WATCH: Rep. Min on CNN: “This All Reeks of a Cover-up Right Now and We Need to Release the Entire Epstein Files.”
“America has a chance right now to show the world that there is one rule of law here. There is not an Epstein elite that's gonna get away with literally committing maybe murder, child rape, human trafficking—that we are gonna apply the rule of law to everybody, no matter who you are in this country”
Washington, D.C. — On CNN News Central, Representative Dave Min (CA-47), a member of the House Oversight Committee, pressed the Department of Justice over what he described as a “cover-up” in the handling of the Epstein files, criticizing widespread and “unnecessary” redactions, the withholding of roughly half of the documents, and what he called a pattern of efforts by the Trump White House and DOJ to shield powerful individuals from scrutiny.
Rep. Min also addressed the prospect of reading unredacted names on the House floor, Ghislaine Maxwell’s bid for clemency, and what the disclosures to date suggest about the equal application of the rule of law.
On Redactions in the Epstein Files:
“I am going in later this week, probably Thursday, maybe Friday, to review the unredacted Epstein files. And what we've seen so far, from the ones I've reviewed, is a lot of unnecessary redactions of names, including Donald Trump's name quite a lot. We've also seen them not redact the identities or faces of a lot of girls and young women. So there's a real problem here. And the other problem is that 50% of the Epstein files have not been released to us. We don't have any good reason for that. I'll take Representative Massie on his word that he saw some documents, and that it fits in with a larger narrative, that they're covering this up.”
On an Alleged DOJ and White House Cover-Up:
“I would really go back to last year, because around this time last year, you had Kash Patel and Pam Bondi, saying repeatedly that they would do everything in their power to release the Epstein files, to get to the bottom of this sex trafficking ring. And yet, sometime in May, reportedly, Pam Bondi told President Trump he was in the Epstein files. That launched this whole cover-up. We saw them then deny that the Epstein files existed. Ghislaine Maxwell had a weird visit, a private visit from Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche who used to be Donald Trump's personal attorney. No line attorneys were present, and then a few weeks, a few days later, Ghislaine Maxwell got transferred to a minimum-security prison. Now, we had that subpoena, that deposition earlier this week, she took the 5th Amendment and said that she would not say anything unless she was given a full pardon by President Trump. So this all reeks of a cover-up right now and we need to release the entire Epstein files. The DOJ needs to explain why they seem to be redacting certain names of people who are implicated in the Epstein files.”
On Reading Unredacted Names of Those Implicated on the House Floor:
“If the DOJ is not willing to produce them, then—assuming it's legal and there's no national security or other reasons to withhold them—absolutely. The survivors deserve justice. I don't understand why we don't have transparency right now, and I don't know what the DOJ is trying to cover up.”
On Ghislaine Maxwell Seeking Clemency:
“I will just say that Ghislaine Maxwell was charged with—and was going to be convicted of—perjury, except she got convicted of a higher charge. Obviously, nothing she says is relevant. That is why we've been seeking the Epstein files for months and months now, because the person at the heart of this is a known liar. And the fact that she's basically saying, ‘Donald Trump, I will tell you exactly what you want to hear if you grant me a pardon’. That's not a deal that I think anyone wants right now. We want to get to the bottom of this and get the truth.”
On the Equal Application of the Rule of Law:
“This tells me that Donald Trump was caught lying, because he said that he did not know about Epstein until 2019, and that he quit affiliations with Epstein at some point. So the fact that as early as 2005, 2006, Donald Trump clearly knew something about what was going on with Epstein, and that he was continuing to send girls from Mara Lago to Epstein's appointments, tells us a lot about what Donald Trump knew and when, and I think that's a smoking gun, honestly.
I think the problem right now is that Americans are seeing this all happen, and they're seeing what looks like a cover up, what looks like an attempt to rig the judicial system in favor of some of the richest and most powerful people in the world. What we've seen so far, with the 50% partial production of the Epstein files, is a lot of the most famous, richest people in the world, including a lot of people in Donald Trump's orbit—Howard Lutnick, Mark Zuckerberg, Elon Musk—named over and over in the Epstein files. Donald Trump is named 13,000 times in the Epstein files. And again, they're trying to protect him at this point, it looks like.
So what else is in there, and why don't we have justice? Why does it seem like the justice system is being rigged right now to protect the rich and powerful? America has a chance right now to show the world that there is one rule of law here. There is not an Epstein elite that's gonna get away with literally committing maybe murder, child rape, human trafficking—that we are gonna apply the rule of law to everybody, no matter who you are in this country.”
On White House Claims About the Files:
“They also said it was a hoax over and over and over, and that there were no Epstein files to be produced. Obviously, that is not true. So a lot of what the White House has said in the past year about Epstein is clearly lies.”
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