November 22, 2025 • 27 mins
-
Epstein Files Transparency Act (HR 4405)
- Coverage of the House passing a bill requiring the Department of Justice to release all Epstein-related documents.
- Details of the bill’s provisions, including deadlines, redaction rules, and bipartisan support.
- Political dynamics: Trump’s evolving stance on transparency, Speaker Mike Johnson’s criticism of the bill’s flaws, and accusations of Democrats weaponizing the issue.
- Concerns about victim privacy, grand jury secrecy, and national security risks.
-
Saudi Arabia’s Investment Commitments in the U.S.
- A meeting between President Donald Trump and the Saudi Crown Prince in the Oval Office.
- Announcement of a significant increase in Saudi investment in the U.S., from $600 billion to nearly $1 trillion.
- Discussion of economic growth, tariffs, job creation, and Trump’s claims about record-breaking investment levels.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
The House has passed the Epstein Files Transparency Act, known
as HR forty four oh five, with a one twenty
seven to one vote, with five not voting at all.
It was taken up under suspension of the rules, which
means it needed a two thirds majority and still passed easily.
(00:22):
Every Democrat and all but one Republican voted yes. The
lone no vote was Representative Clay Higgins, a Republican from Louisiana,
who says he's worried about privacy for victims and people
mentioned who aren't charged with crimes.
Speaker 2 (00:38):
What the bill does is passed by the House is this.
Speaker 1 (00:42):
It orders the Department of Justice to release all files,
all records, all communications, and investigative materials related to Jeffrey
Epstein and associated investigations. The Department of Justice has a
short deadline thirty in some reports, fifteen and others depending
(01:03):
on version and the final texts and how that will
be controlled to make the material public once it becomes law.
It also allows reactions to protect the identity of victims
and minors avoid harming ongoing investigations as well, and explicitly
says the Department of Justice cannot withhold or redact information
(01:27):
just because it's politically embarrassing, reputationally damaging, or politically sensitive
quote unquote. So the question now is what is next. Well,
the bill now goes to the Senate. The majority leader there,
John Thune, has said he expects a Senate to consider
it fairly quickly and possibly as soon as later today
(01:50):
or tomorrow. But it still needs sixty votes there. And
let's be honest, with a Senate divide the way it is,
where you couldn't even get sixty votes to keep America's
government open, nothing is promising now. If it passes the Senate,
it would then go to President Donald Trump's desk for signature. Now,
the bill is aimed at forcing the DOJ, as I
(02:12):
mentioned earlier, to release a broad universe of Epstein related materials,
including case files related to Epstein's sex trafficking investigation and
prosecution his associate Maxwell, as well flight logs and transportation
records where DOJ has them, internal communications and investigative notes
(02:34):
files that mention public officials, government employees, and other individuals
connected to the case. Separate from the bill, The House
Oversight Committee already dumped more than twenty thousand pages of
documents from the Epstein estate within the last week. That's
obviously a lot of documents that have now gone public.
(02:56):
But this new bill is meant to go further by
targeting the Department of Justice specific files. Now, the other
question is where does the president stand on this. Trump's
stance has shifted well visibly over the last few days.
His earlier stance was, why are we doing this? There's
nothing there. Let's move on and get the work of
(03:17):
the American people done. Then, when Representative Thomas Massey and
Representative Rocanna started the discharge petition to force a vote,
Trump and his allies pressure Republicans not to sign it.
Speaker 2 (03:30):
One administration official report.
Speaker 1 (03:32):
He called signing the petition a hostile act to the administration.
But then Trump said, fine, you're gonna play this way
and you're going to turn this into a democratic hoax,
then we'll give you total transparency.
Speaker 2 (03:44):
Once it became clear that the bill was going to
have the votes and the.
Speaker 1 (03:48):
Discharge petition crossed a two eighteen signature threshold, Trump publicly
said to Republicans in the House they should vote to
release the files, saying, quote, I've got nothing to hide.
Republicans should support transparency and move on from what he
said is nothing but a democratic hoax, just like Russia collusion.
I'm all for it, Sure I would, was another thing
(04:11):
that the President said. The White House also has a
write up amplifying this line, telling Republicans go and do it,
and questioned whether Democrats will equally be transparent about people
in their orbit who might be named in the files.
So the short version is this, Donald Trump said it
(04:32):
was nothing at the beginning. Many believe that is still true.
But now he's saying give it all to the American
people and telling Republicans to move forward, which they've clearly done.
There's also the political dynamics of this moving into the Senate.
When you have a four hundred and twenty seven to
one vote, This makes this the most bipartisan moment of
(04:54):
Congress in my lifetime. The bill's sponsors and most vocal
support include Roe Conna, Thomas Massey, Marjorie Taylor Green, Lauren Bobert,
and Nancy Mace, a very ideologically mixed group that is
clashed with leadership at times as well. Speaker Mike Johnson
ultimately voted for the bill, but is still calling it
(05:15):
a political show vote and warning that forcing the DOJ
to to classify within a fixed timeline is dangerous. As
he described it from an intel perspective, He's openly asking
the Scent to change the bill to add more protections
for victims and also four whistleblowers. I want you to
(05:35):
just pause what you're doing for the next sixty seconds,
and I want you to imagine Lucy, a seven year old.
Her stomach often aches with hunger, her small hands instead
of holding crayons. Not only the struggle of survival on
dusty streets, school is a distant dream, medical care forgotten hope.
Lucy's potential is overshadowed. Her future is dim. But what
(05:59):
if someone stepped in? What if there was a way
to ignite hope for children just like Lucy? Well there is,
and that is with Compassion International Partners and the local
churches that provide children holistic support more than just food.
They receive critical medical care, life changing education, vital skills training,
(06:20):
and spiritual development, all in Jesus's name. And you can
empower a child just like Lucy to break free from poverty.
I want you to do what I've done and sponsor
a child today. You can visit Compassion dot com. That's
compassion dot com. Now the White Alison. The GOP messaging
(06:40):
now is clear, there is nothing to hide. It's embarrassing
to name names for some, but they're saying let it
all be out there. So what is next Over the
next few days? The big question is this, does the
Senate change the bill? And if the Senate amends or
adds more privacy protections, the legislation would then have to
(07:01):
go back to the House.
