Rep. Garcia Responds to Release of Smoking Gun Epstein Emails

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2:58Ben Meiselas:Donald Trump is in panic mode this morning with the discharge petition to release the Epstein files about to get its 218th signature from Democratic Congresswoman-elect Adelita Grijalva from Arizona's 7th Congressional District, who will be sworn in right now to become the official Congresswoman from Arizona's 7th Congressional District. Not only Trump panicking, MAGA Mike panicking, all of MAGA Republican leadership is freaking out this morning and their freak out is compounded by the Democratic House Oversight Committee leaders led by ranking member Robert Garcia releasing those additional emails they uncovered from the Epstein estate.

3:45Ben Meiselas:Some date back to 2011 where Jeffrey Epstein was emailing Ghislaine Maxwell saying that Donald Trump is basically the dog that hasn't, quote, barked yet. And he had been at the house with a victim and knew what was going down, it seems. There were also other emails released where Epstein referred to Donald Trump as a very dirty guy who has done very dirty things or words to that effect. I'll go through that in a moment. But Donald Trump's been frantically on the phone. He's been calling Lauren Boebert, MAGA Republican Congresswoman from Colorado. He's been calling Nancy Mace, MAGA Republican Congresswoman from South Carolina.

4:29Ben Meiselas:And according to all the reporting, he's been saying, please, please take your name off the discharge petition. Please, you can't be on that. We can't have these files getting out. He's tried threats. He's tried charm. He's tried everything. He's called an emergency meeting, folks, in the White House where he said, Boebert, why don't you come to the White House and let's all have a meeting together? This from CNN exclusive. Trump administration plans meeting over House effort to force release of Epstein files. The top Trump administration officials. He's calling all the top people from Attorney General Pam Bondi, Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanch, FBI Director Cash Patel, Lauren Boebert come in as well.

5:14Ben Meiselas:And lots of other cabinet officials, we need to meet. This is a three alarm fire. This is an emergency. We're all meeting in the White House. Unclear what has taken place from that meeting, but this is clearly terrifying the Trump regime. MAGA Mike Johnson came out with a statement. He goes, this is another publicity stunt by the Democrats. They're trying to mislead the people. He's referring to the release of those emails between Epstein and Ghislaine and Epstein and Michael Wolff, the author who we've had here on the Midas Touch Network before. He goes, I'll refer you to the oversight committee response by the Republicans.

5:53Ben Meiselas:And they say this is a bunch of cherry picked emails. This is all about clickbait and that Democrats are not being serious about it. But Johnson downplaying the release of these emails from the White House press secretary. She goes, Caroline Levitt, chief propagandist. She goes, the Democrats selectively leaked emails to the liberal media to create a fake narrative to smear President Trump is what she's saying. And then Congress member Garcia, the Democratic ranking member of the House Oversight Committee, he goes, look, Madam Press Secretary, if you are concerned about what we have released, these emails, you can easily fix this all.

6:34Ben Meiselas:Have your boss release the files today. Just release the files. Now, Democratic Congress member Ro Khanna thinks that there will be at least 40 to 50 Republicans who will vote with the Democrats to release the Epstein files once his and Republican Congress member Thomas Massey's discharge petition ripens and the bill hits the floor. You know, Nancy Mace still claims she's not going to remove her name from the discharge petition, but she did post this cryptic message earlier in this morning. MAGA Republican Nancy Mace writes, as a survivor, I find it deeply offensive that Democrats would use Epstein victims to bury headlines about the vote to reopen the government today, today of all days.

7:22Ben Meiselas:What the heck is wrong with you people? You just keep reminding women and survivors you don't support us. Unclear what that really means because the Epstein survivors wanted this to take place. I've interviewed the Epstein survivors. We've covered them in other platforms as well. And they all are saying, release the files. We want the discharge petition signed immediately. So I can only tell you what the Epstein survivors are saying, but they've been clear. Just a reminder about what some of these emails that were released today by the Democrats in the House Oversight Committee say. One of them's from Jeffrey Epstein in 2018, and he says, I know how dirty Donald is.

8:05Ben Meiselas:Then there is another email that was sent by Epstein to Ghislaine Maxwell referring to Donald Trump as the dog that hasn't barked yet and saying that he was with a victim at Epstein's house for a long period of time and many times there. There was that email. Let's not forget about the email from 2007 that was previously released, but I think ties this all together, from Ghislaine Maxwell to Jeffrey Epstein saying, you have to assume they referring to the feds. And again, this is 2007. Went to Donald Trump, then Gossman, the docs in WPB, Pascal, etc. WPB is West Palm Beach. Pascal is a real estate guy.

