Ro Khanna reaveals BOMBSHELL UPDATE on Epstein files
I'm joined now by Congressman Ro Khanna. Congressman, thanks for joining me. Thank you for having me back. So, today. was quite a big day. You had the. opportunity to see the unredacted. Epstein files. Can you explain what was. the most striking part of what you saw. today? How much of it was still redacted. The. reality is that the FBI and a lot of the. grand jury transcripts that were sent to. the DOJ were already redacted. So, what. we were seeing was. some unredacted portions, but I'd say 70.
to 80% was already redacted and that's. in violation of our law. The law. requires the FBI and the. US attorneys to unredact the information. before sending it to justice. So, is. that going to be rectified? Absolutely. We're. going to be pushing in court and through. the Pan Bondy hearings and potentially. through impeachment to make sure that. there is action that's taken and that. those we get the actual files. But,
there's also a sense of rot and. cover-up. I mean, there were six men. that Thomas Massie and I identified. whose identities were protected and. those need to be released. There's no. explanation for why their pictures were. blotted out, why their names were. protected. And the the reality is while. the British monarchy. is having an existential crisis, you. have the king actually making. statements, while you have the British. government almost ready to fall, while. Norway's monarchy is having an.
existential crisis. Here, there has not. been accountability in America. I mean, you've got a lot next still as the. commerce secretary. You have someone. who's the secretary of the Navy who was. on the Epstein plane not having to. answer questions and you've got all. these elite big tech names, real estate. names, people in Hollywood who just have. their head down and are hoping that. they'll escape scrutiny. It's time for. the United States of America to have the. kind of accountability for the Epstein. class that we're seeing elsewhere in the. world. How does Pam Bondi and the DOJ justify.
redacting these people's names? Because. I'm going to read the the the plain text. of the law. It says, "No record shall be. withheld, delayed, or redacted on the. basis of embarrassment, reputational. harm, or political sensitivity, including to any government official, public figure, or foreign dignitary." So. again, how can they justify these. redactions? Well, they can't. And we discovered six. redactions that were blatantly illegal. done by the Department of Justice. But. the broader issue is that they have an.
obligation at the FBI and with the grand. jury documents to unredact them before. sending them to Justice. And my guess is. Pam Bondi's going to say, "Well, with. some of these documents, that's what we. received." But the law is very clear. that the. redactions need to be eliminated even at. the level of the FBI. And we know that. the FBI went through redacting Donald. Trump's name. So they're doing the exact. opposite of what the law requires. There was an email that was released. back in December. And it was from two.
folks who worked law enforcement. officials who worked in the violent. crime section in the crimes against. children human trafficking unit. And in. those emails, they talked about the. existence of 10 co-conspirators. and grand juries that had been served. for those co-conspirators. Three were in. Florida, one was in Boston, one in New. York, one in Connecticut. I'm assuming. if these prosecutors felt strongly. enough to put in writing that these. people were co-conspirators in this. case, that they didn't do it completely.
baselessly. And so, did you have the opportunity to follow. any of those leads based on those. previously released emails? Yes, and that's what we're saying. There's six men who are named whose. identities have been. >> So those are those are correlated with. that email? They're correlated with that. email and similar documents. Now, some. of the co-conspirators, again, are. women. And my I is that uh redacted all. the women. I'm not saying that all the. women are survivors, but there may be. some overlap between survivors and. co-conspirators. There are maybe other.
women who were actually guilty who they. shouldn't have redacted, but certainly. they shouldn't be redacting men. And in. just 2 hours Massie and I identified six. men uh with their pictures who they were. protecting. A couple of them pretty. prominent uh and uh that certainly. shouldn't be the case. When you saw that that there were at. least six names that were redacted that. shouldn't have been. did you have any conversation with any. law enforcement officials, any any DOJ. officials who were there?
Well, the DOJ officials who were there. were actually helpful. They were. ministerial. They were just helping us. do the searches and they did their job. I mean, the problem is that this order. of who to protect came up from much. higher. And what we're going to do is. give the DOJ. uh a chance to to correct it not just. with these six men. The I think they. will on that. But the broader issue is. how are we going to get the files. released which were redacted perhaps at. the FBI or at the grand jury itself uh. where it wasn't the Department of. Justice lawyers going through it and.
redacting. It was redacting the. information they were getting and that. needs to be unredacted at the agency. level. There's also news that uh Ghislaine. Maxwell is seeking clemency in exchange. for basically giving her side of what's. going on. There was also some reporting. that she would be able to clear Donald. Trump in exchange for clemency. And so I. think that's pretty obvious in terms of. what that is, just a pretty blatant quid. pro quo. Your reaction to this idea that. that one of the two named people in all.