Speaker 2 (07:03):
How broad will the actual release be?
Speaker 1 (07:06):
Even if it becomes law, the DJ can still redact
the victims and active investigations. The fight will be over
whether the DJ tries to stretch those categories or whether
Congress pushes for a very aggressive disclosure. And then there's
more documents to be dumped. In general, the House oversight
already releasing twenty thousand pages from the estate. If this
(07:28):
bill becomes law, DOJ production could be larger, more sensitive,
and more directly tied to federal investigations.
Speaker 2 (07:36):
And who knew what and when?
Speaker 1 (07:38):
Now here's one other part that needs to be brought
up and addressed as well, and that is just well
the politics of this. Here is what James Comer had
to say about it.
Speaker 2 (07:50):
In the House.
Speaker 3 (07:51):
They have no idea, Laura. They're just fishing. They don't
care about the victims. They don't care about providing justice
for the victims or giving the American people the truth.
Speaker 2 (08:00):
They only care.
Speaker 3 (08:00):
About one thing, and that's trying to embarrass Donald Trump.
They hope and pray there's something in these documents that
will embarrass Trump. I've subpoena the estate. We've produced over
sixty five thousand pages of documents, and there's nothing in
there about Donald Trump that hadn't already been disclosed that
President Trump hasn't already explained. All we find are new
(08:22):
problems with Democrats like Stacey Plaskett and Hakeem Jeffries.
Speaker 4 (08:27):
So why not just release the files? I mean, if
there's nothing in there, who cares? Why not for transparency
sake and the administration Obviously players of the administration said
they were going to be released, and then some were released,
but not all of them. The President said, go ahead
and release them.
Speaker 2 (08:44):
So just get it out there.
Speaker 4 (08:46):
And have it done with.
Speaker 3 (08:48):
Well, that's what I've encouraged the White House to do,
and they're working with us. They've released what they can
legally release. There's grand jury testimony and the Trump administration
asked a judge to release that grand jury testimony, and
the judge, who was an Obama appointee, rejected the Trump
Department of Justice request to release the grand jury testimony,
(09:10):
so a judge has to issue that. But look, I
think the Trump administration is working with us a lot
more than what the media has given him credit for.
But I've encouraged the President to disclose everything. I'm glad
that he's gone ahead and put this issue to borrow,
this Dutch Art expetition behind us. This is just a
stunt by the Democrats and a few disgruntled Republicans. We're
(09:33):
getting the documents, and as soon as we get them
on the Oversight Committee, we're making them public. And I
think that's what the President wants, and hopefully we'll get
all the documents released and we can move on to
the issues that the American people care about.
Speaker 1 (09:45):
It's clear this is political, and that's exactly what James
Comer was calling out.
Speaker 2 (09:50):
Again.
Speaker 1 (09:51):
The Republicans voted for the transparency because what the Democrats
have done is they've used the abuse of sexual assault
victims to try to score political points against Donald Trump,
and now it's backfiring. Yet again, it's all about transparency.
That is what President Trump promised when he was elected president,
yet again exposing much that the government was hiding from
(10:14):
all of us. We now know that it's moving forward
with the Epstein papers. I call them papers because it
is a lie to say that there is an Epstein file.
There are a lot of documents to deal with Jeffrey Epstein,
but it is not a file in the way that
it was described before Donald Trump became president. You know
(10:34):
when the Democrats were trying to weaponize it. Well, now
we know we're going to get to see those files
or those papers.
Speaker 2 (10:43):
As a Speaker of.
Speaker 1 (10:43):
The House, Mike Johnson led the way with a House
vote in favor of disclosing exactly what we have at
the DOJ. He stated publicly a press conference, I'm going
to vote to move this forward.
Speaker 2 (10:57):
Despite describing the bill as.
Speaker 1 (10:59):
A recklessly flawed bill, Johnson also said that the measure
is a way to demonstrate transparency and there's nothing to hide.
Specifically in the context of responding to allegations that the
files might implicate Donald Trumper be used as a political weapon.
Speaker 2 (11:19):
Now, Johnson went to the floor of the House.
Speaker 1 (11:22):
And repeatedly called the bill dangerously flawed because he believes
it lacks sufficient protection for victims, whistle blowers, and innocent
third parties whose names might appear in the files. He
criticized how the bill was drafted, for example, pointing out
that the authors of the discharge petition had sided the
(11:42):
wrong section of the US Code and that the legislation
could force the release of child sexual abuse material due
to imprecise language. Johnson also emphasized that the House cannot
amend the bill under the discharge petition sets, so he
wants to senate via the majority of Leader John Thum
(12:05):
to make corrections before final passage. He said he's been
working with a small army of lawyers on this issue.
He also accused Democrats forcing what he called a political
show vote on this issue and said it was irresponsible
how it is happening. I want you to hear Speaker
(12:26):
Johnson in his own words from the House talking about
this before the vote.
Speaker 5 (12:32):
Democrats are using the Epstein tragedy, the unspeakable evils that
this guy committed with his trafficking ring, and all of
the abuses that they that they made these young women
go through. They're using that as a political weapon to
try to distract from their failures as a party and
to try their best to try to tie President Trump
(12:52):
somehow into this wretched scandal.
Speaker 2 (12:55):
The President had nothing to do with it.
Speaker 5 (12:56):
He's been very clear and he has nothing to hide,
and that's why he's endorsed the vote today. I suspect
this vote will be probably unanimous. But here's the important
point that everybody needs to understand. We have been advocates
of maximum transparency, but we have also insisted that the
victims be carefully protected. The Oversight Committee has been doing
extraordinary work, and we've got some of the most vigorous
(13:19):
advocates on the Republican and Democrat side on the Oversight Committee.
They've been working in earnest to deliver transparency for the
American people and to do it in a responsible manner.
What do we mean by that the bypart is an
effort over there is already producing all the results that
the discharged petition seeks and much much more. Chairman Comer
(13:40):
and all of these advocates over there have been releasing
thousands of documents, for example from the Epstein estate.
