Epstein BOMB! Senate votes UNANIMOUSLY for files: Ari Melber on the vote Trump couldn’t stop

Congress has voted to release the Epstein files. This is a big deal. Bad news for Donald Trump. In fact, he spent about 302 days fighting this. In this YouTube breakdown, I'm gonna get into what this means, the news, and exactly what they're asking for. I'm Ari Melber, MSNOW anchor. That's the old MSNBC. And an attorney. You can always subscribe on our YouTube. But we are in a place that has completely changed. If you ask someone at the beginning of the year, were the Republicans gonna revolt

against Trump, they would have not expected this. Indeed, it's become kind of a cliche that Republican officials, members of Congress, never revolt against Trump. So here's what they did. I'm gonna start with the facts we try to do around here. The request for these files is broad. As you probably know, if you're watching this video, you're interested in the Epstein files. There's no specific list of what is in there.

But Congress has these powers, and they are asking for a very specific set or tranche of documents. And it's broad. One of the other questions was, oh, is this going to be some political BS exercise? Doesn't look like it.

They want the stuff. We can get into how that works. There could be more fights ahead. But it is a big deal to have both the House and the Senate unite. And they did it so overwhelmingly, almost

unanimously, that it's already a veto-proof majority, which means Trump is powerless. He's been cut out of this process. So what are they asking for? The Epstein investigation files. That makes sense. That could go all the way back to the first time he was

indicted in Florida, and he got a pretty sweet deal, and the later indictment that led to him being incarcerated under the Trump DOJ, and then he was famously found dead in his cell, and we could talk about that because they want more info on that too, but number two, Maxwell, his jailed co-conspirator. They want the info on her investigations and, of course, prosecution.

They want the travel records, flight logs. That could tell you manifests which are kept pretty carefully, especially when you go around the world and different governments have different requirements. And so accurate manifests are going to have even more people who may have flown on his plane who have been hiding it even up to now. Then it says they want individuals and government officials

who have been named. We saw some of that in these new emails that just came out. This would be more. Entities, corporate, academic, you name it, that are involved in Epstein and are in the files, in the government's possession, they want that. And any immunity deals and non-prosecution agreements. Now as a lawyer, I can tell you sometimes you get in some trouble and then you reach a kind of deal and it's called this NPA or sometimes a DPA, deferred prosecution, and those are often hard to get all the details on

and there are good reasons sometimes for that, but here Congress is saying no, they write the laws, they may have laws that say generally the DOJ gets more secrecy, they're now demanding that out. This is a big one. Number seven, the bill that just passed says they want internal DOJ communications. That's bad news for Trump if they have been doing a cover-up and in my other breakdowns I've already

reminded you about some of the public facts that we know Pam Bondi said there was a client list and there wasn't. Said there was nothing else to investigate and then as this heat built she claimed after Trump demanded they were going to start new investigations. Well that looks like a cover-up or malfeasance of the DOJ. They want the internal communications. That might be harder to get. Indeed judges might say on some of these, well there's a reason why the DOJ gets some secrecy there. It could also go back to other administrations. Then it says all

communications, memoranda, directives, logs, metadata regarding the destruction, deletion, alteration, misplacement, or concealment of documents, recordings, or electronic data related to Epstein. Now, what about him? It says relating to Epstein's detention and death or any investigative files. That's really striking. That is the government of the United States, both houses of Congress, both parties, basically saying that there's a legitimate avenue of inquiry there. And you may say, well, that doesn't mean that he didn't commit suicide in his cell. That's been the official story.

That's what the government has asserted. But they're not investigating the moon landing. They're not investigating every question that's ever happened. And I get why people are cynical and skeptical, but a lot just changed and this is the government United States Raising the question of whether there is more to the story and by the way That doesn't necessarily mean he was definitely murdered in his cell

I we certainly haven't reported that but they are worried about at a minimum Obstruction of justice and whether people were hiding that or destroying materials if you're wondering, okay, who would that hit? Well first it would hit Bill Barr and the Trump DOJ which was in charge

When he Epstein was in that prison under federal custody in the first term

But after that the Biden DOJ came in this could affect anything They did if they did anything and when the government works you have that kind of transparency I get why people are cynical and we hear about partisanship This could depending on what happened be a headache for a lot of people in both parties, but they want to get that material. Number nine says documentation of Epstein's attention or death related, including incidence reports, witness interviews, medical files, autopsy reports. Now, that matters because the Inspector General of the DOJ did a review of Epstein's death, but we

don't have all the documentation. You can go look that up on the internet if you want. It's called the Justice Department Inspector General Review of Epstein. It was released during the Biden administration because they were reviewing what happened.

