Richard Arnold: US Correspondent on the latest developments in the Epstein Files saga

Unprecedented discussions between a high-ranking US justice official and Ghislaine Maxwell.  

CNN reports Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche met with Jeffery Epstein's accomplice in her Florida prison, where she's serving a 20 year sentence for child sex trafficking and abuse offences.  

Intelligence Analyst John Miller says a meeting like this is unheard of, speculating they could have discussed others involved in the scheme, or what she'd be willing to say publicly on President Trump.  

US Correspondent Richard Arnold told Mike Hosking it’s all occurring as the Epstein saga blew up on Capitol Hill. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Stateside, Richard morning, do we know this meeting's reel? Is
it actually happening now as I'm reading or not?

Speaker 2 (00:06):
Well, we know that the number two official from the
Justice Department, Todd Blanche, who also happens to have been
Donald Trump's criminal lawyer, who was seen walking into the building.
We don't know what's taking place inside there, but yeah,
there is another strange turn in the Epstein pedophilia scandal.
Of course, there is the indication that officials will interview
Gulaine maxwellsh She is serving a twenty year prison term

(00:27):
for sex trafficking with Jeffrey Epstein, who was found dead
in jail in twenty nineteen. There's all occurring as the
Epstein saga is blown up on Capitol Hill with demands
for the Epstein files to be released. Rupert Murdock's Wall
Street Journal said Trump was told back in May that
his name is in the Epstein files, but he denied
it when he was asked by a reporter soon after that.

(00:48):
Of course, that doesn't indicate why Trump might be in
the files. The two men were said to be close
pals for some fifteen years while the Epstein abuses were
taking place. Reporter Michael Wolfe says he has about one
hundred hours of interviews with Epstein and made back in
the day and says the sex trafficker told him the
reason for the split with Trump was at a time

(01:09):
when a multimillion dollar French Staff, Florida mansion was up
for sale. Wolf told CNN.

Speaker 3 (01:13):
Brought his friend Trump to look at the house and
advise him on moving the swimming pool. Trump went around
his back and overbid him and got the house. Epstein
believed at that time that Trump didn't have the money
to do this, and he started to make noise that
Trump was fronting for someone, in fact, a Russian oligarch.

(01:39):
He believed then that in retribution, Trump went to the
police informed the police about what was going on at
Epstein's house in Palm Beach.

Speaker 2 (01:50):
Jeline Makeswell was found guilty in connection with the sexual
abruce of more than two hundred teenage girls and young women,
one of them but you need you, Fray say. She
was sixteen. Maxwell and Epstein began training her daily on
their demands for pedophilium. Geffrey took her own life in
Australia back in April of this year, at age forty
one while in nineteen ninety four or fourteen year old

(02:11):
girl testified under oath and the criminal trial of Maxwell.
This was the period when Trump called Epstein a quote
unquote terrific guy. Here's part of what that young girl,
Jane testified. Did you come? Did they come a time
in your life when you met someone named Jeffrey Epstein?
Answer yes? Did they come a time in your life
when you had sexual contact with Jeffrey Epstein? Answer yes?

(02:32):
How old were you when that first happened? Answer fourteen
years old? Question was there anyone else in the room
with you when you had sexual contact with Jeffrey Epstein
when you were fourteen years old? Answer Julane Maxwell. Now
the Trump Justice Department is meeting with Maxwell, it seems,
with some victims saying she was as bad or worse
than Epstein because of her role in finding and grooming

(02:54):
underage girls.

Speaker 1 (02:55):
Right, Columbia, So is this a precedent? Two hundred over
three years in funding flows? Again, what do we got here?

Speaker 2 (03:02):
Well, it depends what the university. The bosses do at
Columbia University in New York has just agreed to pay
this large show amount of May two hundred and twenty
million bucks US in a deal with the government and
the Trump team to restore federal government funding. The Trump
White House has been at odds with various top flight unis,
including Harvard. Much of this was triggered by pro Palestinian

(03:23):
protest on university campuses. Columbia. In their settlement today says
Jewish students have experienced painful incidents on campus. They say
an independent of view. Now we'll serve over the university's responses. Harvard,
of course there are two billion dollar freeze in their
federal funding for research. They argued that this is all
a breach of academic freedom. So that part of the

(03:43):
dispute Mike's still playing out.

Speaker 1 (03:45):
Yeah, have a good weekend. I appreciate it very much.
When Scotos is coming to Trump's party this week. They've
allowed him to fire members of the Consumer Products Safety Commission.
The commission would now lack. They've got three of them
and two are gone, so they don't the chorum basically,
but under it what's important about this. Under existing law,
members can only be removed for neglect of duty or malfeasance.

(04:07):
But Trump went ahead and sacked them anyway. The Supreme
Court back in may allow them to fire members of
the National Labor Relations Board and also the Merit Systems
Protection Board. And then they said, because of this latest case,
because we did that, you can do this. So essentially,
you can fire seemingly anyone who wants.

Speaker 2 (04:23):
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