Speaker 2 (13:45):
By the way, in my view.
Speaker 5 (13:47):
That's been the greatest treasure trove of information because it's
yielded for us Epstein's own personal flight logs, his financial records,
his daily calendars, and so much more. But importantly, none
of that was addressed or is addressed in the legislation
that's being voted on today. The estate files wouldn't even
have been encompassed in that, and so it goes to
show that the Oversight Committee is doing it from the
(14:08):
direct way. From the very beginning, we've been insistent that
this matter be handled carefully, with the utmost caution and
care for the people who have been harmed. They should
not be made to suffer any longer. We're talking about
real people's lives at stake here and young victims who
don't want to be dragged into this political game that
could get hurt further. But the Democrats are rushing the
(14:29):
release of thousands of unsubstantiated documents that may be included
in this that are going to be in the public
domain with the passage of this bill. And there are
serious deficiencies in the legislation that I have noted at length,
and Republicans have to work to address those deficiencies in
the Senate if and when this legislation is advanced. I
stood before the American public today at our press conference,
(14:50):
and I explained in detail that the dangers of the
discharge petition. We have posted at my website Speaker dot
gov a summary. The legal council, a small army of
lawyers put this together. I used to be a federal
court litigator. Many of my colleagues who have spoken today
were we understand the dangers of how this was haphazardly
drawn up and among them. By the way, mister Speaker,
(15:11):
before I forget seeking AMAS consent to enter into this
document of the record, it is that. It's on the website.
It's entitled how the flaws of HR forty four h
five could revictimize Epstein's victims, create new victims, and damage
the judicial system.
Speaker 2 (15:25):
It is dated today, thank you.
Speaker 5 (15:27):
And it summarizes just five or six of the major concerns.
Among them, it fails to fully protect victim privacy, It
could create new categories of victims. It potentially jeopardizes grand
jury secrecy. It fails to prohibit release of child sexual
abuse materials that are not appropriately defined in the legislation.
It jeopardizes future federal investigations, and we have National security
(15:49):
currncerns regarding classified information. We'll put this in the record
because we need the legislative record to reflect what is
the legislative intent behind this vote.
Speaker 2 (15:58):
I used to litigate cases.
Speaker 5 (15:59):
We would litigate federal statutes and whether or not they
could survive, and legislative intent is important and we need
to say clearly for the record. As a Speaker of
the House, I'm saying to you, this legislation that will
pass today is flawed and it must be amended. The
question is why didn't we amend it here before we
passed it because the authors won't allow it because under
the rules of the House in or discharge petition, they
have to agree to consent for the legislation to be amended,
(16:21):
and they are not doing that. So now we rely
upon our partners in the other chamber to get that done,
and they need to do that. The victims deserve our
utmost respect. In fact, they should be saluted for their courage.
And the young women who have not come forward who
are now some of them are middle h women who
have not come forward, also deserve our respect and they
deserve to be protected. Republicans support transparency. We want maximum transparency,
(16:44):
especially when it comes to disclosing the names of anybody
who had anything to do with these evils, anybody who
conspired with or aided in any way Jeffrey Epstein.
Speaker 2 (16:54):
They must be brought to justice.
Speaker 5 (16:56):
We want the bill to be amended so it doesn't
at the same time violate victim p privacy, create new victims,
disclose the names of any whistleblower or informant cause the
release of grand jury materials or child sexual abuse materials,
or under minor national security. And if and when the
Senate takes this up, we will work with our colleagues
over there to make sure that these things are corrected.
(17:16):
I'll I'll just close with this simple thought. We've been
at this a while, it's drug on for a while,
but it's time for this to come to light. We
are I I expect that this will be a unanimous
vote and it will reflect what I think every member
in this chamber. And I'll say this now, at least
(17:37):
in recent days, every member of the chamber on the
Democrats side, they didn't say anything for four years, but
they're for maximum transparency now and so is this side.
But we want to do it in a respectful and
careful manner so that we don't subject innocent people to
further harm. And that has been the whole thing. I
told all my members today, I'll be voting yes on this,
and I suspect almost everyone will. We'll send it to
(17:58):
the Senate and we hope it's corrected.
Speaker 2 (18:00):
Thank you for the time. I'm speaker.
Speaker 1 (18:01):
Now you bet you listen to what he just said there,
and it really shows you just how sick the Democratic
Party is. They don't care who they hurt. The Democratic
Party just wants us to be a political issue. They
want it to be a political issue. I'm going to
(18:22):
say it again. They want it to be a political
issue to hurt Donald Trump. That's it. That's the whole thing.
That's literally the whole ballgame. It's the only thing that
they care about. It's sad because there are flaws. But
(18:43):
if you're a Republican, as the speaker described there, and
you vote against this, it would be used and weaponized
against you. That is one of the sad and sick
problems of all of this. The final point that the
President made about this is fine, go ahead and make
it public. Why so it's clear there is nothing that
(19:07):
we as Republicans are trying to hide put it all
out there so that everyone can see it. It's also
sad that the Democrats can't even do that the responsible way,
and the only thing they want to do is try
to put Republicans in a corner and they don't care
what victims they hurt in the process.
Speaker 2 (19:31):
There was a major meeting in the Oval Office.
Speaker 1 (19:33):
It's going to have a big impact on many Americans
and more than one trillion dollars of new investment in
the United States of America. This news comes as the
Saudi Crown Prince told President Donald Trump on Tuesday that
Saudi Arabia will be upping its investment commitment in the
US to nearly one trillion. That is up from six
(19:55):
hundred billion that it was pledged in May. Trump received
the Crown Prince on the South Lawn with plenty of
well pomp, culminating with three F thirty fives and three
F fifteen flying over the White House. After giving the
Crown Prince a tour of the president Ya Walk of
Fame along the West Wing Colonnade in a photo opportunity,
(20:16):
they held a bilateral meeting before reporters in the Oval
Office quote, I believe, mister President, today and tomorrow we're going
to announce that we are going to increase the six
hundred billion to almost one trillion of investment, real investment
and real opportunity by details in many areas, and the
agreement that we are signing today in many areas of technology,
(20:40):
artificial intelligence and materials, magnets, etc. Will create a lot
of domestic opportunities. He went on to add Trump, who
moments earlier said he would like to see the Saudi
investment rise to one trillion and joked he would need
to work on the Crown prints. I want you to
take a listen to what the President had to say
as he introduced the Crown Prince to the media inside
(21:01):
the Oval Office.