But there might be material from there, witness interviews or other material that is not public. We've seen a lot of questions about that and there was missing video as well. So that's what's actually in here. If you got bored or said this is too much in the weeds, that's fine.

When we do the news, we have the headline and the big screaming news, and we show the clip of what happened in Congress. This is more detail. But I do think it's important because right now things have changed.

I've mentioned there's an old saying, it's a thin line in politics between the impossible and the inevitable When Trump started this year, I was an impossible Republicans reject him and reject him not on some random tariff item but on this thing where he's fighting so hard where many people including MTG and other big mag leaders say he sounds and is acting guilty and Yet once the pressure came out everything changed. Why did that happen? Well, we still have a democracy There are rules in the house where you can override

The speaker that's what they did Well, we still have a democracy. There are rules in the House where you can override the Speaker.

That's what they did. There are subpoenas that still work and that are enforced by courts, which means when the Congress asks the Epstein estate for materials, and by the way, there's probably overlap

between the e-mails that just came out, which have a lot in them, and materials that are in whether it's accurate. But that came out and added pressure. And then ultimately, once the dam broke, Republicans who'd spent all year hiding this and deflecting and trying not to have a vote now claim to be for it. So it's a reminder that some things can work.

What's next? That's where I'll close. I can just tell you anecdotally when I hear from people and sometimes I get messages online, people say, okay, cool, but I bet they redacted everything. I bet they're hiding stuff. We're never gonna see the real stuff. I get that, and it's good to be skeptical, especially of your government.

That's kind of a good American tradition, nothing to do with party. But I can tell you that there's a lot of records here. So if they go down the road, the administration, of trying to break the law and obstruction. That's ultimately what doomed Nixon and Watergate. There are a lot of different ways they can get caught. Now I take the point.

It doesn't mean that you're going to immediately get the smoking gun. Nixon tried to cut out tapes, audio tapes, and it went all the way to the Supreme Court and yada yada. It's a long story. You can read whole books about it.

But I'm telling you, there are a lot of ways that could get fouled up. And so if they're asking people at the DOJ to commit a crime and do obstruction or destroy evidence, you'll find people look around at each other and go, well, you do it. No, you do it. Well, let's say nothing.

Sometimes people of good conscience even resign over that. Second, if they do find those people and pull it off, or you say, oh, well, they're just going Trump anyway, et cetera, other people know where the documents are and a lot of the material. So in our experience, while there are good reasons why things stay secret, CIA, the government, plenty of that, once it changes and Congress

with the force of law, with a veto-proof majority that Trump is powerless to affect, says no, the law is now you have to share this, yeah, it's a lot harder to obfuscate that. And if you get caught doing it, you get in trouble. And then the third point I want to make, related is, in this case, and I've covered it, like a lot of people,

for a long time, we know a lot about how this started. They got a sweetheart deal in the beginning. Epstein had all these connections. I talked in our reporting about how some of them were to Republicans. And he had a history with Trump. He hired Ken Starr, who was a former Republican special prosecutor. He's using his money to pull these strings.

He had a tight relationship with a woman who was a lawyer for Obama, who was considered for attorney general. So in both parts, he's doing all that, right? But then by the end, when the walls caved in on him, the Southern District of New York, which is famously independent and tough, had a bunch of career prosecutors, nonpartisan people pursuing the case. If you're skeptical you say well Trump can do this and that now. Remember Trump was president then and one of those lead

prosecutors who ultimately won the case convicting Maxwell putting her away was Maureen Comey and that name it rings a bell because it's not a coincidence. She's a longtime lawyer stays out of the spotlight mostly but was also the daughter of the former FBI director James Comey. He used to be a prosecutor DOJ as well. Family affair they like to do that kind of work. She knows what's in some of the files.

She hasn't spoken out, she won't do TV interviews, and there are rules about how you can, of course, speak about things, because usually it is secret. That's the default in a probe, especially one that's over. But now the defaults changed. Congress is changing that. Things are happening. And so someone like Maureen Comey could take a quick look at some files and say,

looks like they destroyed some. And Congress, which you saw just acted, could subpoena her to testify if they think that they've asked for all this and they're getting nothing. So we are in what is possibly the middle

of a very long story with a lot of documented cover-ups and one that could ultimately yield more truth and transparency and maybe more justice for the victims and deterrence so this kind of stuff doesn't happen again. If you like these breakdowns, you can subscribe on YouTube.

If you like these breakdowns, you can subscribe on YouTube. I'm Ari Melber, signing off.