Sidebar With Katie Phang - 4/15/2026

Hey, everybody. Welcome to Tuesdays 530. What is it? Sidebar live with Katie Fang. So grateful for you to join me. I am coming to you live from Washington, D.C. Just between us chickens, tomorrow I'm going to be testifying before the United States Senate Judiciary Committee on a special panel hearing concerning the... basically the destruction of the independence of the media and of free speech should that big merger be allowed to go through between Paramount Skydance and Warner Brothers Discovery. So I'll be testifying before the U.S. Senate tomorrow. Hopefully you guys will tune in to watch. But in the meantime, we are actually going to lead with breaking, breaking news. The Department of Justice now currently led by Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche has filed the pleading you see on your screen right now, an unopposed motion to vacate convictions and to remand for dismissal with prejudice. You guys want to know what this case is about? This is about the January 6th insurrectionists that were convicted for seditious conspiracy. I was, this was brought to my attention by my dear friend and our American patriot friend, Harry Dunn, former Capitol police officer. It is actually the trial within which he provided testimony as to what happened on January 6th. And as we can see from this filing, we're going to put it back up. What they're trying to do is the Department of Justice is telling the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals that right now that four defendants who were convicted of crimes relating to January 6th, specifically Ethan Nordine, Joseph Andy Biggs, Zachary Rell, and Dominic Posola. that their appeal is unnecessary at the DC Circuit Court of Appeals level. Why? Because now the Department of Justice is not interested in justice anymore. If you actually go down and you look on page two towards the end, and my producers are amazing because they're pulling it up for you guys, it says in the executive branches view, It is not in the interest of justice to continue to prosecute this case or the cases of other similarly situated defendants. It is consistent with the government's practice to actually vacate convictions in cases where the government has decided in its prosecutorial discretion that dismissal of a criminal case is in the interest of justice. And it actually cites to, you know what case? The Steve Bannon conviction. Remember Steve Bannon? Well, his case was going all the way up to the Supreme Court of the United States. And the Department of Justice believing in the injustice of the law said, guess what? We agree with Steve Bannon. We're not going to fight this anymore. And we're going to actually ask you to kick it back to the trial court so that his case can get dismissed. And that's what they are trying to do here.

Now, these particular defendants, they did not get their cases pardoned. Why? Because you weren't able as Donald Trump to pardon these cases or these defendants cases. In the end, they end up getting a commutation. But now, if you get rid of these charges, what's going to happen? It's as if it never occurred. We have talked about how outrageous it is for a convicted felon Donald Trump and this administration as he directs the Department of Justice, now under Todd Blanche. I'm going to get to him a little bit later concerning the Epstein files, but that they are hell bent on fucking rewriting history. But I'm here to remind all of you that we can always believe our own eyes, our own ears. We know what we saw happening in real time on January 6, 2021, and that we actually owe it to people like Harry Dunn. and Mike Fanon and others, right? The people that defended our United States Capitol on January 6th to always stand up and remind people that that was an insurrection. That was Donald Trump refusing to cede power and to agree to a peaceful transition. So, ladies and gentlemen, welcome to sidebar opening, breaking news. The Department of Justice now saying that they want to vacate the convictions of the January 6th insurrectionists that were convicted for seditious conspiracy. People, this wasn't just, I'm trespassing on the Capitol grounds, this wasn't, I'm in the Capitol where I'm not supposed to be, seditious conspiracy is about as damn bad as we're going to get. treasonous, in fact. And yet here is where we find ourselves disappointing, yet totally predictable from this Department of Justice. I'll have some more in this later on, but I just wanted to make sure that it didn't miss your attention as we kick off right now. Moving on to our planned show for today. Let's start with the Pope versus the president. If you guys remember, Trump posted this. Truth Social Post attacking Pope Leo, right? And I'm not even going to get into the entirety of it because it really is supportive of the Section 420th Amendment. This guy needs to be replaced. But anyway, it says here, Pope Leo is weak on crime, terrible for foreign policy. And he goes on to basically say that, but for Trump being in the White House, there's no way that American Pope Leo from Chicago, as we know, that he ever would have actually made it into the role as Pope. The bottom line is this. He's blaming Pope Leo for not using common sense as Pope Leo has spoken out about the war in Iran. He says, stop catering to the radical left. Well, Pope Leo basically said, guess what, Donald Trump?