of this is now, you know, that there is. that there is some probability that she. could actually be pardoned or granted. clemency um uh. you know, in exchange for giving Trump. whatever information that he wants. Well, I was at her deposition. It was. shameful. She needs to be sent right. away, immediately, back to a maximum. security prison. She basically told the. committee she knows other rich and. powerful people who raped underage. girls, but she's not going to share that. and if she is going to plead the fifth. unless she's granted clemency. And we. know that for 9 hours she was willing to.
answer questions for Todd Blanche. because she wants a pardon from Donald. Trump. And yet she's not willing to. answer the basic questions about Donald. Trump or the other men implicated to our. committee. And she there's no reason. that she should be in a low security. prison. Do you presume that the same. information that she's holding right. now, that she's trying to dangle in. exchange for a pardon or clemency, could. also be found within the Epstein files. so that we don't have to go through the. disgusting step of releasing one of the.
co-conspirators of the sex trafficking. ring? Not only I believe it, I know it to be. true because I've talked to the. survivors' lawyers. They are not. releasing the 302 forms. Well, Massie. and I harped on the 302 forms so much. that they released them, but they. basically released redacted versions. Then they said, "Okay, come see the. unredacted versions." We get there and. it's the unredacted version is the. redacted version. Then I asked the. Justice Department, "Well, why is that?". They said, "Well, our hands are tied. We. this is what we got. Our job was just to. enter it." Some of the redactions the.
Justice Department did was to protect. survivors, but the fundamental issue is. they got redacted files to begin with. and we know, like I said, that the FBI. was working on redactions at Trump's. orders. They even admit it for months. At what point, and we speak about this. every week when we ultimately get to. this topic, but at what point. do you deploy the the. you know, break glass scenario of naming. some of the names themselves right from. the mouths of the survivors if the DOJ. is so hell-bent on protecting these.
people and won't do it themselves? The survivors certainly can. You know, the sixth man I don't think is going to. be the. only thing the American people want. because some of these are foreign born, some of these are people who are. prominent but not. as prominent. I mentioned them just to. show that they're protecting a group of. people, but the real information is in. the redactions. >> Yeah. And. they're you know, only people who know are the survivors.
It's all putting a huge burden on the. survivors. to say that. And so what Massie and I. are going to do is continue to fight. Look, no one gave us a chance to pass. this thing, we passed it. Then no one. gave us a chance that we were going to. get the files released, we've gotten. files released that are literally. bringing down other countries. governments. We've gotten files released. that have exposed the elite in Silicon. Valley and finance and Hollywood in our. country. So we're going to continue. fighting for the other 50% and it's. uphill, but so far we've succeeded. beyond what anyone thought was possible.
Have you seen or are you familiar with. or aware of any existing government. officials in this country who are. implicated in the Epstein files whose. information has not yet been released? Not government officials, but I am aware. of other senior business officials whose. information has not yet been released. But in what we saw today, not government. officials. Now, there are survivors who. have talked to me, who have shared. stories about other government officials.
being implicated, but that was not. something I saw today in the files. Okay. And. how much confidence do you have that. when Pam Bondi comes and testifies at. the house on Wednesday that she's going. to be cooperative enough to get, you. know, any any accurate information? She's going to face a barrage of. questions not just from the left but. from the right. Look, there are three. cabinet secretaries who are losing. confidence in this government and. I don't know who's in the most danger.
Letnick probably should be given that. his name is all over the Epstein files. and given that he was having business. dealings allegedly with Epstein after. Epstein was a convicted pedophile. You. know, I don't understand how in Britain. you could have a whole government. toppled based on Mendelson and here you. have a commerce secretary and no action. And then Pam Bondi, a lot of Republicans. are upset that she has been less than. transparent with the Epstein files. And. Christine Noem, I mean there are. Republicans who believe that what she's. done in abusing ICE is totally. unconstitutional. So, you have a cabinet.
that really is coming apart for Donald. Trump and I do believe, and we've. discussed this before, Brian, that the. Epstein files was the turning point for. Donald Trump, the moment that historians. will say his administration, his. personality, his coalition started to. unravel. Well, you know, the thing that. bothers me with with this idea that Pam. Bondi is to blame is that Pam Bondi is. is not acting independent of Donald. Trump. She's an appendage of Trump. She's an appendage of the executive. branch. That's That's not just a benefit.
of her being there. It's why she's. there. It's the whole reason for her. being there as attorney general. And so, is there is there some acknowledgement. even from the Republicans who are losing. faith in Pam Bondi that Pam Bondi is. nothing more than an empty suit, a. vessel for Trump to be able to to give, you know, hand down his edicts? Like. that he's the one in charge of. everything here? Yes, ultimately it is Donald Trump. And. And you know from the first term Donald. Trump learned his lesson that you can't. have someone even as independent as Jeff. Sessions. He really resented the fact. that Jeff Sessions and then the Deputy.
