“This is an incredibly important moment for the Epstein investigation”: Garcia on Bondi interview

[0:00] TOMORROW, PAM BONDI WILL BE [0:01] FACING SERIOUS QUESTIONS WHEN [0:03] SHE MEETS WITH THE HOUSE [0:04] OVERSIGHT COMMITTEE BEHIND [0:05] CLOSED DOORS ABOUT THE [0:07] EPSTEIN INVESTIGATION. [0:08] A DEMOCRAT ON THE COMMITTEE [0:09] SAYS IT WILL BE TRANSCRIBED BUT [0:12] HAS CALLED FOR HER TO TESTIFY [0:13] UNDER OATH AND ON CAMERA. [0:16] MY NEXT GUEST HAS MADE THE SAME [0:17] PLEA TO REPUBLICAN CHAIRMAN [0:18] JAMES COMER. [0:19] JOINING US NOW, THE RANKING [0:21] NUMBER OF THE HOUSE OVERSIGHT [0:22] COMMITTEE, DEMOCRAT CONGRESSMAN [0:23] ROBERT GARCIA OF CALIFORNIA. [0:25] I'M WONDERING WHAT THE PROS AND [0:27] CONS ARE, WE KNOW WHAT YOU WOULD [0:30] LIKE TO SEE HAPPEN. [0:31] WHY DO YOU THINK THAT'S [0:32] IMPORTANT AND WHAT'S THE [0:34] ARGUMENT YOU'RE GETTING FROM [0:35] THE CHAIRMAN? [0:37] WELL, THE CHAIRMAN HASN'T [0:39] ACTUALLY ADDRESSED IT. [0:40] LET'S BE CLEAR, THERE IS NO [0:42] REASON THAT WE SHOULD NOT [0:43] VIDEO TAPE THE ENTIRE TRANSCRIBE [0:45] INTERVIEW FROM THE FORMER [0:47] ATTORNEY GENERAL. [0:48] THIS IS AN INCREDIBLY IMPORTANT [0:50] MOMENT FOR THE EPSTEIN [0:51] INVESTIGATION. [0:51] PAM BONDI HAS A LOT TO ANSWER [0:53] FOR. [0:54] WHY ARE ONLY 50% OF THE FILES [0:56] RELEASED? [0:57] WHY WERE THE NAMES OF [0:58] DRIVERS, AS WE KNOW, DOCS, AND [1:00] REALLY PUT IN DANGER, MANY OF [1:01] THEM WERE PUT IN DANGER DURING [1:03] THIS PROCESS? [1:03] WHY STILL HAS THERE BEEN NO [1:06] REAL INFORMATION ABOUT THE [1:07] PRESIDENT'S NAME WHICH WAS PUT [1:08] IN AND THEN REMOVED AND FIALS [1:10] REMOVED AROUND? [1:11] THERE'S SO MANY QUESTIONS FOR [1:13] THE ATTORNEY GENERAL. [1:14] AND THIS IDEA THAT REPUBLICANS [1:16] DON'T WANT TO RELEASE THE [1:17] INTERVIEW AS AN ACTUAL VIDEO TO [1:19] THE PUBLIC, WHICH THEY OF [1:21] COURSE HAVE DONE ON ALL THESE [1:23] OTHER INTERVIEWS RECENTLY, IS [1:24] CRAZY. [1:25] IT REALLY LEADS TO THIS IDEA OF [1:28] A MASSIVE COORDINATED COVER-UP. [1:30] WE'RE LOOKING FORWARD TO THE [1:32] INTERVIEW, BUT IT NEEDS TO BE [1:33] RELEASED TO THE PUBLIC. [1:34] WELL, WHILE YOU'RE [1:36] ADVOCATING FOR IT TO BE ON [1:38] CAMERA, WE'VE SEEN PAM BONDI, [1:39] LET'S SAY CONTENTIOUS, IN LIFE [1:40] SETTINGS WHEN THE CAMERAS ARE [1:41] ROLLING. [1:41] I JUST WANT TO REMIND FOLKS, [1:42] HERE ARE SOME EXCHANGES FROM [1:44] HER LAST PUBLIC CONGRESSIONAL [1:45] HEARING. [1:46] WHY DIDN'T SHE ASK MERRICK GARLAND [1:48] THIS? [1:48] I'M RECLAIMING MY TIME. [1:52] I'M NOT GOING TO GET IN THE [1:54] GUTTER FOR HER THEATRICS. [1:54] HOW MANY HAVE YOU INDITED? [1:56] EXCUSE ME, I'M GOING TO ANSWER [1:58] THE QUESTION. [1:58] ANSWER MY QUESTION. [1:59] NO, I'M GOING TO ANSWER THE [2:00] QUESTION THE WAY I WANT TO ANSWER [2:01] THE QUESTION. [2:02] YOUR THEATRICS ARE RIDICULAR. [2:03] WEXNER'S NAME WAS ADDED BACK [2:04] IN 40 MINUTES OF ME CATCHING [2:05] YOU RED-HANDED. [2:06] RED-HANDED. [2:07] THERE WAS ONE REDACTION OUT OF [2:08] OVER 4700. [2:09] AND WE INVITED YOU IN. [2:10] THIS GUY HAS TRUMP DERRANGEMENT [2:11] SYNDROME. [2:12] HE NEEDS TO GET IN. [2:13] HE NEEDS TO GET IN. [2:14] HE NEEDS TO GET IN. [2:15] HE NEEDS TO GET IN. [2:16] HE NEEDS TO GET IN. [2:17] HE NEEDS TO GET IN. [2:18] HE NEEDS TO GET IN. [2:19] HE NEEDS TO GET IN. [2:20] HE NEEDS TO GET IN. [2:21] HE NEEDS TO GET IN. [2:22] THAT'S A LISTENING. [2:23] WE