I'm not scared of you. Take a lesson. I have no fear neither the Trump administration nor speaking out loudly about the message in the gospel. And that's what I believe. I am called to know what the church is called to do. We're not politicians. We're not looking to make foreign policy as he calls it with the same perspective that he might understand it. But I do believe the message of the gospel, the lesson of the peacemakers is a message of the war needs to hear. Blessed are the peacemakers. I don't have to tell you, you don't even have to be religious to appreciate the role that Pope Leo has globally. Pope Leo, in theory, is man that is on our planet that is closest to God. And you don't have to be religious to be able to believe in the concepts as we heard from him, right? This idea that blessed are the peacemakers. We should be living in peace. We should have agreements to live in peace. And so it takes courage and bravery for somebody like Pope Leo. to actually express his opinion. And he made it clear he's not there for the politics. He's there for the peace. And so for Donald Trump to lash out the way that he did. just goes to show that Trump has performative religion. Trump's religion, in quotes, is bullshit. That man, I'm surprised that the Bible doesn't explode into flames when he's holding it. Remember that time he was holding the Bible upside down? Look, you know, if there was another chapter in the exorcism story, it really should be used for a convicted felon, Donald Trump. And the bravery of Pope Leo went on and on. And so because Donald Trump felt like we as Americans in the world needed to know that he is close to God as well. What did he post? He posts this travesty of an AI image of him. And I believe that's Jeffrey Epstein, folks. That is Donald Trump. He's doing the resurrection. of Jeffrey Epstein. And putting aside, somebody said something really funny. You know what they said? They said, what was the chat GPT prompt to be able to create that artificial intelligence image? But also somebody pointed out, and let's put the thing back up, guys, because I want to show this. Can so many please explain to me what the hell is flying in the sky in the back? Because there's certainly not angels. And I'm not talking about the bald eagle people and the fighter jets. I'm talking about the demigorgon from stranger things that is coming out of the sky, which in my mind looks like the fucking antichrist. And so Donald Trump glowing hands, resurrecting Jeffrey Epstein, because you know what? If there's somebody who knows what the hell happened, it would be Jeffrey Epstein. But no.

According to Donald Trump, he now wants to backpedal and say he meant to actually be depicting himself as a Red Cross doctor? I don't know. Take a listen. Mr. President, did you post that picture of yourself depicted as Jesus Christ? Well, it wasn't a picture. It was me. I did post it, and I thought it was me as a doctor and had to do with Red Cross as a Red Cross worker there, which we support. And only the fake news could come up with that one. So I had just heard about it. And I said, how did they come up with that? It's supposed to be me as a doctor. making people better. And I do make people better. I make people a lot better. Okay, so here's the thing. Trump just admitted that he intentionally posted that on truth social. Remember how sometimes he hams and he haws about whether or not that was him? Well, look, he did post it and he met himself to be depicted as Jesus Christ. And I don't actually have the time, but I would urge you all, as I know you're doing, to go to your social media platforms and enjoy the beauty of the memes that have been created of... basically Jesus Christ being your doctor. They are a plenty, they are legion, and they're amazing. But it just goes to show that Trump does have this obsession with being perceived as being somebody who believes in Jesus, who believes in Christ. And you know what? What's kind of crazy here, though, is you would think that if you had respect for religion, if you had respect for Jesus Christ, Christianity, and the tenets of that religion, You think you'd be nicer to the Pope, wouldn't you? In light of everything that is going on, even with Pope Leo basically saying, you know what? We're not here to be politicians. We're just here to promote the peace. But no, Donald Trump, he doesn't really know when to shut his mouth, shut his trap. And this is what he says. He doubles down. Robert Barron, you classify Robert Barron supports you and your policies, and praises you for defending wages freedom. Yeah. Now says you owe Poclillo and policy. Do you apologize? No, I don't, because Pope Leo said things that are wrong. He was very much against what I'm doing with regard to Iran, and you cannot have a nuclear in Iran. Poplio would not be happy with the end result. You have hundreds of millions of people dead. and it's not going to happen. So I can't. I think he's very weak on crime and other things. So I'm not, I mean, he went public. I'm just responding to Pope Leo. And, you know, his brother is a big, mage person, and he's a great guy, Lewis. And I said I like Lewis better than I like the Pope.