8:51Ben Meiselas:Donald Trump, you know, unfortunately. Finally, Gossman was the guy whose home was purchased by Trump in a foreclosure sale for $40 million from West Palm Beach. And then Trump flipped that four years later to a Russian oligarch named Rybolev for$95 million, making a huge profit. And that Gossman property was one that Epstein was going to purchase. And Epstein had felt that Donald Trump purchased that property from underneath Epstein when And Epstein told Trump about it to ask for advice about where to move a pool. This August 23rd, 2007 email comes a month before Epstein signed the non-prosecution agreement with the United States attorney, Alex Acosta, who then became Donald Trump's labor secretary in 2019, who was recently deposed by the House Oversight Committee, said that he was unaware of any financial investigation into Jeffrey Epstein.

9:51Ben Meiselas:But then, of course, we learned that through the suspicious activity reports that have been made public as a result of public records requests by the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal, 4 ,600 SAR suspicious activity reports. And we also learned that it was about a billion dollar money laundering scam that Epstein was running adjacent to the sex trafficking ring. So Alex Acosta has a lot of explaining to do himself. I want to remind you all about this. What did Ghislaine Maxwell say when she was interviewed by Donald Trump's former criminal defense attorney, Todd Blanche turned number two at the DOJ, the guy who's now part of this emergency meeting in the Oval Office.

10:36Ben Meiselas:Here is what Ghislaine Maxwell said that she never saw Trump act inappropriate with anybody. Here play this clip. I don't recall ever seeing him in his house, for instance. I actually never saw the president in any type of massage setting. I never witnessed the president in any inappropriate setting in any way. The president was never inappropriate with anybody. In the times that I was with him, he was a gentleman in all respects. She also claimed that she had no recollection about the birthday book that she assembled for Epstein in 2003, where Donald Trump's handwritten birthday note about our enigmas never age or our enigmas always remain secret and secrets stay young forever.

11:19Ben Meiselas:Whatever that creepy message was, she says, I don't know anything about it. Play this clip. We talked a few minutes ago about this birthday book that there's been press about. I understand you don't remember anything with president Trump or a lot about the book anyway. Um, do you remember asking president Trump to submit a letter for that? I do not. And then of course you had Ghislaine Maxwell say, so my father liked him very much and he was loved, really liked his wife as well because we were both Czechoslovakian, referring to Donald Trump's first white Ivana. As far as I'm concerned, Trump was always very cordial and very kind to me.

11:56Ben Meiselas:And I just want to say that I admire his extraordinary achievements in becoming the president now. And I like him and I've always liked him. So that is the sum and substance of my entire relationship with him. Well, Ghislaine, It seems like you lied yet again to federal officers, which should be, in my opinion, another criminal violation. But we all know the federal judges had previously said that you engaged in massive lies over and over again. And of course, you were convicted of being a leader in a child sex trafficking ring, although the Trump regime moved you over to a minimum security facility, Camp Bryan, Texas, where the Trump regime is now having the warden help you with your commutation papers to get out of prison totally, and you are being treated apparently like this is a five-star resort.

12:43Ben Meiselas:Food's being delivered to you. Communications device is being delivered to you. Private meetings with VIPs, apparently. You're getting service puppies there. And we have all of your emails or a lot of your emails. Thanks again to the hard work of the Democrats, both in the Judiciary and the Oversight Committee, where you write how happy you are right now that Trump moved you to Camp Bryan. That followed your interview with Todd Blanche, Trump's lawyer, number two now at the DOJ, where you basically lied for Donald Trump. All right, I want to bring in now Democratic Congress member Robert Garcia.

13:17Ben Meiselas:He's the ranking member on the House Oversight Committee, and he's been the one leading the charge to get these emails. Let's bring in Congressmember Garcia. Congressman Garcia, it's great to see a bombshell email is being released today that the Democrats on the oversight committee got from the Epstein estate. I went over some of those in the beginning right there, but this one, and it's from April, 2011, and it's from Jeffrey Epstein to Ghislaine Maxwell. This was before Donald Trump had any political, was it before he was running for office or anything like that, right? And it said, I want you to realize that the dog that hasn't barked is Trump, victim, that's redacted, spent hours at my house with him.

