files?

17:55Arick Fudali:These are true, devastating stories of young women whose lives were upended by an actual monster.