I was going to use an expletive, but I think it's probably weird for me to do it in the same mouth sentence dealing with the Pope. First of all, what a petulant child. What a toddler that the president of the United States says, well, nanny, nanny, boo-boo. He started it. I'm just responding. That's bullshit. But did you guys hear what he said? Hundreds of millions of people have died. Okay, well. I think just one loss of life in the construct of any of these wars that are going on and any of the, quote, conflicts that have been going on with Trump is one too many. But last I checked, I did not know that hundreds of millions of lives have been lost. I don't even think you could accumulate them over the years, over the decades, over the hundreds or centuries of years to reach hundreds of millions of people have died. This is why people we need. an independent media that can sit there and say, excuse me, excuse me, Mr. Trump, you just said hundreds of millions of people that die. What the fuck are you talking about? Right? I mean, the fact that this man just goes unchecked to spew his hatred, but also his lies and his lack of accurate facts just goes to show our media is still lacking. But you know, the kind of performative religion, because look, Pope Leo is the real deal, right? He's the real deal. So it's the performative religion that Trump, that gets, you know, he gets off on the performative religion, right? He gets off on this type of shit that he rolls into the Oval Office every once in a while. Watch this one. We are honored to come before your presence today, lifting up the arms of our president. We pray for your continued blessing and favor to rest upon him. We pray for wisdom from heaven to flood his heart, his mind, and Lord, you will guide him in these challenging times that we're facing today. You know they were praying specifically about the war. They were praying for God to give Donald Trump guidance and the wisdom to do the right thing. I know somebody who's kind of easier to reach than God, although I do believe God is, if you believe as well, that you can talk to God at any time, but there is somebody on planet Earth that we could go to to say, I want to know, do you think God is maybe supporting Donald Trump in this war in Iran? And his name is Pope Leo. And you know what? I think Pope Leo has already said that, no, we're not going to support the war in Iran, despite how many times DUI Keg's breath wants to sit there and try to make this into a holy war, no matter how many times he wants to evoke Christian imagery and to use Bible verses? it's not going to make it a holy war. It's not going to make it a holy war. But when you have that prayer grama going on with Paula, I sometimes I mistakenly call her Paula Dean, Paula White or whatever her name is and they're praying and they're sitting there. And look, I looked up some of the names of those people. You should too and go and check out their social media. There is some shit going on. There is talking in tongues. You should check it out.