13:58Ben Meiselas:He has never once been mentioned, police chief, et cetera. I'm 75 % there, to which Ghislaine Maxwell responds, I've been thinking about that, dot, dot, dot. So MAGA Mike Johnson, Republican Speaker of the House, who's kept everybody on vacation to cover up the Epstein files. Here's his response. I want to get your response to what he said. They're panicking on the Republican side this morning. So he's downplaying this. And he says, quote, this is yet another publicity stunt by the Democrats. they're trying to mislead people, Johnson tells me. I'll refer you to the House Oversight Committee's response by the Republicans.

14:35Ben Meiselas:And they say this is cherry picking to generate clickbait. That's where they're going with. Congressman, what's your response to all of this? I mean, Mike Johnson and the House Republicans are complicit, as far as I'm concerned, in this White House coverup. Look, I think it's interesting that both Mike Johnson and Trump's press secretary, Karen Leavitt, they basically responded the same way, that pointed back to pushing back to why these documents were released and saying, oh, no, listen to Oversight Republicans. Give me a break. They've been part of this cover up. The only reason we have these documents is because we have pushed and fought to get them public.

15:10And Donald Trump could fix all this if he was being honest with the American public and release the files today. All of the files are currently under subpoena. The Department of Justice could get all those files to us right now, but they're refusing to do so because they're clearly covering up information and connections. The emails that we released today are disturbing. I mean, they clearly say that Donald Trump may have spent some significant time with one of the victims. You hear Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine talking about that. You have another email where it talks about Trump possibly knowing what was happening with some of the girls.

15:44It's really disturbing stuff. I have talked to a lot of the victims, the survivors, and I want justice for them. I mean, I'm angry that they continue to hide what happened. I'm angry that so many powerful men have been protected. It's time to release the files and we're going to continue to fight until we get it done.

16:03Ben Meiselas:What happens now? Because in Ghislaine Maxwell's interview with Trump's former defense lawyer, Todd Blanchard, number two at the Department of Justice, she said, I really don't know much about. him. I think he's a perfect gentleman. I never saw anything untoward. And I don't even really fully know the relationship. But these emails paint a much deeper picture. And it seems, let's just call it what it is, that she was lying once again in a situation where there should be ramifications for that. So what happens there? I know that in the House Oversight Committee, you're pushing to get her deposition on the books, which the MAGA Republicans have delayed as well.

16:43Look, I think obviously Ghislaine Maxwell is a monster. She's done horrific things to the time, girls and children, women that have survived rape that were trafficked. And so she deserves nothing. And the idea of the Department of Justice is now, of course, has moved her to this other club fed facility where she's apparently receiving special treatment, where there's a lot of reports, as we have read and seen, about her access to individuals or other mysterious individuals coming in to talk to her. What is going on? Why was she moved? She wasn't eligible for a move. It's because someone directed that move to happen at the Department of Justice.

17:18And that question needs to be answered. She needs to come before the oversight committee. We need to ask her tough questions. We know she wants a pardon. We obviously are aware of what she might say. Might not be all truthful. But we could actually verify the facts right now if we had the Epstein files. And we just right now do not have the information that we need to bring justice to these girls. But we're going to continue to fight. And so people, the American public should feel betrayed by Donald Trump. It's exactly what he's doing right now.

17:47Ben Meiselas:You know, I know that Ghislaine deposition was supposed to take place back in August. Then Ghislaine and her lawyer used the Supreme Court decision as an excuse. They said they hadn't heard from the Supreme Court yet on their writ of certiorari. Well, now the Supreme Court has ruled. Comer took it off calendar and said, OK, I'm going to buy that excuse that you're waiting for the Supreme Court. So can you tell us where are we in terms of her deposition being scheduled? Do we expect that to happen next month, this year, early next year? What's the schedule look like? At this point, you know, the Republicans have been dragging their feet.

18:23And so we don't know. We had a sense that we were told by the House Republican majority that that deposition was going to happen right after the appeal process the Supreme Court had closed. The process closed. There still has been no deposition. And then they mentioned to us, oh, there's a shutdown. So we're not going to, you know, we're going to wait until after the shutdown. OK, well, the shutdown is now essentially going to be over likely. And so let's get her in front of the committee immediately. And more importantly, I asked Chairman Comer and the Republicans to join us in our call to release all of the files, because that is not what's happening.