NEEDS TO GET IN. [2:24] HE NEEDS TO GET IN. [2:25] HE IS LISTED AS A CO-CONSERITH. [2:27] OKAY. [2:28] WE INVITED YOU IN. [2:30] THIS GUY HAS TRUMP DERRANGEMENT [2:32] SYNDROME. [2:33] YOU'RE A FAILED POLITICIAN. [2:35] I THINK IT'S FAIR TO SAY NOT [2:36] A LOT WAS LEARNED. [2:37] DO YOU HAVE ANY HOPE, ANY [2:40] EXPECTATION THAT IF THERE IS A [2:41] CLOSED DOOR SETTING, IF THE [2:43] CAMERAS AREN'T ROLLING, MAYBE [2:46] SHE CHANGES HER APPROACH. [2:48] MAYBE IT PRODUCES MORE [2:49] ANSWERS. [2:50] General, and so this is an opportunity for her to be honest, to come clean, to give us the facts [2:55] so that we can understand why there has been this consistent cover-up. Why did the president call [3:00] this investigation a hoax? Why did she try to bury and stop this investigation? Why have there [3:06] been no criminal convictions? And why is 50% of the files still not released to the public? [3:12] So these are fair questions. These are questions that Democrats have, and there are some Republicans [3:17] that have joined us to also push for these answers. We are once again demanding the Republican [3:23] chairman of this committee to ensure that this is released in a videotape to the American public [3:29] and the media. Why the cover-up? So we're going to ask the right questions. We're going to share [3:34] as much as we know from this interview that the attorney general has been at the center of this [3:39] Epstein scandal and cover-up led by the White House. So if she ends up, if Bondi ends up being evasive, [3:46] if she stonewalls your questions, other lawmakers' questions tomorrow, is there anything you can do? [3:54] There is. I mean, one, look, this is not the only conversation that we can have with her. And I [3:59] think certainly, and certainly if we win the majority, I think the former attorney general can [4:03] expect more questions from us. There are going to be other parts of this investigation that start [4:08] coming together in the months ahead. We may want to speak to her again. And we are going to wait and see [4:13] how the Republicans actually treat this interview tomorrow. Are they going to treat it as the [4:18] serious exercise that it needs to be as part of this investigation? Or are they going to be there [4:23] to try to continue to cover up and lie and ensure that we're diverting the actual facts and not getting [4:29] justice for the survivors? Look, Pam Bondi never sat down and met with all the survivors. [4:35] They begged her to do so. It is a shame that she refused to meet with the survivors. It's a shame [4:42] that the current acting attorney general, Todd Blanche, has done everything to try to hide and [4:47] essentially evade our questions. He's also not met with the survivors. So we have a lot of questions [4:52] tomorrow. And the attorney general needs to explain why there has been so much corruption at the [4:58] Justice Department. So you say she could be brought back. As I'm sure you now know, [5:04] she's now facing an ethics complaint brought to the Florida bar by a coalition of legal groups, [5:09] including a former Florida Supreme Court justice. And they accuse her of coercing DOJ lawyers into [5:15] unethical acts, pursuing cases without probable cause, and the mishandling of the release of the [5:23] sensitive Epstein victims' records. Could that open up new lines of questioning for her? [5:31] Absolutely. Look, Pam