But I digress. But that's a type of performative religion and Christianity. And you would think that people that do believe, that do care, would be smart enough to figure that out. And yet. And maybe they will. I haven't given up on the converts yet. But check out this. This is from 2024. This is a November election. And these are the exit polls. And this looks at religious affiliation. And I don't have to tell you, you guys looking at these numbers? Red is Trump. Blue is Harris. White evangelical Protestants. Look at that number. 81% voting for Donald Trump. What's after that? Hispanic Protestants. You know the people that are a part of many of the countries that are subject to deportation orders illegal and unconstitutional. Well, look at that shit. 63% voting for Trump. White Catholics coming in strong. Bronze metal going to the white Catholics at 60%. And then white non-evangelical Protestants coming in at 57. Interestingly, Hispanic Catholics, of which I know many, 43%. So not as many as I honestly thought would be. And then we start seeing the shift and the swing towards the Kamala Harris vote in November of 2024. Black Protestants and the Jewish vote, right? And listen, you guys know me. I'm not a fan of the polls. I'm not quite sure how these roll out. But when you detect a trend, I start to notice them, right? And this is most certainly a graph that shows that Trump carried at least in November of 2024, the strength and the fervency of the religious vote, right? And that was, I thought, an oddity because I really did believe that the first round of Trump with the evangelical vote is because he promised them the overturning of Roe v. Wade, which to me sounds like he had his thumb on the scale by predicting what was going to happen, right? And in my mind, I thought once he delivered the reversal of Roe v. Wade, that that would satiate many of the evangelicals who were kind of holding their nose but voting for Trump. But those numbers we just looked at on the screen in November of 2024 suggest something else going on. But now I'd like to know, and maybe if you guys know Catholics in your lives, I invite you to have an honest conversation with them and ask them in light of the attacks that he is doing and is doubling down of the attacks on Pope Leo and on the Catholic Church.

I would ask your friends, your family, your acquaintances, how do they feel about that happening? Because I do think that is actually an Achilles heel for Donald Trump. And I do think it's going to create an even wider chasm in support between the religious vote and Donald Trump. You know somebody else who likes to fancy himself a Christian, although I just call him a Sunday Christian because that's really who he is. That's JD Vance. And JD Vance actually said the following. He actually said that Pope Leo should stick to matters of morality. Take a listen to JD. Some cases, it would be best for the Vatican to stick to matters of morality, to stick to matters of, you know, what's going on to the Catholic Church, and let the President of United States stick to dictating American public policy. But when they're in conflict, they're in conflict. I don't worry about it too much, Brett. I think it's a natural thing. I'm sure it'll happen in the future, and it's not that big of a deal that it happened in the past. You know, JD Vance has a new book coming out about how he found himself and how he found a newfound love for Catholicism. All of this shit, again, it's performative, right? And we know it's performative because none of them across the board, including those that are going into the Oval to Pray for Him, none of them are actually living by Christian ideals and beliefs. And I'm not expecting better. In fact, I'm expecting a bigger, stronger response from the Catholic Church, from our Protestant churches, from our other religious sects and organizations. I am expecting more of a response from them because they are stepping up and they are standing in the breach and defending all of us and fellow Americans, regardless of our religious affiliation or our lack thereof. when civil rights are being violated, when human rights are being violated, some of them are actually standing there and getting shot with rubber bullets and getting beaten by immigration agents and officers, right? Because they believe in the truth of peace and love for all. I know you guys know that it wouldn't be a sidebar with Katie Fang if we didn't have something to kind of look at. And of course, my amazing producer, Sydney, and the other one, Shannon, they also agreed that perhaps I could share with you my vision of the next best UFC cage match. And in my opinion, if it's between the Pope and the president, I invite you to tell me if you think I'm wrong. But this... is what I was thinking would be the next UFC cage fight. And I see a badly bruised and beaten Donald Trump begging, begging for mercy. Begging for mercy from the Pope. Admittedly, I know that looks more like an older Pope than Pope Leo, but you know what? I'll take it, people. I will. And moving on to some more breaking news today on Sidebar Live with Katie Fang. We have two, two members of Congress gone in one fell swoop. Tuesday, April 14th, 2026, two members of Congress, Eric Swalwell and Tony Gonzalez, gone. Let's listen to the clerk's reading of Eric Swalwell's resignation now. The Honorable, the Speaker, House of Representatives, sir.