18:56They want transparency, then let's fight for it. They want oversight, then let's push for it. But they continue to be part of this cover up that is clearly being directed by the White House and likely Donald Trump himself.

19:08Ben Meiselas:Go through some of that. You know, they blocked was it last week or they said they were going to be blocking any subpoena for Prince Andrew to be deposed, formerly known as Prince Andrew, now just Andrew. They blocked a bunch of subpoenas to various banks and financial institutions. When we saw in that one case involving J.P. Morgan Chase, that New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and with the work of the House Oversight Committee, the Democrats were able to get those 4 ,600 suspicious activity reports showing Epstein was involved in potentially a$1 billion money laundering scheme alongside the child sex trafficking ring, using the sex trafficking ring to launder all of this money with wealthy men.

19:51Ben Meiselas:Talk to us about their obstruction, their blocking of Andrew. I mean, what are they even saying? Like, we don't want to take that deposition. Just very strange behavior that they just cover everything up in plain view. I think that's, I mean, that's exactly right. You know, what's been really interesting is that this entire time, Republicans have been saying that they want transparency, they want to bring people in front of us, they want the documents, and then they do the opposite. And what we've seen played out, whether it's been through Ghislaine Maxwell, whether it's been through the former prince, which I think is really important to mention, I mean, we, Oversight Committee Democrats, we got a lot of that information out.

20:29We put out flight logs, we put out information, we put out communication. We know that he's actually had a real impact in what's happened with the people in the UK and the royal family, What they've actually done is actually there's been accountability. Where's the accountability here? And so we're going to continue to put this information out. We're going to continue to follow all the leads. Right now, we understand that folks at the White House are beside themselves over these emails and what's come out today. The press secretary has put out a pretty long statement that I think is quite funny because at the end of the day, she could fix all this by getting her boss to put out the Epstein file.

21:10So give me a break. People deserve justice. And we're not going to stop until we get it.

21:15Ben Meiselas:What are we going to do with Alex Acosta right now? Because he, during his deposition, under oath, he said that he wasn't aware of any financial crimes taking place and there was nothing that he was aware of. I mean, a billion dollars and just one bank alone. By the way, a billion dollars in 2007 is different than also a billion dollars in 2025. I want to mention that as well. And 4 ,600 suspicious activity reports for one banks. And his line prosecutors wanted prosecutions in the money laundering. And he was one of the people killing it. He later became Donald Trump's labor secretary. So he showed up there, you know, kind of did one of those, I don't know.

21:55Ben Meiselas:I don't know. I know that the committee said, you got to clarify what you're saying. They didn't really clarify. They just go, well, it could have been. He just doesn't remember anymore. So like what happens there when someone shows up to the deposition and then is not being forthcoming? And as you just mentioned, we put out information, of course, just recently, just a couple of weeks ago, that showed that there was actually interest from the line prosecutor and Acosta's team to go after these kind of financial crimes. And Acosta, of course, in his testimony said he couldn't remember. Yet he was CC'd on these documents, and his office was clearly involved in these financial crimes and trying to get prosecution.

22:35And so I believe that he was not being truthful to us. And he had a lot of questions to answer. And so to say that he was not aware of the financial crimes and seeing what we know now is, again, all leads back to Acosta, South Florida, Mar-a-Lago, appointments by Trump, the relationship between Epstein. We could answer all of these questions if we just had the files today. And so that's what we're continuing to call on. And it's time for the Department of Justice to follow the subpoena that the committee put in place and get us those files.

23:09Ben Meiselas:Next steps, you know, should we expect more emails to come out? I mean, where does this go? I mean, we're going to put out more information as much as we can. We hope, I mean, Republicans have all the same documents that we have. We encourage them to put them out. You know, they're able to put them out as well. It's interesting that they only put information out once we do, right? So we have to force their hand every single time. When we put out documents, then they'll put out more because they are essentially taking their orders from the White House. We are in this for the American public. discharge petition going to be signed today.

23:47Ben Meiselas:Then what happens there? We hope so. And then we have a vote that, of course, Republicans will have to schedule. And then it goes to the Senate. I think it will pass to the House. And then it'll go to the Senate and we'll see if they do the right thing. Well, Congressman Garcia, it's great to see your leadership as the ranking member and the work that you and the other Democrats are doing there. That's real leadership. And I think we're seeing significant results that we hadn't seen before. And it's why I make the pitch also for new young leadership in general in this party is needed. So we appreciate you so much.