Sen. Whitehouse and Lawrence Talk as Trump and MAGA Bondi Bungle Release of Epstein Files

Today, the Trump attorney general, the Trump deputy attorney general, who was also Donald Trump's criminal defense lawyer, the Trump FBI director, along with other Trump Justice Department officials held a press conference about an accused drug dealer who was indicted last year, before Donald Trump was president, and who is now on the FBI's 10 Most Wanted list. But the first question was about the man who says he was Donald Trump's closest friend

for 10 years, Jeffrey Epstein. Donald Trump's Attorney General Pam Bondi refused to say that she would release the Epstein files now that she has started a new investigation of Democrats who knew Jeffrey Epstein, all of whom this same attorney general said were not involved in Jeffrey Epstein's crimes when she officially closed the investigation on July 7th of this year, saying there was absolutely no evidence that anyone else was involved. When she was asked today what has changed,

she said this.

Information that has come forth, information, there's information that, new information, additional information, and again, we will continue to follow the law, to investigate any leads.

And here is the only new information that has emerged.

As far as the Epstein files is, I have nothing to do with Jeffrey Epstein. I threw him out of my club many years ago because I thought he was a sick pervert.

But I guess I turned out to be right. That is new information from Donald Trump revealed yesterday. Donald Trump has previously said he knew nothing about what Jeffrey Epstein was up to. And now Donald Trump seems to be saying that before Jeffrey Epstein was ever charged with a crime, Donald Trump knew that Jeffrey Epstein, who said he was Donald Trump's closest friend, was a sick pervert. So the first witness in the Trump Justice Department's

new investigation should be Donald Trump, and the first question should be, Mr. President, how did you know? Mr. President, how did you know that your closest friend was a sick pervert? Joining our discussion now is former federal prosecutor Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island. He is a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee. Senator, thank you very much for joining us tonight. It seems that we do have some new information, and it's from Donald Trump.

Yeah, it's from Donald Trump.

Yeah, it's pretty stunning. I think you phrased the question well. The earlier way to look at that was, what did the president know and when did he know it? But, you know, clearly, if you're the CEO of a billion dollar corporation and a teenaged entry-level employee gets hired away

by a friend of yours, the ordinary response by anybody normal would be a cake, a card, and it was nice having you work for us. And the fact that Trump went bonkers and expelled this guy Epstein from his club, that was already a huge signal that he knew that something really bad was going on because otherwise his behavior was inexplicable. So now to have him actually confirm it and to say in his own language that back then he knew that this guy Epstein was a sick pervert, it opens up just a whole new can of worms

about what he knew and when he knew it.

And you have his attorney general today clearly refusing to answer in any way questions about will you actually release the Epstein files. It was just blather that came out when that question

came up. Yeah, I mean she's in a real mess. Remember, she came in saying that she was gonna get to the bottom of the whole Epstein files thing. Then we discovered that billions of dollars had flowed through Epstein accounts, that suspicious activity reports had been sent to the Department of Justice

and not one had been investigated by her Department of Justice. We then went through the binders and all the shenanigans about the Epstein files investigation, the search for how many times Trump's name was in it. And finally, you know, everybody's ready to clear the air. The House votes hugely, completely rolling Donald Trump so badly that he flips himself. And

the Senate, by unanimous consent, put a new law out there in front of the Attorney General, and she can't say, I will enforce this new law. So I think we can look forward to more shenanigans out of the MAGA-Bondi-DOJ,. I'm not going to go to the president's office, I'm not going to go to the president's office, I'm not going to go to

the president's office, I'm not going to go to the president's office, I'm not going to go to the president's office, I'm not

going to go to the president's office, I'm not going to go to the president's office, I'm not So, uh, everyone out there knows that Donald Trump was granted immunity, criminal immunity by the United States Supreme Court. Everyone knows Donald Trump has pardon power. And so more than ever before, there is a live suspicion out there, uh, that Donald Trump's

people at the Justice Department can simply destroy any piece of the Epstein files that they might want to destroy and whatever crime that might involve, they can absolutely leave their jobs with a pardon and never have to worry about it. Yep, and that's exactly the kind of thing that Congress

needs to be keeping an eye out

for and investigating. It is very hard to interfere with as many records as the Department of Justice had. Remember, what they say, a thousand FBI agents trying to

pour through them to figure out what's going on. It is very hard to interfere with as many records as the Department of Justice had. Remember, it took, what they say, a thousand FBI agents trying to pour through them to figure out how many times Trump appeared in them. The thousands of times Trump did appear had to be identified. And so there's a pretty big record of people who know what was in there, and it's very

hard to destroy evidence without leaving a trail behind and with that many FBI agents and prosecutors and Department of Justice officials involved, they may very well try to do that. That would be very, you know, MAGA. But I just don't think that they'll get away with it if they do that. They will have left a trail and we will know that documents were interfered with and destroyed. So that ends up being a lot of pardoning. And every time one of these episodes happens,

Trump's credibility with the public and with Republicans in Congress disappears. And at some point that defeat turns into a rout.

Senator Whitehouse, please stay with us. We have to squeeze to continue to work on. And hopefully, uh, defeat turns into a route. Senator White House. Please stay with us. We have to squeeze in a commercial break here. I want to consider next the

indictment of James Comey, which now appears not to

actually be an indictment after that shocking after that shocking revelation in court today,