i am deeply sorry to my family staff and constituents for mistakes and judgment i have made in my past i will fight the serious false allegations made against me however i must take responsibility and ownership for the mistakes i did make I am aware of efforts to bring an immediate expulsion vote against me and other members. Expelling anyone in Congress without due process within days of an allegation being made is wrong. But it's also wrong for my constituents to have to be distracted from my duties. Therefore, I plan to resign my seat in Congress effective at 2 p.m. Eastern Time on April 14, 2026. I will work with my staff in the coming days to ensure they are able and my absence to serve the needs of the good people of the 14th congressional district. Signed sincerely, Eric Swalwell. Under Clause 5D of Rule 20, the chair announces to the House that in light of the resignation of the gentleman from California, Mr. Eric Swalwell, the whole number of the House is 431. The whole number of the house, 431, but that wasn't it. And I've been reading the comments on social folks, and I know that a lot of you said, well, if Eric Swalwell's got to go, Tony Gonzalez has got to go, ask, and you shall receive. Take a listen. The Speaker, House of Representatives, sir. And close as my resignation letter to Texas Governor Greg Abbott, effective April 14, 2026 at 1159 p.m. Eastern Standard Time. It has been my privilege to serve the residents of Texas's 23rd Congressional District. Signed sincerely, Tony Gonzalez, member of Congress. The chair lays before the House at Communication. So we now have two fewer members of the House of Representatives. I would note that Tony Gonzalez's letter. His letter of resignation, he made it out to the Texas governor. You know, I understand that that's the state from which he's from, but really, Tony Gonzalez really should have been apologizing to the people of America. And say what you will, I'm not on board with the resignation statements and comments that were made by Eric Swalwell either. And then to add insult to injury today, what did we get? We also had a huge press conference with a brand new accuser of Eric Swalwell. Her name is Lana Drews, and she provided some public statements today at that press conference accompanied by her attorney, Lisa Bloom, the daughter of famed attorney Gloria Allred. And I'm not going to play the entirety of her statement.

her statement being Lana Drew's statement, but I am going to play a portion of it now. I want to warn you in advance. It can be triggering for some of you and can be traumatizing to listen. So I want to warn everybody in advance, but I do think it's worthwhile for you to hear and to see for yourself some of the statements that were provided by the new accuser against Eric Swalwell. Please take a listen. He invited me to two public events. I knew he was married at the time and that his wife was pregnant. He was my friend. On the third occasion, I believe he drugged my drink. I only had one glass of wine. He, we were supposed to go to a political event and he said he needed to get paperwork from his hotel room. When I arrived at his hotel room, I was already incapacitated and I couldn't move my arms on my body. He raped me and he choked me.

And while he was joking me, I lost consciousness. And I thought I died. I did not consent to any sexual activity. So that's hard to listen to. That is not the entirety of it, but it was kind of the crux of what she wanted to say that happened with Eric Swalwell. And I'll just give you some more details about that incident. She did not file a police report at the time. This was in 2018 in a hotel room in California is the location of this alleged assault. However, she did, as in Lana Drews, who's the woman who is claiming that she was drugged and while incapacitated and unable to consent was choked and raped by Eric Swalwell. She said that she disclosed that assault to the people closest to her. She also recorded the events in her handwritten calendar back in 2018. The assault and its impact on her emotionally and on her mental health was later documented during her therapy sessions at a sexual assault center located in California. Excuse me, Connecticut, my bad. I'm sorry, Connecticut. So similarly to the other accusers that I've stepped forward to make claims against Eric Swalwell, they are claiming that when these things occurred with him, They may not have reported them to law enforcement, but that they did report them to either family, friends, loved ones, and they had contemporaneous documentation either by way of medical records or something else to corroborate the timing of their interactions with Eric Swalwell. Now, Eric Swalwell, as we know, suspended his gubernatorial campaign in California. which has created a lot of waves and some very uncomfortable prospects of what's going to happen in that state. Now, he's now resigned from his seat in Congress, and he's already facing a criminal investigation in New York based upon allegations that were raised by an alleged victim. of Eric Swalwell's that took place jurisdictionally in New York. So for those of you that are wondering why was it New York, it's because the allegations were that she was assaulted by Eric Swalwell while in New York. According to Lisa Bloom, the attorney for Lana Drews from whom you just heard and saw, they are also filing formally a police report in California, which will then begin a criminal investigatory process against Eric Swalwell in California. I would like to know your thoughts about what you have just seen and heard. I have been looking in the chat. Part of the reason why I love sidebar with you is the ability to be able to read things as they are happening. And I am looking at them right now. And some of you think that she's shown incredible courage. Ms. Drew says, great courage. I'm grateful she has come forward. Some people are wondering, that sounds a little bit staged.

