Sources: Trump admin. debates releasing transcript of Maxwell DOJ interview

[0:00] breaking news sources tell cnn that the trump administration is considering whether [0:04] to make an audio recording and transcripts of delane maxwell's interview with the justice [0:09] department public cnn's elena train is back with us from the white house what can you tell us elena [0:16] yeah that's right well first i would point out pamela that it wasn't previously known that they [0:20] actually had made an audio recording of the deputy attorney general todd blanche's interview with [0:26] delane maxwell which we know occurred over the period of two days um a couple weeks ago last [0:31] month and essentially from what we're hearing from both sources within the justice department [0:36] and here at the white house um you know three senior administration officials told us that [0:40] what's currently being discussed is whether or not they want to make the audio and the transcripts [0:46] of that meeting uh public now we know that they are going through and digitizing some of the audio [0:52] we were told by one official that the interviews were more than 10 hours and also going through [0:57] transcribing it and of course redacting parts of it where maybe victims names who have not been [1:03] previously made public trying to redact those if they do ultimately release this information now i [1:08] think a big question of course is we all knew that blanche went to florida to have a sit down with [1:13] maxwell one of epstein's associates who is currently serving a 20-year term uh for some sex crimes that [1:19] she was engaged in along with epstein and the question was are you even going to share any of [1:24] that information now we're learning that that is of course a big topic of conversation between [1:29] people here at the white house and the justice department some of the people we spoke with said [1:33] that they want to release this information sooner rather than later they believe that the trump [1:37] administration needs to be more in control of the optics of all of this others said you know they [1:43] believe that the epstein story story has largely died down right now and they would prefer not to [1:49] resurface that at this moment but all to say it's a big topic of conversation we could see some of [1:56] this information come to light shortly i would also note uh that we did hear from white house [2:02] communications director steven chung who essentially said that he believed that this is nothing more than [2:06] cnn trying to desperately to create news out of old news he was pointing to a newsmax interview the [2:13] president did last week where he essentially said that he would like to release everything but that [2:18] we don't want to people to get hurt that shouldn't be hurt he also argued that he hadn't at this point [2:23] this interview was done friday that the president argued he hadn't spoken directly with blanche about [2:28] this so all to say this is new information that we of course had not known before the fact that there is an [2:34] auto recording of this and that perhaps the white house is going to release this transcript of all [2:39] everyone kind of staying by to see what ultimately they will do pamela all right elena thanks so much [2:44] joining us now seeing a senior legal analyst ellie honig ellie's a former federal and state prosecutor [2:50] what's your reaction ellie to the justice department considering releasing of deputy attorney general [2:56] todd blanche's interview that went on for hours and hours with maxwell well if it's significant first [3:03] of all to know that an electronic recording actually exists that's actually in compliance [3:08] with doj policy that's been in place the last decade or so that says when you are interviewing a [3:14] federally incarcerated defendant you are supposed to electronically record it and so that means [3:19] if this comes out we will have a verbatim record of what was said we won't have to rely [3:23] on someone's notes or testimony which can be fallible at times the other thing that's really [3:28] important to note is the decision whether to release this is entirely the justice department's [3:33] it sits in pam bondy's hands this is not a grand jury testimony so they don't need to go to a judge so [3:40] the decision here whether to put this out is 100 up to pam bondy how common is it ellie for the u.s [3:46] justice department to publicly release this type of recording it's extremely uncommon almost unheard [3:54] of wolf if we're talking about prosecutors going into a prison to speak with somebody who's a [3:59] defendant who's a potential witness potential cooperating witness you would never publicize [4:05] and put out and and make and disclose publicly the interview that you had with that person that [4:10] would be an investigative file that would be something you would keep in house you would never put [4:15] it out but of course a lot of what we've seen here is happening outside of the normal track well cnn is [4:20] learning this morning that the justice department has an audio recording and transcript of the [4:25] interview conducted with epstein's accomplice gilene maxwell and the administration has been [4:31] considering releasing that publicly what do you think about that would you support it i would support [4:39] it i mean it was a very unusual interview to begin with it's very unusual that she's been moved to the [4:45] prison that she is in people we need transparency right now the just the lack of transparency [4:52] the uh what appears to be a desire by the white house to hide uh what is there let's just see [4:59] what it is i mean this man was disgusting he is guilty of horrific crimes we are forgetting that there [5:05] are victims that are still recovering more than a thousand of them we need to know what the facts are and [5:13] then we need to move on because quite frankly not the democrats it's the republicans in the congress that are [5:19] keeping business that needs to get done for the people of this country by blocking rules to consider [5:26] anything well there are two victims at least two who actually wrote the court um and their identities [5:33] are anonymous right now but they're concerned that they could be exposed with the release of grand [5:38] jury testimony right um they say that this is political warfare and that um there are people are [5:44] being insensitive to these victims how can congress simultaneously push for transparency while also [5:49] protecting the victims here i think the victims have a right to have their names uh not made public [5:58] i think that there have been uh you can we we know that there's an ability to hide their names yet talk [6:05] about what the facts and the some of it was i have unfortunately i mean i'm glad that the person felt [6:12] that they could come forward and talk to me they're scared to death they don't want their name to become [6:19] public or become part of a hate tunnel you know people don't understand what happens to people uh when [6:26] their name becomes public people that have don't know them they have no facts just go after them in all [6:33] kinds of horrific brutal bullying frightening threatening ways they've already been victims they [6:42] want to move on with their life and they're scared to death about what is going to happen if their [6:47] names become public so tell us a little bit more about that conversation you had and you know they [6:54] you said they want to move on with their life and yet you know the democrats and republicans are calling [6:59] for more transparency that which will only keep this out there in the headlines i think that the calling [7:06] for transparency is is there a list is there a list of you know here's what okay it wasn't democrats who [7:14] called for this as part of his campaign he said he would make the jeffrey epstein list public the attorney [7:23] general stood in front of the white house and said i have the list on my desk we will make this public [7:30] they said to their mega base we're going to be transparent we're going to tell everybody what happened [7:35] but you know when you release a list it's of the abusers it isn't of the victims in this country [7:41] we have tried very hard to protect the victims i'm somebody who works in domestic violence abuse every [7:49] single day trying to help people they should not ever have their names they're sexual assault i've helped [7:55] some who've been victims of sexual they're survivors they're not they don't want to be called victims [8:00] their names should not be made public it's hard enough for people that just are like that when [8:06] you take a case like the jeffrey epstein case which is on the minds of millions of people across this [8:14] country there are people that are not kind there are people that are mean and brutal there are people [8:21] from other countries that are trying to stir up more trouble in our country and those survivors [8:29] become victims again by the sheer hatred and brutality that people put towards them [8:36] not you know some of us have empathy and compassion but that's not what they feel [8:40] they feel the hate that comes at them and we need to understand that's happening too much in our country [8:45] period on social media