Durbin also demands, again, that Deputy Attorney Blanche’s interviews with Ghislaine Maxwell be released
WASHINGTON – Today, U.S. Senate Democratic Whip Dick Durbin (D-IL), Ranking Member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, joined U.S. Senator Jeff Merkley (D-OR) in a speech on the Senate floor calling on the Trump Administration to release the full Epstein files and all information from interviews with Ms. Ghislaine Maxwell, Epstein’s co-conspirator and fellow sex trafficker, with appropriate redactions to protect victims.
“Two weeks after the Senate confirmed Pam Bondi as Attorney General, she told Fox News the list of Jeffrey Epstein’s clients was, ‘sitting on my desk right now to review.’ Six days later, Bondi released binders of documents related to [Epstein] to MAGA influencers. But these documents were largely already publicly available, and the absence of the client list led to immense blowback. Attorney General Bondi returned to Fox News and made another startling claim – she said that a ‘whistleblower’ told her that the FBI withheld, ‘thousands of pages of documents’ and the country would see, ‘the full Epstein files.’ Over the next four months, DOJ and FBI were silent on the issue until an unsigned July 7 memorandum was issued, finding that, ‘systemic review revealed no incriminating ‘client list,’” Durbin said.
Durbin’s office received a highly credible whistleblower disclosure describing Attorney General Bondi’s pressure on the FBI to quickly review and prepare documents forpublication. It was revealed to Durbin and the Senate Judiciary Committee that, for two weeks in late March, the FBI assigned approximately 1,000 personnel in its Information Management Division and hundreds of additional agents from the New York Field Office to work 24-hour shifts to review the records. These officials were told to ‘flag’ any records in which President Trump was mentioned.
“Essentially, agents were pulled out of the field from their work combatting violent crime to review these documents. Other important work was effectively shut down. Using tens of thousands of personnel hours at the expense of public safety, for no other reason than to try to bolster baseless claims they made, is reckless,” Durbin continued.
Despite the Trump Administration continually making promises about transparency on Epstein and the existence of records they have not produced, President Trump is currently telling the country that it is all a “scam.” Last month, President Trump posted on his personal social media site that “my PAST supporters have bought into this ‘[BS],’ hook, line, and sinker. They haven’t learned their lesson, and probably never will.”
“This is the way the President is talking about his own constituents who are raising concerns about the claims President Trump’s own Administration officials have repeatedly raised,” said Durbin.
Last week, Durbin and U.S. Senator Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) pressed for public commitments from Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche after he met with Ms. Maxwell.
Durbin concluded, “President Trump and Attorney General Bondi are directly responsible for this confusion and mistrust. They owe Congress [and] the American people full transparency. Instead, the situation gets murk[ier] when Epstein’s girlfriend, Ghislaine Maxwell, is being interviewed by one of the highest-ranking members of the Administration. We don’t know what the conversation is. We sent a letter and said we want full disclosure to both sides of the aisle on what they discussed, and we want to make sure there are no promises of pardon and clemency for her to speak. She’s serving a 20-year term for trafficking and exploitation of children. The prosecutor said she was not a credible witness and that we ought to take that into consideration when we consider her role. I support Senator Merkley’s bill [the Epstein Files Transparency Act].
Video of Durbin’s remarks on the Senate floor is available here.
Audio of Durbin’s remarks on the Senate floor is available here.
Footage of Durbin’s remarks on the Senate floor is available here for TV Stations.
Durbin is a cosponsor of Merkley’s Epstein Files Transparency Act, legislation to provide full transparency for the American people, accountability for individuals involved with Epstein, and justice for all victims harmed. As story after story trickles out about the Trump Administration’s handling of the Epstein Files, the Epstein Files Transparency Act is critical to restoring the public’s trust in government and includes strong protections to redact appropriate information to protect victims’ privacy and national security concerns, while explicitly prohibiting redactions based on reputational harm or political sensitivity.
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