Garcia on Bondi hearing: "Complete disrespect" of process

[0:00] And House Oversight Ranking Member Robert Garcia of California joins us now. [0:04] Congressman, talk us through what you described as the disrespect of the process and one of your members in that meeting. [0:12] Well, look, there's a couple of things. [0:13] Right now, the American public should be very clear that Pam Bondi is leading a White House cover-up. [0:19] And right now, the Republican majority is assisting them. [0:22] What just happened right now was a complete travesty. [0:25] We were told 24 hours ago the attorney general would come in and give a briefing on the Epstein investigation case. [0:33] So we showed up. [0:34] And the first question that we asked, that I asked specifically, was do you commit to coming in for your sworn deposition and testimony under oath per the subpoena that was bipartisan and that Chairman Comer just put out just two days ago? [0:50] The attorney general would not commit to following the subpoena and coming in under oath. [0:56] Yet she wants to come in and set up some type of fake hearing where we ask questions, but it's not transcribed, it's not under oath, and it's not shown to the American people. [1:05] So we begin asking her the same question over and over again, if she was going to show up to her sworn deposition, and she would not answer. [1:12] It got heated, and what was the final straw was when the chairman insulted one of our members in a derogatory term, and we weren't going to sit there and participate in that. [1:24] This is Representative Lee? [1:26] Representative Summer Lee. [1:27] We were not going to allow her to be essentially called a name, one, something derogatory in the hearing. [1:33] But along with that, we weren't going to participate in some type of setup where the attorney general sets up within 24 hours some type of briefing where there was no briefing. [1:43] We sat down, she had nothing to say, and then the chairman began by saying, okay, you can ask your questions now. [1:50] So there was no briefing given to us by the AG. [1:52] So the first question was mine, and I asked the attorney general directly, [1:56] Madam Attorney General, will you commit to coming in for your sworn deposition as outlined in the subpoena just sent days ago by the chairman, under oath, and transcribed, and she refused to answer that question over and over again? [2:14] This is outrageous. [2:15] It's a cover-up, and we're not going to participate in any sort of fake hearings or games that the AG wants to play. [2:21] I will note, according to our colleagues, Ali Vitale and Michael Chanel, they're reporting, according to two sources in the room, is at one point, Congressman Comer told Congresswoman Summer Lee, you need to stop B-I-T-C-H-I-N-G. [2:39] I'm obviously not going to repeat what Chairman Comer said, but it was disgusting and not a way to talk to a colleague, and we're not going to allow our members to be disrespected that way, [2:52] and we're certainly not going to allow the attorney general to play games and not sit for an under-oath deposition with a subpoena that was bipartisan. [3:01] She has to come in and answer our questions, and we're not going to allow. [3:04] When we have a real hearing. [3:06] I'm sorry to interject. [3:07] I'm being told Pam Bondi is speaking live right now. [3:10] We're going to go to her, and then you all on the other side. [3:14] Can you explain what you mean by identify? [3:17] You mean victims' names that were released that shouldn't have been? [3:20] Exactly. [3:20] Yeah, so under the Epstein Transparency Act, we had 30 days to redact and release, under the law that was passed, 3 million documents. [3:34] If you stack those up, that's the height of the Eiffel Tower. [3:38] No other administration, under the Biden administration, they released zero documents. [3:42] So we did our very best to comply with the law, and of course, we don't want any victim to be further victimized, and that's why we had 500 attorneys with the criminal division, with the national security division, with the FBI working around the clock to do the best we could. [4:03] I think it was less than 1% error. [4:06] Todd, do you want to add to that? [4:07] Yeah, no, that's right. [4:08] We said from the beginning that any mistakes that were made, and there should be no mistakes. [4:13] And so when you say lawyers have said something, that's not a fair question, and you know it. [4:18] Because we took pains to protect victims. [4:22] When someone identified that there was a victim, we immediately pulled that document down, fixed it, and put it back up. [4:28] Immediately. [4:29] Immediately. [4:29] And so, of course, we don't ever want to do anything to re-victimize anybody that was victimized by the horrible crimes of Mr. Epstein, and we