2/12 - Jessica Rosenthal, FOX News
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Transcript
16 segmentsYou don't tell me anything. Yeah, I did tell you because we saw what you did in the Senate. Not even a lawyer. The Attorney General aggressively attacking House Democrats as they openly questioned her on the Epstein Files and more. Fox is Jessica Rosenthal live for us this morning. Obviously Epstein Files was the biggie, but there were some other times of questioning and topics in that hour's long hearing. There were. In fact, Attorney General Pam Bondi said, look, she's trying to protect Americans in her opening remarks. She noted, among other things, declining crime statistics and major increase in drug seizures. Republicans were praising Pam Bondi for work, in particular highlighting her efforts to fast track like immigration cases, get cases before judges. And they questioned her about... The church protest, for example, she has secured a grand jury indictment there. But it really was the Epstein files that just kind of sucked up all the oxygen in the room. Democrats were really focused on why the names of some men were redacted in the files. but also the failure to redact the names of some of the victims, including those who hadn't yet been public about their experience. They were also, some of them in a more nuanced way, were more concerned with if there are no ongoing investigations or prosecutions of anybody listed at these files, then the Epstein Transparency Act says really nothing should be redacted other than some victims' names. Pam Bondi, when she did speak, was kind of insistent that... This is one of the most transparent moments in this whole saga that 3 million documents have been released, that even when it comes to some redactions, lawmakers can go to DOJ and look at the files themselves and call them out if they think that some redactions are improper. In fact, that's already happened. Thomas Massie called them out on the name of Les Wexner. It's revealed multiple times in the files, so why was it blocked out? in the draft indictment of co-conspirators in fact from 2007 um so her her argument was look you guys can call us out we can change the documents we had a limited amount of time to get these out there and her final point really was where have you guys been for four years you had merit garland before you you didn't ask him one time about epstein when all of these files have been in existence nevertheless democrats kept insisting that um There were some glaring omissions here, some glaring problems here, and they suspected that it was done on purpose. Were there any moments involving some of the Epstein survivors who were there? Yeah, by my count, there were at least four times when four different members of Congress, all Democrats, asked the victims to stand and raise their hands to show whether or not they felt they were supported by DOJ, whether or not they felt that they, two of them, Pramila Jayapal and Hank Johnson, both asked Pam Bondi to turn to the victims and apologize to them for revealing some of their names.
And in other cases, Dan Goldman, for example, out of New York, asked the victims to stand and raise their hands if they had tried to talk to DOJ about their experiences with Epstein, but were ignored or rebuffed. And they all raised their hands. So these were victims who wanted to be there, who wanted to participate. And they were essentially asked by Democrats to physically participate by standing up and participate in that way. Pam Bondi, when she was asked to apologize, told the lawmakers. that she wasn't going to get in the gutter with them in these theatrics. But she did say in her opening remarks, Epstein's a monster, and she does feel terribly about what victims went through with him and said that they are still very open to hearing from victims and talking with them. There were also some allegations of spying on members. This has to do evidently with a photo, which showed Pam Bondi with a rundown of what one Democrat had searched for when looking through the Epstein files at the Justice Department. How did she answer to that? I don't recall. Can you give me more details on that? This was the photo that evidently was in her binder that she had that showed what one Democrat, I don't know if it was Premier Pramila Jayapal, but what they were searching for as they looked through the Epstein files, Pramila Jayapal calling it outrageous and saying that she should stop spying on members. Is there any evidence of that or clarity to that? The spying on members, I think, I'm not, I guess I must have missed that part. The spying on members I thought was related to the Arctic Frost investigation, which Republicans are upset about. I'd have to go back and review that portion of Primalogyapulta remarks for her five minutes. I don't recall. So what comes next in all of this? It's a really great question. I don't know. It doesn't seem like it's going anywhere, but. go anywhere at least from the DOJ's perspective you would anticipate additional cases right additional filing And that was one of the Democrats' big points was if there are no ongoing prosecutions and ongoing investigations, then all of this should be redacted. Nothing should be, you know, nothing should be held back other than certain victims' names. And they asked Attorney General Pam Bondi about that. And they said that Kash Patel, the FBI director, had come before them and sort of intimated that there isn't an active investigation necessarily out of all of this. Pam Bondi had said they are still open. to looking at different names, looking at different allegations, but it doesn't seem like there's anything really concrete moving forward. Now, there could be, and they could end up speaking to some of these victims and pushing forward with the case. I don't know if that's happening at this point. I think Democrats, though, are not going to let up on this and are going to insist on the six million documents being released in full. DOJ has said a lot of it's duplicative. that it doesn't need to be released if it's just a repeat. But Democrats say they don't believe that, and they still want all of this released. So I don't know if we'll see additional hearings about this, but I don't think Democrats are going to let up on this anytime soon. And no doubt. Fox's Jessica Rosenthal live for us this morning. Thanks for the update.