Bondi is no longer the AG, but certainly she was at the center of an enormous [5:38] amount of weaponization and corruption at the Department of Justice. I mean, the way that Donald [5:42] Trump essentially made that department his own personal team of lawyers, the way that he went after [5:48] and continues to go after his political enemies, the way that he has used the legal system to go [5:54] after folks that he feels has wronged him or wronged his family and friends. And Pam Bondi has been [6:00] completely complicit in all of that. She has supported everything the president has wanted. [6:06] The weaponization of the Department of Justice has been unprecedented. The way they have not listened [6:11] to survivors, not convicted, not gone after those that have been guilty of serious crimes is crazy. [6:17] The way they've treated the January Sixers. I mean, they've essentially said that they are heroes in some [6:23] ways. And now they want to give them, as you know, $1.8 billion. There's a possibility that some of [6:29] them may get from this crazy illegal fund that Donald Trump has set up. So there's a lot that Pam [6:34] Bondi needs to talk about. And we look forward for asking those questions and her answering them [6:39] tomorrow. Some of the questions that have been answered, the information that's gotten out there [6:43] has been driven, first of all, of course, by the survivors who have been unrelenting and have found [6:49] allies and folks like you, members of Congress, but also the American people who looked at this and [6:54] said, look, something's not right here. We want answers. But do you have a sense that with everything [7:00] else that's going on with war and the economy, that pressure is fading and it makes your job and [7:07] what you want to do with this more difficult? Look, the reality is, is when I'm out in the community, [7:14] being back home in California, people are constantly asking me about the Epstein files. [7:19] The American public understands that this is important. Absolutely. The American public [7:23] consistently is asking us to close this investigation, to get justice for the [7:28] survivors. They continue to push. It is, it is constant. And I think what people understand is that [7:32] this is just bigger than this investigation. We're talking about whether women and girls in this [7:38] country, when they report the most horrific thing that could happen to them, whether it's rape or [7:42] abuse or it's trafficking, is their government going to actually respond? Is the government going to [7:47] actually do something to take on these powerful men and these men that are committing these horrific [7:52] acts and crimes? And so we owe it to the women and girls in our families, in our schools, to our [7:58] students, that this government can actually stand up and prosecute and take on these men that are committing [8:04] these horrific acts. And it's the same men that are not just abusing women and girls, but then are [8:09] stealing our taxpayer dollars with no consequence. It is time for this group, this powerful group of [8:15] the Epstein class to actually have accountability in this country. Well, we look forward to hearing [8:21] from you and others who are inside that room tomorrow, if you get some of the answers you're looking [8:25] for. Congressman Robert Garcia, thank you so much. It's good to see you again.