Speaker 6 (21:03):
Extremely respected man in the Oval Office today and a
friend of mine for a long time, a very good
friend of mine.
Speaker 7 (21:12):
I'm very proud of the job he's done.
Speaker 6 (21:13):
When he's done is incredible in terms of human rights
and everything else.
Speaker 7 (21:18):
And he's the Crown Prince, the.
Speaker 6 (21:21):
Future King, and I just want to pay my greatest
respect to your father King, who was an amazing man.
Speaker 7 (21:29):
I met him early on. He freed him at the
airport at an age it.
Speaker 6 (21:33):
Was pretty high up there, and it was about one
hundred and seventeen degrees that he was standing in the
red carpet as I came out of the plane, and
he's amazing. And when I met his brilliant son, who
was at the Oval office. Shortly thereafter you came in
representing the country, and I called the father.
Speaker 7 (21:53):
I said, this guy is fantastic. And I don't know if.
Speaker 6 (21:56):
That helped you or hurt you, but obviously it couldn't
have hurt too much because here you are right for
we had a great mating and the office has changed
quite a bit, and we inherited a mess. You actually
told me you thought the country was in big trouble.
I'm not going to use the exact word that you use.
I refused to say that you thought our country was
(22:17):
dead a year and a half two years ago, but
a country was in trouble. And now we have the
hottest country in the world. You said that also, and
we do we have. The United States is right now
the hottest country in the world. And between the tariffs
and the election November fifth election, we've done things that
nobody can believe.
Speaker 7 (22:37):
Twenty one trillion dollars will be the.
Speaker 6 (22:40):
Amount invested in the United States or committed to invest
in one year. So I mere nine months worked to
almost eighteen trillion dollars. Biden as an example the Biden administration,
if you call it that shot to me, it was
the Biden lack of administration. Less than one trillion for
(23:01):
four years. We're going to be twenty one trillion for
one year. I think that's hard to believe. The biggest
in history was a certain country three trillion. We're going
to be twenty one trillion. On top of that, prices
are coming down. We inherited a mess with high prices.
The worst inflation in the history of our country. We
(23:23):
had inflation that was a single four years, the worst
inflation in the history of the United States.
Speaker 7 (23:30):
Gas prices through the route.
Speaker 6 (23:33):
And that's after destroying our petroleum reserve, which was meant
for wars and big emergencies, not to try and win
an election. They opened up the reserve so that people
get three dollars less than gasoline, and it didn't work.
Speaker 7 (23:47):
They got about three cents less.
Speaker 6 (23:49):
Because as big as those reserves are, the peanuts when
you're talking about that kind of traffic and we're rebuilding
the reserves.
Speaker 7 (23:57):
We're doing all of this, and we've done.
Speaker 6 (24:00):
We're also bringing down prices very substantially, and we've already
brought them down very very substantially.
Speaker 7 (24:05):
Gasoline is way down.
Speaker 6 (24:07):
I think you'll be seeing two dollars gasoline, but we're
now at two fifty to forty five, somewhere lower than that.
It was four fifty five dollars, six dollars, three fifty three,
seventy five under by no all different numbers, but way high.
And we have energy way down. But the biggest thing
to me, because I know what it means in jobs,
(24:28):
is the fact that we're at over seventeen trillion dollars
scott and we expect to be around twenty twenty one
trillion dollars in one year. And that's many times bigger
than in history. The highest number was three trillion dollars,
and we're going to be a twenty one trillion.
Speaker 7 (24:45):
That means new plants, new AI, new auto plants.
Speaker 6 (24:49):
We have auto plants coming in from Canada and from Mexico,
from Germany, from Japan. Toyota just agreed to invest ten
billion dollars on new auto plants, all American workers.
Speaker 7 (25:02):
We've never been in a position like this. You can
go back to the beginning.
Speaker 6 (25:07):
Our country has never been in a position like this,
and it really is because of the fact that we
use tariffs to bring all this money in. And you're
going to see the results in a year where these
plans start to open up. We have more plants under
construction now than at any time in the history of
our country. And these are big plants. These are the
biggest plants anywhere in the world. And I want to
(25:29):
thank you because you've agreed to invest six hundred billion
dollars into the United States.
Speaker 7 (25:33):
And because my friends, he might make it a trillion,
but I'm going to have to work on him. But
it's six hundred We can count on six hundred billion.
Speaker 6 (25:43):
But that number could go up a little bit higher. Yes,
I don't know, we'll see, but we appreciate it very much.
So Sadia is going to be investing at least six
hundred billion dollars, and that means investments in plants, in companies,
money on Wall Street, and what it really means for
everybody that really counts as jobs, a lot of jobs.
(26:06):
We have a lot of jobs. So I just want
to thank you. We've been really good friends for a
long period of time. We've always been on the same
side of every issue.
Speaker 7 (26:14):
I think we've done a great job.
Speaker 6 (26:16):
In wiping out the nuclear capacity of Iran. Nobody else
could have done that, No other president would have done it.
We had the pilots in the Oval office right here.
We were celebrating a very successful attack. So I had
them in with that beautiful be too bomber that's over there,
and they said, Sir, for twenty two years we practiced
(26:38):
this attack.
Speaker 7 (26:39):
Our predecessors. These were very young guys.
Speaker 6 (26:42):
So twenty two years they said, our predecessors and us
practice the attack on Iran. But no president ever gave
us the go ahead. Three times a year they went
out and they practiced the attack. Nobody let us do
it until you came along. And I let them do
it because the right things to do. You can't have
a nuclear rn and so we put you in a
(27:04):
very good position. But I just want to say, it's
an honor to be your friend, and it's an honor
that you're here, and if you'd like to say a
few words, but thank you very much.