Attorney General who became the Attorney. General were somewhat independent. And. he said, "I'm going to have my. total lackeys there." And he got that. with Pam Bondi. But there's anger at her. because that Donald Trump's betraying a. core promise of exposing the Epstein. files. And it's easy to to for MAGA to. say, "Well, the person really doing it. is Pam Bondi." without having to fully. grapple with Donald Trump. But more and. more people are realizing that this is. Trump protecting pedophiles and. betraying his central promise.
Do you have any reason to believe, in. anticipation of Pam Bondi's testimony. for the House on Wednesday, that some. Republicans are going to take this. opportunity not to question her on the. Epstein files, but instead try and. change the narrative by, you know, obviously doing something that's more. favorable to their own narrative and and. use that time to make that the main. story? Sure, I think some will try to make it. about Bill Clinton, uh but Bill Clinton is willing to. testify. He's just saying, "Let's. testify in public." I'm waiting for. Donald Trump to say that. Uh but you are. going to have a number of Republicans.
who are going to show uh deep concern. with what Pam Bondi is doing, and that's. because you have people like Shawn Ryan, whose podcast I was on, who was the one. of the number two or three podcaster in. the country, who was a total Trump. supporter, now say, "I don't I'm never. going to support Trump because of. Epstein." And so, the Republicans. understand that there is a MAGA base. that is furious with what's going on in. Epstein. And Laura Ingram is calling out. uh the Epstein issue. You know you have. a problem, and I think Pam Bondi may be. in for a rude awakening when she sees.
members of Congress responding to their. base, and not just being seen as a cover. for Pam Bondi. Do you have any update in terms of the. likelihood of Bill Clinton and Hillary. Clinton's testimony being uh a. deposition behind closed doors versus uh. congressional hearing out in the public? It should be a congressional hearing out. in the public, but the President uh. Clinton and and Secretary Clinton are. agreeing to to whatever terms Comer. wants. And really that uh should be a.
standard that Lutnick agrees to, that. Bill Gates agrees to, that Donald Trump. agrees to. I mean, there's such focus on. President Clinton and Secretary Clinton, and Secretary Clinton was, you know, from all I've seen, barely involved. Uh. and there's not enough focus on the. people who actually uh are in the. emails, having visited the island, or uh. no information about girls being raped. And so, uh my hope is that them setting. that standard uh is going to uh be. something that other people are withheld. to in the Epstein class. And and that's.
my last question here. Is there some. recognition by even your Republican. colleagues that if the precedent they. want to establish is that you can haul. in. former presidents and their families if. they have any involvement whatsoever. with Epstein to answer questions under. oath, um, that there will come a point when. Donald Trump is not in office anymore. and that those people have to abide by. the precedent that they're setting right. now. Has that dawned on these people or. do you think that they're that they're. just saying it now because it's. convenient to drag Bill Clinton in and. then they'll pull a Mitch McConnell and.
change their mind once it's no longer. politically convenient for them to have. to do so? Certainly dawned on Donald Trump. That's. why he doesn't want Bill Clinton to be. testifying. That's why he's out there. saying I don't like what I'm seeing. So. he So he's saying that, I mean, it's. it's it's a serious enough possibility. for him to be considering it. Well, he. knows. He knows that he's going to be. out of power and he knows that, uh, likelihood, uh, Robert Garcia is going. to be chairman of oversight and what's. what's he going to do? The first thing. we're going to subpoena Trump. So the. reality is that Trump has far more, uh,
at stake on this. Uh, he's the one who. actually has to answer a lot of the. questions and I I actually think Comer. has set a trap because now when you have. Bill Clinton willing to testify and. Hillary Clinton willing to testify, any. rich and powerful person in America can. evade testimony. Uh, and that is, uh, in. my view, actually a good thing. I mean, we need a clearing of this elite class, the Epstein class that was callow, immature, reckless, uh, that basically, uh, went to an island with a convicted.
pedophile, did business ventures with a. convicted pedophile because they were so. interested in being part of this elite. because they thought that they were. above the law and until there is a moral. reckoning and a clearing of this class, I don't care if they're Democrats, Republicans, until there's a clearing of. this class and a new moral beginning, we. aren't going to restore the democratic. project. Fortunately, this is the one. thing that seems to unite Americans uh, left and right to take on this corrupt. class. Well, look, this will be. this will be one precedent thanks to.
James Comer that I'm happy to to see. everybody abide by. So, when we get to. that point where. Robert Garcia is in charge of oversight. and we have to invoke the Comer. precedent, you know, we'll see we'll see. what he's saying then. Congressman, I. say this every week and I will continue. to say it every week, but thank you for. the work you're doing. This would not. happen. We would not be here without the. work that you and Thomas Massie are. doing. So, I appreciate it. I know that. the survivors appreciate it. My audience. appreciates it and thanks for taking the. time today. Thank you, Brian, and thank you for your.
work on this issue. >> [music].