Is this, what do people think? I mean, I am interested to see what you feel about this. I will say as somebody who prosecuted these types of cases for several years, it is a very common response and understandably kind of. almost your logical response to question the timing of when you are to raise allegations and make accusations. It is not new. It is, again, a very common defense or kind of a question that is done. But I will say that delayed reporting, as it is called legally and otherwise in investigation parlance, delayed reporting in and of itself. is not a badge of being a lie. It is something that happens with sexual assault victims and survivors, and we're actually seeing that happening as well, dealing with some of the Epstein victims and survivors. So I will say that, of course, it needs to be looked at individually. However, There's smoke and there looks like there's fire here, but this was the newest accused of set forward to accuse Eric Swalwell of wrongdoing. Just to kind of put a finer kind of note on the Eric Swalwell stuff, there has been a response to Lana Drews' accusations. It's coming from his criminal defense attorney for Eric Swalwell. Her name is Sarah Azari. We're putting it up on your screen. I'd like you to see it now. And basically it says that he continues to categorically and unequivocally deny allegations of sexual misconduct and assault, that these accusations are false fabricated and deeply offensive, a calculated and transparent political hit job, and that the timing, nature, and coordinated rollout is vile and heinous, and that he is confident the truth will prevail. and they will pursue every available legal remedy against those responsible. That is the response from Eric Swalwell by way of his criminal defense lawyer. I will tell you that Eric Swalwell posted that on his own social media. Let's shift gears just a little bit and stay on the Swabwell track if you guys don't mind. I want to play for you what former Speaker of the House, Kevin McCarthy said on ABCUs on Sunday, on the Sunday shows about Eric Swalwell and about Matt Bill Gates. Take a listen. Every member in Congress knows not to let any young staffer get around Eric Swalwell or Matt Bill Gates. It's not a secret there. There's a reason why you didn't want those two people around. He was the leading candidate for governor. He probably could have won the primary and gotten there. But this all came forward. And these young women deserve justice. I agree. His campaign is in a free fall right now with top staff is leaving. And let me just say this. As someone who knows at least one of the victims that have come forward, I'm very concerned.

Donna Brazile. Yeah. I'm concerned too. And in full disclosure, I know one of the victims that has come forward. I've spoken with her and I believe her. So I will say this. I am disturbed, though, by Kevin McCarthy. Two reasons. One, if everybody knew not to allow a young staffer to go around Eric Swalwell and Matt Bill Gates, why didn't anybody do anything about that in Congress? There are people like Lana Drews that have come forward and they weren't congressional staffers, but a lot of the people that have come forward that have made these allegations, these young women were staffers at the time or they were working on the campaigns or whatever. And if it was such. something that Kevin McCarthy as Speaker of the House knew. and involving Matt Bill Gates. We all know the allegations about Matt Bill Gates, Vemmo Bill Gates, right? I mean, hello. If that was known, why did McCarthy do nothing? Now, McCarthy is doing something interesting here, too. Earlier in the conversation on ABC News with John Carl, he says, well, I told Nancy Pelosi at the time that because of the allegations involving Eric Swalwell and a Chinese spy, that Eric Swalwell shouldn't be on Intel. Buddy, I'm... worried about my national security yeah but i'm worried about the young congressional staffers that shouldn't be around swallwell and Bill Gates there is a common denominator between those two men is there not Bill Gates and Eric Swalwell they both faced allegations of sexual misconduct they both resigned before house ethics investigations could be either commenced in one instance or concluded in another and they both did not actually sit through a house ethics investigation. Take that. for what it is, right? And yeah, I see you guys in the chat. Now do Trump. Y'all, if you don't think that I've been pushing for accountability for Trump and his sexual misconduct, y'all don't know me. But you do know me. And you know that I do believe what's good for the goose is good for the gander. I have said that repeatedly when it deals with sexual misconduct. I will also let y'all know this. Did you know? Since 1997 to 2017, and this is the available data I was able to find for you for tonight. Congress has paid more than $17 million in sexual misconduct and discrimination settlements. 80% of the people who have told their offices in Congress about the sexual misconduct chose not to report it to the office of compliance. And this data I just shared with you, the 17 million in sexual misconduct and discrimination settlements, that came from the Office of Compliance data. So look, and if you drill down,