Speaker 1 (27:13):
You can hear the present there making it clear that
we have an ally in Saudi Arabia when it comes
to fighting terrorism, something of the President wanted to point out,
also talking about how they work together to make sure
they took out that Iran nuclear plant and one trillion
dollars of investment coming into the United States of America
as well. Don't forget to share this podcast, by the way,
(27:37):
with your family and your friends on social media wherever
you can hit that subscribe or auto download button and
I'll talk to you again tomorrow.
The House has passed the Epstein Files Transparency Act, known
as HR forty four oh five, with a one twenty
seven to one vote, with five not voting at all.
It was taken up under suspension of the rules, which
means it needed a two thirds majority and still passed easily.
(00:22):
Every Democrat and all but one Republican voted yes. The
lone no vote was Representative Clay Higgins, a Republican from Louisiana,
who says he's worried about privacy for victims and people
mentioned who aren't charged with crimes.
Speaker 2 (00:38):
What the bill does is passed by the House is this.
Speaker 1 (00:42):
It orders the Department of Justice to release all files,
all records, all communications, and investigative materials related to Jeffrey
Epstein and associated investigations. The Department of Justice has a
short deadline thirty in some reports, fifteen and others depending
(01:03):
on version and the final texts and how that will
be controlled to make the material public once it becomes law.
It also allows reactions to protect the identity of victims
and minors avoid harming ongoing investigations as well, and explicitly
says the Department of Justice cannot withhold or redact information
(01:27):
just because it's politically embarrassing, reputationally damaging, or politically sensitive
quote unquote. So the question now is what is next. Well,
the bill now goes to the Senate. The majority leader there,
John Thune, has said he expects a Senate to consider
it fairly quickly and possibly as soon as later today
(01:50):
or tomorrow. But it still needs sixty votes there. And
let's be honest, with a Senate divide the way it is,
where you couldn't even get sixty votes to keep America's
government open, nothing is promising now. If it passes the Senate,
it would then go to President Donald Trump's desk for signature. Now,
the bill is aimed at forcing the DOJ, as I
(02:12):
mentioned earlier, to release a broad universe of Epstein related materials,
including case files related to Epstein's sex trafficking investigation and
prosecution his associate Maxwell, as well flight logs and transportation
records where DOJ has them, internal communications and investigative notes
(02:34):
files that mention public officials, government employees, and other individuals
connected to the case. Separate from the bill, The House
Oversight Committee already dumped more than twenty thousand pages of
documents from the Epstein estate within the last week. That's
obviously a lot of documents that have now gone public.
(02:56):
But this new bill is meant to go further by
targeting the Department of Justice specific files. Now, the other
question is where does the president stand on this. Trump's
stance has shifted well visibly over the last few days.
His earlier stance was, why are we doing this? There's
nothing there. Let's move on and get the work of
(03:17):
the American people done. Then, when Representative Thomas Massey and
Representative Rocanna started the discharge petition to force a vote,
Trump and his allies pressure Republicans not to sign it.
Speaker 2 (03:30):
One administration official report.
Speaker 1 (03:32):
He called signing the petition a hostile act to the administration.
But then Trump said, fine, you're gonna play this way
and you're going to turn this into a democratic hoax,
then we'll give you total transparency.
Speaker 2 (03:44):
Once it became clear that the bill was going to
have the votes and the.
Speaker 1 (03:48):
Discharge petition crossed a two eighteen signature threshold, Trump publicly
said to Republicans in the House they should vote to
release the files, saying, quote, I've got nothing to hide.
Republicans should support transparency and move on from what he
said is nothing but a democratic hoax, just like Russia collusion.
I'm all for it, Sure I would, was another thing
(04:11):
that the President said. The White House also has a
write up amplifying this line, telling Republicans go and do it,
and questioned whether Democrats will equally be transparent about people
in their orbit who might be named in the files.
So the short version is this, Donald Trump said it
(04:32):
was nothing at the beginning. Many believe that is still true.
But now he's saying give it all to the American
people and telling Republicans to move forward, which they've clearly done.
There's also the political dynamics of this moving into the Senate.
When you have a four hundred and twenty seven to
one vote, This makes this the most bipartisan moment of
(04:54):
Congress in my lifetime. The bill's sponsors and most vocal
support include Roe Conna, Thomas Massey, Marjorie Taylor Green, Lauren Bobert,
and Nancy Mace, a very ideologically mixed group that is
clashed with leadership at times as well. Speaker Mike Johnson
ultimately voted for the bill, but is still calling it
(05:15):
a political show vote and warning that forcing the DOJ
to to classify within a fixed timeline is dangerous. As
he described it from an intel perspective, He's openly asking
the Scent to change the bill to add more protections
for victims and also four whistleblowers. I want you to
(05:35):
just pause what you're doing for the next sixty seconds,
and I want you to imagine Lucy, a seven year old.
Her stomach often aches with hunger, her small hands instead
of holding crayons. Not only the struggle of survival on
dusty streets, school is a distant dream, medical care forgotten hope.
Lucy's potential is overshadowed. Her future is dim. But what
(05:59):
if someone stepped in? What if there was a way
to ignite hope for children just like Lucy? Well there is,
and that is with Compassion International Partners and the local
churches that provide children holistic support more than just food.
They receive critical medical care, life changing education, vital skills training,
(06:20):
and spiritual development, all in Jesus's name. And you can
empower a child just like Lucy to break free from poverty.
I want you to do what I've done and sponsor
a child today. You can visit Compassion dot com. That's
compassion dot com. Now the White Alison. The GOP messaging
(06:40):
now is clear, there is nothing to hide. It's embarrassing
to name names for some, but they're saying let it
all be out there. So what is next Over the
next few days? The big question is this, does the
Senate change the bill? And if the Senate amends or
adds more privacy protections, the legislation would then have to
(07:01):
go back to the House.
Speaker 2 (07:03):
How broad will the actual release be?
Speaker 1 (07:06):
Even if it becomes law, the DJ can still redact
the victims and active investigations. The fight will be over
whether the DJ tries to stretch those categories or whether
Congress pushes for a very aggressive disclosure. And then there's
more documents to be dumped. In general, the House oversight
already releasing twenty thousand pages from the estate. If this
(07:28):
bill becomes law, DOJ production could be larger, more sensitive,
and more directly tied to federal investigations.