didn't. [4:40] And we didn't. [4:41] To the extent that mistakes were made, and there were mistakes made, because of the reasons the attorney general just said. [4:47] But when they were identified to us, we fixed them immediately. [4:50] And let me be clear on this case. [4:53] This case has spanned multiple. [4:56] It is Attorney General Pam Bondi and Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche, who are speaking right now after this closed-door briefing, if you will, on Capitol Hill. [5:06] We want to bring Congressman, ranking member of the House Oversight Committee, who was in that briefing, Congressman Robert Garcia back in, Michael Steele. [5:14] Congressman, I want to get your response to the whining we hear from Pam Bondi right now about, you know, we only had 30 days. [5:24] We only had 30 days. [5:25] Well, yeah, you had 30 days maybe because you didn't do what you were supposed to do at the beginning of the administration, the 120 to, you know, 200 days before. [5:37] So, you know, there's that. [5:40] But here's the rub. [5:43] To be honest, I knew this was going to end this way. [5:45] I asked the question last night what the expectation was for this briefing. [5:49] I appreciate your anger right now and frustration with this process, sir. [5:57] So, what do you do about it? [5:59] Because these people don't give a damn about you. [6:02] They don't give a damn about any member of the committee on the Democratic side. [6:06] They don't give a damn about the process that the House or the Senate has in place, the rules that must be followed, or the subpoenas you issue. [6:15] So, what do you do? [6:18] I mean, yeah, we're in this limbo between now and the election. [6:22] But when you get beyond the election and you have the gavel, there's only one thing, in my view, you can do, is to haul her behind with U.S. Marshals in front of you and sit her in a chair and keep her there. [6:34] And if you don't ask the question, take her behind down to the jail that's in the building. [6:37] Because that's the only thing these folks are going to understand, sir, because they don't, they think they can punk you till the cows come home. [6:46] Where they're dealing with the wrong people. [6:48] Because I want to be very clear that Attorney General Bondi will be in front of our committee. [6:53] There is a legal subpoena that was bipartisan in place. [6:55] And I want to also call out a lie that she just said. [6:58] She didn't have 30 days. [7:00] In fact, the subpoena for all the Epstein files was passed by the Oversight Committee five months before the date that she put them out. [7:07] She had months and months before the Transparency Act was even passed to put together the files. [7:13] But more importantly, I hope she's asked by the press that she's now right now doing a press conference. [7:17] Every question that should be asked to her should be very clear of whether or not she's going to come and sit in front of the legal subpoena and testify under oath in front of the American people. [7:28] And the fact that she won't answer that question is all we need to know that this continues to be a coverup. [7:34] And so we will not rest and stop until we get justice for the survivors. [7:38] And for her to say they tried their best when they were doxing, essentially, survivors, when their names were being put out, when their families were being put in danger, [7:45] because they were careless by releasing names of people that were raped and abused by Jeffrey Epstein, Ghislaine Maxwell and others. [7:52] Give me a break. [7:53] This process is an embarrassment to the United States. [7:57] It's insulting to the survivors, and the attorney general has to sit under oath and answer our questions. [8:03] So, Congressman, our colleague Michael Chanel asked your exact question about whether or not Bondi would comply with the Oversight Committee subpoena. [8:11] Bondi said, I will follow the law. [8:14] Is that to you a yes? [8:15] That is not a yes. [8:17] She said the exact same thing in the hearing. [8:19] The let's be clear, this was a bipartisan subpoena that Chairman Comer, a Republican, the leader of our committee, sent to Bondi in the last two days. [8:29] That was passed. [8:31] It was supported by members of the Republican Party and the United Democratic Party. [8:35] She is legally obligated to come in front of this committee and testify under oath, transcribe so that the American public can hear her answers. [8:43] And the fact that she won't answer that question should tell us everything. [8:47] That's why we walked out. [8:48] We're not going to participate in a fake briefing or hearing or whatever the hell she wanted to call that thing, which she just called 24 hours ago. [8:57] What we're committed to is the truth, and she's got to come in front of our committee.