Slow Epstein files release not as concerning as docs DOJ has withheld, says Ro Khanna

Transcript:

MICHEL MARTIN, HOST:

We’re going to hear now from one of the co-sponsors of that bill requiring the release of the Epstein files. That’s Democrat Ro Khanna. He represents California’s 17th congressional district, and he’s here with us now. Good morning, Congressman. Thank you so much for joining us once again.

RO KHANNA: Good morning. Happy new year.

MARTIN: Happy new year to you. So The New York Times and others have reported that the Justice Department is reviewing roughly 5.2 million files, and that it could be weeks before more documents are released. As we just heard, the Justice Department says the agency’s goals are to be transparent and also to protect victims. So a couple of questions about this. First of all, do you have a sense of what’s causing the delay?

KHANNA: They’ve already violated the law by having this delay. They are claiming that the file is so big that they need to put hundreds of lawyers and they need the extra time. They frankly should have been doing this months ago when Massie and I introduced the law. But Thomas Massie, my co-author, and I are less concerned about the delay and are more concerned about the documents that are being withheld. We want to see the survivors’ statements to the FBI where they name other rich and powerful men who abused them or who covered up their crimes, and we want to see the draft prosecution memos which explain why many, many men were involved in the cover-up and abuse.

MARTIN: So just briefly, you said you’re not as concerned about the delay, but given how extensive these documents are, I was curious if you knew that the file was that extensive, and given that, was the deadline realistic to begin with?

KHANNA: We did know, and that’s why we sounded the alarm six months ago. Kash Patel testified in front of Congress that it’s a 300-megabyte file, and of course, they’ve released less than 1%. We have offered for six months to meet with the Justice Department to help them get the right documents out, and we’re now going to be intervening with the Southern District of New York to ask those judges to appoint a special master and ensure that all the documents are released. But my interest here is to see justice for survivors. It’s not to be punitive. And what I want to see over the next few weeks, over these next few weeks, is for the documents actually to start coming out that the American people want to see and the survivors want to see, which is the documents that name the rich and powerful men who were on Epstein’s rape island.

MARTIN: So you’ve given us a lot to sort of think about here. You said that you’re going to ask for a special master. As you just mentioned, you have a colleague and co-sponsor, Republican Thomas Massie. Does he also agree with you on this, that there ought to be a special master appointed at this point?

KHANNA: He does. We both are working and plan to announce something early next week. We’re also working together on inherent contempt for Pam Bondi. That means that after a 30-day grace period, she could be fined every day that these documents are not released. And if I…

MARTIN: Would she be fined personally, or would she be fined in her capacity as attorney general, in which case, the government would provide – would cover any fine that was handed to her?

KHANNA: She would be fined personally. Now, this needs a majority of the House of Representatives. We have some bipartisan support. And whether we have all of the votes now or not – and we’re working towards it – there are a lot of Republicans and MAGA Republicans who would sign on. So there is tremendous political discontent for her within her own base. And then finally, impeachment is an option as well. But our interest is not to take down Pam Bondi. Our interest is to take down the rich and powerful men who abused over 12,000 survivors and to finally see justice and to not have an Epstein class in this country that gets to flout the rules, live by its own values and not suffer consequences.

MARTIN: So you’re saying that you’re willing to give the DOJ more time, even though they’ve already bypassed – they’ve already sort of blown past the deadline that was set in the law, as long as it produces, like, specific kinds of information like FBI witness interviews and prosecution memos. What are you specifically hoping to learn with documents like that?

KHANNA: Well, we know in those documents are the rich and powerful people who either visited the Epstein rape island or who sex trafficked with these survivors or who covered it up. How do we know? Because the survivors have told us that they told the FBI that in those statements, the survivors’ lawyers have told us that. We also know in these prosecution memorandum that there are many co-conspirators, and those charges were never brought. In fact, already in the documents that have been produced, we know there were 10 co-conspirators, so this is not just limited to Epstein. So what our interest is is full transparency.

MARTIN: That is Democratic Representative Ro Khanna of California. Congressman, thank you so much for talking to us once again. You’ve been very accessible on this issue, and we appreciate it. And we do hope you’ll come back and tell us whether you’re getting the information that you expect to see in these files.

KHANNA: Thank you, Michel. Absolutely.