Speaker 2 (07:36):
And who knew what and when?
Speaker 1 (07:38):
Now here's one other part that needs to be brought
up and addressed as well, and that is just well
the politics of this. Here is what James Comer had
to say about it.
Speaker 2 (07:50):
In the House.
Speaker 3 (07:51):
They have no idea, Laura. They're just fishing. They don't
care about the victims. They don't care about providing justice
for the victims or giving the American people the truth.
Speaker 2 (08:00):
They only care.
Speaker 3 (08:00):
About one thing, and that's trying to embarrass Donald Trump.
They hope and pray there's something in these documents that
will embarrass Trump. I've subpoena the estate. We've produced over
sixty five thousand pages of documents, and there's nothing in
there about Donald Trump that hadn't already been disclosed that
President Trump hasn't already explained. All we find are new
(08:22):
problems with Democrats like Stacey Plaskett and Hakeem Jeffries.
Speaker 4 (08:27):
So why not just release the files? I mean, if
there's nothing in there, who cares? Why not for transparency
sake and the administration Obviously players of the administration said
they were going to be released, and then some were released,
but not all of them. The President said, go ahead
and release them.
Speaker 2 (08:44):
So just get it out there.
Speaker 4 (08:46):
And have it done with.
Speaker 3 (08:48):
Well, that's what I've encouraged the White House to do,
and they're working with us. They've released what they can
legally release. There's grand jury testimony and the Trump administration
asked a judge to release that grand jury testimony, and
the judge, who was an Obama appointee, rejected the Trump
Department of Justice request to release the grand jury testimony,
(09:10):
so a judge has to issue that. But look, I
think the Trump administration is working with us a lot
more than what the media has given him credit for.
But I've encouraged the President to disclose everything. I'm glad
that he's gone ahead and put this issue to borrow,
this Dutch Art expetition behind us. This is just a
stunt by the Democrats and a few disgruntled Republicans. We're
(09:33):
getting the documents, and as soon as we get them
on the Oversight Committee, we're making them public. And I
think that's what the President wants, and hopefully we'll get
all the documents released and we can move on to
the issues that the American people care about.
Speaker 1 (09:45):
It's clear this is political, and that's exactly what James
Comer was calling out.
Speaker 2 (09:50):
Again.
Speaker 1 (09:51):
The Republicans voted for the transparency because what the Democrats
have done is they've used the abuse of sexual assault
victims to try to score political points against Donald Trump,
and now it's backfiring. Yet again, it's all about transparency.
That is what President Trump promised when he was elected president,
yet again exposing much that the government was hiding from
(10:14):
all of us. We now know that it's moving forward
with the Epstein papers. I call them papers because it
is a lie to say that there is an Epstein file.
There are a lot of documents to deal with Jeffrey Epstein,
but it is not a file in the way that
it was described before Donald Trump became president. You know
(10:34):
when the Democrats were trying to weaponize it. Well, now
we know we're going to get to see those files
or those papers.
Speaker 2 (10:43):
As a Speaker of.
Speaker 1 (10:43):
The House, Mike Johnson led the way with a House
vote in favor of disclosing exactly what we have at
the DOJ. He stated publicly a press conference, I'm going
to vote to move this forward.
Speaker 2 (10:57):
Despite describing the bill as.
Speaker 1 (10:59):
A recklessly flawed bill, Johnson also said that the measure
is a way to demonstrate transparency and there's nothing to hide.
Specifically in the context of responding to allegations that the
files might implicate Donald Trumper be used as a political weapon.
Speaker 2 (11:19):
Now, Johnson went to the floor of the House.
Speaker 1 (11:22):
And repeatedly called the bill dangerously flawed because he believes
it lacks sufficient protection for victims, whistle blowers, and innocent
third parties whose names might appear in the files. He
criticized how the bill was drafted, for example, pointing out
that the authors of the discharge petition had sided the
(11:42):
wrong section of the US Code and that the legislation
could force the release of child sexual abuse material due
to imprecise language. Johnson also emphasized that the House cannot
amend the bill under the discharge petition sets, so he
wants to senate via the majority of Leader John Thum
(12:05):
to make corrections before final passage. He said he's been
working with a small army of lawyers on this issue.
He also accused Democrats forcing what he called a political
show vote on this issue and said it was irresponsible
how it is happening. I want you to hear Speaker
(12:26):
Johnson in his own words from the House talking about
this before the vote.
Speaker 5 (12:32):
Democrats are using the Epstein tragedy, the unspeakable evils that
this guy committed with his trafficking ring, and all of
the abuses that they that they made these young women
go through. They're using that as a political weapon to
try to distract from their failures as a party and
to try their best to try to tie President Trump
(12:52):
somehow into this wretched scandal.
Speaker 2 (12:55):
The President had nothing to do with it.
Speaker 5 (12:56):
He's been very clear and he has nothing to hide,
and that's why he's endorsed the vote today. I suspect
this vote will be probably unanimous. But here's the important
point that everybody needs to understand. We have been advocates
of maximum transparency, but we have also insisted that the
victims be carefully protected. The Oversight Committee has been doing
extraordinary work, and we've got some of the most vigorous
(13:19):
advocates on the Republican and Democrat side on the Oversight Committee.
They've been working in earnest to deliver transparency for the
American people and to do it in a responsible manner.
What do we mean by that the bypart is an
effort over there is already producing all the results that
the discharged petition seeks and much much more. Chairman Comer
(13:40):
and all of these advocates over there have been releasing
thousands of documents, for example from the Epstein estate.
Speaker 2 (13:45):
By the way, in my view.
