SCOTT DETROW, HOST:
Today, Democrats on the House Oversight Committee released emails between Jeffrey Epstein and his confidants that suggest that President Trump may have known about Epstein's sex abuse operations. In one email, Epstein writes that Trump, quote, "spent hours at my house" with one of Epstein's victims. In another, he writes that Trump, quote, "knew about the girls." In the third, a writer advises Epstein that he can use his history with Trump as a, quote, "valuable PR and political currency" should he ever need to. Democrats are trying to force the Department of Justice to release more information from its investigation of Epstein and accuses the White House of a cover-up.
In response to today's release, the White House said that these were, quote, "selectively leaked emails" to, quote, "create a fake narrative." And Republicans on the Oversight Committee released more than 20,000 pages of documents from the Epstein case from which these three emails came. Let's hear more from Representative Robert Garcia of California. He is the ranking Democratic member of the House Oversight Committee. Congressman, thanks for joining us.
ROBERT GARCIA: Sure thing. Happy to be here.
DETROW: Let's start with this. We have long known now that the future president and Jeffrey Epstein were friendly before they had a falling out around 2004, which was well before Trump ran for president. What did we learn that was new here? Did this bring any new information?
GARCIA: I think that the emails today show clearly that there is a relationship between Donald Trump and Epstein. As far as what Donald Trump knew, what he participated in I think are real questions. And I think the thing on everyone's mind, certainly those of us on the committee, is why the cover-up? Why won't the White House release the full Epstein files?
You have an email today essentially saying that Donald Trump may have spent hours with one of the victims. As you said, another email that talks about Donald Trump possibly knowing what was happening with these girls. And I think this is really disturbing stuff. We want justice for these women and these survivors. We know that many were abused when they were underaged. And powerful men were involved. And our whole goal here is to get to the truth. And we are imploring the Department of Justice to release the files.
DETROW: But again, we've all been blanketed with the pictures of these two men together. We saw a lot of reporting earlier this year of these alleged birthday notes that Trump was writing to Epstein. What new information did you learn from these emails?
GARCIA: Well, I think part of it is the president admitting that there was a real relationship here between him and Epstein. And I think that is what today's emails actually also show. First, these 23...
DETROW: Well, these are all other people talking about Trump.
GARCIA: Absolutely.
DETROW: Trump does not appear himself.
GARCIA: That's right. This is Jeffrey Epstein's emails. And there's 23,000 documents here, of course. So what's important is, when you spend the entire campaign saying you're going to release the Epstein files, when we know that Jeffrey Epstein has said that Donald Trump was his best friend for 10 years - the birthday note you just referenced, Donald Trump, as a reminder, said it didn't exist until we actually produced it with his own signature.
And so Trump has a record of lying about this. And he has a record of saying that he wanted to release, and now they're refusing to do so. I think it's important to note that every single piece of evidence we want to release to the public. This is about transparency, it's about oversight and it's about getting justice for the victims.
DETROW: Curious how you're approaching this. This is a case laden with conspiracy theories. These are emails, many of whom are coming from not especially trustworthy people. How are you verifying this information that you're looking at?
GARCIA: Look, I think the important thing is that people absorb and read the documents for themselves and make their own judgments. I think for us, clearly anything that is a correspondence from Jeffrey Epstein, whether it's to Ghislaine Maxwell, which we saw today in one of those emails, or others is significant. And what we're trying to say right now at this moment is the only way to get the full picture of what happened is for the DOJ to follow the subpoena sent by the Oversight Committee and to hand over all of the documents.
There are an enormous amount of documents, photographs, possibly videos that the public has a right to know what actually happened. We know, for example, that back when the Epstein case was being developed and prosecuted, there were multiple men that were going to be named as coconspirators in this and that that was all essentially washed aside by, at the time, Alex Acosta, who then becomes, of course, Trump's labor secretary. So there's a lot of questions here.
DETROW: I want to make sure we get to a few more points here. This is also a notable day in that you're about to gain another Democratic member of the House, who will sign the discharge petition and force a vote, possibly, on the House floor to release the files. We know the White House is pressuring the four Republicans who have signed onto that petition to pull their names. Are you in communication with any of these Republican representatives who have been having meetings at the White House today?
GARCIA: Look, I've been talking to many Republicans. There's no question that if we hold and they hold, this will pass the House, and there will be numerous Republicans that'll vote yes. They understand that this is important to their constituency. The Epstein files and its release is very bipartisan when you ask the American public. And again, the question...
DETROW: What especially is important? Because again, this is something that's been playing out for more than a decade now. This is somebody who's been long dead but continues to make news. Why is this the priority for you given all of the other issues the federal government is facing?
GARCIA: Well, look, I think there's a lot of important things. We got to focus on health care. We got to focus on lowering costs. This goes straight to the corruption of this administration. And Donald Trump spent his campaign talking about this. And if you were going to lean in so hard on a campaign promise and then essentially go back on it, we have to ask why. And in meeting all these women and these victims and survivors, they want justice. I've talked to many of them personally, one on one. And they deserve justice, and they deserve the truth. I also...
DETROW: How do you balance...
GARCIA: But let me say one more thing because I think it's really important. When you have powerful men - and I don't care what party they're in or what their job is. When you have powerful men abuse, rape and traffic women and yet you don't bring justice to those women, what are we saying to American kids, to girls, to women across this country that the most powerful men can get away with this? And that has to also drive our investigation.
DETROW: Congressman, we've got about 30 seconds left. But how do you balance transparency and protecting these victims, who have been abused so many times at this point forward, with the release of thousands of pages of information?
GARCIA: What's most important at the end of the day is we've got to protect the victims. And so we're doing that. We're redacting names. We've made that promise. And everything else we're going to get out to the public.
DETROW: That is Congressman Robert Garcia of California, the top Democrat on the House Oversight Committee. Thank you so much for talking to us.
GARCIA: Thank you. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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