They included other things, like I said, discrimination, right? So it's not just 17.2 million and just sexual harassment, but there's been a lot of payments on sexual harassment claims that have been made vis-a-vis people that have been working in congressional offices. You know, folks, that's $1, right? $1 too many to have to pay out for this without us knowing about it as members of the American public. as constituents for some of these people. So I do think we need to have even more transparency and accountability in Congress now. And maybe the silver lining from everything that we're going through, including Tony Gonzalez, who also faced his own allegations of such improper misconduct that the young woman on his staff in his office killed herself. She lit herself on fire. Okay, like these are not things to sneer at, to make light of. These are things to take seriously. And if there's environments that are created that are actually facilitating this bad conduct, then we got to do something about it because we owe our young people, male, female, we owe them better than what they're getting right now. Just really quickly, I want to also share with you. Kash Patel has also now asking, hey, Eric Swalwell, now that you've resigned, would you like to come and speak to me? I don't know. You know what, folks, I told you about it because I think it's important for you to know that even the FBI is interested in it, but frankly, it's Kash Patel, and he couldn't find a fucking nut if he was a squirrel. All righty. Let's talk about the latest in the Epstein files, okay? This is important stuff as well. You need to be in the know. I know there's always so much going on, but I want to make sure you are always empowered with the latest information concerning the Epstein files. You know how much that means to me. I want you to listen to acting attorney general Todd Blanche. This is today. I want you to listen to what he had to say about the Epstein files. Listen. I know that you have the authority to go ahead and release more. Do you not? And you have the authority to. Go to Congress, perhaps? No, we have released everything. So listen, we reviewed six million pieces of paper. What we released were anything associated with the Epstein file. So there, we are not sitting on a single piece of paper. Nothing that should be released. If we find something else tomorrow, we'll release it. I don't anticipate we will. So the misguided assumption that there is more to be released is because we reviewed millions and millions of pages within the department, millions of which had nothing to do with Epstein. So it's not. as if we looked at a document and said, you know, we're not going to release that. If we didn't release it, it's because it was not responsive to the law and therefore not part of the Epstein files. What we've done with Congress is we have, we, we, by law, we had to make certain redactions by law, including of victims and of PI information, but we said to Congress, any congressman. can come in and spend as much time as they want, looking at everything unredacted. And if you think we should be doing something, Congressman or Congresswoman, let us know, and we will do it. And so we have that, I don't know how this department or this president can be more transparent than saying American people. Here is every single document in our entire database. And if we had to redact it because of victim names, anybody can come look at it if you're a member of Congress. No restrictions unredacted. I want to squeeze.