Speaker 5 (13:47):
That's been the greatest treasure trove of information because it's
yielded for us Epstein's own personal flight logs, his financial records,
his daily calendars, and so much more. But importantly, none
of that was addressed or is addressed in the legislation
that's being voted on today. The estate files wouldn't even
have been encompassed in that, and so it goes to
show that the Oversight Committee is doing it from the
(14:08):
direct way. From the very beginning, we've been insistent that
this matter be handled carefully, with the utmost caution and
care for the people who have been harmed. They should
not be made to suffer any longer. We're talking about
real people's lives at stake here and young victims who
don't want to be dragged into this political game that
could get hurt further. But the Democrats are rushing the
(14:29):
release of thousands of unsubstantiated documents that may be included
in this that are going to be in the public
domain with the passage of this bill. And there are
serious deficiencies in the legislation that I have noted at length,
and Republicans have to work to address those deficiencies in
the Senate if and when this legislation is advanced. I
stood before the American public today at our press conference,
(14:50):
and I explained in detail that the dangers of the
discharge petition. We have posted at my website Speaker dot
gov a summary. The legal council, a small army of
lawyers put this together. I used to be a federal
court litigator. Many of my colleagues who have spoken today
were we understand the dangers of how this was haphazardly
drawn up and among them. By the way, mister Speaker,
(15:11):
before I forget seeking AMAS consent to enter into this
document of the record, it is that. It's on the website.
It's entitled how the flaws of HR forty four h
five could revictimize Epstein's victims, create new victims, and damage
the judicial system.
Speaker 2 (15:25):
It is dated today, thank you.
Speaker 5 (15:27):
And it summarizes just five or six of the major concerns.
Among them, it fails to fully protect victim privacy, It
could create new categories of victims. It potentially jeopardizes grand
jury secrecy. It fails to prohibit release of child sexual
abuse materials that are not appropriately defined in the legislation.
It jeopardizes future federal investigations, and we have National security
(15:49):
currncerns regarding classified information. We'll put this in the record
because we need the legislative record to reflect what is
the legislative intent behind this vote.
Speaker 2 (15:58):
I used to litigate cases.
Speaker 5 (15:59):
We would litigate federal statutes and whether or not they
could survive, and legislative intent is important and we need
to say clearly for the record. As a Speaker of
the House, I'm saying to you, this legislation that will
pass today is flawed and it must be amended. The
question is why didn't we amend it here before we
passed it because the authors won't allow it because under
the rules of the House in or discharge petition, they
have to agree to consent for the legislation to be amended,
(16:21):
and they are not doing that. So now we rely
upon our partners in the other chamber to get that done,
and they need to do that. The victims deserve our
utmost respect. In fact, they should be saluted for their courage.
And the young women who have not come forward who
are now some of them are middle h women who
have not come forward, also deserve our respect and they
deserve to be protected. Republicans support transparency. We want maximum transparency,
(16:44):
especially when it comes to disclosing the names of anybody
who had anything to do with these evils, anybody who
conspired with or aided in any way Jeffrey Epstein.
Speaker 2 (16:54):
They must be brought to justice.
Speaker 5 (16:56):
We want the bill to be amended so it doesn't
at the same time violate victim p privacy, create new victims,
disclose the names of any whistleblower or informant cause the
release of grand jury materials or child sexual abuse materials,
or under minor national security. And if and when the
Senate takes this up, we will work with our colleagues
over there to make sure that these things are corrected.
(17:16):
I'll I'll just close with this simple thought. We've been
at this a while, it's drug on for a while,
but it's time for this to come to light. We
are I I expect that this will be a unanimous
vote and it will reflect what I think every member
in this chamber. And I'll say this now, at least
(17:37):
in recent days, every member of the chamber on the
Democrats side, they didn't say anything for four years, but
they're for maximum transparency now and so is this side.
But we want to do it in a respectful and
careful manner so that we don't subject innocent people to
further harm. And that has been the whole thing. I
told all my members today, I'll be voting yes on this,
and I suspect almost everyone will. We'll send it to
(17:58):
the Senate and we hope it's corrected.
Speaker 2 (18:00):
Thank you for the time. I'm speaker.
Speaker 1 (18:01):
Now you bet you listen to what he just said there,
and it really shows you just how sick the Democratic
Party is. They don't care who they hurt. The Democratic
Party just wants us to be a political issue. They
want it to be a political issue. I'm going to
(18:22):
say it again. They want it to be a political
issue to hurt Donald Trump. That's it. That's the whole thing.
That's literally the whole ballgame. It's the only thing that
they care about. It's sad because there are flaws. But
(18:43):
if you're a Republican, as the speaker described there, and
you vote against this, it would be used and weaponized
against you. That is one of the sad and sick
problems of all of this. The final point that the
President made about this is fine, go ahead and make
it public. Why so it's clear there is nothing that
(19:07):
we as Republicans are trying to hide put it all
out there so that everyone can see it. It's also
sad that the Democrats can't even do that the responsible way,
and the only thing they want to do is try
to put Republicans in a corner and they don't care
what victims they hurt in the process.
Speaker 2 (19:31):
There was a major meeting in the Oval Office.
Speaker 1 (19:33):
It's going to have a big impact on many Americans
and more than one trillion dollars of new investment in
the United States of America. This news comes as the
Saudi Crown Prince told President Donald Trump on Tuesday that
Saudi Arabia will be upping its investment commitment in the
US to nearly one trillion. That is up from six
(19:55):
hundred billion that it was pledged in May. Trump received
the Crown Prince on the South Lawn with plenty of
well pomp, culminating with three F thirty fives and three
F fifteen flying over the White House. After giving the
Crown Prince a tour of the president Ya Walk of
Fame along the West Wing Colonnade in a photo opportunity,
(20:16):
they held a bilateral meeting before reporters in the Oval
Office quote, I believe, mister President, today and tomorrow we're going
to announce that we are going to increase the six
hundred billion to almost one trillion of investment, real investment
and real opportunity by details in many areas, and the
agreement that we are signing today in many areas of technology,
(20:40):
artificial intelligence and materials, magnets, etc. Will create a lot
of domestic opportunities. He went on to add Trump, who
moments earlier said he would like to see the Saudi
investment rise to one trillion and joked he would need
to work on the Crown prints. I want you to
take a listen to what the President had to say
as he introduced the Crown Prince to the media inside
(21:01):
the Oval Office.
Speaker 6 (21:03):
Extremely respected man in the Oval Office today and a
friend of mine for a long time, a very good
friend of mine.