Oh, I'm calling bullshit. Let's call the bullshit out. Director for you, T.C. I see you right here. This dude is going to hide everything in all caps. I agree with you if it hasn't already been destroyed already, right? I call bullshit. Why? Because you know. I have spoken to members of Congress like Ro Khanna, Robert Garcia, and others. They've gone to the DOJ. They've sat at those measly little four terminals provided to members of Congress. And what did Roe tell us? Roe said there was double redactions. There was FBI redactions below DOJ redactions. So even if the DOJ redactions is gone, there was the FBI redactions. Todd Blanche just lied and said that any member of Congress can come and look at it fully unredacted, and that's bullshit. You also want to know what's bullshit? We keep receipts. Do you remember what Todd Blanche said just a couple of months ago? He actually said the following. Let's put it up, guys. Let's show our team here at Sidebar. He said the Trump administration had produced roughly three and a half million pages, right? But look at what it goes on to say, Todd Blanche, the department's collection efforts. resulted in more than six million pages being identified as potentially responsive, including department and FBI emails, interview summaries, images, videos, and various other materials collected and generated during the various investigations and prosecutions that the act covered. People, I can read just like you. Six million. If you've only given me three and a half, where's the balance of the documents? And the three and a half you've given me are so heavily redacted at some points against the law because the Epstein Files Transparency Act doesn't allow the redactions that they've done at TOJ and at FBI. What are you hiding? Todd, what's your hiding there? Because now you're saying there's nothing left for DOJ to do, and now you're saying you're not going to turn over another single piece of paper. This is why we need what? Chorus of voices, please. Pammy Joe with the bad hair needs to sit down for her sworn testimony before House oversight at a minimum and explain what in the actual fuck happened when the Epstein files rollout. because it was under her tenure and watch that that rollout happened. And remember, and I just did a big substack article about this, she basically said there was nothing to see, and then suddenly there was millions of things to see, and she couldn't comply with the law. Either way, what do we know? We know that she didn't roll up today for her deposition, right? Remember, she was supposed to sit for her depot today in front of House Oversight. She was subpoenaed. Now we do have heroes in our midst. leader, minority leader who we got on House Oversight for the Dems. We have Robert Garcia. He issued the following released today.

He says her failure to appear for her deposition before House oversight has now begun the process to hold her in contempt of Congress, right? She evaded a lawful congressional subpoena by failing to appear. The subpoena applies to her regardless of her title. She must appear, and if she continues to ignore the law, oversight Dems will move forward with contempt proceedings immediately. We will fight until their true accountability and justice. I know it's annoying people. The wheels of justice move slowly, but they do move. And in this instance, I firmly believe in the next probably 48 hours, we're going to have a new date for Pam Bondi's deposition. But it was supposed to happen today. And do you guys remember I told you about this here at Katie Fang News? Today it was actually supposed to be the shadow hearing in Palm Beach, down the street from Jeffrey Epstein's home and down the street from Mar-a-Lago. There was supposed to be an Epstein-Files shadow hearing by House Oversight Democrats today, April 14th in Palm Beach. How did I know? Well, I knew because I spoke to Robert Garcia and others. And I also knew because I was going to be there in person down in South Florida. But that shadow hearing got moved and postponed because Pam Bondi was supposed to show up for her depot pursuant to her duly authorized congressional subpoena. And yet what happens today? We get to hang out together, which is always a win for me, but we didn't have a depot under oath by Pam Bondi, and we didn't have a shadow hearing down the street from Jeffrey Epstein's home and down the street from convicted felon Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago home. So we're left hold of a bag, aren't we? We are as Americans. And that is why it's incumbent upon us to let everybody know on the Republican side that sometimes the cover-up is just as bad as the crime. In this instance, I still think the crime is worse, child rape. Yeah, worse than this cover-up. But you know what? We're paying attention and we're minding the till and we're making sure that we are demanding accountability from those in power. I am so grateful always for you to join me here at Sidebar Live with Katie Fang. It has been one of those days. I am getting ready to go and prep again for my Senate testimony tomorrow. It'll be live streamed here at Katie Fang News. I invite you to tune in. It's important people. If we lose more and more of our independence in the media because we have these gigantic mergers go through, they're not going to have free speech. And we will not have an independent media to speak of. I'm grateful for your time. I thank you always for being here. Tune in next Tuesday for another live Sidebar. And in the meantime, I'll be back tomorrow, but I got to go rattle some cages as you know me. Like and subscribe, spread the news, and don't forget that you can also get an audio podcast of Sidebar as well as all the other content I put out here at Katie Fang News. I'm grateful for all of you. Thanks for being here.