Speaker 7 (21:12):
I'm very proud of the job he's done.
Speaker 6 (21:13):
When he's done is incredible in terms of human rights
and everything else.
Speaker 7 (21:18):
And he's the Crown Prince, the.
Speaker 6 (21:21):
Future King, and I just want to pay my greatest
respect to your father King, who was an amazing man.
Speaker 7 (21:29):
I met him early on. He freed him at the
airport at an age it.
Speaker 6 (21:33):
Was pretty high up there, and it was about one
hundred and seventeen degrees that he was standing in the
red carpet as I came out of the plane, and
he's amazing. And when I met his brilliant son, who
was at the Oval office. Shortly thereafter you came in
representing the country, and I called the father.
Speaker 7 (21:53):
I said, this guy is fantastic. And I don't know if.
Speaker 6 (21:56):
That helped you or hurt you, but obviously it couldn't
have hurt too much because here you are right for
we had a great mating and the office has changed
quite a bit, and we inherited a mess. You actually
told me you thought the country was in big trouble.
I'm not going to use the exact word that you use.
I refused to say that you thought our country was
(22:17):
dead a year and a half two years ago, but
a country was in trouble. And now we have the
hottest country in the world. You said that also, and
we do we have. The United States is right now
the hottest country in the world. And between the tariffs
and the election November fifth election, we've done things that
nobody can believe.
Speaker 7 (22:37):
Twenty one trillion dollars will be the.
Speaker 6 (22:40):
Amount invested in the United States or committed to invest
in one year. So I mere nine months worked to
almost eighteen trillion dollars. Biden as an example the Biden administration,
if you call it that shot to me, it was
the Biden lack of administration. Less than one trillion for
(23:01):
four years. We're going to be twenty one trillion for
one year. I think that's hard to believe. The biggest
in history was a certain country three trillion. We're going
to be twenty one trillion. On top of that, prices
are coming down. We inherited a mess with high prices.
The worst inflation in the history of our country. We
(23:23):
had inflation that was a single four years, the worst
inflation in the history of the United States.
Speaker 7 (23:30):
Gas prices through the route.
Speaker 6 (23:33):
And that's after destroying our petroleum reserve, which was meant
for wars and big emergencies, not to try and win
an election. They opened up the reserve so that people
get three dollars less than gasoline, and it didn't work.
Speaker 7 (23:47):
They got about three cents less.
Speaker 6 (23:49):
Because as big as those reserves are, the peanuts when
you're talking about that kind of traffic and we're rebuilding
the reserves.
Speaker 7 (23:57):
We're doing all of this, and we've done.
Speaker 6 (24:00):
We're also bringing down prices very substantially, and we've already
brought them down very very substantially.
Speaker 7 (24:05):
Gasoline is way down.
Speaker 6 (24:07):
I think you'll be seeing two dollars gasoline, but we're
now at two fifty to forty five, somewhere lower than that.
It was four fifty five dollars, six dollars, three fifty three,
seventy five under by no all different numbers, but way high.
And we have energy way down. But the biggest thing
to me, because I know what it means in jobs,
(24:28):
is the fact that we're at over seventeen trillion dollars
scott and we expect to be around twenty twenty one
trillion dollars in one year. And that's many times bigger
than in history. The highest number was three trillion dollars,
and we're going to be a twenty one trillion.
Speaker 7 (24:45):
That means new plants, new AI, new auto plants.
Speaker 6 (24:49):
We have auto plants coming in from Canada and from Mexico,
from Germany, from Japan. Toyota just agreed to invest ten
billion dollars on new auto plants, all American workers.
Speaker 7 (25:02):
We've never been in a position like this. You can
go back to the beginning.
Speaker 6 (25:07):
Our country has never been in a position like this,
and it really is because of the fact that we
use tariffs to bring all this money in. And you're
going to see the results in a year where these
plans start to open up. We have more plants under
construction now than at any time in the history of
our country. And these are big plants. These are the
biggest plants anywhere in the world. And I want to
(25:29):
thank you because you've agreed to invest six hundred billion
dollars into the United States.
Speaker 7 (25:33):
And because my friends, he might make it a trillion,
but I'm going to have to work on him. But
it's six hundred We can count on six hundred billion.
Speaker 6 (25:43):
But that number could go up a little bit higher. Yes,
I don't know, we'll see, but we appreciate it very much.
So Sadia is going to be investing at least six
hundred billion dollars, and that means investments in plants, in companies,
money on Wall Street, and what it really means for
everybody that really counts as jobs, a lot of jobs.
(26:06):
We have a lot of jobs. So I just want
to thank you. We've been really good friends for a
long period of time. We've always been on the same
side of every issue.
Speaker 7 (26:14):
I think we've done a great job.
Speaker 6 (26:16):
In wiping out the nuclear capacity of Iran. Nobody else
could have done that, No other president would have done it.
We had the pilots in the Oval office right here.
We were celebrating a very successful attack. So I had
them in with that beautiful be too bomber that's over there,
and they said, Sir, for twenty two years we practiced
(26:38):
this attack.
Speaker 7 (26:39):
Our predecessors. These were very young guys.
Speaker 6 (26:42):
So twenty two years they said, our predecessors and us
practice the attack on Iran. But no president ever gave
us the go ahead. Three times a year they went
out and they practiced the attack. Nobody let us do
it until you came along. And I let them do
it because the right things to do. You can't have
a nuclear rn and so we put you in a
(27:04):
very good position. But I just want to say, it's
an honor to be your friend, and it's an honor
that you're here, and if you'd like to say a
few words, but thank you very much.
Speaker 1 (27:13):
You can hear the present there making it clear that
we have an ally in Saudi Arabia when it comes
to fighting terrorism, something of the President wanted to point out,
also talking about how they work together to make sure
they took out that Iran nuclear plant and one trillion
dollars of investment coming into the United States of America
as well. Don't forget to share this podcast, by the way,
(27:37):
with your family and your friends on social media wherever
you can hit that subscribe or auto download button and
I'll talk to you again tomorrow.
Host
Ben Ferguson
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